With his achievements as a war hero, his peak physical attributes (even without any supersteroids), and his seemingly blind loyalty to his government, Walker represents the embodiment of the “perfect soldier.” (Meanwhile, Sam still somehow cannot win a fight against anyone, save for some guys in flying squirrel suits.) Walker also stands as the ideological opposite to the Flag-Smashers and their “one world, one people” creed—he’s literally a symbol of nationalism. But beyond that, he fails to consider the shortcomings of the Global Repatriation Council, even when it seems like the Flag-Smashers may have good reason to question the policies of the GRC in a post-Blip world.
Sam knows better than to blindly trust the government’s agenda and always goes with his instincts instead; Sam fought alongside Cap when Hydra snuck its way into the heart of S.H.I.E.L.D. in
The Winter Soldier, and became a fugitive when the Sokovia Accords called for the regulation of superheroes in
Civil War. Now, he’s just been burned by the Department of Defense when it quickly replaced him with John Walker, and he’s discovered the story of Isaiah Bradley, a Black supersoldier whom the government both experimented on and wrongfully imprisoned. Sam can see both sides, while the Flag-Smashers and John Walker are limited to their own views.
The superpatriot may seem like the perfect soldier now, but his comic book origins are much more complicated
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