A retrospective of the superhero films of the 'Marvel Cinematic Universe'. Based on the articles by Matt Goldblatt in Collider Magazine, April 2015.

Postmodernism prohibits the existence of a 'pure' superhero. To create a postmodern, complex character requires an inner conflict. And without this complexity, a meaningful developmental story can never be created for a character. The result is a boring character acting in a boring film.In most cases this assumption is true. But in a film terrain filled with superheroes wrestling tortured with their inner demons and the question of what is morally acceptable, 'Captain America - The First Avenger' politely rises from its perch and declares, "Here's our good guy. "The character of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) stands in stark contrast to Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth). It is not an arrogant character who must now sullenly bear the burden of responsibility. Rogers is confident but humble, strong but shy and fundamentally decent in an almost exaggerated way. He is not only the one missing character Marvel needed to develop its cinematic universe, but the genre of the superhero film itself has been sorely lacking since Christopher Reeve's interpretation of the character of 'Superman'.

Like the character of 'Thor' before it, the character of 'Captain America' is a hard sell to (European) audiences. The character is inextricably linked to the time of his creation, the Second World War, and is a melange of patriotism, propaganda and American war euphoria. The character was something America needed at the time. But in our time, how can we accept the figure of a naïve do-gooder who dresses in the colours of the American flag? How can such a character not seem hopelessly antiquated nowadays?how could Marvel shape the future of its film universe with this backward-looking, revisionist character?

Marvel Studios could have taken the path with 'Captain America' that they had already taken with 'Thor'. They could have transplanted the character into our reality and thus made it more tangible. The character of 'Captain' would then have had to adapt to the realities of our time. This would also have meant a shortcut on the way to the 'Avengers'. 'Captain America' would thus have served as a prequel to 'The Avengers' in which more of the agent organisation S.H.I.E.L.D. could have been integrated. Like 'Thor', 'Captain America' could have been more vicarious to the meta-narrative than a stand-alone film.

Instead, the studio took another risk. The decision was made to move the film's action to the World War II era, resulting in 'Captain America' occupying a similarly isolated position in the MCU as only 'Iron Man' and 'The Incredible Hulk' had before it. 'Cap' was unable to interact with any of the other heroes in the Marvel cinematic universe. Thus, the plot focused solely on this character, apart from the necessary prologue and the clumsily added scene at the end of the film.The audience had to get involved with 'Captain America' willy-nilly and Marvel was also finally able to adequately implement the story of the 'First Avenger' at this point.

This film strikes just the right balance between reality and fantastical heroic saga.There are no concentration camps in this film, nor, gruesome victims or very many Nazis. The film relies on the collective knowledge of the world community that war is a bad thing and that a fictional Nazi sub-organisation called 'Hydra', led by a madman called 'Red Skull' (Hugo Weaving), is also very, very bad. The Second World War is treated here only as a genre. And as such, 'Captain America' treats this historical setting as well.

This is the first brilliant move of the film. It accepts the World War II setting, but refuses any form of hurrah patriotism when it has Steve Rogers say that as a soldier he doesn't want to kill anyone, he just doesn't like people pushing other people around. It is a classic David versus Goliath story in which the character of Steve Rogers is already a decent, morally stable young man before taking the 'super soldier serum', and whose inner strength is only turned inside out by the serum.This design of 'Captain America' is completely disconnected from flag-waving nationalism.

Cap' is not a 'ubermensch'. Even after his transformation from ugly duckling to beautiful swan, he remains a shy boy who only seems to feel comfortable on the battlefield. Yet he is more than a mere projection screen of the ideal American hero. Director Joe Johnston knows how to show in small scenes that 'Cap' has got a good portion of brains as well as muscles and courage. But these are only minor 'weaknesses' in the otherwise flawless heroic figure.So does the character 'Captain America' appear uninteresting because he has no depth?

The film has, as I said, made the brilliant move of establishing the character as an ideal. (And the film itself makes fun of this idealised character when Steve Rogers as 'Captain America' is initially only allowed to appear as part of a stage show to advertise the purchase of war bonds).In reality, an idealised character like 'Captain America' cannot exist. But it is refreshing, for a change, to see a superhero character on screen that you can look up to; that is not anchored in human imperfection.A counterbalance to the previous heroic characters had to be created and 'Captain America' delivers this by delivering an old-fashioned 'punch up' story in the style of the 'serials' of the 30s and 40s.

Choosing Johnston as director was again a good decision by Marvel. His work, especially his journeyman piece 'The Rocketeer' shows his ability to make a film look modern against a historical backdrop without falling back on postmodern cynicism.The film bombards the audience with clichés like laser guns, exaggerated villain hiding, an overdrawn antagonist and a fearless protagonist, but without seeming dusty or completely overdrawn.Using the example of the fighting squad around 'Captain America', the 'Howling Commandos', it becomes clear through their ethnic diversity that the American hero ideal does not only rest on the shoulders of the white middle class.

It is amazing to see at how many points in the plot progression 'Captain America' could have failed. Instead, the plot moves forward like well-oiled clockwork. Marvel has struck the right balance between character development, borrowings from the comic book template (the gradual development of the 'Captain America' costume is very cleverly resolved in the film), the Marvel visual style, the director's own visual language, and tie-ins to the upcoming 'Avengers' film without the film faltering significantly.

In terms of familiar tropes, 'Captain America' bridges past and upcoming plot twists in the Marvel cinematic universe.There is still an antagonist who only strives for power. And one can't praise Hugo Weaving's performance highly enough at this point, as the 'Red Skull' is otherwise as pale as any previous Marvel villain (save for Loki). The film also repeats the trope of 'the wise scientist/mentor who must die to give the heroes the motivation to move on to the next act' And - as usual - there is a 'man (protagonist) vs. man (antagonist)' fistfight in the final act, with the antagonist again representing only a distorted image of the hero. Of course, there is also the 'noble sacrifice' of the hero, in which 'Captain America' admittedly - and in contrast to 'Iron Man' and 'Thor' also really loses something and does not just ostensibly sacrifice himself, only to emerge from it intact or repairable.

In 'Captain America', plot twists appear for the first time that will appear again and again in future Marvel movies - with the exception of 'Iron Man 3'.It is the first Marvel movie in which the protagonist has to face a whole armada of enemies instead of just going up against the antagonist. Also, this is the first Marvel movie in which the 'Ticking Time Bomb' trope is used in the fight against the antagonist.

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'Captain America - The First Avenger' is the last missing piece in the 'Avengers' puzzle. The final scene in 'Iron Man' had last shown how to elegantly draw attention to the upcoming 'Avengers' movie.Everything that followed seemed artificially added.In 'Captain America', the epilogue scene makes perfect sense, because it shows how 'Captain America' awakens from his sleep in the eternal ice in the film's prologue.The actual ending of the film is a young boy who, using a trash can lid as a shield, reenacts 'Captain America'.But the epilogue that follows was necessary to tie 'Cap' to the upcoming 'Avengers' film.

Marvel's consideration to have 'Captain America' end with a revival scene in, S.H.I.E.L.D-set, fake scenery feels a bit wrong. Moreover, the powerful intelligence organization doesn't come off particularly well, as 'Cap' immediately calls the bluff.But despite this mishap, the film hits the right bittersweet note when Steve Rogers narrowly announces at the end that he's late for his date with Peggy Carter (Haley Atwell).'Cap' was willing to give his life - and had to sacrifice at least half of it in the end.

With 'Captain America - The First Avenger', all the characters were now on the board for Marvel.The lofty plan of a film universe was already well underway. Five films had prepared the next big hit, which was to pay off (and not only in cash).

Nächster Film: The Avengers

Vorheriger Film: Thor