the artist formerly known as krusca. my fandom scribbles+wips+musings (lots o stevetony but also other ships too)
Cap Is Disappointed In You (But Is It Really A Bad Thing): ramblings of morality in the superhero genre
ok so i commented on this tumblr post abt "would Steve Rogers give me the eyebrows of disappointment for this?’ and if the answer is yes, i absolutely don’t do it"
and my comment was a pretty shitposty comment i wasnt thinkin much abt it i was just foolin mostly but now im thinking about it
and man the idea of "captain america as the morality litmus test" sits... very uncomfortabley with me??? (but i feel a lot of my feelings come from the fact the genre and storytelling of marvel comics (and stories in general) have shifted so much in the past few decades)
steve rogers as a character is "just a kid from brookyln" he doesnt like bullies, and i suppose the whole down to earth genuine "for the people" ideal without wanting power or prestige is inspirational, its what we think of a "good" being able to resist power when it is handed on a platter. back when steve was punching nazis in the 40s, the stories were prety black and white, good vs bad. and then we get to modern day stories, where theres all sorts of moral condumdrums, modern day stories are painted with shades of gray, and we still have this pervasive idea of "captain america is always right"
lots of fans (and in-universe marvel characters) DO buy into this holy tenant of "Steve Rogers Moral Compass" and i mean its each individuals perogative, some ppl long for the simper times of good vs bad that steve represent, people dont wanna compromise bcose of ethics, slippery slopes, etc. ppl want that bastion of goodness to emulate and be inspired by, and that means steve needs to be a virtuous charcter who always has his heart in the right place who has that firm resolve to do what is "right" and thats a suspension of disbelief ppl are entitled to have when consuming media. like i can't tell ppl how to enjoy their media its a free world
but i personally cant buy into that suspense of disbelief. I like my fictional characters as human as they come, and steve rogers is a good guy, but i honestly dont see him somehow MORE good or pure than most of the other heroes. What makes him really stand out from other charcters is his resolve (stubborness) in doing whats right (or what he thinks is right) and i see it as a double edged sword. It is pretty superhuman how firm he is in his beliefs, insisting that hes "just another guy" while having the ability to rally the troops into the jaws of death (a power that Steve honestly need to accept, like at this point humbleness is a bad thing, he should be more aware of the kind of power he wields over people) . At the best of times its enough to save the world/universe. At the worst of times it kinda reminds me of the whole entitled idea of "i dont have white privelege" (not a 1 to 1 comparison, since what steve has isnt a socially systematic structure he benefits from, and its not him denying a systematic social inequality either)
why does this resolve/stubborness somehow mean he's more virtuous or better than the other heroes? just because you can yell the loudest and hold out the longest doesnt mean you're right.
steve doesnt think of himself as perfect, but some readers sure think he is, at least on the morality front, and as someone who likes analyizing charcters, seeing them in all their glorious flawed 3 dimensions, it really irks me.
even tony, steves no1 fanboy who believes in steves innate goodness, can and will fight him on issues thats bigger than both of them, no matter how much tony hates himself, he'll do it for the people, just as steve will do it for the people.
i think this divisiveness in stuff like civil war boils down to what the individual believes heroes are suppose to be. Some people think its "doing whats right no matter the cost, never compromising esp on beliefs and morals" Some people think its "making the decisions others wouldnt be able to, bearing the weight of consequences, compromising when absolutely needed" Both paths have consequences, and both paths can and will get people hurt/killed. "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain"- is #iconic and relevant. its about slippery slopes, and heroes making hard choices, and how far can a hero make the hard choices before they're no longer a hero.
if the entirety of marvel universe was like, 5 issues of comics or a movie, id be more inclined to accept steve as the deus ex virtus (that makes no sense go along with it tho) but ... this is a huage universe with many stories, decades of material, and marvels always prided themselves on the theme of "realism" in their heroes, as heroes who struggle and have lives, and after the sheer amount of shit marvels put steve through, i cant buy into a hackneyed excuse of "Captain America Is Always Right"
it is the argument of deontological vs ultilitarian ethics, and if there was a gun to my head and i had to choose one, i'd probably go with the latter, but i also believe that one without the other is a broken useless system. and thats why while steve IS a good man, hes not the ultimate be-all morality compass everyone makes him out to be. life is about balance and compromise, and imo steve and tony tbh are literally 1 person split into the two sides that we all have in us. thats why as much as they argue, they also need & complete each other to be a cohesive fuctioning unit. One isn't morally better than the other, they're both wrong and right, and what im saying is, steve and tony need to fuse like Ruby and Sapphire to become Garnet
*of course this is all based on the comics writing that HAVE had steve be increidbly well rounded and insightful at times, but like all the big events had had him (and tony to a degree) be kinda... not as well written (and uh lbr mcu literally has no charac development for steve, everything we love about him we've had to eke out with headcanons and meta in fandom the canons shallow af)
ok but tldr; steve rogers beign disappointed in you is a broken system of worth. a better system to judge would be is Kamala Khan Disappointed in you? since she is an actual complete human being who is pretty well adjusted as far as superheroes go




Omg thank you so much krusca for articulating this uncomfortable hero worship for Cap perfectly. I like it when a Marvel character remarks about his stubborn traits, because that is a legitimate concern that he can be so rigid and unmoving sometimes. I'm never interested in cardboard cut out characters so to worship him is a disservice to more nuanced characterization that he could have.