In December of 1940, America still hadnāt entered the war.
There were a lot of Americans – such as theĀ 800,000 paying members of the America First Committee – who looked at fascists massacring their way through Europe and declaredĀ āthatās not our problem.ā
Captain America was created by two poor Jewish Americans, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, with the specific intent of trying to convince Americans that entering the war was the right thing to do.Ā It wasnāt easy – Kirby went far beyond what was expected of artists at the time, penciling the entire issue with a deadline that would have been difficult for a two-man crew to pull off.Ā Ā
Captain America punched Hitler right on the cover, at a time when a majority of Americans just didnāt feel like doing anything decisive against the Nazis.
Kirby and Simon faced considerable resistance for their creation, including steady hate mail and outright death threats.Ā Ā
Once, while Jack was in the Timely office, a call came from someone in the lobby. When Kirby answered, the caller threatened Jack with bodily harm if he showed his face. Kirby told the caller he would be right down, but by the time Jack reached street level, there was no one to be found.
Both creators enlisted after America entered the war. Ā Kirby, as an artist, was called upon to do the extremely dangerous work of scouting ahead to draw maps. Ā He also went on to co-create Black Panther in 1966.
They didnāt create Captain America to be an accurate depiction of America-As-It-Is.Ā The character was meant to inspire and embolden, to show America-As-It-Should-Be.
The subject of where the Vibranium for the shield came from actually never came up for decades of comics, until it was finally addressed by Black Pantherās writer, Christopher Priest, in 2001.Ā Priest never shied away from acknowledging Americaās racism, but he also understood that Captain America represented an ideal, intended to inspire Americans to be better.Ā
The story mixed together aĀ āpresent dayā discussion between Cap and TāChalla with flashbacks to when Cap met the Black Panther ruling Wakanda during World War II.
FLASHBACK:
PRESENT:
PRESENT -> FLASHBACK
PRESENT:
The Vibranium was given, freely, by one good man to another good man.
It is right to rage against the injustices done by our governments.Ā We must call them out, and we must fight for whatās right.
But if you canāt even stand to see the symbols created to inspire people to be better, and rail against those,Ā then youāre just confusing cynicism for realism.
This was a masterful callout that deserves a place in the callout hall of fame, which I just realized needs to exist. It strikes the perfect tone of, āIām not criticizing where youāre at on this, Iām holding my hand out and inviting you to step up to the next level in your thinking about it.ā
Thatās the kind of callout that people can sometimes actually hear, not just for entertaining the bystanders. Truly, we need more of this.
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