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...because I was a comics nerd back when it came out in 1984 (still have it in a box somewhere). It was one of the things that inspired me to not just give up our symbols to them. There can be plenty of problems, but there is good stuff near and dear to peoples' hearts, so don't let the bastards take them and use them as their toys.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=13516300
The premise was "What If Captain America were revived today?" ("today" being 1984).
It has two different Caps being revived: First, the 1950's replacement Cap, who's a McCarthyite Bircher-in-all-but-name, who'd been created to get back that ol' WW2-Cap "living symbol of patriotism" spirit during the crusade against the commies. At some point in the '50s he became inconvenient and was put in some sort of suspended animation. Some time in the 70s he was released by a "patriotic citizen", who was a janitor at the secret facility where he was being kept on ice. Once again posing as WW2 Cap, he becomes a magnet for RW politicians and other zealots.
Including one who wants to put severe restrictions on immigrants, get tough with unruly minorities, and reinvigorate "the real America". With fake-Cap's backing he wins in a landslide. Fake-Cap endorses militias, the "Sentinels of Liberty", to confront protesters. At one such protest, fake-Cap's higher-level backers have a sniper shoot him so it can be blamed on the protesters and justify a crackdown, Reichstag-Fire-style.
Fake-Cap survived (believing it was the protesters who shot him), and went on to help his backers consolidate power under -- I kid you not -- the America First Party. The Sentinels of Liberty are elevated to practically an internal occupation army. They build walls to seal off minorities from the rest of the country, most notable the Harlem Wall. An Emergency Information Freedoms Act is passed to restrict the press. To maintain the appearance of following the 1st Amendment, some dissent (within limits) is allowed. One such dissident is the New York Daily Bugle's cantankerous and idiosyncratic editor/publisher, J. Jonah Jameson.
This is the environment in which WW2 Cap, Steve Rogers, is found in the ice and revived by a submarine crew (submarine duty being the main "See? We're not discriminating. We accept the good ones." job for minorities and Jews in the Navy).
The old-timer sub skipper is able to identify this Cap as the real one, and when they get back to port he sneaks Cap to the Resistance, led by Jameson, Nick Fury, Sam Wilson (who's not The Falcon here, but instead leads "the Black Cadres," intentionally modeled after the Black Panther Party), and Spider-Man.
I give the above rundown to set the stage for the couple of pages below. Clipping panels here and there don't do them justice.
The Resistance strikes back at the America First Party's first national convention in Madison Square Garden. With all the restrictions, its leader is a veritable shoe-in to win the election, and once he's in place he'll consolidate further and make himself the king of America.
First, however, the Resistance upstages the festivities...
Over the next several pages Cap & fake-Cap fight, and other Resistance members take out the Sentinels in the room and keep the TV cameras running. Being the real deal, Cap beats the fake. The crowd reacts, and Cap says his piece.
End scene.
The resolution is wildly simplistic, sure, but they had to wrap it up on a high note.
I prefer Joe in his sunglasses more than his Captain America mask........
Is that the future Kamala and Beto I see in that last frame?
We're so fortunate on DU to have knowledgeable people on most any topic that comes up, including the history of comics.
As a child, my family couldn't afford to buy many comic books, but it was a huge treat and ritual to read the comics in our Nashville Sunday paper every week. Lil' Abner, Blondie, Pogo, Nancy and Dennis the Menace immediately come to mind (that was in the 50s/60s).
KY.........
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