Terence argues they should… Paramount pictures reportedly gave international distributors of the big summer movie a choice.
Finally, only Russia, the Ukraine and South Korea opted to shorten the movies title.
Given the true history and nature of the character, however, the name change is really not necessary.
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On the surface, the reasons for concern are understandable.
Its like Betsy Ross and Edna Mode teamed up to design the outfit.
Like it or not, such an appearance of American uber-patriotism often makes the rest of the world cringe.
A closer look at Captain America and his history reveals that both reactions are a misjudgement of the character.
Thats a major misconception surrounding the creation of the character.
At that time, the American mood towards the war in Europe was predominately isolationist.
In 1940, one of those Americans was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
In the latter case, the push was not always so subtle.
Believe it or not, it was a controversial image back in the day.
Simon said in an interview years later that, The opponents to the war were all quite well organised.
We wanted to have our say too.
Captain Americawould continue to exist through many different political and social eras.
He would also continue to be an American political iconoclast for the rest of his career.
Twenty years later, the character was revived by another comic book legend, Stan Lee.
But, Ive never learned to play by todays new rules!
Ive spent a lifetime defending the flag, and the law!
Perhaps I should have battled less, and questioned more!
We dont claim to be perfect, no generation is!
All we can do is learn to live with each other, learn to love one another.
Not exactly gung-ho American conservatism, that.
It was the kind of statement that was a rarity in the 60s.
There was little or no defence of the establishment in the anti-establishment era.
Well, you dont.
or America: Love it or leave it.
A little later, in the 70s, the Watergate scandal rocked America.
The Marvel version ramped up the scandal a tad.
The Secret Empire was stopped, of course, by Captain America.
The US president, at that time, of course, was Richard M. Nixon.
The actions of the Secret Empire and their connections with the Commander-in-Chief were covered up.
By comparison to those events, the actual Watergate scandal seems like childs play.
It was definitely meant to be an allegory of Watergate.
Get it?).
More realistically, Captain America was the political iconoclast hes always been.
Cap ditched the Nomad identity after a few issues, but he made his point.
The Bush Era of the early 21st century was another politically contentious time in American history.
The Marvel Universe andCaptain America, once again, were not immune to the times.
It was also the age when Marvel launched their epic Civil War saga.
In events that mirrored the highly controversial Patriotic Act, the U.S. Government passed the Superhuman Registration Act.
The superhumans were also required to reveal their true identities and submit to government training.
But during The War on Terror era things were different.
Captain America vehemently opposed the Act and refused to register.
He argued that such legislation was an infringement of American civil liberties.
Actually, he didnt just argue.
And against his former friends and allies, like Iron Man.
Captain America, the onetime sentinel of liberty, finally went into hiding as a mall cop.
While Cap was being brought into the court house, he was shot by a sniper.
She was, of course, under the influence of the bad guys at the time.
Nonetheless, the circumstances are unmistakable.
The title of the newCaptain Americamovie shouldnt be changed.
Doing so serves only to fortify major mainstream and international misconceptions surrounding the character.
Anyone who automatically rejects Captain America because of his name and appearance should think again.
Anyone who automatically embraces Captain Americas name and appearance should also think again.
Read America: The First Avenger here.
