I agree. Cap in the comics has outright beat up Fafnir in three pages with the weapons taken from a random troll, who in the same arc had a ferocious fight with Thor. The stopping Thanos hand can be easily outdone by comic Thor and Iron Man struggling to hold back Cap and Steve breaking out of Hulk's grip
Since there is an Edit War going on, moving the contested example here:
- * Decoy Protagonist: Ever since his introduction Cap has appeared to usurp Iron Man’s role as the lead of the MCU, with his films having more long lasting consequences then Tony’s more stand alone adventures, culminating in Civil War where Tony is an outright Hero Antagonist in Steve’s film. However in the Grand Finale that is Avengers: Endgame it’s Tony who not only figures out how to make Scott’s time travel idea a viable means of undoing the Snap but is the one who ultimately puts an end to Thanos at the cost of his own life therefore revealing Cap to actually be the overall Deuteragonist of the MCU's "Infinity Saga".
I personally believe that this is not an example, because MCU as a whole is a franchise so it doesn't have a protagonist by definition. As for individual movies, he is a protagonist in his own movies, and "the Avengers" movies have Loads And Loads Of Characters and no clearly defined protagonist.
Opinions?
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I wouldn't say Tony making a Heroic Sacrifice at the end makes him the "true" protagonist of the series. Steve is given just as much prominence as Tony in Endgame and the film notably ends with the conclusion to his storyline. Plus as you mentioned the Avengers movies don't really focus on one individual character as the protagonist and are more about the team as a whole.
Captain Obvious or Comically Missing the Point?
The dialogue in question:
- Tony: What does it look like in there?Steve: It seems to run on some on some form of electricity.Tony: Well, you're not wrong.
I believe that this is an example of Captain Obvious aka "stating what is blatantly obvious" and not an example of the second trope because Steve understood what Tony asked him to do. I also think that Captain Obvious is a Justified Trope in this case because Steve is a Fish out of Temporal Water. Troper Snowy66 believes that the second trope fits better. Any opinions?
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Agreed, Steve does say it in a bit frustrated and sarcastic tone, to me it also sounds as if he knows he cannot answer the question and makes a quip about it. As far as I know Comically Missing the Point only applies when the character really is unwillingly missing the point.
OK I rewatched the clip. He does sound a bit sarcastic. In that case it'd also fall under Deadpan Snarker through being Captain Obvious?
This very line is listed as an example of the Deadpan Snarker on his page already )
I'll have to contest the Adaptational Badass example on the page. Adaptational Badass is not about power increases in media adaptations, it's about how relevant a character is in a fight. Cap has always been a frontline fighter for the Avengers and his strength has always fluctuated in the comics, thus offering no baseline to compare him to the movie version.
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