Conjecture: Captain America movie will underperform outside North America

[B.Serum]

@Lobot

I guess what I’m getting at is that you can tweak Superman, say, to have greater international appeal. There’s nothing explicitly American about Superman. But no matter how you tweak Captain America, he’s still a guy called Captain America who’s draped in the flag. It kind of limits how universal he can be.

The symbolism of the character is essentially making the statement “This is what America stands for”, i.e. the noble fight for justice and equality. Most adults outside the U.S. don’t buy into that idea, what with the U.S.'s foreign policy history. The gulf between what America supposedly stands for and what is done in practice shows a stunning lack of self-awareness in some people’s eyes. This is why, even if the character were to be someone foreigners could, in principle, support, he is meant to symbolise America itself, and it’s the disconnect between the lauded ideal and the reality that causes people’s heads to explode.

I see where you’re coming from. Do you think people’s attitude towards America’s policies during WWII are the same as their attitude towards America’s policies during, say the Bush era?

[Lobot]

No, I don’t. But even if the film is set in WWII, it’s being made and released now, and that’s the catch.

[Lobot]

For example, I don’t think Superman fighting for “the American way” with the flag flying behind him in the George Reeves series induced any eye-rolling in Australian audiences back then. Try that today and you’d elicit a very different reaction.

[Grumman]

@Lobot

For example, I don’t think Superman fighting for “the American way” with the flag flying behind him in the George Reeve’s series induced any eye-rolling in Australian audiences back then. Try that today and you’d elicit a very different reaction.

Would that be because of the “Modern” setting? I mean, if we can get behind Vasily Zaytsev, Hero of the Soviet Union, I’m sure we can do the same for Captain America.

[Isamu]

I’m Australian and Captain America was one of my favourite cartoons when I was growing up in the 70’s.

I might watch a CA movie, but if it was a toss up between Green Lantern and CP, I’d pick GL, just because I think it’s a better story, not because overt patriotism turns me off (although it does a bit).

[Lobot]

@Grumman

Would that be because of the “Modern” setting? I mean, if we can get behind Vasily Zaytsev, Hero of the Soviet Union, I’m sure we can do the same for Captain America.

Perhaps. I’m not sure. I’m a sucker for the sort of naive idealism of the American iconography of the first-half of the 20th century, and I suspect others respond better to it as well, but I’m not sure. Maybe it’s more tone than setting–idealism rather than brashness?

ETA: No, I think setting does play a part. People are more sympathetic to a nostalgic look at ideals that didn’t get fully realised vs. a country that still believes its myth despite the last 50 years.