The Big Picture: Who's Afraid of Captain America?

[unacomn]

I'd love to see a movie about a symbolic national super-hero fighting the good fight. Unfortunately my nation's identity has been slowly striped away over the past 20 years, leaving a miserable, depressing shell ripe for the plucking.
We used to have them in the old days, which is sad, since the old days were under an oppressive dictatorship, not the "democracy" we have now.
Another "Seven Horses's Highwaymen" movie would rock. The title sounds bizarre in English, but it makes sense.

 

[Nvv]

Scandinavia could have some sort of Norse god as a hero. Like maybe Thor. Wait...

Damn the americans for ruining (parts of) our mythology! Especially the god I am named after!

Other than that, Odin is pretty badass. All-knowing King of the Gods? Yes please.

 

[mythil]

Cap' has always been an interesting character. From whatever side you look at him it's always interesting. I really like the idea that he was a typical army jar head who didn't see the politics and different sides of every situation until he was dropped right into it so over time he becomes more of a "Have to pick the lessor of two evils" until he finally quits because I can't do certain things in the name of "America" any more. There are far more boring super heroes out there, Superman for example, everything he does is always "Good" and there is not explanation as to why, at least Cap' starts to try and moralise the things he does over time. Superman was an interesting idea as he's the ultimate immigrant who becomes the champion of a country made up of immigrants and yet he's dull, by the by boring with no opinions what soever.

 

[tautologico]

Oh yeah, Brazil is full of electric ape-men.

 

[Dody16]

Bob, your idea for world peace is the premise for Mobile Fighter G Gundam (more or less), and that was a terrible show (as far as gundam shows go, anyway).

Although, I guess that doesn't mean it wouldn't work?

 

[Varya]

Hmmm, I notice you forget to mention when Captain America rebelled against the American Government and started a civil war because he felt that the government was becoming a totalitarian state that was infringing on the freedoms of the people.

He stands for America, not it's government.

.

I can't imagine this working for my country (Sweden) for a bunch of reasons
For one, the Swedish flag looks ridiculous enough on a pole, on a superhero suit it would be horrid.
Also, we Swedes aren't much for bragging or patriotism, so it's not really in our nature.
3rd, we recently had a nationalistic party voted in to parliament, and are very touchy about anyone proclaiming to fight "for the Swedish way of life" or anything like that, so anyone trying to make "Capitan Sweden" would probably be viewed as a semi-Nazi right now.

However, a hero embracing the Swedish way of life would probably be called "Lagom-mannen" (The man who is not to much, nor to little) and would in a non-confrontational way, explain why crime does not pay, then carefully rehabilitate criminals in to society

Sweden's flag looks fine. I see it on shirts all the time in one comic I read. I can understand your fear of a 'Nazi' hero, and heck it would be interesting to see a hero that talks first and tries to work with criminals to realise the errors of their ways instead of just punching them in the face and saying 'Done.' Heck, it would be interesting to see him follow up on the guys he couldn't talk to on the street while they're in jail. A hero that idealizes and strives for a day when he won't be needed and actively takes steps to try and reach there. Make him an average-joe with no powers or gadgets, just his ideals and some skill, and you'd have an interesting 'real world hero' setting right there. So let's see "Lagom-mannen", I'm actually interested in reading his adventures even though we just made him up.

You know, if you check the post earlier about Bamse, he fit's right in to that. He is Strong, but he hates to fight, and his arch-nemesis from the early years, Vargen (The wolf), is now a "good guy" and he has a blue costume with yellow buttons (Swedish flag).

 

[MasterSplinter]

soooo, you'd like other countrys to rejoice in their patriotism and individuality by copying what you've done with a different name and costume?

I know you guys are lazy but just learn the freaken rules of football (not soccer, foot ball) enough to understand whats going on, you don't have to like it and certainly everyone that watches football doesn't necessarily play anything close to good, as it happens with every other sport ever.

Also don't there already are like a few dozen sports where strong men duke it out for the world title?, like boxing for example?

 

[Jesus Phish]

I can't think of any Irish superheros.

Perhaps though, the reason superheros are so popular in America, is because America is a young nation. We might not have Irish superheros, but we have legends and tales, such as Cuchulain from our Celtic routes.

 

[qbanknight]

A superhuman battle royale to resolve international disputes has been my dream ever since I started studying international law in law school. Sigh, we would easily resolve all these nasty dealings with treaties, custom, and international principles of law; just get the biggest, baddest, weirdest fighter and knock the shit out of each other

 

[Subzerowings]

Damnit Bob, Van Damme does count!
Perhaps we'll just ressurect John Massis and have him pull trains with his teeth!
/end useless rant

It's kind of odd how you went from Captain America to international celebrity deathmatches.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

MovieBob wants other nationality's patriotic heroes etc.

He's not really an Australian creation, but fuck it, you work with what they give you.

http://i34.tinypic.com/orj9kk.jpg

Eh? I hear the tickets being preemptively bought already!

 

[Curtisthekiller]

To be Honest your idea has already been done bob. Leage of legends; Clash of fates promotes peace with 5V5 contests of combat and skill. and quite frankly it would be more interesting than anything that the united nations could come up with.

 

[Styphax]

I guess you could argue that Judge Dredd and Dr. Who are England/Britain's superheroes.

 

[duedmen]

Like you touched upon, people usually think of Americans as fat assholes and see Captain America as some sort of bragging. But isn't James Bond sort of like English bragging? Not sure if I understand my point, but whatever.

Also I'm afraid I'm not going to believe Chris Evans as Captain America. Sometimes I forget his name all together and call him Johnny Storm or Human Torch.

Duh. His name is Lucas Lee.

>.> I thought he was lucas wilson <.<

 

[warfjm]

I'm in agreement with the folks that complained about the excessive use of all those faces. They have got to go. I couldn't really focus on what you were actually saying.

The use of those faces seems like lazy editing, almost like he has 2 videos to edit up in 1 week....... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............

Seriously though, lose the faces. It IS lazy editing.

 

[Ashoten]

I thought for sure you were gonna mention Robot Jocks but Street fighter was a better choice. Although I'm pretty sure if there were any electric feral monkeys in the world we'd have see them in a Vegas act by now. Also why is America the bad guy by virtue of being the biggest kid in the room? Not like any other country can boast a good foreign policy record.

P.S. Keep the faces just because they creep people out

 

[Danik93]

I can't imagine this working for my country (Sweden) for a bunch of reasons
For one, the Swedish flag looks ridiculous enough on a pole, on a superhero suit it would be horrid.
Also, we Swedes aren't much for bragging or patriotism, so it's not really in our nature.
3rd, we recently had a nationalistic party voted in to parliament, and are very touchy about anyone proclaiming to fight "for the Swedish way of life" or anything like that, so anyone trying to make "Capitan Sweden" would probably be viewed as a semi-Nazi right now.

However, a hero embracing the Swedish way of life would probably be called "Lagom-mannen" (The man who is not to much, nor to little) and would in a non-confrontational way, explain why crime does not pay, then carefully rehabilitate criminals in to society

You know, being from Sweden too, the only real swedish superhero I could think of was:

Spoiler

Yes, Bamse. For you who don't know( and I'm guessing that's a lot of you):
Bamse is a swedish cartoon bear created for TV who gets super-human(super-bear?) strength by drinking honey, using his powers to help others. And he has a comic, too!

Seriously, who needs another swedish superhero? We got Bamse. ;]

Bamse is so awesome! no one can kick his ass!

 

[omegawyrm]

Hey Bob, I don't know if you know this or someone already mentioned it, but that idea you mentioned about a grand tournament between each country as an alternative to national conflict? That's the plot of a totally awesome anime called Mobile Fighter G Gundam, except it's got martial artists piloting giant robots instead of fist-fighting. It's got tounge-in-cheek racial caricatures of most major countries and is totally awesome.

 

[Danny Ocean]

Japan has superheroes in spades

The difference is that Japanese culture isn't projected so strongly around the world, so no-one hears about them.