The Quantum Bullet of Scott Evil
Apr. 27th, 2010 08:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseAt MarsCON, I learned that Captain America (the Steve Rogers version, as opposed to the current Bucky Barnes version,) was _not_ shot and killed by a regular bullet.
No, apparently, Red Skull being the sort of evil overlord who tells people his devious plan with exactly enough time for the hero to thwart it, decided rather than just killing Cap dead (the simple option), he’d have the brainwashed Agent 13 shoot Steve with what Brian Thao Worra called a “quantum bullet” in order, I gather, to infuse his own mind into Steve’s body (aka the unnecessarily complicated choice.) I guess Brian was wrong about that term “quantum bullet,” but I like it, so I’m keeping it. What the magic/quantum bullet did was separate Steve’s consciousness from his body, and then sent his mind on an eternal loop through his own past, Red Badge of Courage style.
So, when I was at HPB, I decided that, knowing this already, I could pick up Ed Brubaker’s:
Captain America, “Days Gone By” #50
Captain America: Reborn (4 of 5)
Captain America: Reborn (5 of 6)
Captain America: Reborn
Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield?
Of course, I managed to read them somewhat out of order (I mistakenly thought the unnumbered issue of “Reborn” was the first, not the last issue). Even having read the unnumbered issue twice, I’m still not sure I get it. I guess the take away lesson is that, despite surviving since WWII, Red Skull is the dumbest supervillain in the entire Marvel Universe. (On Facebook yesterday Jon Hansen said "It was so bad, it needed Scott Evil to go: 'Wait.. what? What are we doing? Why don't we just shoot him?'")
BECAUSE like a lot of superheroes, Captain America is a science-altered human. But, he’s not a god (not like, say Hercules or Thor.) He’s not invulnerable, like Rogue, or nearly-so, thanks to his healing factor, like Wolverine. He can’t stop bullets with an invisible or magnetic shield. His body cannot contort like rubber, is not made of stone, and cannot turn to diamond or steel at will.
If you shoot Captain America at point blank (careful to get under his adamantine chainmail shirt), the bullet rends regular old, human flesh and bone, and he dies. Dead. All the way. (Okay, this is Marvel, so he could have been a Skrull all along or some other completely preposterous plot device, but just roll with me here for a moment.)
But, apparently, Red Skull thinks using a quantum bullet is a much better idea, and even seems (I think) to have made arrangements with Dr. Doom to capture Captain America’s disembodied soul in some kind of space-age/soul-capturing magic device (Bonus, with Doom it can be both).
Because, you know, snuffing out Captain America’s consciousness would be too… what? Easy? Evil? And our insane, swastika-wearing Red Skull can’t bring himself to kill Captain America straight up….because? Because he’s the perfect example of the Aryan uber-race with his blond hair and super-soldier perfect body?
Okay, maybe. I could actually BUY that latter explanation, but not having read every issue in the series, I have no idea if Brubaker ever makes that argument in the text for Red Skull’s crazy-complicated-how-can-it-possibly-succeed “plan.”
Except my theory only serves to explain why Red Skull takes the time and effort to transfer his consciousness into Steve’s awesomely Aryan body, but not why he preserves Steve’s mind, at all. Because, what supervillain doesn’t realize that if his dark, small, evil consciousness has to battle the formidable, morally-upstanding, good soul of the hero, the hero is going to find a way to be, well, stronger!? And, you know, overpower your wicked self by sheer force of will? DUH!
Brubaker goes to a lot of contortions to explain that Red Skull couldn’t have come up with a better torture than to have Cap constantly reliving his danger-fraught life, with all of its various mistakes (the big one being the failure to save Bucky in the whole, classic Baron Zemo rocket plot.) Yet, I kept thinking, okay, yeah, Steve, this sucks for you, but wouldn’t Skull have been smarter to just kill you? You know, like the Russians seemed to have been planning when they sent the Winter Soldier/Bucky to sniper your a$$ the day Agent 13/Sharon shot you with the quantum bullet?
The worst part, IMHO, is the conclusion as it is presented in “Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield?” After all this meandering to get Cap back from the dead, Steve decides that Bucky makes the better Captain America, after all, and it’s time to hand over the shield to his protégée. Again, I ask myself: if the plan at Marvel HQ was to retire Steve Rogers as Captain America, why not let him die?
Frankly, I was pretty sold on Bucky Barnes as the new Captain America (there have been many others, after all). Plus, I’m fond of what Brubaker did to Barnes’s history. I liked that Barnes would necessarily be a darker Cap, because he doesn’t have the super-soldier formula, and so had to rely on his *one* cybernetically enhanced arm (the only way he can catch the shield) and a _gun_. He’s basically a normal guy with WWII/evil Soviet combat training. This was kind of working for me, actually. I didn’t need Steve to come back from the dead to give Bucky his blessing. In fact, it’s kind of out of character, (within Brubaker’s own storyline even).
One of the reveals in the Winter Soldier miniseries (by Brubaker) is that Captain America was complicit in using Bucky to carry out missions that would “tarnish the flag.” In other words, Cap looked the other way while Bucky assassinated Nazis (rather inelegantly, I might add. We’re talking slashing throats and ambush sniper fire.) The ugly that Brubaker asks us to accept is that Bucky is a teenager supposedly under the protection of Cap, and yet is a skilled killer, putting blood on his own hands so that the image of Captain America isn’t spattered with the hard, cold reality of war.
I would think that seeing Bucky, knowing what he knows, wearing the FLAG of his uniform would freak Captain America OUT. It seems extremely out of character that, especially given that he supposedly relived that part of his past over and over again only days earlier, Cap would be like, “Oh, look at Bucky and his Russian girlfriend all team-y; they’re doing a great job. I’ll leave them to it, then.”
It should have been a _shock_ to see Bucky holding a gun in one hand and *the shield* in the other.
I mean, WTF? It still freaks _me_ out. Every time I see a CAPTAIN AMERICA cover with Bucky in the uniform with a gun in his hand or holstered at his hip, I have a moment of, “Whoa!” Then I think, “Oh, yeah, this is Winter Soldier.” Cap hasn’t, meanwhile, had as much time to adjust to this idea as we have. Given that I’m still a little uneasy at the passing image, you’d think Cap would have a conniption fit. Cap likes to remind us that the cowl, the shield – they represent. What America _is_, is reflected in how Captain America behaves… at least, that was kind of the whole theme of why Bucky existed in “Winter Soldier.”
Well, Cap, how about that? You just handed over the shield and the cowl to a stone, cold killer, and you’re okay with that? Really.
As Spider-Man might say, “Oy.”
That being said, there were things I liked in “Who Will Wield the Shield?” Most notably, the cameo by President Obama, who implies that he thinks the superhero registration act is crap, even if it *is* law. Thus, he signs an executive order to pardon Captain America (alas, not the rest of the unregistered heroes, which is kind of Obama all over, isn’t it? Small changes, not nearly as sweeping or progressive as some of us would like…. Marvel remains surprisingly cutting edge political, and I do like that about them.)
Anyway, I’ll have to see if I can find out what’s currently happening in CAPTAIN AMERICA and decide whether or not it’s worth continuing to pick this title up when I find it used. Like I said, I like Bucky as Cap, but if Brubaker isn’t going to acknowledge the queasy of having a former assassin as Captain America, I don’t know if it can hold my interest long term, especially if I have to endure super stupid villains and their really ridiculously complicated plans.
I was a fan in the 70s and 80s, when Spider-Man grew extra arms and the plots sometimes involved vampires or the “cosmic cube,” but Civil War showed me a higher ground – one I could appreciate as a grown-up. I can tolerate references to the over-the-top past and even a nod or homage to it on occasion, but I prefer the moral ambiguity of the new hey-our-audience-grew-up-with-us renaissance in comic book storytelling of the past decade or so.
So I hope that’s where Brubaker goes, or has gone, as the case may be.
No, apparently, Red Skull being the sort of evil overlord who tells people his devious plan with exactly enough time for the hero to thwart it, decided rather than just killing Cap dead (the simple option), he’d have the brainwashed Agent 13 shoot Steve with what Brian Thao Worra called a “quantum bullet” in order, I gather, to infuse his own mind into Steve’s body (aka the unnecessarily complicated choice.) I guess Brian was wrong about that term “quantum bullet,” but I like it, so I’m keeping it. What the magic/quantum bullet did was separate Steve’s consciousness from his body, and then sent his mind on an eternal loop through his own past, Red Badge of Courage style.
So, when I was at HPB, I decided that, knowing this already, I could pick up Ed Brubaker’s:
Captain America, “Days Gone By” #50
Captain America: Reborn (4 of 5)
Captain America: Reborn (5 of 6)
Captain America: Reborn
Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield?
Of course, I managed to read them somewhat out of order (I mistakenly thought the unnumbered issue of “Reborn” was the first, not the last issue). Even having read the unnumbered issue twice, I’m still not sure I get it. I guess the take away lesson is that, despite surviving since WWII, Red Skull is the dumbest supervillain in the entire Marvel Universe. (On Facebook yesterday Jon Hansen said "It was so bad, it needed Scott Evil to go: 'Wait.. what? What are we doing? Why don't we just shoot him?'")
BECAUSE like a lot of superheroes, Captain America is a science-altered human. But, he’s not a god (not like, say Hercules or Thor.) He’s not invulnerable, like Rogue, or nearly-so, thanks to his healing factor, like Wolverine. He can’t stop bullets with an invisible or magnetic shield. His body cannot contort like rubber, is not made of stone, and cannot turn to diamond or steel at will.
If you shoot Captain America at point blank (careful to get under his adamantine chainmail shirt), the bullet rends regular old, human flesh and bone, and he dies. Dead. All the way. (Okay, this is Marvel, so he could have been a Skrull all along or some other completely preposterous plot device, but just roll with me here for a moment.)
But, apparently, Red Skull thinks using a quantum bullet is a much better idea, and even seems (I think) to have made arrangements with Dr. Doom to capture Captain America’s disembodied soul in some kind of space-age/soul-capturing magic device (Bonus, with Doom it can be both).
Because, you know, snuffing out Captain America’s consciousness would be too… what? Easy? Evil? And our insane, swastika-wearing Red Skull can’t bring himself to kill Captain America straight up….because? Because he’s the perfect example of the Aryan uber-race with his blond hair and super-soldier perfect body?
Okay, maybe. I could actually BUY that latter explanation, but not having read every issue in the series, I have no idea if Brubaker ever makes that argument in the text for Red Skull’s crazy-complicated-how-can-it-possibly-succeed “plan.”
Except my theory only serves to explain why Red Skull takes the time and effort to transfer his consciousness into Steve’s awesomely Aryan body, but not why he preserves Steve’s mind, at all. Because, what supervillain doesn’t realize that if his dark, small, evil consciousness has to battle the formidable, morally-upstanding, good soul of the hero, the hero is going to find a way to be, well, stronger!? And, you know, overpower your wicked self by sheer force of will? DUH!
Brubaker goes to a lot of contortions to explain that Red Skull couldn’t have come up with a better torture than to have Cap constantly reliving his danger-fraught life, with all of its various mistakes (the big one being the failure to save Bucky in the whole, classic Baron Zemo rocket plot.) Yet, I kept thinking, okay, yeah, Steve, this sucks for you, but wouldn’t Skull have been smarter to just kill you? You know, like the Russians seemed to have been planning when they sent the Winter Soldier/Bucky to sniper your a$$ the day Agent 13/Sharon shot you with the quantum bullet?
The worst part, IMHO, is the conclusion as it is presented in “Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield?” After all this meandering to get Cap back from the dead, Steve decides that Bucky makes the better Captain America, after all, and it’s time to hand over the shield to his protégée. Again, I ask myself: if the plan at Marvel HQ was to retire Steve Rogers as Captain America, why not let him die?
Frankly, I was pretty sold on Bucky Barnes as the new Captain America (there have been many others, after all). Plus, I’m fond of what Brubaker did to Barnes’s history. I liked that Barnes would necessarily be a darker Cap, because he doesn’t have the super-soldier formula, and so had to rely on his *one* cybernetically enhanced arm (the only way he can catch the shield) and a _gun_. He’s basically a normal guy with WWII/evil Soviet combat training. This was kind of working for me, actually. I didn’t need Steve to come back from the dead to give Bucky his blessing. In fact, it’s kind of out of character, (within Brubaker’s own storyline even).
One of the reveals in the Winter Soldier miniseries (by Brubaker) is that Captain America was complicit in using Bucky to carry out missions that would “tarnish the flag.” In other words, Cap looked the other way while Bucky assassinated Nazis (rather inelegantly, I might add. We’re talking slashing throats and ambush sniper fire.) The ugly that Brubaker asks us to accept is that Bucky is a teenager supposedly under the protection of Cap, and yet is a skilled killer, putting blood on his own hands so that the image of Captain America isn’t spattered with the hard, cold reality of war.
I would think that seeing Bucky, knowing what he knows, wearing the FLAG of his uniform would freak Captain America OUT. It seems extremely out of character that, especially given that he supposedly relived that part of his past over and over again only days earlier, Cap would be like, “Oh, look at Bucky and his Russian girlfriend all team-y; they’re doing a great job. I’ll leave them to it, then.”
It should have been a _shock_ to see Bucky holding a gun in one hand and *the shield* in the other.
I mean, WTF? It still freaks _me_ out. Every time I see a CAPTAIN AMERICA cover with Bucky in the uniform with a gun in his hand or holstered at his hip, I have a moment of, “Whoa!” Then I think, “Oh, yeah, this is Winter Soldier.” Cap hasn’t, meanwhile, had as much time to adjust to this idea as we have. Given that I’m still a little uneasy at the passing image, you’d think Cap would have a conniption fit. Cap likes to remind us that the cowl, the shield – they represent. What America _is_, is reflected in how Captain America behaves… at least, that was kind of the whole theme of why Bucky existed in “Winter Soldier.”
Well, Cap, how about that? You just handed over the shield and the cowl to a stone, cold killer, and you’re okay with that? Really.
As Spider-Man might say, “Oy.”
That being said, there were things I liked in “Who Will Wield the Shield?” Most notably, the cameo by President Obama, who implies that he thinks the superhero registration act is crap, even if it *is* law. Thus, he signs an executive order to pardon Captain America (alas, not the rest of the unregistered heroes, which is kind of Obama all over, isn’t it? Small changes, not nearly as sweeping or progressive as some of us would like…. Marvel remains surprisingly cutting edge political, and I do like that about them.)
Anyway, I’ll have to see if I can find out what’s currently happening in CAPTAIN AMERICA and decide whether or not it’s worth continuing to pick this title up when I find it used. Like I said, I like Bucky as Cap, but if Brubaker isn’t going to acknowledge the queasy of having a former assassin as Captain America, I don’t know if it can hold my interest long term, especially if I have to endure super stupid villains and their really ridiculously complicated plans.
I was a fan in the 70s and 80s, when Spider-Man grew extra arms and the plots sometimes involved vampires or the “cosmic cube,” but Civil War showed me a higher ground – one I could appreciate as a grown-up. I can tolerate references to the over-the-top past and even a nod or homage to it on occasion, but I prefer the moral ambiguity of the new hey-our-audience-grew-up-with-us renaissance in comic book storytelling of the past decade or so.
So I hope that’s where Brubaker goes, or has gone, as the case may be.
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-27 02:16 pm (UTC)Cap would never have sanctioned assassination. If you kill a man, you do it straight up in battle. I could see him allowing Bucky to use firearms in an assault (Cap has the Super Soldier serum, Bucky doesn't), but not to do actual planned cold-blooded assassination. Just... no, it's not Captain America.
It's like making Superman have Batman's moral compass -- the one that's kinda hard to read and grimy. No, see, then that's not SUPERMAN.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-27 06:34 pm (UTC)Also, MArvel's darkness lately has been a story. The Heroes went through the ringer and now, they've come out the other side. That's what the newHeroic Age storyline is about. A new Day, a new hope, and a new beginning.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-27 07:40 pm (UTC)But, on the flip side, I hear what your saying. Some guys should never be touched by darkness. Cap is one of them.
Nerd correction
Date: 2010-04-27 06:27 pm (UTC)Re: Nerd correction
Date: 2010-04-27 07:43 pm (UTC)