SPOILER ALERT: This article contains some minor SPOILERS for ‘Captain America: Civil War’ so proceed with caution.
In ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’, title character Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) was willing to sacrifice his life to prevent the Red Skull from destroying America. And ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ centered around him fighting back against a S.H.I.E.L.D. that had been infiltrated and corrupted to its core. ‘Captain America: Civil War’ saw him turning against some of his closest companions, including Iron Man and Black Widow… Over a boy.
Well, that’s ONE way to interpret it and it’s one that thousands have pounced upon as #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend has become one of the most popular hashtags on Twitter.
In ‘The First Avenger’, Cap’s romance with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) was a major factor and in the last two movies, we saw the introduction of Agent 13/Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) and despite a lip lock at the end, her part was actually just a minor part of these movies. Yet Cap went rogue against the governments of the world and half the superhero population, partially over principles but also… yeah, kinda over a boy.
That “boy” being Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), formerly Steve’s older brother-type best friend, turned deadly brainwashed assassin, who had been framed for a major catastrophe at the beginning of ‘Civil War’. Cap’s passionate and tenacious efforts to save Bucky and clear his name raised many eyebrows.
You can read some of the tweets below:
Like queer audiences weren’t watching #CivilWar w/ this plot-line already? Plzzzz. #GiveCaptainAmericaaBoyfriend pic.twitter.com/oKn09hftAw
— cassandra a. clarke (@cass__clarke) May 24, 2016
#GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend because queer kids should have mirrors in their heroes. Steve loves Bucky. It’s time for @Marvel to own it.
— Molli Moran (@MissMolliWrites) May 24, 2016
#GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend i want that boyfriend to be bucky pic.twitter.com/w0LH3DaJ17
— alfo (@gottajmo) May 24, 2016
Steve Rogers fought ANYONE & EVERYONE to protect Bucky Barnes & will continue to do so #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend pic.twitter.com/x2LjEuctJo
— lauren. (@wckdstiles24) May 24, 2016
#GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend – hold on a minute, doesn’t he already have one? #bucky pic.twitter.com/0sLjQBHtc7
— Cineworld Cinemas (@cineworld) May 24, 2016
I would be more supportive of the #GiveCaptainAmericaaBoyfriend campaign if he didn’t already have one pic.twitter.com/qveE9S39rS
— Jenna Mullins (@JBomb11) May 24, 2016
Of course, as stated, ‘The First Avenger’ already established that Cap liked women– then again, it was a different time and people weren’t, for the most part, openly gay. And his relationship with Peggy Carter was very chivalrous and chaste and, when you think about it, a little one-sided as it seemed Peggy was the one who was more hot and bothered over Steve, who was more focused on becoming a hero.
And the films have already set up Sharon Carter as his new love interest, so it seems highly unlikely that Marvel is going to make such a dramatic change to this character, who is 100% straight in the comics.
But for Cap/Bucky shippers, there’s always Tumblr.
This initiative comes on the heels of a recent campaign by fans to give Elsa from ‘Frozen’ a female love interest in the upcoming sequel and a series of tweets in December speculating as to the real nature of Poe Dameron and Finn’s bromance in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’. Will one of these campaigns ever sway Hollywood to include not just LGBTQ characters but feature them as leading characters? Time will tell.
What do you think? Are these fans just getting their hopes up? Or do you think there’s a chance that Marvel could listen to the fans?
Source: Comic Book Movie
