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Why Captain America Is in the Wrong

Or, How the Good Old Captain Seems to Mess up in Every Movie

By Taya TariePublished 5 years ago 7 min read
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As an avid Marvel fan I have my favorite characters, just as anyone does, and as a woman, I can admit that Captain America is very dreamy (Thank you, Chris Evans). But after seeing Civil War, I can honestly say that the Captain is, well I don't want to get called out for my language, so I will say that he is not a swell guy.

Let me say that up until Civil War I loved Cap, I mean Ironman was always my favorite, but there's something about Captain America that brings up the superhero nostalgia factor. But, let me start at the beginning where the good old captain went wrong. In Captain America, Steve Rogers is cocky and plays to his own tune, not to mention he's not even a real Captain. He defies the orders of the Colonel and goes on a rescue attempt to save Bucky, putting the lives of Peggy Carter and Howard Stark at risk. He somehow manages to save Hydra's POWs and gets away with defying orders without a slap on the wrist. He then is allowed to lead missions to take down Hydra, without any training, he may be a super soldier but that does not mean he is smart. And finally, without waiting for an alternative plan, he decides to crash his plane.

Yes, I understand that it was to save the world, but he could have put the plane on an alternate course and flown around for a bit, or he could have used something to wedge the plane into a downward direction and parachuted out. Heck, he could have at least given his coordinates to Howard and Peggy so that they could retrieve his body and not waste decades looking. So yes, Captain America was not a fit leader in Captain America.

The next reason as to why Captain America is in the wrong is how he acted in The Avengers. First of all, he doesn't find Loki suspicious at all. Although to be fair none of the characters were smart enough to realize that if the bad guy waits for you to be done arguing amongst yourselves without trying to escape, then maybe you shouldn't take him back to your base. However, the fact that he just automatically trusted SHIELD to be legit and got angry at Tony for being suspicious of a spy organization is kind of ridiculous. Especially considering the fact that Tony has known SHIELD for a lot longer than Steve has, and he probably knows them better too. Next, Steve bullied Tony for making weapons, for a weapons country that was founded by Howard Stark, and for not being self-sacrificing, which kind of makes me believe that Steve really didn't read Tony's file. Tony was kidnapped and tortured by terrorists, he built his suit in an Afghanistan cave and sacrificed himself to stop Obadiah Stane. And even if he made mistakes in Ironman 2, he was dying! Heck if I were dying I would go a little crazy too, I definitely would not care about societal expectations. And my final issue with Cap, in The Avengers that is, why would he close the portal after what 2 minutes of waiting. He could have at least waited 10 minutes to see if Tony would make it out, and if another alien did come out then Black Widow could have closed the portal right then and there.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier had so many Cap problems that I'm just going to name the main one. Captain America released all of SHIELD's files. That doesn't just mean he sold out HYDRA, that means that all agents on missions, all undercover agents, all bases, everything was compromised. The amount of people that would have died if the CIA or FBI did that is unimaginable. Now, I'm not saying that releasing all of HYDRA's information wasn't a good idea, in theory, however, Captain America is friends with TONY STARK, a certified genius with an AI that could separate HYDRA and SHIELD information and protect SHIELD agents from the fallout. However, I'm pretty sure that Cap did not do that and it makes no sense that he didn't use his best resource, however, the reason I think that he did not call Tony up will come later on. I'm going to skip Age of Ultron because almost all of the Avengers were in the wrong in that movie, however, I'm just going to point out that Steve was using Tony's money to search for Bucky (the reason as to why this is important will come up later), he did not stop Thor from PHYSICALLY ASSAULTING Tony, all of the Avengers blamed Tony as the sole reason for Ultron's creation even though Bruce helped, and he allowed a mind-raping volunteer Hydra operative to become an Avenger.

And now for the main event, Captain America: Civil War. First, Captain America and his team operated outside of the law to operate a mission on foreign soil without contacting local authorities. This mission resulted in multiple deaths and large amounts of property destruction. Next, I'm pretty sure that Captain America did not even read the Accords, at least not fully, because he did not seem to understand what the UN even was. I can understand his suspicion of government information after the events in Captain America: Winter Soldier, however, the UN is an intergovernmental body dedicated to ensuring peace, and international cooperation. In the movie, 117 countries agreed to ratify the Sokovian Accords and make the Avengers accountable for their actions. Which makes a lot of sense, military and police forces are under the control of the government, and even then they kill a lot of civilians, what would happen if they weren't under government control. Next, in an attempt to save Bucky from arrest, not death, Steve cause the death of numerous civilians and law enforcement officers due to his chase through Bucharest. While under arrest in Berlin, Steve refuses Tony's offer of protection for both him and Sam, without consulting Sam, and then escapes with Bucky. At the airport battle, Steve could have told Tony about the super soldiers, but did not, and the resulting battle could have been avoided. Finally, the coup de gras Steve didn't tell Tony that Bucky killed his parents. Steve learned about the assassination in Captain America: Winter Soldier, he then used Tony's resources and money to search for the killer of Tony's parents, brainwashed or not. Tony then had to watch the murder of his parents, even though he was lead to believe that they had died due in a car accident. Captain America and Bucky beat Stark, not in an effort to subdue, but with the intention to kill. Heck, Tony wasn't even using his full arsenal to against the person who had JUST found out murdered his parents. Maybe if Tony had known earlier he would have not been so surprised that he went into a murderous rampage. And at the end of the movie, we can clearly see that Tony's suit is down for the count, the arc reactor isn't even lit up, and Rogers and Barnes just leave Tony in freezing Siberia without knowing if he could get out or call for help.

And lastly, Avengers: Infinity War makes it seem as if Tony was in the wrong for wanting government oversight on superheroes. The movie makes it seem as if Tony was the reason as to why the Avengers split. However, despite the mistakes Tony made, he was tried to protect the Avengers with everything he had. He gave them a place to live, he paid their way, and the thank she got was a shield to the chest. I'm not saying that Ironman is better than Cap, and I do realize that I did not include my Civil War comic opinions, however, you have to admit that Ironman is better than Captain America.

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  • Niko Feelan5 months ago

    Okay, you make a good point about a lot of things, but some are just basically trolling him. Why was Steve disobeying orders to save the prisoners a bad thing? They refused to authorize a rescue mission because they believed they would've lost more people than they rescued, so Captain America went in alone. And he WON! And he was chosen to lead because he is inspirational. He crashed the plane because he didn't really have much time to come up with an alternative. It was a desperate situation. I don't know where you got the idea that he immediately trusted SHIELD, but if he did, he learned from his mistake, and I'm pretty sure "Getting angry" is an exaggeration. I don't recall Steve mentioning anything about Tony's weapons development, especially since Tony stopped doing that in the very first movie. And when Tony risked his life in New York, Steve realized his mistaken judgment and made amends with Tony. And yeah, Steve should've waited to see if Tony was alive, I admit that, but considering the possibility of an alien invasion, it's understandable. I know if I were in Tony's position, I would've told Cap not to wait for me. And yes, releasing all SHIELD files was dangerous for all the loyalist SHIELD agents, but Cap really had no time to evaluate which was which. Even Tony's AI couldn't have worked that fast. And where did you hear about Cap using Tony's money to find Bucky? I never heard of that at all. And Cap was the one who made Thor let Tony go when he asked about the Legionnaire. And everyone agreed to Wanda and Quicksilver joining the Avengers. They couldn't afford to be picky about their allies. What happened in Lagos was tragic, but Crossbones was trying to acquire a chemical weapon. Worse would've occurred if Cap hadn't been there. Even with authorization, deaths would still have happened. And Cap DID read the Accords. That was why he objected to it. I understand the UN's goal, but it's filled with corrupt politicans who would like nothing more than control. That's what the accords were primarily about: Control, not regulation. I understand the need for regulation, but the Accords were unconstitutional in so many ways. Imprisonment without a trial for once. And NOBODY was killed in the chase of Bucky. Cap only intervened to stop Bucky from being killed. Cap almost agreed to the Accords, but objected after hearing about Wanda's House Arrest. And he only made that choice for himself; Sam chose that too. And Bucky escaped because Zemo reactivated his Winter Soldier programming, and Cap was trying to stop him! And at the airport, Steve DID try telling Tony about Zemo and the Winter Soldiers, but Tony didn't listen. I agree Steve should've told the truth to Tony about the deaths of his parents. And Cap and Bucky didn't try to kill Tony! Tony was the one who tried to kill Bucky. He was holding back against Rogers, but not Barnes. And Tony's arc reactor was moved, and I think when Steve and Barnes saw T'Challa, they did call for help for Tony.

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