- This video is brought to you by Keeps.
(rock music)
What up, guys.
Greg here and today we're talking about the USA.
Whether you like superhero stories or not,
you might've noticed a trend on TV
that could be best described as
take a super powered paragon of justice,
but then make them real bad.
That might mean refashioning Superman
into a murderer psychopath named Homelander in The Boys
or recasting Captain America as a vengeful ghoul
in the Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Now, in both cases,
these heroes are symbols of America itself.
But what we think is interesting is that while they asked
the same question, what are we gonna do about America,
they each offer a drastically different answer.
We'll explain in this wisecrack edition
Captain America versus Homelander,
is America hopeless?
And major spoilers ahead for both the MCU and The Boys.
But before we continue,
I want to give a shout out to this week's sponsor Keeps.
Keeps is a subscription service that makes it easier
and more affordable for men to treat their hair loss.
Let's be honest, for a lot of guys having a fresh haircut,
is as important to their style as their clothes or sneakers.
So if you start noticing more hairs than usual
in the shower drain, it can feel pretty scary.
And this is the reality for two out of three guys
by the age of 35.
But the good news is that with Keeps,
you no longer have to accept hair loss
and with the right plan,
you can prevent hair loss before you start Googling
discount hair pieces.
When you sign up with Keeps,
you'll have a consultation with one of their doctors.
And from there,
you'll be able to get FDA approved prescription
or over the counter medication
shipped directly to your door.
You'll then receive shipments from Keeps every three months
so you'll never have to worry about waiting in line
at the pharmacy.
You'll also have access to your Keeps doctor so you can ask
any questions you might have once you get started.
Find out why Keeps has more five-star reviews
than any of its competitors
and why hundreds of thousands of men
trust Keeps for their hair loss prevention.
If you're ready to take action and prevent hair loss,
go to Keeps.com/wisecrack
or click the link in the description to receive
50% off your first order.
That's keeps.com/wisecrack and now back to the show.
Now we're gonna focus on two characters today,
Homelander and Captain America,
especially the John Walker variety.
The former is a very clear dunk on classic Superman
while the latter is just a bargain Ben Steve Rogers.
- What the hell?
- [Greg] Now, recent iterations of both the Superman
and Cap have variously been outlaws
or just sad boys, right?
However, for most of their publication histories,
they'd been both exemplars of truth, justice,
and a certain vision of the American spirit
and both the Falcon and the Winter Soldier
and The Boys imagine, well, the opposite of that.
This has led some commenters to call John Walker
a knockoff Homelander
and whether or not you agree with that assessment,
it is true that both shows
similarly attack American militarism and in the process
both get to the question,
what's so great about America anyway?
To figure that out, we have to introduce a term
you may remember from high school history class,
American exceptionalism.
It's the idea that among all the countries in the world,
one of them is the very, very best
and it's the United States of America.
Modern politicians often tied this notion
to the Puritan, John Winthrop,
who preached at some Boston bound settlers
that they will create a shining city upon a hill
with the whole world's eyes upon them
and we all know how that turned out, but jokes aside,
no character quiet embodies American exceptionalism
like Captain America.
In fact, the character was actually created
as war propaganda in 1940.
His first issue shows him sucker punching Adolf Hitler
nearly a full year before America entered World War II.
This was a blatant call to arms
to step up and take on the Nazis at a time
when many Americans favored non-intervention.
So since his conception,
the character has been a stand in
for a particular brand of American exceptionalism
that sees the US of A as a fighter against tyranny
and a defender of Liberty.
Fittingly in the MCU,
even when Steve Rogers is at odds with the U.S. government,
he still embodies this American ideal.
Far from being a blindly loyal mascot
for the military industrial complex,
Steve confronts the growth of the surveillance state
in the Winter Soldier.
- Shield's been compromised, you said so yourself.
Hydra grew right under your nose and nobody noticed.
- [Greg] And it's regulatory overreached in Civil War.
- Tony, you chose to do that.
If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose.
What if this panel sends us somewhere,
we don't think we should go.
What if there's somewhere we need to go
and they don't let us?
We may not be perfect,
but the safest hands are still our own.
- [Greg] He maybe a patriotic soldier,
but when he smells bull (beeping), he calls it out.
This separation of the character of Captain America
from the institutions of the United States
exemplifies an idea of the American spirit
as something that goes beyond the government itself.
And this is a somewhat different take
on American exceptionalism.
The idea is even when the government is messing up,
America still rips,
but this idea that super heroes like Steve can embody
what is exceptional about America has come under
a lot of scrutiny lately.
Shows like, The Boys and the Falcon and the Winter Soldier
has started to ask is this exceptionalism
actually a fantasy?
Let's start with The Boys in the figure of Homelander.
Like Steve Rogers, he's a serum made super dude
who has become a symbol of American patriotism
and in its character,
we see a much darker and more cynical view
of American exceptionalism.
One in which the special and unique of this country
is its military prowess and its ability
to obscure murder and racism behind the big pretty flag.
Homelander serves as an interesting counterpoint
to Captain America
because rather than being a character independent
of his origins,
he is indivisible from the institutions that created him.
He doesn't even have an alter ego like Steve Rogers does,
he is Homelander through and through.
- Hey, is that your secret identity?
Charming.
- Thanks.
- Yeah, I gave up on mine a long time ago now.
- [Greg] Despite his outwardly noble persona,
his only purpose is to further the inches
of Vought International.
He uses this full patriotism as a cover for Vought crimes
against humanity.
(screaming)
This draws pretty obvious parallels to some American
military actions abroad,
which critics might say are motivated less by justice and
more by corporate interests in global capitalism.
In this context,
American exceptionalism becomes a thin veneer for trying to
nab a lucrative military contract to fight the very same
super terrorists that Vought created.
- And now we have villains all over the globe.
That only we can fight.
- [Greg] Not unlike the American military,
saving the world from the Taliban and other Afghany
militants that they just so happened to have supplied with
weapons just a few decades earlier.
Homelander and Vought less represent
an America losing its way.
- You know, the drill he shot at us first.
- [Greg] And more seemed like the
logical conclusion of a country that spent the last century
backing brutal dictatorships, funding terrorists, or just
accidentally bombing a critical pharmaceutical plant.
In this case,
the thing that America is an exception to
is international humanitarian laws.
- All these (beeping) ingrates realize,
I killed that asshole for them.
What did they think saving America (beeping) means anyway?
- [Greg] The Boys thus cast a dark light on anyone claiming
to be the good guy while unilaterally
doing whatever they want.
Peek behind the curtain
and it will almost get exponentially more disgusting.
But is this just about a few (beeping) dudes
giving superhumans a bad name?
That seems to be the line taken by Marvel
in the form of John Walker.
He thinks he's the good guy going around knocking heads
in the name of America.
He's a brash and parceled soldier
who adds with absolute authority.
His only goal is to accomplish his mission,
no matter the consequences.
This blind loyalty combined with the dangerous amount of
power results in a disastrous outcome in which his symbolic
shield is literally stain with blood
for the whole world to see.
Yeah, the show is not settling it's symbolism.
Dig even deeper and a lot of his actions
seem vaguely reminiscent of the way
the American military has treated the middle east.
You know, like his desire to interrupt a civilian funeral.
- You'll move in fast, take her by surprise.
- No, I wanna talk to her alone.
I'm not losing her again.
- [Greg] Except presumably using his fists
instead of a drone.
The show also hints that mysterious, horrible things,
he and his partner had to do while serving in Afghanistan.
- We both know,
of the things that we had to do in Afghanistan,
be awarded those medals felt the long way from being right.
- [Greg] This characterization raises a lot of questions
like, was Steve Rogers the only person worthy
of the title Captain America
and what's the patriotic narrative that Steve
helped promote false from the start.
- The danger with people like him,
America's super soldiers is that we put them on pedestals.
- Watch your step Zemo.
- They become symbols, icons
and then we start to forget about their flaws.
- [Greg] At the same time,
the show sees, Sam Wilson confront a lot of the ugly history
that Steve Rogers never did.
He learns how racism in the military has devastated
the lives of other super soldiers like Isaiah Bradley,
a black Korean war veteran who was an early Guinea pig
in the American government super soldier experiments.
Bradley flat out rejects the idea that America
is a bastion of justice or equality telling Sam,
- They will never let a black man be Captain America.
And even if they did, no self-respecting black man,
would ever wanna be.
- [Greg] So both Homelander and John Walker
represent pretty similar criticisms
of American exceptionalism,
namely that this beacon of Liberty stuff,
it enables America to do some really horrible (beeping).
But where these franchises differ is in the solutions
they offer to those criticisms.
Both shows attempt to answer the question of whether the
image of America has a city on a hill can be salvaged
from its history of well, being the opposite.
The Boys takes a cynical perspective using Homelander
to paint a wholly irredeemable picture
of American exceptionalism.
- If you do that,
I'll destroy everything and everyone.
- Great, as long as everyone sees
what a (beeping) monster you are.
- [Greg] The show's second season even explores
and dramatizes the dark or forgotten history
of America's involvement with Nazi scientists.
When it reveals that compound V was actually developed
for Hitler to help achieve his vision of a master race.
- We are in a war for the culture.
- [Greg] Fittingly fellow superhero,
Stormfront anoints Homelander as the leader
of her very Nazi-est movement.
- And you will be the man who will lead us.
- [Greg] A role he proudly embraces.
Of course, in the real world there is, to my knowledge,
no compound V.
However, there was plenty of friendly cooperation
between American scientists and politicians
and their Nazi peers around other master race business,
namely in the study of Eugenics
and that spirit of cooperation manifested
in partnerships between American businessman
and the third rake.
The point is the narrative of escaped Nazi creates
American company to further his white supremacist goals.
Isn't that far off from the actual history.
Now in The Boys, Homelander may not be a full blooded Nazi,
but its own values don't seem to be too incompatible
with Stormfront's.
- This used to be a beautiful country, remember?
- [Everyone] Yeah
- One nation under God, remember?
- [Everyone] Yeah
- Right before these godless, inhuman super villains
started pouring across our borders.
- [Greg] On the other hand,
the Falcon and the Winter Soldier,
offer a much more muddled take on American exceptionalism.
On the one hand Zemo does compare the Avengers
to the Nazi's.
- She's a supremacist.
The very concept of a super soldier
who will always trouble people.
Which had warped aspiration
that led to Nazis, to Ultram, to the Avengers.
that led to Nazis, to Ultron, to the Avengers.
- [Greg] However, he also assigns his moniker
to Karli Morgenthau, leader of the Flag Smashers
who wants to distribute that power
to refugees and the less fortunate.
The show is not so subtly arguing that desperate groups
of people who resort to terrorism might be well,
kind of Nazi adjacentee.
So how does each show propose
we divorce American exceptionalism from his history
of destructive wars and racism while pushing it towards
his promise of liberty and equality.
In The Boys, Hughie and Starlight work to expose the truth
about compound V to the media in the hopes
that it will cause Vought to be shut down
or at least help the soups be reigned in.
But this results in little more than thoughts and prayers
from the mega corporation.
The show either makes a point to highlight the way that
these attempts at reform can be co-opted by the various
institutions they are critiquing.
For example, Stormfront uses the outrage
of Vought international to further
her white nationalist agenda
and Congresswoman Newman makes
a name for herself by holding a public hearing
about Vought and the suits abuse of authority
only to be revealed as a shady super self.
Once again, the show highlights the dark side
of American exceptionalism.
Here it shows how powerful institutions can negate
any attempt at meaningful reform or genuine accountability.
- Doesn't matter what we do, nothing changes.
Nothing ever changes, or it gets better.
- [Greg] But the Falcon and the Winter Soldier
tells a different story.
Caught between a state that routinely abuses his power
and a group that wants to abolish state power altogether.
Sam chooses a middle path.
He eventually accepts the responsibility bestowed on him,
but only after he comes face to face
with America's shameful history.
And while he helps stop the Flag Smashers from carrying out
their plan to kill a whole bunch of political leaders.
He also admonishes those same leaders for abusing
their power and for branding, the Smashers as terrorists.
The show seems to conclude that American exceptionalism can
be reclaimed as long as we're willing to reconcile
with our history and hold our leaders accountable.
- The only power I have,
Is that I believe we can do better.
- [Greg] Sam's take on American exceptionalism is basically
that those in power need to remain humble and listen
to the voices of the oppressed and disenfranchised.
Less they become nationalistic robots.
And this take leaves Sam with a foot still seemingly inside
the American military state.
And that's one more foot than Steve had in it
before he did a back to the future.
So he could slow dance to terrible music
and not have the internet anymore.
But as Sam being overly optimistic, after all John Walker
is still being recruited by some shady organization
and Sharon Carter, AKA the "Power Broker" is back
at the CIA where she's bound to wreak more havoc.
The mechanisms of the old American exceptionalism.
One based on unchecked military power
and misplaced moral authority are still operating.
Still Sam remains straight down the middle.
Certain that America has simply lost his way
without Steve Rogers and that is up to people like him,
people willing to compromise with their enemies
to steer it back on course.
- We built this country,
bled for it.
I'm not gonna let anybody tell me I can't fight for it.
- [Greg] Clearly both franchises are asking
what American exceptionalism means
and how the world should respond to it,
but they come to drastically different conclusions.
And we'd be remiss not to point out that both are produced
by two of the largest corporations in America,
both of whom have contracts with the US government.
So maybe the only thing America is truly exceptional at
is irony and media franchises.
- Our latest film, G-Men World War just grossed shy
of $1.7 billion worldwide.
- But what do you guys think?
Is America more of a Steve Rogers or a Homelander?
Or one of these other Captain Americas?
Let us know in the comments big thanks to our patrons
for all your support.
Hit that subscribe button like you're jabbing yourself
a super serum and don't forget to ring that bell
and as always, thanks for watching
and let freedom reign.
Peace.
(upbeat music)