“What really makes Steve Rogers Captain America?
Some might say that it’s not the crazy steroid stuff coursing through his veins, but his spirit.
I would probably say that the mega steroids that enhance every single aspect of his physicality probably have something to do with it. I mean, come on. Spider-Man without the spider bite? Daredevil without the toxic waste spill?
I have to say, it’s always weird when superheroes do those Very Special Issues where they do things like tell kids not to take drugs. Sure, kids probably will just end up huffing paint out of a paper bag. But on the other hand, they may become one of the greatest heroes of all time. An icon! “I was a mild-mannered junior high student until I huffed paint out of a magical bag I found buried near the mall. Something in the Krylon spray paint must have activated the ancient magicks in that old bag, and when I inhaled I became…The Inhaler!”
How does Captain America tell kids not to do drugs? Doing drugs is the best thing that ever happened to him. And frankly, if he’d been straight edge, the Red Skull would have blown up America.
If’n you’re looking for a good drug story, I have to recommend Batman: Venom (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/107117.Batman) Okay, it’s not the greatest story ever written. But at the very least it makes a case for not using enhancing drugs. And I think I would have gotten more enjoyment out of this than all the stupid videos I watched in school, the ones where a multi-ethnic group of children, one of whom was most certainly in a wheelchair because this was the 90’s, come across drugs and end up having all these negative effects.
Seriously, I think the goal of 90’s parents was to scare the holy shit out of us when it came to drugs. Some guy would take a drug (almost always a pill because I guess they didn’t want us to know how to actually consume drugs), turn into a complete moron, giggle, then fall into a chasm or accidentally launch a nuclear weapon or something. Seriously, watch this episode of Captain Planet to get an idea of what we were exposed to (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwDB20T7Gus). Especially enjoy the clothes that druggy kids wore. What appears to be a skull wearing a party hat? Oy.
Anyway, back to the book at hand. I think that I’m over comics where the main character loses his/her powers. It’s kind of an old trick, and one that doesn’t satisfy. Because when I read something called Steve Rogers: Super Soldier, I’m going to be let down when he is not a super soldier. Spider-Man 2? Why with the losing of the powers? I want to see a dude swinging around like crazy, not strolling in nerd journalist clothes.
So let’s try something else. And if you want to scare me about drugs, here’s an idea. Find the druggies in junior high right now. Take pictures, do a short interview. Then catch up with them every five years. When we see that most of the people who were getting stoned in junior high aren’t dead because they tried to run through traffic, but instead they are managing a Red Robin and paying child support to a kid they never even wanted, that might help me think twice.”