Captain America's Shield

One of the aims of this blog is to trace how the ideas that shape American empire are reflected and amplified by American culture, even--and perhaps especially--in American popular culture. Expect to see frequent excursions into American pop culture: Coming are more than a few posts about Star Trek, for example, a venerable proponent of American empire. Today, let’s consider another revered piece of pop culture, one that has been around quite a while, but which has also gotten renewed attention in the early 21st century: Captain America’s shield.

Emblematic gadgetry is an essential part of our pop culture. Who is James Bond without his beloved DB5? My mind’s eye still sees the iconic shape of Captain Kirk’s Enterprise as a holy relic. The Lone Ranger's silver bullets, Speed Racer's Mach 5, Marty McFly's DeLorean, the list is endless. Superheroes, especially, are often defined by their heraldic accoutrements, from Superman’s cape to Wonder Woman's golden lasso, to Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir. Captain America’s shield is a particularly important entry in this catalog. The late rise in popularity of the character as a result of the Marvel movie franchise (the character has been in existence since the 1940s) at a time of profound uncertainty over the fate and role of the American empire is highly significant.

Captain America was born punching Hitler, and his decades-long career fighting international baddies both parallels and symbolizes the reach of American global power. That the star-spangled Captain America--his costume quite literally the American flag--is an allegorical stand-in for American power and leadership in the Cold War world is obvious. It is his peculiar choice of weaponry, however, that commands attention.

Captain America wields a shield. It is not a magical hammer, like Thor's. It is not a sword or a gun, like countless other heroes both mythical and comic-book. Captain America, in stark contrast, wields not a weapon at all but rather a shield, a device intended for defensive purposes. Indeed, a shield is only intended for defensive purposes and can fulfill no other combat role. In Captain America’s peculiar hands, however, as is well known to every fan, the shield constitutes a formidable offensive weapon. It is a paragon of defensive weaponry that only in the flag-draped hero’s hands becomes a supreme offensive weapon.

The shield is also romantic, hearkening to the knights of medieval lore. Captain America, like those obvious precursors, does not have a job to perform. Rather, he has missions, even duties, to fulfill. He is a modern-day knight-errant, reluctantly called to right a wrong, armed only with a shield, not a sword or lance, and never seeking glory or reward for himself. Reluctance is coded into every aspect of his character.

The shield embodies another aspect of the romantic. While it has lately been said to be made of scientifically advanced “vibranium,” and it does seem to be imbued with mystical, even magical powers, as an artifact this shield, like all shields, is relatively low-tech. Captain American going into battle armed only with his shield stands in stark technological contrast to the scientifically advanced weaponry of most of his iconic villains: Red Skull, Doctor Doom, etc. This is another part of American culture refracted through the imperial lens: American romanticism, the belief that technology and intellectualism is the tool of tyrants while a virtuous heart and belief or faith is enough to carry a hero to victory. In this regard, Captain America’s shield functions much the same as Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber: a visually cool bit of gadgetry that nevertheless exists as markedly inferior technology to that which it is pit against.

(Here we note the Captain’s problematic origins, as a result of “super-soldier serum,” a great technological advancement that has always been an awkward part of the character. Those origins are quite often underplayed in favor of Steve Rogers’s alleged inner strength. We can’t have our heroes prevailing by virtue of technology, we need them to prevail by and through their superior heart. In the movie franchise origin film, we are led to believe it is the diminutive Rogers’s great courage and sense of duty that allow him to survive the experiment at all.) 
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Our popular culture tends to affirm what we need or want to be true. The shield embodies what we want to believe about American power: wielded only reluctantly, only against obvious tyranny, and always in the service of right, not gain. The Captain can throw the shield with unerring accuracy, from either of his skilled hands to which the shield, as if by magic, seems always to return. This unlikely boomerang effect--explained in the movies by powerful magnets--was the source of a memorable quip in the 2016 film Captain America: Civil War, when Spider-Man deadpans “that thing does not obey the laws of physics at all.” Indeed it does not. But in so doing, the shield does obey the apparent laws of imperial culture: It demonstrates that the hero’s power and prowess is wielded reluctantly, from a superior emotional intelligence, and always, always in the cause of justice.

Captain America's shield: an imperial weapon for an empire that wants desperately to believe in its own virtue.