Think Wink.

Saturday I began to read for the umpteenth time Ed Brubaker’s classic The Death of Captain America (Captain America Vol. 5 #25-42). It is eighteen issues of Captain America greatness, even though eight issues did not even have the character Captain America in it. Steve Epting and his cohorts did an amazing job with the pencils, inks, and colors to flesh out Brubaker’s story. But as I was reading it, I saw a picture of the Christian ethic that pervades so much of Scripture: You are righteous so walk in righteousness. In other words, in Christ our future verdict of righteous is already ours by faith. Therefore we must now walk as a righteous person in life. We must be that which we have been declared. I caught an imperfect glimpse in The Death of Captain America.

Here’s the backstory to this amazing narrative. Steve Rogers is Captain America, a WWII soldier who was given peak human strength and speed and fitness by an experimental super soldier serum. His mortal enemy is the Red Skull, a former Nazi mastermind working for Hitler. The Red Skull is about to make his move to destroy not just Steve Rogers, but America. His first move is to kill Steve Rogers (Cap #25). Then he infiltrates S.H.I.E.L.D. (think a global CIA) and brainwashes several agents (one example is Sharon Carter, a.k.a. Agent 13, was brainwashed into killing Steve Rogers). Next, after maneuvering a Russian company called Kronas into a position of immense power and leverage, he unleashes an economic attack upon this country through overt terrorist attacks or through the Kronas Corporation raising prices on goods such as oil and foreclosing on mortages and thus brings this country to its economic knees. The ensuing chaos forces the government to negotiate for better prices with Kronas–making it the “owner” almost of the US–and also to hire a security firm owned by the Red Skull to secure its metropolises. The final blow is to install a puppet president who through the US Constitution establishes a police state envisions by Hitler and the Red Skull in WWII and destroying our beloved Republic. Skull was stopped short of installing his president by a New Captain America, James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes. He is the former WWII partner of Rogers and former Soviet assassin known as the Winter Soldier. At the request of Tony Stark (aka Iron Man and Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and a letter written by Rogers to be read in his death, Bucky dons the shield and cowl of Captain America to defeat the Red Skull.

In this particular story, Bucky is a bitter man bent on vengeance for what Soviet Russia did to him, namely turning him into the most elite assassin this world has ever seen, and for what Red Skull’s parter Aleksander Lukin did through him, namely destroying an entire city. He cannot face his friend and brother Steve Rogers out of shame. When the Skull kills Rogers, Bucky now is not only seeking revenge for himself but now for killing his only friend in this world. There is one scene right after Rogers is killed in Cap #26. Bucky is in a bar and someone calls Rogers a traitor for his role in the Civil War (cf. Marvel’s 2006 event Civil War). The reader sees that Bucky knows how he should handle this situation. He knows what he should say because it is what Rogers would say. But Bucky’s anger gets the better of him. He loses control and beats up everyone in the bar (he is an elite assassin after all). When Bucky meets up with Iron Man (trying to kill him as Bucky blames Stark for the death of Rogers) he is shown a letter from Rogers to Stark. Both men agree that Barnes should become Captain America and track down the Red Skull (Cap #33). Over the next several issues, Bucky struggles with being Captain America because he doesn’t want to let down Rogers. Then in the final issue, Cap #42, he no longer views the mantle of Rogers as a weight but as a responsibility. He sees it as Rogers saw it. He is no longer trying to impress Rogers but is being what he is, Rogers’ heir and friend and the New Captain America.

At first, Bucky is trying to do the right thing. He wants to do what it right but his anger clouds his mind and actions. He knows the right but chooses the wrong. Then Iron Man declares him to be Captain America. Now Bucky has to do the right thing because that is what Captain America is, the guy who always does the right thing. He is now living in Rogers’ shoes and Rogers’ memory will live on or die with Bucky and how he does as Cap. Through his mission to stop the Red Skull, he finally understands what it means to be Cap and is no longer trying to impress Rogers. He is being Rogers in his own way and style. He is living out the Captain America story.

This is the same with Christians. We know the right thing to do in our hearts, after all Paul says the law was written upon it. But sin has so enslaved our wills that we cannot obey it as it is supposed to be obeyed. The obedience that is there is sinful and self-seeking. Then we meet Christ, or rather Christ invades our lives. Through our union with Christ, by becoming one with Christ and a new creation, we become one with Christ’s righteousness. It is imputed to us by virtue of our union with him. Now we have the status of righteous. Now we must live out what it means to be righteous. We have the Spirit to enable and the Scriptures to teach us what that means, just as Bucky had Rogers and his other friends to guide him to living out what it means to be Captain America. But after walking in the Spirit at the foot of the cross we will learn that we aren’t to impress Christ with our walk but rather to understand what it means to be Christ and righteous so that it becomes not a weight upon us or something like that but rather a responsibility and a delight.

The image isn’t perfect because Brubaker wasn’t trying to illustrate this. But when I read this eighteen-issue story, I couldn’t help but see this Christian ethic in there. Go read it and see if you agree.

It Ends Here!

The New Captain America

Captain America vs. Captain America???