By Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Contributor for In Homeland Security
The movie “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” debuts at $96 billion dollars in North America and $303 million this weekend. They don’t just like any old action film. There is something about the character of this patriot hero that they can connect with in the heart and mind.
The film blew “Noah” away, making only $17 million and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Sabotage”, at $1.9 million.
The public is moving toward comic heroes with Iron Man and Captain America and the US military is stuck on the professional soldier and warrior ethos framework. Even in the scaling down and the modernization of the 21st century soldier, the perpetual politicization of the institution interferes with the noble defensive functions and liberator image.
The crowd calls for patriots with character and unfortunately, all too often what the public sees in return today is a battered mercenary military riddled with abuses. Captain America is a product of wartime in the 1940s with a creation date of March 1941. The creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby envisioned taking real events into their world from the repulsion of what Nazi Germany was doing.
The modern variant Hollywood franchise is less nationalist centric but still a strong American character is the centerpiece. The Captain America story is about the underdog given a chance. It is really the character traits that are larger than life. The superhuman strength from a laboratory injected into the hero is ironically the least the important of the story. The figure, Captain America, remained the American antithesis of the Nazis in World War II and Communism during the Cold War; and after which much of the comic characters went out of style in that media book format until they hit the screens again and came back to life; especially, within the last decade.
US military reform could take a page out of Hollywood and comic heroes that are becoming so popularly in demand and not only entice more Americans to enlist or swear in but also re-cast the organization and mission altogether. Perhaps the making of heroes is best done on the battlefield alone and letting fate and Presidents settle the matter. On the other hand, could they be inspired or manufactured?
But the creation of a super-soldier is not enough. The American people crave highborn symbols, even for war heroes. Sure, soldiers still get medals for their bravery but the ceremonial meaning has diminished in the eyes of the people. What they turn to instead are superheroes being recast in the 21st century. What better place to find them than an institution capable of finding, training and creating them?
It could be that national superheroes may actually become the symbolic celebrity champions of a nation in the future with human genetic engineering. For example, it is possible that in the near future, the promises of gene therapy might lead wounded and weaker service members to pioneer those roles in spite of the controversy.
The strong ethical obstacle gives way to special black projects and state-competition. The argument that if America fails to create super-soldiers then another country might is now given more weight against ethicists in the craving of strong and noble symbols. In the meantime, America and the world crave a real Captain America or Iron Man or War Machine.
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