The demise(s) of Captain America

[Ms. Dudziak is Judge Edward J. and Ruey L. Guirado Professor of Law, History and Political Science, University of Southern California Law School.]

I was thinking of commenting on the reported death of Captain America, an event surely to capture the imagination of a generation of American Studies Ph.D. dissertation writers, but was having trouble finding a legal history tie-in. Then Volokh Conspiracy, of all places, beat me to it, linking to today's Wall Street Journalpiece on the superhero.

In Marvel's telling of the story,"Cap's" life has an arch, from its anti-Nazi origins in the 1940s, to his murder on the steps of Foley Square in the midst of a civil war battle stemming from controversy over a government registration scheme with Patriot Act resonances. (Captain America opposed registration.)

But this is not the only contemporary story of the demise of this symbol of America. Another was displayed in the Whitney Museum in fall 2003: The American Effect, a rendering of global perspectives on the United States.The exhibit included"Nursing Home," by French artist Gilles Barbier, with life-sized sculptures of aged superheroes, including Captain America. Cap is the superhero in most dire circumstances, lying on a stretcher attached to an IV, an aging Wonder Woman standing watch beside him."These comic heroes were once, like the United States, indestructible," the Daily Princetoniannoted in its review."Is America past its prime as well?"


These images stand in contrast to each other. A robust hero shot down while fighting for his conception of American principles. A forgotten icon facing his final days on life support. In the comic book version, all expect some sort of resurrection. Perhaps the most important question is whether the vision of America from the outside in, the global image represented in The American Effect, can experience a parallel rebirth.