According to recent polls, fans of the Marvel “cinematic
universe” think Captain America (aka Steve Rogers) and his old buddy Bucky
Barnes (aka Winter Soldier) should hook up. This follows Star Wars Episode VII
where a lot of people thought Finn and Poe should hook up.
Part of this seems like an immature reaction people have
whenever two characters work together really closely. Like all those years
Mulder and Scully didn’t hook up on the X-Files there were gigabytes of fanfics
hooking them up. There was probably just as much with Star Trek Voyager. (I’m
kind of afraid to Google for Parks and Recreation fanfics hooking up Leslie
Knope and Ron Swanson.) And then sometimes people get their wish like Lois and
Clark or that one X-Files movie I never watched and people aren’t that
impressed with it. Some people can’t seem to grasp that two characters can work
together and just be friends.
But also I think it’s a sign that there are plenty of people
who are ready for an LBGTQ (and however many other letters they’ve added since
I wrote this) character in one of those big franchises. Because really I can’t
think of one. The closest I can think of was one of the original Minutemen in
Watchmen was a lesbian and brutally murdered in the credits for her “indecent
lifestyle.” Even the X-Men, whose mutants are seen as a symbolic device for the
LBGTQ community, doesn’t seem to have a character who is actually LBGTQ.
The reason for this is pretty obvious: Hollywood is pretty
conservative. Individual stars might be liberal but studios are anything but.
Think how long it took to get a Wonder Woman movie. Or a Black Panther movie.
And while Wolverine is on his third solo movie Storm has zero solo movies. Or
how people lost their minds over a black Stormtrooper and a black Johnny Storm.
Then there’s all the whitewashing in movies like Gods of Egypt.
No one wants to be the guy who kills the golden goose, so as
long as straight heroes are making tons of money for Disney, they have little
impetus to add LBGTQ characters. The last thing they want is hard-line
Christians picketing theaters and attracting a lot of negative news stories.
Plus there’s always the risk of damaging foreign markets. That was the argument
an exec used for whitewashing the role of the “Ancient One” in Doctor Strange:
if we cast an Asian actor, Chinese people won’t go watch the movie! Um…yeah.
Sounds like you’re straining to do some explaining.
But with polls like I mentioned so close together it points
towards a hankering that will eventually have to be satisfied. Probably
something small at first, like a secondary character, and then if sales are
good a more mainstream character. I just wouldn’t expect to see Cap and Bucky
lubing each other up anytime soon.
4 comments:
For it to make sense, the character would have to start out gay. Captain America always seemed to like women. But in general, anything that is going to affect sales might just be too much of a risk. Your idea of having a gay minor character sounds like a possibility. Just being realistic.
I think it all has to do with sexualizing the very good-looking Chris Evans (who plays Captain America). People wouldn't be clamoring for this kind of fan-fiction if the movies had not been made. It's always about men seeing something they like on screen and then putting those things together in their minds. Men who are straight identify with Captain America as this incredibly athletic alpha male and want him to bone Black Widow. Men who are gay want the Bucky Barnes hookup. The gay men are "louder" because they are online yapping their mouths off about it while the straight men stick more to sports.
What an odd thing to say.
I've seen a lot of fan fic and even illustrations on line about Cap and Bucky. I'm all for gay characters but it really wouldn't make sense to have someone like Captain America getting involved with his younger protege.
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