THE American Dream has long been the ethos of what the United States is all about, but none other than Captain America has called its existence into question in a move that Superman has branded "woke".
What’s happening?
Marvel's latest the “United States of Captain America" comic series features, as its title suggests, the iconic Captain America character and his alter ego, Steve Rogers, but in its pages, Rogers questions the American Dream in its traditional form - in a development that has sparked fierce debate.
The American Dream?
It embodies the belief that anyone, no matter the circumstances of their birth, can be a success in the USA, with its roots in the 1931 book Epic of America, by writer and historian, James Truslow Adams. He described it as a set of ideals creating the “dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement”.
Captain America has his doubts?
In the new comic, US pop culture icon Rogers says: “I'm starting to think America actually has two dreams. And one lie. The first American dream is the one that isn't real. It's the one some people expect to just be handed to them. And then they get angry when it disappears. When the truth is, it never really existed in the first place.” The character then talks about the “white picket fence fallacy”, saying: “That dream isn't real because it never was. Because that dream doesn't get along nicely with reality. Other cultures. Immigrants. The poor. The suffering…The white picket fence becomes a gate to keep others out.”
He doesn’t stop there?
He goes on to say: “We're at our best when we keep no one out. A good dream is shared. Shared radically. Shared with everyone. When something isn't shared it can become the American lie.”
Superman was outraged?
Sort of. Dean Cain, who played Superman in the 1990s TV series, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, told US network Fox that he loves Captain America but is "so tired of this wokeness and anti-Americanism", adding that he agrees the captain “needs to be demoted to lieutenant”. He said: “I find this wokeness - it's pervasive. It goes through everything, it's in our school system. The cool thing to do today is to bash America. The comic books do it, the schools, they indoctrinate our kids they do that, our movies, our television shows are full of it, celebrities, athletes, actors, the media - they love to bash America. I don't get it.”
The captain’s army of fans have supported him?
Online independent source for comic book news, bleedingcool.com, said Rogers was pointing out that “the American Dream has to apply to everyone” having been “kept out of the hands of many by the system”, adding that “this comic has Captain America preaching an American Dream accessible to all”.
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