As we geeks pile into the theaters – some on their first viewing, some (like me) on their third (and counting), and some hovering somewhere around 7 to 10 viewings – with the climaxes of Avengers: Endgame, I can’t help but think about some of the ebbs and flows, the valleys and peaks, the flips and flops, and the amazing consistency of some of the personalities and overall story-arcs of our favorite heroes when looking back at the giant 11-year, 22-film landscape of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Like some of us MCU diehard fans, I am one of those crazies who watched all 21 movies from Iron Man to Infinity War in preparation for Avengers: Endgame, literally finishing watching Infinity War in the late afternoon of April 25th and then going straight to the theater to catch one of the first showings of Endgame in my area. I was not disappointed by the movie at all, but some of its twists and turns really made me think, to para-turn the good ol’ cliché: “What would Jesus say?”
Starting with my favorite: Captain America/Steve Rogers
*MAJOR MCU SPOILERS WARNING!*
Good ol’ Cap (pun intended). His amazingly consistent courage and super-obstinate brand of fighting for the Marvel version of “truth, justice and the American way” can really be wrapped up in the favorite slogan of all those with a never-quit type of fighting spirit: “I can do this all day.” He really reminds me of King David, and every crazily insurmountable obstacle he goes against is his Goliath.
First in his origin story Captain America: The First Avenger, not only is Steve Rogers literally the little guy standing up to neighborhood bullies pre-serum intake, but he saves the Army’s 107th Infantry and his pal James “Bucky” Barnes from the Nazi’s merry band of octopus-inhuman worshippers, Hydra, during World War II. Then in The Avengers, Rogers is the first person dispatched to fight Loki, Asgard’s “god of mischief,” who is Hella-bent on taking over the world with Thanos’s Chitauri. In Cap’s first time fighting someone after being frozen for decades, he not only jumps head-first into his first-ever onscreen fight with an alien without hesitation, but also hops out of the retrieval plane to take him on again – after almost getting beat the first time – without the slightest concern for his safety even as another “new,” “god-like” combatant, Thor, swoops in. Later, when Cap and the newly assembled MCU Avengers take on an entire other-worldly army, Cap jumps into the biggest fight of his life (at that point), even alone at some points, without hesitation.
Fast forward through fighting a small army of robots in Avengers: Age of Ultron (and also fighting Ultron by himself at points), standing up for true freedom and taking down Hydra despite having to fight his newly discovered not-dead best friend Captain America: The Winter Solder even though he didn’t want to (and literally turning the other cheek!), sticking up for that same, still-brainwashed best friend Bucky Barnes even against his new friend and team co-lead Iron Man in Captain America: Civil War, running into battle against alien war dogs, their generals and later the Mad Titan Thanos himself on the battlefield of Wakanda in Infinity War…phew! Add all that up and throw in a quick but AMAZING solo-bout of a Round 2 vs. Thanos in Endgame with Mjolnir + his shield re-gifted by Tony Stark and, by the end, it should be easy to see that Captain America definitely earned that special dance with that special lady.
In always standing up for what is right Steve Rogers, man out of time that he is, to me, illustrates perfectly Romans 12: 1-2 “I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Captain Rogers not only figuratively but literally and stalwartly stands up for all those who are on the frontlines, all those on planet Earth, and all life in the universe, without so much as one flinch regarding the insurmountable odds he’s facing. The proverbial, or rather “Samuelian,” David vs. Goliath. In many ways like the United States in many of its wars of antiquity, Steve Rogers parallels America’s tenacity.
Cap’s swan dive into the ice in his origin movie was the first sacrifice (chronologically in the MCU) any Avenger had ever done for others within the MCU. His stances against Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. (but really Hydra’s) Project Insight, coupled with not allowing others with bogus political agendas control him and/or the Avengers by standing up against his friends and not signing the Sokovia Accords, both show that he does not conform to the age. Cap didn’t conform to the age no matter how enticing Fury made “holding a gun to everyone on the planet” for safety reasons sounded to the S.H.I.E.L.D. top brass.
No matter how much everyone thought his best friend Bucky was to blame for Zemo’s bombing of the United Nations building, Captain America, as the comic version of Sharon Carter’s speech goes, did his job right by “planting himself like a tree beside the river of truth” and telling the world “No, you move.”
The scene/screenshot in Endgame that most illustrates Cap’s virtue of fortitude (for me) is when after using his new favorite weapons combo and still getting knocked down by a Thanos 1v1, Cap gets up with his busted shield, grits his teeth/grunts as he tightens his shield strap, gets back up on his feet and walks toward Thanos. Even with Thanos’s army’s full might forming up around him with new and old baddies all forming ranks and Cap’s other “big 3” companions Iron Man and Thor still down, even then on his own, with hope all but lost…Steve Rogers makes a stand all by himself, ready to give it his all until his last breath.
Rogers being a soldier in that final stand against all odds, willing to fight to the gritty end…THAT, my dear fellow geeks, illustrates “willing to lay down one’s life for your friends,” as our Lord Jesus would say. “Whatever it takes” indeed, Cap.
And if Rogers would not have made it at the end of Endgame, I still would have rested easy with my favorite character dying, because though I wouldn’t outwardly canonize him if I were in the MCU, I believe that because Captain Rogers lived an amazingly virtuous life of self-sacrifice and bravery within the MCU, he would have been able to see, in-person, the answer to my favorite unasked question of his once he got to heaven: Surely God doesn’t dress like Loki since “There’s only one God, ma’am, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.” Well, maybe he’d find out after God forgives him for using some “language” and some slight vanity about his glutes in this movie.
Yes, “it’s been a long, long” ride these last eleven years but Steve and Peggy finally got their well-deserved happy ending. How much do you want to bet Steve whispered in her ear at one point during the dance, “…I can do this all day…”?
Here’s to hoping we all get our respective versions of the same. Godspeed!
Roman T. Flores
Roman T. Flores is a freelance writer/reporter for the Catholic Diocese of San Diego's official newspaper, The Southern Cross, as well as a freelance music minister within the Diocese for 15 years. He is a former Entertainment reporter for the Imperial Valley Press, with his articles having also appeared in Valley Women Magazine, EWTN affiliate St. John Paul II Catholic Radio's website and assorted sports blogs. Roman strives to be an active member of an assortment of other ministries including the Knights of Columbus, El Carmelo Retreat House, SCRC Annual Conventions, and ecumenical internationally traveling music missionaries Jon Stemkoski's Celebrant Singers.