-- He looks around at the crowds assembled on the edge of town and he sees something he’s never seen before: Fear. Cap inspires hope and yet here he is terrifying the locals. They start to yell at him, voicing everything we’ve seen in the background throughout the series about how they WANT a register and need to be protected from lunatics in masks doing whatever they want; completely unaccountable vigilantes.
Cap realizes he was wrong. He realizes he’s been fighting for masks when he should have been fighting for America
if that isn't the biggest anal depository i've ever coughed up, I don't know what is.
let's draw a little analogy here...9/11. After it occurred, the "american public" wanted justice/revenge, and were willing to bomb the ever loving Allah out of ANY culprit that the powers at be deemed damnable. (and I don't think I'm reaching, analogy wise, here..."lunatics in masks"? A terrorist, at least to themselves and their supporters, are vigilantes. Anyway, the same level of bloodlust and cries for justice and a tightening of security measures apply to both 9/11 and the incident that sparked this whole Civil Shebang all those months (years? feels like it) ago).
it took, what, finally 4-5 long years and constant to the point of annoying protests and papers and evidence and facts for this initial bloodlust to be replaced with a, "huh, we went after the wrong guy all along?" (and here, well, that's rather obvious. The blaming of the Capes for the Crooks activity has always been the most glaringly silly and outrageous aspect of this "war").
and we're still there, blood mired in a blood soaked quagmire.
Our nation, in theory but rarely in practice, is supposed to protect the minority from the majority. It's not a simple this is what the people want, so they deserve to have it. People are fickle, easily swayed by colorful rhetoric and political bluster.
WHO GIVES A FUCK WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT CAP, FACE IT YOU FUCKING SIMP, YOU'RE OFTEN PROTECTING THE PEOPLE FROM THEMSELVES.
Why Millar was tasked to write this, I have no idea. In his best work, he's known for delivering what appear to be shocking moments that in a closer examination are always carefully set-up and meticulously detailed ("Chosen", "Superman: Red Son" and "Wanted" being the best examples).
This? Whole flap could've been resolved through, I dunno, talking about it? Having Cap talk to the people?
I dunno, maybe as a critique of post 9/11 paranoia and policy it works on some levels, Marvel giving the people what they think the people want, and thus, when the intellectual elite (*scoff*) at Marvel U feels public perception has changed enough they can have an "UnCivil War: Careful What you Wish For" sequel.
And the way that memo reads? C'mon, ALL Cap ends up concerned with is that the secret idents don't fall into the hands of the gov-mint? So you give 'em to a guy who, for all intents and purposes, is part and parcel of the gov-mint, especially if one goes with the tried 'n true "the business of America IS business?".
I find it hard to put my trust in a guy that'll use villains, a guy who collects hair samples of anyone who drops by for a visit...and that's not even delving into his alcoholic, fuck anything that swivels shtick...which, personally, two characteristics I tend to find just as untrustworthy as the first two instances...good 'peep to hang with, but I ain't leaving that drunken fuck alone with my gf, you know? Let alone trusting him with any secrets I might have. Shit, you know how alcoholics have big mouths, tend to blab a lot?
LET'S TRUST THAT GUY!
Personally, I'm an atheist in the voting booth and a theist in the movie theatre. I separate the morality of religion with the spirituality and solace of it. There is something boring about atheism.