Captain America: God’s Avenger was my first-ever guest blog post. Published on the Tesseract Times, a Marvel blog, it most certainly wasn’t my best work, but I was quite proud of it at the time. And so, expanding on what I wrote that day, I will do my best to show you that Captain America is a Christian’s superhero.

We, as humans, are in a constant search for role models. Whether it be a good role model, such as Lecrae, or a bad role model, such as Antonio Brown, we always want someone to look up to. Every child that grew up in the 1990s found his role model in Michael Jordan, a man whom I would classify as a mediocre role model at best (but still the greatest basketball player of all time). Growing up in the early 2000s, you would have looked up to men like Kobe Bryant or Tom Cruise. If you, like me, grew up in the early 2010s, you looked up to men like NF or Stephen Curry. With every decade comes a new role model, whether good or bad. However, some men remain outside the bounds of time, neither aging nor changing, for they are found within literature.

Some of humanity’s greatest role models are ingrained in writing. From the beginning of time, men and women have created heroes and immortalized them in writing. While these heroes were fictional, some actually existed. For example, Moses was a real hero, respected by his people. Eventually, after his death, his actions would be written into the book of Exodus, passing down his story to the generations following. Even now, fifteen millennia later, we still recognize the actions of Moses.

“Some of humanity’s greatest role models are ingrained in writing.”

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This tradition has remained throughout the ages. Unfortunately, men and women throughout time have found one major problem with these heroes- if they weren’t fictional, and actually existed, they weren’t perfect; they had flaws. If they were perfect, they weren’t real, for we know that nobody is perfect (if you didn’t read my last blog post on this subject, click here to do so). Then God, in his eternal mercy, gave us a hero that was both perfect and real- Jesus. Since his Ascension in early 30 A.D, Christians across the globe have followed in His footsteps, putting Him at the forefront of their lives. Truly, a wonderful hero, right?

Sadly, many of us get tired of appreciating the same hero. We turn away from Jesus and look to other sources for admiration. Some look to men like Dwayne Johnson, while others turn to fictional characters like Harry Potter.

There is nothing wrong with appreciating fictional characters, of course. The real danger comes when we begin to worship our heroes. The Bible tells us that we are to have no other Gods before us, pointing us to Jesus as our true hero.

But, if you’re anything like me, you want to look for heroes that you can imitate in a slightly more realistic way. Obviously, we should all chose to imitate Jesus, but He was perfect, a sinless man. It would be completely impossible to imitate him fully. So, I began to find others to imitate. Jesus receives my worship, of course, but there’s no harm in seeking to imitate men or women around you.

To begin, I imitated my dad, my grandfathers, and a few other influential men in my life. Then I began to imitate Christian Rappers like Lecrae and NF. After a few years of this, I realized something- I wanted to imitate someone that was perfect, but human. A man without major faults but someone relatable. My answer? Captain America.

My fascination with the Marvel Universe had just begun. I enjoyed watching the earlier movies like Iron Man and Thor, but had yet to see a Captain America movie. My opportunity came at a sleepover with a group of friends. One of these, Micah Peterson (now in college), was already a Captain America fanatic, and insisted we watch the first movie to pass the time.

Two hours later, I had my hero. Captain America, the relatable man with no major flaws. A man who respected women, seemed related to Christianity, and was one of the best heroes on the Avengers. Despite the fact that he was a fictional character, he seemed an uncle to me.

Interestingly enough, the only times the Marvel Cinematic Universe has even touched Christianity are in scenes with Captain America. The first of these scenes is found in The Avengers. Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man have just met each other for the first time, but Iron Man is less than pleased to meet the Asgardian. As the two battle it out, Captain America prepares to jump out of a plane to stop them. The pilot, concerned for his safety, asks, “Are you sure you want to do that? I mean, these men are practically gods.” Captain America, in his famous dry humor, replies, “There’s only one God, ma’am, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.” And with that, he jumps.

The second of these scenes is found a few movies later in Avengers: Age of Ultron. This movie is filled with quotes about God’s wrath, mostly given by the evil android Ultron, who is determined to destroy the Earth and rebuild it with robots instead of humans. Halfway through the movie, Captain America appears to Ultron as his enemy, accompanied by a few of his friends. As Ultron surveys them, he says, “Ah, Captain America. God’s righteous man.” Going on to mock Captain America for this, it is plain that Ultron considers Captain America a Christian.

While these two instances are the only obvious examples of Captain America’s faith in the MCU, dozens more can be found within the comics. In one example, a man tells Captain America, “Captain, you go to church regularly, correct?” And the Captain answers yes. Obviously, a strong Christian.

In another example, seen below, we find that Captain America is well-versed in Scriptural language. The quote below is something expected to be found in the book of Psalms, but is actually said by the Captain in one of the older comics.

It’s not difficult to see Captain America as a Christ-like figure. He restrains his power, refusing to use it on those that do not deserve it. He respects women, treating them as the Bible teaches us to do so- with honor and respect, not forcing anything upon them. He is faithful to his friends and loyal to his country. And, finally, he loves God above all else, proving himself to be worthy of our respect.

If you want another role model in addition to Jesus, chose Captain America. You can’t go wrong with a fictional character- they won’t do anything strange or sudden to change the lives of those around them. They won’t be talked about in the tabloids or on social media for the scandals they have committed. Captain America, God’s righteous man.

Alright, that’s all for today. Thanks a ton for reading that post! I hope you really enjoyed it. If you have already, be sure to click that Follow button below (or to the side), so as to not miss out on any new posts. Thanks again, and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Note: The original title was Captain America: God’s Avenger, but I had to remove the apostrophe since WordPress titles don’t mix well with apostrophe. That grammatical mistake is intentional.

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