*this* is the Captain America we need to be hearing from right now, not ‘fascism made edgy for plot-twists’

SHOTS FIRED

You know what’s really funny about the rest of the story these panels came from?

This shirtless guy with a flag on his face (USAgent, I think?), he’s a just a hyper-nationlist soldier basically given super-steroids by some other, much bigger villain and dropped into a war-torn, developed nation to cause as much chaos as possible, as a distraction. He’s very strong, and he has a big gun, but otherwise, no real superpowers to speak of. SHIELD could’ve very easily handled it, themselves.

The reason why SHIELD asked Steve to handle this guy, anyway? Because they already knew how the world was going to react to a guy with an American flag on his face shooting up innocent civilians. They could’ve stopped this guy on their own, but they needed Steve to do it so that the world could see USAgent being taken down by Captain America. They asked Steve to do it because they wanted the world to see the “real” America taking down this violent, jingoistic asshole. And Steve did - not by defeating the guy in battle, but by showing empathy, and showing the guy just how far from American ideals he’s fallen.

That’s right, this entire story was about real American ideals defeating violent nationalism with empathy.

The Captain America we need and must keep asking for, everybody