Captain America #335

[iamrman]

The new Captain America's first assignment is to infiltrate the Watchdogs. I'm sure it will be fine and won’t have any repercussions for John Walker's loved ones.

Comments

[thanekos]

John " ' in basic moral agreement with ' would-be book burners and lynchers " Walker.

The story's putting in the work WRT his internal conflict, but the overall effect is of a man shocked that others're saying the quiet part loud. You get the feeling if he hadn't heard about/seen the planned burning/attempted lynching first hand (or if he didn't know the guy being lynched), he'd be thinking ' As much as those people deserve. ' when he did hear about it.

[beyondthefringe]

And y'know, I don't -hate- that he reflected a liberal writer's take on '80s-era small town/rural values, once he had those initial "Captain America is old and out of touch, hawr hawr hawr" edges as Super-Patriot smoothed down a teensy bit to make him more palatable as a main character.

Different upbringing and experiences yield a different person, and in some ways, John Walker was exemplifying a side of America Steve just didn't quite get. And it's a shame they quickly moved away from "here's your red state Cap" to "unstable and unworthy of the uniform" over the duration of his tenure... and never really returned to it once he became USAsshole. I mean USAgent.

Given that he comes to the Watchdogs' attention by being a morally uprighteous white man who smashes up Lamar's "pornography" operation... (This issue notes that he's against sex education, porn, and abortion--"immoral" things... which really does mean he'd resonate with the *sigh* more conservative side of America even today.) It's interesting that one of his very first missions touches on those beliefs -and- manages to throw in racial tensions and issues by having him assault a Black man -and- have to participate in a lynching, thus putting his personal values at odds with his identity as Captain America.

Gruenwald might have been a bit hamfisted at times, but this story did a good job of at least scratching the surface of the character concept and what it meant to represent America. I never want to -agree- with John Walker, but I recognize him in too much of my surroundings.