Marvel comics is soft-rebooting all of its titles.  Marvel is, along with Star Wars, Star Trek and pro wrestling, a huge part of my pop-cultural life.  I'd love to say, "my childhood," but we all know that's too kind.  

These days, Marvel gets most of its revenue and exposure from movies and television, but the comics are the magical source. That's where the stories originate.  The success of the movies has drawn new eyes to the comics and, astutely, the comic book writers believe that a restart will ease new readers into the story.  Comics are worse than soap operas, after all.Fantastic Four #1, the first of the modern Marvel line, was published in 1961.  One of Spider-Man’s first adventures is against The Chameleon and features the bluster, “End of the line for you, commie!”

Marvel traces its lineage back to World War II, as it had acquired the rights to heroes of the era like Namor the Sub-Mariner and the iconic Captain America.  So, history has a way of getting away from these characters and they need to be rebooted every now and then, if for no other reason than that the major characters should all be lining up for early bird specials at Shoney’s by now. 

In the latest turn of the story, Captain America has lost his youth potion (known as the "super soldier serum") and is now the rough age of a World War II veteran (kind of -- time is malleable in comics). Sam Wilson, the new Captain America is Steve’s sidekick from the 1970s, a black man from Philadelphia named Sam Wilson, formerly the Falcon.  Sam as Cap’s sidekick was a big pop culture moment back in the 70s.  Sam as Captain America is a touchstone now.

Steve Rogers, the original Cap, was a scrawny kid declared 4F who subjected his body to government augmentations in order to get into the Army.  His first major act of heroism is to punch Hitler in the face.  It was one small step for mankind and a huge leap for marginalized Jewish writers who depicted Hitler gobsmacked by an all-American, chiseled, blonde and blue-eyed warrior.  They probably didn't have that much fun until decades later when they invented the hero Janet Van Dyne ("of the Chicago van Dynes") and named her "The WASP."  Cap was, when created in the 40s and recreated post-purchase in the 60s, an old school liberal.  He was downright radical in the 40s and difficult for writers to capture as the culture eclipsed him from the 60s through the 90s.  A Warhol Cap would have helped, I think.  Were Warhol alive today, he’d definitely have done a Marvel book by now, and it probably would have been Cap (maybe Spidey).

Sam Wilson, the new Cap, grew up poor in Philadelphia. The original was hero of the New Deal.  The successor is hero of the Great Society and the conservative backlash to it.  His priorities are different.  Also, he can fly.  Have a look:

In Captain America #1, Sam Wilson severes ties with the government because it doesn't share his priorities, and acts as a man of the people.  The original Cap tried this too, a few times.  In the late 1980s, Steve Rogers quit being Captain America and became The Nomad, after Ronald Reagan demanded his submit to executive orders.  I guess Steve didn’t want to play Ollie North.  When Steve rebelled, a steroided southerner named “The Super Patriot” replaced him, and answered to Reagan. What followed was a well-written excavation of conservative vigilantism in the burgeoning age of militias.  These days, history rhymes.

In the comic (and in life!) right wingers pillory Sam for "politicizing" Captain America.  "He's not my Captain!" they say, echoing what we all heard after Obama became president.  Captain America travels to the Arizona border and takes on armed and hooded anti-immigration vigilante extremists who are executing migrants.  These vigilantes, an exaggeration (not by much) of right wing border activists, are clearly objects of mockery for thinking people left and right.  Sam gives them a chance to go home and write their Congressman to have their wall built, but we are all downright happy when they cling to their guns and face Sam’s shield, wings, fists and feet. All of us, that is, except for... angry, real-world, conservatives! The insult hit too close for Breitbart, The Daily Caller, and Fox.

The critics will argue, as they have before, that comics should not indoctrinate children into politics.  But these same people will not be concerned that our society has always, and will always, impart political attitudes to our children.  My son thinks that “Jesus Christ,” is something that you say when something goes wrong.  But he has also, at 5, asked me questions about “God” that did not originate in our apartment.  I don’t cry when adults share their ideas with my son.  Our species would never have survived if children were restricted to only household ideas.  This is the central flaw of homeschooling.

I mentioned Warhol earlier… Captain America, as iconography, is beautifully American, like Monticello or the Statue of Liberty (wait, is he French? That is so American!)  The costume is the flag.  The shield is our strength.  The man is our ideal (and Hitler’s, but he hates Hitler!).   But the ideas are radical.  Steve Rogers was a New Deal hero.  Captain America became a true pop culture hero twenty years after World War II, when marvel revived the war veteran as the keystone of the Avengers.  When they made Sam Wilson his sidekick in the 1970s, it was a progressive move.  In 2015, Sam is Captain America and in one, 22-page comic, he pissed off the right wing.

Right wing America can take some solace.  There’s tons of libertarian content out there.  Batman, as envisioned by Frank Miller, is Rand Paul with Paul Ryan’s body.  Iron Man, in the Marvel universe, is everything you need to know about well-intentioned, ubiquitous and omniscient counter-terrorism.  The kids have a lot to consider.

But our Black Captain America…

He got to you, didn’t he?

Just like Obama did.

Very sad.

Exclesior!