In Infinity War, when the army in Wakanda is charging forward to meet Thanos’s army, you see Steve and T’challa fly past everyone because they both run super fast. But Bucky is just as fast. And Bucky was not with them. Bucky looked at the army of weird alien monsters and thought to himself “I’m not in any hurry to get to that. I’ll jog it.”
In December of 1940, America still hadn’t entered the war.
There were a lot of Americans – such as the 800,000 paying members of the America First Committee – who looked at fascists massacring their way through Europe and declared “that’s not our problem.”
Captain America was created by two poor Jewish Americans, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, with the specific intent of trying to convince Americans that entering the war was the right thing to do. It wasn’t easy – Kirby went far beyond what was expected of artists at the time, penciling the entire issue with a deadline that would have been difficult for a two-man crew to pull off.
Captain America punched Hitler right on the cover, at a time when a majority of Americans just didn’t feel like doing anything decisive against the Nazis.
Kirby and Simon faced considerable resistance for their creation, including steady hate mail and outright death threats.
Once, while Jack was in the Timely office, a call came from someone in the lobby. When Kirby answered, the caller threatened Jack with bodily harm if he showed his face. Kirby told the caller he would be right down, but by the time Jack reached street level, there was no one to be found.
Both creators enlisted after America entered the war. Kirby, as an artist, was called upon to do the extremely dangerous work of scouting ahead to draw maps. He also went on to co-create Black Panther in 1966.
They didn’t create Captain America to be an accurate depiction of America-As-It-Is. The character was meant to inspire and embolden, to show America-As-It-Should-Be.
The subject of where the Vibranium for the shield came from actually never came up for decades of comics, until it was finally addressed by Black Panther’s writer, Christopher Priest, in 2001. Priest never shied away from acknowledging America’s racism, but he also understood that Captain America represented an ideal, intended to inspire Americans to be better.
The story mixed together a “present day” discussion between Cap and T’Challa with flashbacks to when Cap met the Black Panther ruling Wakanda during World War II.
FLASHBACK:
PRESENT:
PRESENT -> FLASHBACK
PRESENT:
The Vibranium was given, freely, by one good man to another good man.
It is right to rage against the injustices done by our governments. We must call them out, and we must fight for what’s right.
But if you can’t even stand to see the symbols created to inspire people to be better, and rail against those,then you’re just confusing cynicism for realism.
Shuri’s eyes had a soft look when Bucky made his decision. “Well, better to be safe than sorry, right? I mean, I integrated vibranium blasters into my ceremonial outfit. Sort of on a whim but…” she shrugged. “Came in handy later.”
Bucky couldn’t help but mirror Shuri’s wry smile. “Yeah, guess none of us can really be civilians.”
I drafted this a month ago, but RL intervened. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Happy belated birthday, Bucky!
I desperately want a fic where Steve marries Bucky out of spite.
I don’t care why. Is it because Fox news tells him to come on their channel and speak out again same-sex marriage, and he just shows up dragging Bucky like ‘surprise motherfuckers’
Did he do it because ppl are trying to put Bucky in jail/facilities and telling him he’s not family, he doesn’t get to see him??? And he’s like ‘i’ll SHOW YOU’
Did he and Bucky promise to shack up together if they got out of the war alive and he’s like screw the universe, we’RE FUCKING DOING IT!!
All I want is Steve the ultimate human version of the ‘pick your battles… no that’s too many’ Rogers to bulldoze through any and everything bc he’s gonna marry Bucky!!!! he’s just gonna and you can’t stop him!
And no one except Bucky actually thinks he’s gonna, but Bucky knows that fucker. he sometimes thinks that the only way he ever survived long enough to become Captain America is out of sheer spite at everyone who thought he was better off dead.
I’m sorry, this is the first time in 4 years that I’ve missed making a comic for Bucky’s birthday, but … here’s a Shuri one that features Bucky instead?
“What do I do?” Steve appealed into the phone. “I’m freaking out.”
There was silence on the other end of the line. It lasted so long that Steve pulled the receiver away from his ear and frowned at it. Pay phones were old. Maybe this one wasn’t working despite the obvious dial tone when he picked up.
“Ok,” a stranger’s voice said over the phone. “First acknowledge the fact that you dialed the wrong number, but be quick about it because my cab is a few blocks away from my own plans and I’m about to drop some truth bombs on you.”
Hey! It’s the year of the dog! Happy New Year everyone!
Here’s our three Caps to help ring in the new year, because they’re such good examples of dogged determination!
(I am not a dog person, so I had to ask my slack friends for suggestions. Then I picked ones whose eyes looked the most like the character. So: a wintery Western Siberian Laika for Bucky, an feisty Irish Terrier for Steve, and a loyal Rhodesian Ridgeback for Sam.)
Steel Phoenix Studios 