Captain America (comics): Difference between revisions

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{{quote| ''"[[Badass Boast|I'm loyal to nothing, General...]] [[American Dream|except the Dream.]]"''}}

* [[America Saves the Day]]: Of COURSE he does!!!

* [[Animal-Themed Superbeing]]: Cap obviously isn't but he has had several villains who were: Cobra, the Serpent Society, Porcupine, Armadillo, Man-Ape, Rhino, Scorpion, etc.

** Kinda applies to [[Bucky Barnes|Bucky Cap]], though technically, he's a [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes|Type 1]]. Ignoring his [[Dark and Troubled Past]], his [[Superhero Packing Heat|tricked-out gun]], or his costume being [[Dark Is Not Evil|more black than red-white-and-blue]], he genuinely does try to be a traditional superhero, but a large source of his [[Mangst]] is his doubt as to whether or not he can do the mantle justice.

* [[Arc Welding]]: Mark Gruenwald revealed, when he resurrected the Red Skull in Captain America #350, that every bad guy or bad guy group that had appeared in roughly the last four years (save for the Serpent Society), worked for Red Skull as part of his newly formed cabal of evil groups under his control. Mind you, the groups themselves didn't know this; the Red Skull infiltrated them with a few sleeper agents to secretly bend the groups' activities to work toward his goals. When Flag-Smasher, the leader of one of the groups, found this out, he fled the group and warned Captain America.

* [[Evil Counterpart]]: 50s Cap.

* [[Expansion Pack Past]]: He's probably had more adventures in World War II than there were days in the war; there's a tendency for stories involving him to feature a one or two-page flashback to some World War II event to contrast with whatever's happening in the present. Famous World War II events (D-Day, for example), have been retold frequently with conflicting information about what he was doing then.

* [[Face Heel Turn]]: Captain America was accused of doing one during Operation Rebirth (teaming up with the Red Skull, though the two were teaming up to stop Hitler) leading to him being briefly exiled from the US.

** The Fixer did one during "No Exit", but managed to avoid getting caught.

* [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate]] (Dr. Faustus, an evil psychologist, and Dr. Arnim Zola, an evil geneticist)

* [[Multiple Choice Past]]: Roger Stern gave this to Captain America, in order to handwave various conflicting backstories for Captain America, past and future, in terms of having Cap's memory damaged due to him being frozen alive.

** Also averted in the [[Ultimate Marvel]] Universe, where Captain America and the Ultimates break off from the USA after it sends them on shady missions.

* [[My Greatest Failure]]: Losing the Civil War X-Over, as hell on earth broke out afterwords.

* [[Nice Guy]]: Steve Rogers, under the uniform, is still a kind and polite gentleman and the picture of the wholesome 1930's boy next door.

** Same goes for [[Bucky Barnes]].

* [[Nobody Over 50 Is Gay]]: Subverted! His childhood friend, Arnie Roth, is living with another man when he and Cap meet again in 1982.

* [[Not-So-Harmless Villain]]: People have a bad habit of underestimating Batroc the Leaper because of his usually friendly nature. Forgetting that he can fight toe to toe with Captain America. He was once even able to hold his own against Cap and [[Hawkeye]] at the same time!

* [[Phlebotinum]]: Cap's shield is a unique alloy of steel and vibranium, rendering it not only invulnerable to anything less than the Beyonder or the Infinity Gauntlet, but also capable of absorbing impacts up to "pissed-off Hulk" levels and beyond. It's also impossible to reproduce.

* [[Pinball Projectile]]: Cap's shield. Oooh boy, Cap's shield.

** In an 80's Avengers/X-Men crossover, he and Magneto were half-fighting, half-debating. Magneto doubted Cap's claims that he had no prejudice against mutants, and blasted him with a device that could remove prejudice from someone's mind. Magneto then questioned Cap again, and got the same answer; the device hadn't affected Cap because there ''was no prejudice to remove.'' Magneto, whose entire worldview centered around the belief that humans could never accept mutants, was profoundly shaken and immediately surrendered.

* [[Power Trio]]: The Invaders core group: Namor the [[Sub-Mariner]] (Id), Human Torch (Ego), Captain America (Superego).

* [[Powered Armor]]: While Cap's faced off against many armored villains, he himself had to don an armored version of his costume in the 90s due to the Super-Soldier Serum breaking down in his body and causing Cap to be paralyzed.

* [[Principles Zealot]]: A lighter version, but still very much in effect.

* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: After the first appearance, Timely Comics was prompted by [[Archie Comics|MLJ Comics]] to change Cap's shield from the triangular shape to the discus one. Years later, this change of shields was [[Retcon|retconned]] as being presented as a new weapon to Cap by President [[Franklin D Roosevelt]] himself.

* [[Retcon]]: Old saying...[[Death Is Cheap|Nobody stays dead]] in comics except Bucky and Uncle Ben.

* [[Right Makes Might]]: Whenever [[Captain America]] throws his shield, you can see this written on it in six-inch letters. His [[Nigh Invulnerable]] [[Unobtainium]] shield is literally reinforced with American Righteous Might - not [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|Self-Righteous Might]]. America is the Greatest Country in the World - but only when it ''[[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|maintains its idealism]].''

* [[Shadow Archetype]]: Red Skull.

* [[Shield-Bash]]

** Cap's "Stars and Stripes" attack in the ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom (Video Game)|Marvel vs. Capcom]]'' series is a good old fashioned Shoryuken-style attack, and the Hyper variant tips its hat to Ken's Shoryu Reppa super. His Charging Star special also draws comparisons with [[Street Fighter (Franchise)|M. Bison]]'s Psycho Crusher, especially Hyper Charging Star (Ironic considering how Bison's the [[Big Bad]] of SF).

* [[Sidekick Graduations Stick]]: And has even triumphed over Steve Rogers' [[Death Is Cheap|return from the dead]].

* [[Weird Trade Union]]: The Serpent Society, a collection of snake-themed villains.

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: Flag-Smasher. He ''loathes'', almost beyond words, the very idea of national sovereignty, thinking they get in the way of helping people, and thinks the globe should be united in a [[One World Order]]. Unfortunately, he uses terror tactics to advance this goal and innocent people often get killed. During their first fight, before he'd done anything too violent, Cap tried to talk him out of this, saying the best way to persuade people to his way of thinking would be to act not as a supervillain, but as a superhero; let people see how his world government ideology inspired him to acts of heroism, just as Cap's own beliefs inspired him. Flag-Smasher didn't listen.

** "You don't understand, Steve. [[Shrouded in Myth|The guy we've been hunting]], [[Break the Badass|the man who killed the Red Skull]]; [[The Reveal|I've seen him!]] [[Back From the Dead|I think... I think]] [[Kid Sidekick|it's]] [[Bucky Barnes]]!"

** That said, if he's in a fight with a female villain, he knows better than to hold back. He knows a woman can be as deadly as any man.

** In ''the Ultimates'' he wrestles the ''10 stories tall'' [[Ant-Man|Hank Pym]] into the ground and pounds him into helpless submission for beating his wife The Wasp.