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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
Actually, Steve was a giant middle-finger towards the Nazis....the "arian ideal" fighting for everything the Nazi's despise.
Also, Falcon posing with the shield in the comics is different than actually seeing him using it in movement and lugging it around in flight...or is he supposed to give up the wings in favour for the shield?
And, btw, if they really want to turn him into a symbol for the US, they should simply rename him and call him "Eagle".
Well, from a story standpoint you get to bring Sam’s established history into a new perspective. From a business standpoint you have a character that’s known/has fans already. Plus, since Steve is never gone for good, this prevents creating a character to be Cap, then demoting them/renaming them when Steve returns. With an existing character that transition is easier.
That misses my entire point. For the Marvel Universe, Captain America is THE symbol of America. Renaming Sam “Eagle” has none of the weight or symbolism of Sam becoming Cap.
edited 22nd Mar '18 10:53:07 AM by wisewillow
So instead you just "demote" Sam back to being Falcon. It still has the implication that being Cap is a promotion and he's just filling the role until Steve returns.
That last bit kind of ties into another thing I was thinking about. Another famous case of this is Carol Danvers taking over the Captain Marvel title. The key difference is that Mar-Vell actually died and so far they've been good about sticking to that. Unless Cap dies for good it just seems weird to me.
edited 22nd Mar '18 10:55:59 AM by Kostya
Mar-Vell died. Monica Rambeau got demoted twice by his son. Genis-Vell died. Phyla-Vell died.
Be afraid Carol.
Forever liveblogging the AvengersMonica started as Captain Marvel.
There was another character that started as Ms Marvel and she became She-Thing
Forever liveblogging the AvengersPhoton and Spectrum are both good.
Because she can turn into light but all the lights.
Forever liveblogging the AvengersDoes she count as a legacy character if she had no idea that someone else had even used the name and then had tragically died
Forever liveblogging the AvengersWell, I was talking about a successor in the MCU in the event that Steve was Killed Off for Real (or even just temporarily killed) which would probably limit successors to Sam and/or Bucky. And I guess any villainous character also taking on the mantle (so Burnside and/or Walker).
Bucky has the advantage powerwise, but although he is/was a nice enough guy, in terms of personality and providing inspiration, Sam seems to me a way better choice.
Besides liking the "diversity" aspect, I have some issues in terms of how organic it feels from a story perspective to have Bucky wearing the costume, especially if he's doing so in a context where he's pretending to be Steve (obviously not an issue with Sam) and the costume is designed so that his hair and metal arm are covered.
Because it seems in character that Bucky would become a hero as part of a Redemption Quest and even that he would want to honor Steve, but if he's pretending to be him as a way of escaping bad publicity, that seems more like supervillain behavior. And conversely, it's kind of hard for me to imagine a situation where there public at large knows who Bucky is and knows he's Captain America.
Tl; dr, not sure if I'm making sense, but I'm trying to say that while comic book logic (and racism) would make Bucky the better candidate to take over as Captain America, verisimilitude in the story would make Sam a better option.
I’d prefer Sam as Captain America because he’s been shown to have his own priorities, history, and perspectives apart from Steve, so there’s more to draw from him in the role. I like Bucky, but for the most part he’s been something of a satellite character to Steve and so we don’t know much about what he’s like personally.
edited 22nd Mar '18 11:24:04 AM by Tuckerscreator
Steve Rogers in Marvel: 1602 doesn't count, right?
Edit- Although I dislike Mighty Whitey/ Raised by Natives as a trope, I kind of think it works here, because it's sort of period appropriate and especially reminds me of Voltaire's story "L'Ingenue". Not to mention, it really was a thing in the past for Europeans to not really know what people looked like in other countries and find it perfectly plausible that they looked like white Europeans. This is pretty much why the Princess Caribou scam worked. And that was in the early 1800s, which makes it even more believable in 1600.
edited 22nd Mar '18 12:14:26 PM by Hodor2
She's at a planet busting level at least and was on the Ultimates which was a team for the big guns solving big gun problems. Like fighting an entire universe. Or curing Galactus' munchies.
Forever liveblogging the AvengersIf Sam can wield the mighty shield, then all other should yield to him being in the field.
Hashtag YOU BETTER RESPECT THE FALCON CAPTAIN AMERICA!!!
But yeah, I think Sam makes sense. I actually read a comic years ago before he took the job in the modern age where he took up Cap's costume straight up because Cap got zapped by some dudes and disappeared.
edited 22nd Mar '18 12:10:35 PM by HandsomeRob
One Strip! One Strip!Just to mention it, Carol Danvers
became Captain America in the mangaverse. And in a time honored tradition, she wore a costume sized for a man that somehow still managed to be practically skin tight when she wore it. And also it was a costume manga Steve had never even worn on panel because he was too busy being president.
Another reason why I prefer Sam over Bucky is because Steve's an artifact of another time. Having Steve pass the mantle to Sam is an acknowledgment that Captain America's not just an avatar of cultural values that America's forgotten. It's an act of Steve recognizing that the ideals he believes in and upholds are alive and well in the modern day, in men like Sam.
Sam taking up the shield means that the people of today still have it in them to be Captain America.
Giving it to Bucky is just going, "Well, our Holy Dinosaur died, but it's cool. We're not yet doomed to be wicked monsters forever because we have another Holy Dinosaur in reserve that we can use."
It's the DC v. Marvel thing. Superman is meant to be unattainable; Captain America is meant to be someone that any of us could become.
edited 22nd Mar '18 12:42:15 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.

Falcon is basically a semi-sidekick for Cap, and as Nightwing Dick is a member of the marvel family too.
"And when the last law was down and the Devil turned round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?"