This article was first published in the May 2016 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Captain America is no stranger to tackling politics head-on: the cover of his first-ever appearance in 1941 showed him punching Adolf Hitler in the face. The latest instalment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America: Civil War, out now, promises a more nuanced take on a hot-button issue: privacy.
In the film, Cap leads the opposition against pro-establishment Iron Man over superhero registration. WIRED presents four other examples of when the Marvel and political universes collided.
Comic:Captain AmericaIssue: 173 Year: 1974
Cap fights a smear campaign by the Committee to Regain America's Principles (CRAP) - a thinly veiled reference to Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP). The Secret Empire's evil overlord is pursued to the Oval Office, where he commits suicide. The government covers it up with Watergate - and a body double.
Days of Future Past
Comic:The Uncanny X-Men**Issues:**141-142, **Year:**1981
The X-Men (long a powerful allegory for racial and sexual politics) prevent the killing of US Senator Robert Kelly - an advocate for controls on their kind - by less moral mutant Mystique. Why save him? A warning from the future reveals his death at the hands of a mutant will create a dystopian world run by Sentinel robots in 2013.
Gods and Monsters
Comic: The Ultimates**Issues:**1-13 Year: 2005-7
In a parallel-Earth version of The Avengers, Cap and co are a military deterrent, dropped into Iraq like human bombs to manually disarm a fictional Middle Eastern nuclear power (with the help of Captains Britain, Italy and Spain). Upshot: the Arab world, Russia, China and Korea join a superhero arms-race and attack the US.
Spidey Meets the President
Comic: The Amazing Spider-Man**Issue:**583 Year: 2009
Cannily released a week before Barack Obama's inauguration, the issue shifted 350,000 copies compared to the title's average 70,000 - the most for a regular book in a decade. In it, the web slinger foils the Chameleon's plot to swap places with the POTUS (a real-life Spider-Man collector) at his swearing-in.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
