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Captain America, Masculinity, and Violence: The Evolution of a National Icon. by J. Richard Stevens, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2015. 385 pp.

2020; The MIT Press; Volume: 22; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1162/jcws_r_00886

1531-3298

Yann Roblou,

Media, Gender, and Advertising

J. Richard Stevens's enterprise stands at the crossroads between social science—his original area of expertise—and popular culture. Combining the two, Stevens presents the multiple facets of a fictional character known to anyone who has read Marvel comic books or, at least, heard of the Avengers: Captain America.The book analyzes the iconic status of Captain America by highlighting salient elements according to the moment of production (Stevens proposes to divide the character's evolution into eight successive periods) and distribution of his adventures. As Stevens indicates in the preface, he had to delve into considerable material—not only the comic books in which Captain America appears but also “fanzines of different eras” as well as “letter columns at the back of … comic books” (p. 20) and, more recently, cartoons and feature films.Scrutiny of this mass of primary sources (more than 5,000 comic books) provided core material, which Stevens evaluates by drawing on theories of American heroism, as developed by John Shelton Lawrence and Robert Jewett, and by Richard Reynolds. Nonetheless, as the title of the book suggests, Stevens also analyzes the mutations of the character through the prism of two other notions intimately and problematically connected: masculinity and violence.This detailed research yields rich results. The book adroitly demonstrates the significance of the elements involved in the creation of a cultural text: its authors, obviously, but also its social, political, and ideological context.What makes Captain America such an interesting subject is contained in his superhero identity and his status as a soldier and a national icon. Stevens shows that, as a soldier, Steve Rogers's relation to violence has been repeatedly modified, from the World War II comic book period to the present-day silver screen adaptations—changes that have often created discomfort among readers. Originally prone to seek the total physical destruction of any opponent, Captain America over time has shifted to the non-lethal use of force, and the comic books have revamped his past.More often than not, the use of retroactive continuity (the constant rewriting of the story of his origins to suit the demands of the period of production, while trying to maintain continuity in the character)—or “retcon” in comic book industry parlance—has also been invoked to gloss over what at times amounted to jingoism, blatant racism, and, more generally, propagandistic discourse.Closely linked to this, another characteristic to emerge from Stevens's scrutiny is Captain America's uncompromising purity and resolve, rendering him a champion of the American dream and its ideals, though his posture has not always been as clear-cut as one would expect. In this regard, one of the many merits of the book is the inclusion of lengthy excerpts from Captain America's speeches to let the reader grasp the inner tensions of the character. The superhero's understanding of his iconic status, and what one is tempted to call a form of meta-ideology, is reflected here: “I'm not a knee-jerk patriot. I DON'T believe in my country, right or wrong. I support America in its concept, its essence, its ideal. Its political system, its foreign and domestic policies, its vast book of laws—I am NOT America's official advocate of any of that. What I represent are the principles that America's politics, laws and policies are based upon—freedom, justice, equality, opportunity” (p. 165).Regardless of whether Captain America stands as the embodiment of his country in its aspirations toward material and symbolic grandeur, each of the periods addressed by Stevens provides elements of reflection concerning the other striking feature of the character: his masculinity, envisaged as “a social construct,” and its endangerment (pp. 198–202). In this respect, perhaps one of the only faults of this book is the paucity of aesthetic description of Captain America's various physical representations—either in comic book form or through the actors who interpreted the role. This dimension is crucial, for if masculinity and the violence embedded in American mythology are to be connected, it can be done only through the vector of the body. As Stevens himself acknowledges, “Though Captain America would confront salient political issues of his day, his actions (if any) are usually constricted to the physicality of the immediate moment” (p. 207).Having demonstrated how the character is a unique and complex example of superheroic masculine patriotism and established that Captain America has become for some “the moral center of the Marvel universe” (p. 281), Stevens poses an interesting question concerning the ability of the comic book reader and film audiences (domestic and foreign) alike to accept how far myths can be stretched. He partly answers his own question by suggesting that it all depends on the point of entry in the career of the character and his many incarnations. The reader/viewer must deal with an open text that provides matter for interpretation (of the character himself, his values) while considering or discarding its context, and may even prompt reassessments of one's own value system.Although Captain America may have died on paper in 2007, he has proven able to come back to life. Like so many of his peers and fellow comic-book world saviors, he will live on, depending on the level of interest of his fans, the quality of the writing of his adventures, and the fluctuations of the industry he depends on. Captain America's latest incarnation on cinema screens—with all its strengths and shortcomings—is providing audiences and scholars with more material to delve into, particularly “when American cultural values are under scrutiny” and “the nation is involved in a direct challenge from other nations or world bodies” (p. 289).Stevens combines his comprehensive knowledge of the character of Captain America with impressive expertise about the inner workings of the comic book technique and industry, which makes reading his book easy and informative, not least because he avoids pretentiousness and jargon.