(Note: This is Captain America disguised as Crossbones)
Oh good, we get to watch Cap kick the shit out of Patsy Walker's abusive ex-husband.
Sometimes comic books are VERY good to us.
Captain America 411.
A warm-up drawing. It continues to be the year of Batroc. I really love his redesign for "The Unbelievable Gwenpool", with this sort of flying ace look. It's very jaunty, and you know how much I love a supervillain to look jaunty.
I was thinking about the parallels between the two times in CATWS where Steve takes off his helmet when facing an opponent, and I found them interesting.
First he feels like he needs to prove something to Batroc, the pirate he's been ordered to apprehend. At his goading, he puts away his shield and takes his helmet off 🤦
I feel like he does this out of a misplaced sense of pride, or fairness, or cockiness? Dude took a bunch of SHIELD personnel hostage and Steve agrees to play his game/indulge him. "I thought you were more than just a shield," Batroc says, so Steve puts away his shield and helmet to face him not as Captain America, but as Steve Rogers. To prove him right-- that Steve was more than a symbol, a lackey of his masters, and he didn’t need the shield to win. Which was, in my humble opinion, unnecessary in regards to finishing the mission, and also put him in danger.
Or maybe he did it partly to stick a middle finger up at SHIELD itself? The organization he joined to help people but didn’t tell him anything important and treated him like an asset instead of a person? On the books, he’s Captain America, but ultimately he will do things Steve Rogers’ way. And Batroc literally asked to meet Steve Rogers, so here he is!
And then... he does the same thing with Bucky. He takes his helmet off and flings his shield away without a second thought-- but without Bucky having to ask. Kind of like the opposite of when he faced Batroc, who asked to meet the man behind the symbol, Steve takes his mask off without prompting because he desperately needs Bucky to see his real self.
He wore his old Captain America uniform in the hopes that it would jog Bucky's memory. But it was only after he tossed the symbols aside-- the helmet and the shield-- and faced (or rather, surrendered to) Bucky with open arms as Steve Rogers, that Bucky truly recognized him, Steve won, and Hydra lost.
It was Steve Rogers who was bloody and beaten all to hell with multiple bullet wounds and still repeating Bucky's words of devotion back to him. It was Steve Rogers who Bucky swore to follow into the jaws of death, not Captain America. And it was Steve Rogers who Bucky dove after and saved from the river, even when the Winter Soldier barely remembered him.
Both times Steve took off his helmet and put away his shield to fight an opponent, he won. The first time was unnecessary-- he could have beaten Batroc as Captain America-- but it was important to him personally that he faced him as Steve.
With the Winter Soldier though, I don't think Steve would have won and gotten through to Bucky had he not thrown the trappings of Captain America aside. Sure, maybe he could have captured or knocked Bucky out had he been willing to hurt him, but he wasn't. As soon as his main mission was over (saving 750k people), his personal quest to get Bucky to remember him took precedence. It was a goal Steve Rogers would have died for, and he nearly did. (A good thing that his best friend was still there, and that Bucky waded in and pulled Steve out of trouble like he always did.)
I guess what I found interesting was, the first time Steve took his helmet off and put aside his shield, it was for pride. The second time, it was for love.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men (Comicverse), Marvel 616, Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Thor (Movies), Ant-Man (Movies), Marvel (Comics), Marvel
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Tony Stark/Scott Summers/Pepper Potts/Matt Murdock, Tony Stark/Scott Summers, Tony Stark/Pepper Potts, Tony Stark/Matt Murdock, Scott Summers/Matt Murdock, Clint Barton/Sam Wilson, Loki/Bucky Barnes
Characters: Tony Stark, Emma Frost, Pepper Potts, Scott Summers, James "Bucky" Barnes, Steve Rogers, Loki (Marvel), Yelena Belova, Scott Lang, Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, Wanda Maximoff, Erik Lehnsherr, Raven | Mystique, Georges Batroc, Clint Barton, Matt Murdock, Justin Hammer, Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Peter Parker, Thor, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, Wong (Marvel), Charles Xavier, Billy Kaplan, Teddy Altman (Marvel), Lorna Dane, Danger - Character, Pietro Maximoff, Remy LeBeau, Tommy Shepherd, David Alleyne, Jean Grey, Maria Hill
Additional Tags: Round Robin, Birthday, Birthday Party, poly ship, Minor Clint Barton/Sam Wilson, minor Loki/Bucky Barnes, Not Jean Grey Friendly, Not Charles Xavier Friendly, Robots, evil robots, Shapeshifting, doom bot, Party Shenanigans, bonkers the cat, POV Shifting, Swearing
Series: Part 1 of MRP_RoundRobin_23
Summary: It's Tony Stark's birthday and he's throwing the party of the century where the entire Marvel Universe is invited to attend. This exclusive, once I'm a lifetime event is sure to bring plenty of excitement, mystery, intrigue and new connections at the most exclusive party of the year! So come on in and so join us on this once in a lifetime celebration of Tony Stark’s special day!
I remember watching falcon and the winter soldier, and somehow missed one of the smaller antagonist's names. Some guy who was helping the Flag-Smashers, but only for his own agenda. All I know about him was that he was French and he was bad. And hysterically I thought to myself "Is that Batroc?" and then told myself that that was very rude. Just because a Marvel villain is French and has facial hair doesn't make him Batroc the Leaper. AND THEN HE WAS.
Oh hey, it's time to finally talk about Batroc and punch-clock villains. Batroc ze Leapair returns for the final episode. But he's a serious bad guy now, rather than disposable muscle. He's here to get revenge against Sam for thwarting his evil plans in the first episode.
The fight is actually pretty cool. I can forgive him going full Revenge Villain because at the end of the day, he's still kinda acting in a punch-clock villain capacity. He ties up Sam for a bit while Karli's executing her plans, but then Sam overcomes him and gets away to go pursue the real menace.
If that were the last we see of him, I'd be totally fine with Batroc's handling in this show.
But then he shows up out of nowhere during a standoff between Sharon and Karli, so that he can betray both of them and get shot. He's onscreen for like a minute just so he can die and remove one of the very few punch-clock villains in the MCU from the character roster.
Keeping him alive to tell people how you made off with the loot is good for business.
Also superheroes tend to get nosier when they're tracking a murderer than just a thief.