JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Captain America became one of the most popular superheroes during World War II. But after the war, his writers faced a question. What does a patriotic super soldier engineered by the U.S. government do now? Devin Katayama with NPR's history podcast, Throughline, brings us the story of Captain America's identity crisis.
DEVIN KATAYAMA, BYLINE: Like all superheroes, Captain America has an origin story. And his goes like this.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KATAYAMA: This scrawny guy named Steve Rogers is too weak to volunteer for the Army, but he's got grit. So when the U.S. government asks him to be part of an experiment, he doesn't hesitate.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As Dr. Abraham Erskine) Don't be afraid, son. You're about to become one of America's saviors.
KATAYAMA: They inject him with a serum to give him super strength. And?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As Dr. Abraham Erskine) There, it is done. We shall call you Captain America.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KATAYAMA: During World War II, Captain America fought Nazi saboteurs and Japanese soldiers.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As Captain America) Come on out, you skunk.
KATAYAMA: He epitomized American power and identity, wearing a red, white and blue costume that looked like a reimagined American flag.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As Captain America) Justice will always triumph.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KATAYAMA: But after World War II, when the U.S. emerged as a global superpower, Captain America didn't have a clear enemy.
DANNY FINGEROTH: Captain America without a big war that the country is involved in almost becomes directionless.
KATAYAMA: This is Danny Fingeroth, who wrote the book...
FINGEROTH: "A Marvelous Life: The Amazing Story Of Stan Lee."
KATAYAMA: Stan Lee is one of the most well-known comic book writers in history. But at this time, he struggled to find an enemy worthy enough for Captain America. And Cap disappeared from comic books in the 1950s.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KATAYAMA: But then 10 years later, in 1964, Stan Lee brings Captain America back.
FINGEROTH: Stan somehow made this appearance of Captain America the most important event of my life. I bought three copies. That's right, I invested 36 cents.
KATAYAMA: But all of a sudden, this American war hero was in the middle of the civil rights movement, the women's rights movement. A war in Vietnam was going on. So where does Captain America fit into all this?
FINGEROTH: Cap became this, like, Hamlet kind of character, just always with his hand stapled to his forehead in grief and anguish.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As Captain America) I don't belong in this age, in this year. No place for me.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KATAYAMA: By the late '60s, Marvel was also printing letters from fans inside the comic books where they would debate who Captain America should be and what he should stand for.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As letter writer #1) His roots belong in the past, not now.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As letter writer #2) No one but a dreamer can think the world is safe and peaceful.
KATAYAMA: It became known as the patriotism-centered controversy.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As letter writer #3) Captain America is not a superhero. He's a super American.
FINGEROTH: Stan saw things were changing, and he also saw that his audience was changing. So it was a big problem for somebody in entertainment like that. You know, if you take a stand on an issue, you potentially lose half your audience.
KATAYAMA: So Stan Lee tried to play it safe. But there was a lot of pressure for Captain America to be something more than a relic of World War II, which is what happened when the next generation of Captain America writers took over.
STEVE ENGLEHART: I always wanted a secret room like Batman had, you know, where you'd go through the grandfather clock and go into the cave or whatever.
KATAYAMA: This is comic book writer Steve Englehart. I met up with him at his home in Oakland, California.
ENGLEHART: And so...
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR CREAKING)
ENGLEHART: ...We built this.
KATAYAMA: It's a bookcase that's a secret door.
Englehart wrote Captain America comics for Marvel in the 1970s after becoming a conscientious objector during the war in Vietnam. So here's this antiwar writer in charge of writing for a war hero. And Englehart begins to wonder if maybe where the writers before him went wrong was trying to equate Captain America with the American government or military. Instead, Steve thought...
ENGLEHART: What if he stood for American ideals, the stuff that transcends whatever America's doing at this particular time?
KATAYAMA: And then...
ENGLEHART: They caught the Watergate burglars breaking into the Watergate Hotel to burgle the Democrats.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
SUSAN STAMBERG: The incident raises a number of serious questions about the credibility of politicians and political groups.
KATAYAMA: Englehart was hooked on this story, as was most of America. And he asked himself...
ENGLEHART: If I were Captain America, what would I do?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As narrator) The Secret Empire.
KATAYAMA: Steve writes a story that parodies the scandal.
ENGLEHART: So I recast stuff. Nixon's right-hand man was Haldeman, who had been an advertising guy. And I came up with a character called Harderman, who was an advertising guy. And Nixon's reelection committee was the Committee to Re-elect the President, which was known as CREEP. And I came up with the Committee to Regain America's Principles, which is known as CRAP.
KATAYAMA: And he doesn't say it explicitly in the comic, but the head of the Secret Empire is basically Richard Nixon.
ENGLEHART: Nobody is in doubt, really, who that's supposed to be. Captain America one day discovered that there were ads being run by the Committee to Regain America's Principles saying that Captain America was a vigilante not to be trusted. Then Captain America got thrown in jail.
KATAYAMA: But he breaks out of jail and chases the head of the Secret Empire...
ENGLEHART: Into the White House, into the Oval Office.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As Captain America) All right, mister, end of the line.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #7: (As character) It appears that my gamble has finally failed.
KATAYAMA: Captain America wins, of course. But he's also broken.
ENGLEHART: So to have that guy find out that the president was a crook, I saw the possibilities of that guy being disillusioned.
KATAYAMA: And Steve Rogers stops being Captain America and instead becomes a superhero called Nomad.
ENGLEHART: He doesn't want to stand for the America that he just saw.
KATAYAMA: Less than a year later, Steve Rogers went back to being Captain America. But Englehart had forever changed the idea of what patriotism could mean to Captain America, that he could love his country and also not love what his government was doing.
ENGLEHART: He could stand for ideals even if the president was a crook.
KATAYAMA: Captain America's gone through many iterations since then. And they all say something about what America should stand for, who we want to be and how hard it is to serve one national identity. They all ask us, if we were Captain America, what would we do?
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SUMMERS: That was Devin Katayama with NPR's Throughline podcast. To listen to the complete story, check out Throughline wherever you get your podcasts.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.