Captain America Movieverse

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The Captain America Movieverse is a live-action film series based on the comic book series of the same name, taking place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The main character is Steve Rogers, the alter-ego of the superhero Captain America. Recurring characters in the franchise include Bucky Barnes, Natasha Romanoff, Peggy Carter and Sam Wilson.

captain america by yangngi, showcasing characters from The First Avenger and The Winter Soldier
Fandom
Name: Captain America Movieverse
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Captain America: Civil War
Abbreviation(s): CA, CA1, CA2, CA3, CATWS, CAWS, CACW
Creator: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (screenplays); Kevin Feige (producer);
Joe Johnston (CA1 director); Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (CA2 and CA3 directors)
Date(s): July 2011 - Captain America: The First Avenger first released
May 2012 - The Avengers released worldwide
April 4, 2014 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier released
April 27, 2016 - Captain America: Civil War released
Medium: Films
Country of Origin:
External Links: The First Avenger @ Wikipedia

The Winter Soldier @ Wikipedia

Civil War @Wikipedia


Click here for related articles on Fanlore.
See also: MCU, The Avengers Movieverse, Iron Man Movieverse, The Incredible Hulk, Thor Movieverse, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Ant-Man and the Wasp Movieverse, Captain Marvel (film) for more information.

Canon

In July 2011, Marvel released the movie, Captain America: The First Avenger, starring Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America, Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Phillips, Hugo Weavin as the Red Skull, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark, Neal McDonough as Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan, Derek Luke as Gabe Jones, Kenneth Choi as Jim Morita, Bruno Ricci as Jacques Dernier, JJ Feild as James Montgomery Falsworth and Stanley Tucci as Abraham Erskine. It shows how Steve Rogers becomes Captain America, and his role in the war effort and trying to stop the Red Skull.

However this was not the first time Captain America was shown to be character in the MCU, a version of Captain America's trademark shield can be seen in the Iron Man movie in 2008 on Tony Stark's workbench. It appears again in Iron Man 2 (2010) being held by Phil Coulson. [1] When Thor's film (2011) came out it was revealed in the post-credits at a connection with the Captain via the Tesseract.

In The Avengers films (2012), Captain America was once again played by Chris Evans. It shows Steve taking up the Captain mantle again after being frozen for years, joining with the other "Avengers" (Bruce, Tony, Natasha, Clint, and Thor) against Loki and the threat he poses to the world.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the sequel to both the Avengers and first Captain movie, was released in April 2014. It stars Chris Evans as Captain America, Scarlett Johansson (playing Black Widow), Sebastian Stan (playing Bucky/Winter Soldier), Samuel L. Jackson (playing Nick Fury), Cobie Smulders (playing Maria Hill), Emily VanCamp (playing Agent 13/Sharon Carter), and Anthony Mackie (playing Sam Wilson/Falcon). The characters Peggy Carter and Jasper Sitwell also returned for the film.

Captain America: Civil War, is the second sequel and takes place after the second Avengers and second Captain movie, was released in May 2016. Several of the characters and stars of the first two Captain America films returned: Steve, Bucky, Sam, Natasha, Brock/Crossbones, Howard, Wanda and Sharon. Several characters (and the stars that portrayed them) from the MCU films also appeared: Tony Stark/Iron Man (IMM & TAM), Vision (AOU), Thaddeus Ross (IH), James Rhodes/War Machine (IMM & AOU), Clint Barton (Thor & TAM), Scott Lang/Ant-Man (AM), and F.R.I.D.A.Y. (AOU). New characters introduced includes: Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa (Black Panther), Daniel Brühl as Helmut Zemo, Tom Holland as Peter Parker (Spider-Man), Marisa Tomei appears as May Parker and Hope Davis appears as Maria Stark (although mentioned multiple times, this is the first onscreen appearance of Maria).

Fandom

Even before the release of the Captain America: The First Avenger film, Steve Rogers occasionally made appearances in fanfic labeled "movieverse" (either a specific one, e.g. Iron Man, or just generally, i.e. Marvel Cinematic Universe). These fics tended to have Steve as a secondary character to a character who has had a film come out, and are usually only "movieverse" in the sense that they contain a few minor concepts unique to movieverse continuity.

After The First Avenger was released, the fandom grew but still remained fairly small, with less than 1,000 works on AO3 before the release of The Avengers in 2012.[2] But at that point, the Captain America fandom grew significantly in conjunction with the explosion of the Avengers fandom overall. On AO3, works tagged with "Captain America (Movies)" went from less than 1,000 to over 4,000,[3] and there were over 15,000 works posted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe parent tag that had Steve Rogers as a character.[4]

The release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier produced the greatest surge in Captain America-specific fanworks and excitement to-date. In less than two months the use of the "Captain America (Movies)" tag doubled on AO3, going from approximately 4,000 works to over 7,300.[5]

Controversies

Spoiler Warning: This article or section may contain spoilers. If this bothers you, proceed with caution.

After the release of The Winter Soldier several fandom controversies arose around race and racism in fandom.

IBelieveInSitwell

In The Winter Soldier, SHIELD agent Jasper Sitwell, who had previously appeared Thor, The Avengers, and on Agents of SHIELD, was killed after it was revealed that he was secretly a member of Hydra. While Sitwell was blonde haired and blue eyed in the comics, he was played by Latino actor Maximiliano Hernández and was the only Latino recurring character in the MCU. The decision to make him Hydra and kill him off received significant criticism, as did the significantly lower fandom interest in rallying to save Sitwell versus the rallying to save Phil Coulson after he was killed off in The Avengers:

IBelieveInSitwell, by nnmpsn
Let's take a look at the trajectory of the two main SHIELD agents we see as background characters throughout the MCU: Coulson and Sitwell. Now, I love Clark Gregg as Coulson, and I think he deserves his central role in Agents of SHIELD. But CATWS basically tells us that out of two recurring characters who were given similar incidental roles in the franchise, the white guy was pushed to have a well-developed storyline and a huge fanbase, while the Latino character's most significant contribution was to become an inexplicable supervillain minion, and then a corpse. --Hello, Tailor[6]

Marvel’s decision to muddy the metaphor of HYDRA as Nazi stand-ins gets more horrifying when you realize that by using Sitwell (who was formerly blond and blue-eyed in the comics and now a Latino) it makes no sense for Sitwell to have gone to HYDRA knowing what they were about. That’s what the #ibelieveinSitwell movement is about, bringing back a great character who was clearly killed off too early. . . If you care at all about this disgusting tendency by Hollywood to use poc as low level criminals and targets for abuse then you’ll take action and point out to Marvel and Agents of SHIELD that Jasper Sitwell’s storyline cannot be over yet. --FandomsHatePOC[7]

Sitwell fans use the hashtag #ibelieveinsitwell on Twitter to call for a resurrection plot, and Hernández himself retweeted some of the entries.

Sam Wilson is Hydra Controversy

MCU BNF scifigrl47 posted a meta on tumblr (which has since been taken down) arguing that the movieverse needed to start integrating its characters better, addressing where the other Avengers were in the solo movies (for example, mentioning that Thor was in Asgard and so unavailable to help during The Winter Soldier). As a part of that meta, she postulated that Sam Wilson could have been a Hydra agent, and that it would have made more sense for Steve to trust Tony Stark. Many other fans immediately called out the post as an example of the racism typical of fandom in general and Stony fans in particular:

So Tony could’ve been Hydra, but Sam couldn’t have been?

How many black Nazis have you heard of. Sitwell nonsense aside, that’s reaching. --kehinki[8]

Someone going to point out how this is built on the idea that the black character is some how unfit to be that close to Steve without some ulterior motive? Somehow that can make the MCU more connected? Somehow its more logical for him to be Hydra than Tony (I don’t think either is really logical, personally, but I know why people are likely to throw Sam out, and I know why this relates to people mad that Tony wasn’t in Captain America 2).

I have noticed that, no matter the fandom, the black character is always collateral damage in these conversations. --phoenix-ace[9]

You can make your argument for your character without vilifying characters of color. It is entirely possible to argue for more mention of the Avengers and Stark not being Hydra without ever needing to bring Sam into this. You could’ve said, “Hey, maybe Sharon was a Hydra spy. After all, she was stationed to be Steve’s guard, and we didn’t know anything about her.” Or you could’ve said, “It’s more believable that Natasha could be Hydra since that was a plot point in the movie.” Or you could’ve said, “I’d believe it more if Clint was Hydra than Tony since he’s done so much work for SHIELD and Nick Fury, he’s definitely a more viable candidate.”

The fact that Sam was brought into this as an example of a possible Hydra spy, as an untrustworthy character, is what tipped this from a discussion about coherent universes to “goddamn, fandom, you are racist as shit” meta because you couldn’t even defend your white favorite without automatically throwing suspicion onto the black male character who practically has a hallelujah choir playing whenever he’s onscreen. You didn’t even think about the consequences of claiming that a black man could join a Nazi-ish organization, you just threw his name in there so that people would stop saying that Tony could be Hydra. --Dammit MCU[10]

That was not a ship war that went down. Someone (you know who you are), out of nowhere, decided to posit the idea that Sam could be a HYDRA agent, right when his popularity in the fandom was going friggin’ exponential. . . People like me saw what was going on. We knew what was happening and why these people just needed Sam Wilson to be untrustworthy. We’d seen the same towards Rhodey post-IM2 and we didn’t have to connect any dots to figure out what was really going on. . . So we called people on their bullshit, threw their racism in their faces and defended the fuck out of Sam Wilson.

But no, all some people saw was a “ship war,” two ships playing Tug of War over Steve Rogers.

That was not about wanting to see Steve and Sam bumping their dicks together all night, but about stopping the erasure of yet another person of color in the Marvel fandom and preventing lies and false characterizations from turning into accepted fanon. --Not Applicable[11]

Captain America: Civil War

Team Iron Man/Team Cap discourse, also with AO3 tags such as Not Civil War Team Captain America Friendly and Not Civil War Team Iron Man Friendly

Shipping

For a long time, Steve/Tony was the largest pairing in the fandom, even though before the release of The Avengers the two characters had never met in the MCU. After the release of The First Avenger, Bucky/Steve became the second-most popular pairing, while Howard/Steve and Peggy/Steve grew to significant minor pairings.[12]

After the release of The Avengers, Steve/Tony remained the largest ship due to their antagonistic relationship on screen,[13] and spawning many Steve/Tony-specific communities. Bucky/Steve and Peggy/Steve remained small pairings while Howard/Steve declined in popularity,[14] and a number of new Avengers-specific or crossover pairings appeared. The crossover pairing of Darcy/Steve became the most popular het pairing in the fandom and Natasha/Steve and Loki/Steve both became mid-sized pairings, as did Bucky/Natasha based on their relationship in the comics and the announcement that Natasha would appear in The Winter Soldier.[15] Minor pairings included Phil/Steve, Bruce/Steve, Maria/Steve, and Clint/Steve.[16] There was even some fandom interest in pairing Steve with a waitress named Beth whose life he saved in the climactic battle sequence and who appeared in a deleted scene.[17]

The release of The Winter Soldier created an enormous spike in interest in Bucky/Steve, causing it to overtake Steve/Tony as the largest ship in the Captain America fandom by 2014.[18] As of 2016, Bucky/Steve is now the largest ship in the MCU overall.[19] The crossover and Avengers-based pairings all dipped significantly, and there was a rise in the popularity of both Peggy/Steve and Natasha/Steve.[20] A new ship, Sam/Steve, also appeared and quickly acquired a significant fanbase.[21] There was some interest in Sharon/Steve just before the movie's release based on the announcement of her appearance and their relationship in the comics, but the movie failed to deliver on much ship-potential, so it didn't gain traction.[22] A small crack ship was born in Clint/Sam, despite the lack of Clint Barton in any Captain America movie, based almost entirely on both characters having bird code names.

Also after the release of The Winter Soldier, a spike of interest in Brock Rumlow (known as Crossbones in the comics) also appeared, usually paired him with Bucky, Steve or his colleague, Agent Jack Rollins, however the pairings Bucky/Brock, Steve/Brock and Brock/Jack are quite rare overall in the fandom[23].

Fanwork

Fics

An epic (and epic length) post-Winter Soldier recovery story that deals painfully with the realistic after-effects of seventy years' worth of intense trauma while treating Steve and Bucky like humans. It's also something of a love-letter to Betty Ross (of The Incredible Hulk) and Sam Wilson.

...And its follow-up series, which is rapidly approaching the original's word-count (not to daunt anyone). A series of shorts in Steve and Bucky's lives spanning from before the War to after the end of your blue-eyed boys. Contains kittens, fierce thirteen year old traceuses, angry ex-girlfriends, and nightmarishly realistic examinations of PTSD and complex trauma. A life can contain much that is good and sweet as well as much that is awful, and these stories of Feather's do exactly that.

Arts

Vids

Meta

Captain America: The First Avenger:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier:

Captain America: Civil War:

Art Gallery

  • S. Rogers by Archymedius

    S. Rogers by Archymedius

  • "illustration of Bucky holding a dying Captain America across his lap, Iron Man sits in front holding Captain America's arm and kissing his hand"

    Captain America - Civil War by maXKennedy, this piece was created a few months before the release of the Civil War film, and predicted a much darker end. It is also most likely inspired by the Pietà commonly found in Christian art

  • The Three Caps by artgroves, created for the fic series 4 Minute Window

    The Three Caps by artgroves, created for the fic series 4 Minute Window

Published Commentary/Further Reading

Archives and Communities

Archives

Challenges

Resources

References

  1. ^ Easter Egg #1: Captain America’s Shield In Iron Man
  2. ^ 755 works posted to AO3 in the "Captain America (Movies)" tag before May 2012.
  3. ^ 4,157 works posted to AO3 in the "Captain America (Movies)" tag before the April 2014 release of The Winter Soldier.
  4. ^ 15,714 works posted to AO3 in the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" tag with the "Steve Rogers" character tag between May 2012 and April 2014.
  5. ^ 7,343 works posted to AO3 in the "Captain America (Movies)" tag as of 23 May 2014.
  6. ^ Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Part 2 -- HYDRA, Sitwell, and diversity in the Marvel universe post by hellotailor, accessed 9 June 2014.
  7. ^ I think Marvel fucked up by racebending Jasper Sitwell post by fandomshatepoc, accessed 9 June 2014.
  8. ^ kehinki's response, accessed 9 June 2014.
  9. ^ phoenix-ace's response, accessed 9 June 2014.
  10. ^ dammit-mcu's response, accessed 9 June 2014.
  11. ^ That was not a "ship war" post by Not Applicable, accessed 9 June 2014.
  12. ^ Before May 2012, there were 244 works posted to AO3 using the Steve/Tony tag, 142 works posted using the Bucky/Steve tag, 78 works posted using the Howard/Steve tag, and 74 works posted using the Peggy/Steve tag (but only 58 of those are marked "het" indicating that Peggy/Steve is the primary relationship).
  13. ^ Of the 3,402 works posted to AO3 in the "Captain America (Movies)" tag between May 2012 and April 2014, 760 were tagged Steve/Tony.
  14. ^ Number of works posted to AO3 in the "Captain America (Movies)" tag between May 2012 and April 2014: 749 for Bucky/Steve; 248 for Peggy/Steve (190 labeled het); 123 for Howard/Steve.
  15. ^ Number of works posted to AO3 in the "Captain America (Movies)" tag between May 2012 and April 2014: 285 for Darcy/Steve; 91 for Natasha/Steve; 74 for Loki/Steve; 148 for Bucky/Natasha.
  16. ^ There were between 20 and 40 works posted to AO3 between May 2012 and April 2014 in the "Captain America (Movies)" for each of these pairings.
  17. ^ There were 10 works posted to AO3 for this pairing.
  18. ^ As of 23 May 2014, in the "Captain America (Movies)" tag on AO3 there were 2,399 works posted for Bucky/Steve and 1,169 posted for Steve/Tony. As of 8 May 2016, there were 14,839 works posted for Bucky/Steve and 2,317 posted for Steve/Tony.
  19. ^ See the relationship tag filter on the MCU works page of the AO3 as of 8 May 2016. Steve/Bucky had 17558 fanworks.
  20. ^ In May of 2016 there were 1,631 Peggy/Steve and 1,020 Natasha/Steve works posted in the "Captain America (Movies)" tag on AO3.
  21. ^ As of 8 May 2016 there were 962 works posted to AO3 in the "Captain America (Movies)" tag for Sam/Steve.
  22. ^ As of 23 May 2014 there were only 23 works posted to AO3 in the "Captain America (Movies)" tag with Sharon/Steve as a pairing, and a majority of them were posted prior to the release of The Winter Soldier.
  23. ^ As of March 22, 2015: Bucky/Brock has 198 works, Brock/Jack has 31 works, and Steve/Brock has 82 works.


Related Links
People Chris Evans • Sebastian Stan • Anthony Mackie • Hayley Atwell • Stan Lee
characters: Steve Rogers • Bucky Barnes • Clint Barton • Peggy Carter • Sharon Carter • Nick Fury • Wanda Maximoff • Natasha Romanova • Sam Wilson • T'Challa
Places
Things Marvel Cinematic Universe • Captain America • The Avengers Movieverse • The Avengers (Marvel)
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