Fourth of July

[elspethdixon]

Happy Captain America's Birthday Fourth of July!

We kind of already celebrated last weekend, with fireworks down in St. Mary's County, but today is extra special for being a) Steve's birthday, b) the day I finished my damn 690 final (done at 4:30 am this morning), c) the beginning of posting on fixit fic, and d) the day of Thor's return (already have reserved copy lined up for when the comic store opens tomorrow).

We were going to go to the Smithsonian today, but that was before staying p until 7:00 am to finish my final and post fic. Revised plans are to go and see the movie about the French rat who wants to be chef. Because, mais oui it is not the fourth of July without some form of mockery of the French.

I got my serious Yay America! patriotism fix on my sister's graduation, when we had the F-15 fly-overs and the speech from the Secretary of Defense.

Comments

4th and July and France

[(Anonymous)]

I was thinking that it was actually France who helped the Union to become independent from the British, way back then... Among the French leaders involved there was a certain Lafayette, which gave name to a flight squad of American volunteers who sided with France during First World War before the USA finally joined the allies in 1917.

Well I suppose Ultimate Cap doesn't know that)

Gloria
http://rootingforlaughton.blogspot.com/
http://allthisandtigernutstoo.blogspot.com/

Re: 4th and July and France

[elspethdixon.livejournal.com]

Oh, it is (probably my lame joke was in poor taste). And then America repaid the French by buying the entire Louisiana purchase from them at about 1/50th what it was worth. Because we are incapable of gratitude.

Honestly, I think the Ultimate!Cap comment about the French may be as much a function of Mark Millar being British as anything else -- since the British have raised bashing the French to an art form (and have about 1,000 years worth of practice).

Re: 4th and July and France

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, I think Millar's own byas shows up, LOL. In fact, the USA and France have been more close, historically, than the USA and Britain. Britain, as a representative of the "old Regime" had been the "traditional" foe for France and Usa, which, through their revoutions, represented the new order: in many an old (and not so old) films British actors earned a good living from playing villains.

There are different approaches than Millar's: Brubaker, for instance (or at least in the issues I have read so far) portrays a Cap who doesn't forget he fought with the French resistance against Hitler. But then Brubaker sticks to the notion that Steve Rogers was a young man who lived while Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president. Millar's Cap seems more like a contemporary of Ronald Reagan.

Gloria
http://rootingforlaughton.blogspot.com/
http://allthisandtigernutstoo.blogspot.com/

Re: 4th and July and France

[elspethdixon.livejournal.com]

Brubaker's Cap is, IMO, definitive. All of the Ultimates are pretty much pod people who coincidentally have the same names as the Avengers (Ultimate Iron Man in particular is an entirely different character with a completely different backstory).

I've seen fans suggest that the mention of the French Resistance Brubaker stuck in his Captain America was a deliberate response to Millar's France joke in Ultimates, though that's just a theory.