It’s been a question Marvel fans have been arguing about for decades. Captain America is a tall, strapping, blond-haired, blue-eyed all-American hero. And yet, he never has much of a love life, is always hanging around with Bucky or his fellow male Avengers, and is always “too busy” to date even when superheroines are practically throwing themselves at him. So, fans have wondered for years about Cap’s sexuality, and some have taken to Twitter to ask that Disney and Marvel let Steve Rogers out of the closet.
This was originally a response to a similar campaign for Elsa of Frozen fame. But, as we said, it’s not a new idea, not even in the bullpen of Marvel itself. Critics have pointed out that his romance with Sharon Carter gets barely any screen time, not to mention it being kind of weird that he’s dating the grandniece of his former lover, while he spends a lot of time forming close personal connections with every guy he meets.
And, as some have pointed out, Cap’s strongest romance isn’t with Sharon Carter, but with one James Buchanan Barnes:
https://twitter.com/cass__clarke/status/735162892060925952
https://twitter.com/gottajmo/status/735162757658464258
Scrolling through the hashtag and seeing everyone tweet about #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend like: pic.twitter.com/KfcDnvUi0z
— emz ⎊ (@buchanangrimes) May 24, 2016
https://twitter.com/NofaPendragon24/status/735162449695891460
Hey, let’s be fair here: Cap threw away his entire career and most of his friendships to save Bucky in Captain America: Civil War. Sharon got a literal kiss-off. Who would you argue is the significant other in that situation? Some would argue that there’s no evidence of this in the comics, but maybe we should ask Tony Stark about that…
Joking aside, though, for all the arguing back and forth about this, it wouldn’t fundamentally change much about Cap’s past adventures if he turned out to be gay. He would still be the shield-flinging paragon of justice we’ve always known, and frankly it wouldn’t even materially impact his comic book adventures all that much. Most superheroes, gay or straight, tend to put fighting bad guys first and dating second; it’s the nature of superhero comics. The only real effect would be that gay kids would have a more prominent superhero to look up, as the history of gay superheroes has only recently stepped into the realm of major, popular characters. Even if Marvel doesn’t give Captain America a boyfriend, that so many people want to see it is something both Marvel and Disney should consider going forward.
(via Twitter)
