I recently read the first issue of Captain America: Steve Rogers, wherein Captain America reveals that not only is the captain a fascist, an agent of the fascist network Hydra, but he always has been.

Captain America has great supporting characters - Sam Wilson, Sharon Jones and Bucky Barnes. Like Superman, however, his own portrayal is one dimensional. Whereas his characters are enigmatic and varied, Steve Rogers is over-the-top simple - a one dimensional depiction of Middle America in one hero.

The Captain America comics are mature ones and, as seen by the movies, engaging ones. However, their characters are a bit stereotypical - playing the stereotypical role of various ethnic archetypes. Steve Rogers, the white American, is seen during most of his run as a sentinel of liberty, who stands against fascism, communism and an encroaching government during the War on Terror era (the basis for the Civil War storyline) - only to reveal himself to be a closet fascist in our modern era.

Sam Wilson shows himself to have been the quintessential black American. In the second issue of his own series, released last year, he spells out the difference between himself and Steve Rogers - that, in the end, Rogers is certain his country will do the right thing while Wilson "can only hope" that it will. 

There seemed to be a Jewish dimension to the story of Bucky Barnes, although the writers never spell it out. If they did, it would have been way too stereotypical. Bucky is dark and handsome, originally thought to have been lost in the carnage of World War II. He was resurrected shortly after the war, however, and used by communist agents to take out world leaders when needed and overturn economies and orchestrate coups when needed. (If that doesn't sound like a comic book version of the "Zionist conspiracy," what does?") As the Winter Soldier, Bucky does still dawn the red star on his costume, even as he become aware of his past. Captain America's revealed ties to Hydra were basically a flip on the Bucky script - whereas Bucky was always a communist agent, Captain America always was a lowkey fascist.

While there has historically been a great deal of optimism to Captain America - in our dark times, the franchise hasn't lost that but seems to have added a new dynamic - that, while people can connect across their base tribal allegiances and impulses, eventually that becomes overpowering. They never really become altruistic or universalist. This correlates with America and the world at large, in which we seem to have fallen back in to our most base identities and differences on a level not seen since World War II.

I'm not sure how they will work past the Hydra reveal with Captain America. Marvel writers have denied that it was a brainwashing act by Red Skull, the constant Nazi villain of Captain America lore. They provide flashbacks of Rogers' mother being courted by a Hydra agent, illustrating that he has been courted by the fascist group since the very beginning.

 I think there are ways they could have done this in a way that would have been more fitting - by having fascism be equivalent to the "dark side" in Star Wars, an attitude of intolerance that even Steve Rogers couldn't resist. However, Marvel, as often is the case, was going for shock value. And unfortunately, with what this country is like now, that shock value wasn't unwarranted.