8 Reasons #TeamCap Absolutely Wins Captain America: Civil War
Are you one of the millions of people who saw Captain America: Civil War in its opening weekend? (Probably; the film had the fifth-biggest opening weekend ever.) But while the film is full of your favorite superheroes, you're going to have to pick sides eventually. Why? Because this time, they're fighting each other. There's a major rift between Captain America (a.k.a. Steve Rogers) and Iron Man (a.k.a Tony Stark), who disagree when it comes to letting the government have control of the Avengers task force. And between the two of them, how are you supposed to choose?
The answer is clear: Team Captain (duh). Don't believe us? (There's a rebuttal argument for you right here.) But Captain America is the consummate superhero. He's literally perfect. He was designed to be literally perfect. Ahead, find 8 reasons why you should pledge allegiance to Steve Rogers and his team.
1/8His values and morals are unparalleled.
In movie folklore, the Cap gets accidentally deep-frozen, only to wake up 60 years or so into the future. But despite his time warp, he's still the same person, and has all of the morals that we associate with the ‘40s (and some of the weirdly archaic beliefs we thankfully left in bygone years, but he acclimated quickly. Yay, feminism!). Sure, there are weird moments in all of that relentless chivalry that seem out of place in our modern times, but watching Chris Evans be a very sincere do-gooder will never get old.
2/8He is a superhero distilled down to its most basic point.
Batman is a man tormented by his demons who uses his considerable billions to turn himself into a superhero. Ironman is a somewhat jaded man who uses his considerable billions to become a superhero. Superman is an alien tormented by his demons who is a superhero just because the word “alien” doesn’t seem to encompass every amazing thing he does on a planet that is not his. Captain America was literally engineered to be a superhero, and whether he’s fighting the neo-Nazi Hydra or other superheroes, you know he’s going to do his job in the most noble way possible.
3/8He is a pretty remarkable underdog story.
The concept of scrawny-dude-turned-unstoppable-force isn’t rare in the superhero world. (Spiderman, the Hulk, etc.) But you get the sense that, deep down, Steve Rogers is still very much the same person he was before the scientists got to him. Now he’s just given the chance and the tools to do so. And of course, by tools, we mean…
4/8Uh, have you seen him!?
We could easily make a case for “Why You Should Be Team Cap” and just fill this list with gratuitous GIFs of Chris Evans at his most brawny, but we won’t. But we could.
5/8And because he’s Chris Evans.
To a certain extent, rooting for a movie character involves rooting for its actor. And aside from looking like Chris Evans, the actor who plays Cap is basically the ultimate Hollywood Leading Man-Next-Door. He’s been open about his anxiety, and about his fears about taking on an iconic role. He’s king of the bros, but not in a way that is off-putting. You get the sense that he likes and respects women! (How is this still revelatory in this day and age?) And when he does make gross jokes, he’s quick to see the error of his ways and use it as a learning moment. Oh, and he looks like Chris Evans. That helps.
6/8Because he never wavers in his beliefs.
One of the big conflicts of the film lies in the Captain's unwillingness to submit the Avengers to the government's jurisdiction. He was engineered by the United States government, but that doesn't mean he's all that keen on letting them use him — or his comrades — as a tool against bad guys anymore. While it creates a lot of conflict between him and some of the other superheroes (most notably Iron Man) he never wavers in his belief that he's doing the right thing, and, while extraordinarily stubborn, that's admirable.
(It's also a pretty heavy-handed allegory for IRL government totalitarianism, but hey, nobody said Hollywood was subtle.)
7/8Because the film is a delightful...bromance?
Though there is a subplot between Steve and Sharon Carter, the S.H.I.E.L.D agent with whom he shares a romantic storyline in Captain America: the Winter Soldier, that gets largely bypassed by what may well be one of the great love stories of our time. (We mean the one between Cap and the Winter Soldier himself, Bucky Barnes.) Captain America traverses the world to find James Barnes, attempts to clear his name, breaks the law in order to save his best friend, and even alienates himself from Tony Stark when forced to finally choose sides. Just as you're ride or die for your BFF, so too are Steve and James — they just have, y'know, super powers to go along with.
8/8Because he’s Captain America, duh.
And you’re not un-American, are you? We didn’t think so.
