Captain America #7: True Sounds of Liberty

Stripped down to the core, what are the ideals that forge the nation of the United States of America into a world superpower? If you are able to answer that question, my follow-up question would be, are those ideals immutable? Does America stand for the same ideals today as it did in 1776? What changed? When? How? These are the questions at the center of Coates’ exploration on the relationship between Captain America and the United States– a relationship under attack at the start of ‘Captain of Nothing’.

As Sharon quickly points out, these transgressions were against government, not country. Therein lies the crucial dissonance between Captain America as icon vs Captain America as instrument. Cap is, by nature, a product of non-partisan nation founded on the ideals of freedom, liberty, and choice. As we shift towards a period of extreme bi-partisanism, the non-partisan icon not only is rendered obsolete, but is, in fact, a dangerous tool for revolution. The ideologue of Captain America stands as a reminder that this two party system is not, in fact, a part of the DNA of this nation– that we were never intended to be a house primed to stand against itself. A government controlled by wealth and corporations that thrives on division among the populace cannot allow this icon to stand as a reminder of a time where we stood side-by-side. This attack is not an attack on Steve Rogers– it is a systematic dismantling of Captain America. I anticipate the role of media and its relationship to political “discourse” to play a major role in issues to come.

The art here was solid, in a classic Kubert style. I somewhat miss the discord of Yu’s page layouts but given the nature and pacing of the story, a more traditional, nine-panel grid base does seem slightly more appropriate.