Why is Captain America Apologizing to Me?

I've written before that I've long felt a strong connection to Marvel comics, especially to the X-Men and to Captain America. I tried to grow up to be tough as Wolverine, funny and spry as Nightcrawler, and as silently strong as Colossus. I really, really did used to look like James "Bucky" Barnes when I was 12, especially since that was during the denim jacket era, and I really did once act as sidekick to a scholar who was and remains a huge fan of Captain America.

So, humor me a bit as I continue my childhood desire to feel like these characters were meant to speak to me when I share this image with you:

Why is Steve Rogers apologizing to me, and why does it cause me emotion as I consider the words? First, I'll give you some options for answering the former query:

1. He's apologizing for not being able to avenge Bucky Barnes' (second) death, if not for not being able to save him.

2. He knows I've been buying the last year's worth of Avengers even though it's been nothing but talking heads a la Bendis at $4 a pop.

3. This:

If it is true that Captain America is a zeitgeist figure for our country at any given time, I have to feel that he's apologizing to me, and that if you go buy your own copy of Avengers # 16, he'll be offering you an apology too.

He's saying he's sorry for the selfishness of so many of the Baby Boomers and their ingenues. He's apologizing for the Hippies who became Yuppies who have been thinking they have all the answers and have never been wrong about anything since they've been 16 years old.

He's apologizing for the stupidity of our falling for the bipartisan traps that have been put before us and for the country's leadership slowly moving away from Democracy toward a cold Capitalism that cares little for government beyond economy.

He's offering condolences for the terrible job market and for the death or perversion of the American Dream.

And you know what? If that's what he's offering, I'll take it. Who else who supposedly embodies the spirit of America has the gumption to offer apologies without blaming an "other side?"

I suggest you take it too, because you're not gonna get it from a greater American that Steve Rogers, and it's just a crying shame that he doesn't really exist.

But, if he's willing to take some responsibility, I should too, eh? Maybe he's apologizing to help me wake up and try to do more to make a difference. Or maybe he's apologizing because he knows I'll think that, and things are so bad that making a difference can't even make a dent anymore.

Anyway, if you'be been as disappointed with leadership as I have been for the last 12-16 years or so, please feel free to join me in thinking that Captain America speaks to us directly.

The Captain America to my Bucky Publishes *Howard Chakin: Conversations*

One of the most satisfying aspects of being in academia is seeing your friends and colleagues do well. Brannon Costello, who edited Howard Chaykin: Conversations (UP Mississippi), is one fellow I can call both friend and colleague.

I worked with Brannon in a teaching capacity when we were both students at the University of Tennessee, where he was earning his Ph.D. and I was working on a MA. I was his teaching assistant for a semester, and our love of comics was something we shared often. I soon came to see myself as the Bucky to his Captain America, especially since Steve Rogers was Brannon's favorite character.

I can remember Brannon talking about patriotic comics with and Mark Bernard, a fellow MA-er, and me back in the early aughts and mentioning his admiration for Chaykin, specifically. The three of us were even putting together an edited collection on patriot-themed comics at one time, but it never got off the ground. We did, however, take an historic road trip from Knoxville,TN, to Jacksonville, FL, to present scholarship on Captain America, and it was during those hours that we really got to know each other's deeper ideas on comics, culture, and more.

Looking back, now that all three of us have Ph.D's and are gainfully employed and publishing in our areas of passion, I see that that travel time was very productive. Good thing we stopped for breakfast so early in the morning so we had some brain food! ;)

Still, knowing these seeds exist and seeing folks follow through on them and have success in doing so is highly gratifying. As gratifying as seeing one's students do well, I think.

I don't know what I'm more excited about, though, this collection or the collection on comics and the South on which Dr. Costello is also working.

Looks like we'll just have to check out both!