Scans_Daily

Oddly, this version of Cap is more sympathetic than I expected from Millar. My introduction to Millar was his first arc on The Authority, where a blatant imitation Cap is the hateful right-wing anti-gay villain that Midnighter impales at the end.

I guess that was Millar's idea of how to appeal to Teh Gayz, but it was really just crazy offensive all around. (I sold all my Authority comics, even the Ellis/Hitch issues, after that. If Ellis approved of this guy, it colored my view of his judgement.)

So, it's kind of a relief that Cap is as nice a guy later in The Ultimates as he turned out to be.

THAT SAID:

This is not something a typical American of Cap's era would say.

The "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" stereotype which I remember becoming a sort of internet meme 12 years ago can be traced to a specific source. The stereotypical "Scottish" character "Groundskeeper Willie" on the American tv show The Simpsons. The joke is that he despises other European nationalities and has crazy stereotypes for lots of them. And that may be related to the Mike Myers SNL sketches where he plays a Scottish transplant with a store full of Scottish tat and insists, "If it's not Scottish, it's crap!"

It got picked up and repeated by pro-war American media in 2003, and became a new stereotype. But it comes from a wild ignorance of French history outside a few collaborators (not even the whole country!) in one particular war.

Interestingly, Millar is Scottish. So, maybe that really is a Scottish stereotype of the French. Or it's one he thought would sell in the USA.