“Realism” is a word that’s thrown around a lot in the world of movies, and especially when talking about superhero films. There was a time when no one, not even the makers of the films themselves, took the genre seriously and this is probably because on the surface, superheroes are pretty silly. They wear brightly colored, skintight outfits and display outlandish powers and gadgetry far beyond the realms of physical possibility. It can be argued that this is what has always drawn people to them however, as I think most comic book fans will agree that they read these stories to escape from reality. Despite this, recent movie adaptations have attempted to ground the characters in what moviegoers perceive as the “real world”. The reason for this could be that the filmmakers have come to understand that their audiences will only accept these characters if they are presented in a way that they can find relatable and believable, and that is not (in most cases) the way that they were presented in the original comics.
The way the filmmakers have done this is not to make the characters themselves more realistic in terms of their appearance and skillset, but rather to make the world they inhabit seem more real by filling it with places and objects from the real world and making the regular people in this world react as real people would if they saw someone in a silly outfit flying/swinging around battling evil. But at the end of the day, you still couldn’t really imagine most of these characters actually existing could you? I mean come on, a virtually invulnerable humanoid alien who can fly, shoot lasers from his eyes and lift a bus as if it were as light as a feather? A billionaire at the peak of physical fitness who dresses as a bat to fight crime at night with an arsenal of futuristic technology? A guy who sticks to walls and shoots webs from his wrists? I don’t think so.
On the other hand we have Captain America. At first glance, he is one of the most ridiculously named and costumed characters of them all. But let’s examine his origin story: he’s a guy who was picked off the street and chosen to become an icon for people to look up to, molded and branded by a big name corporation. Doesn’t this make him sound like the winner of a talent show like X-Factor (or American Idol depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re on)? When you really think about it, isn’t this what a real life superhero would be?
I know a lot of you out there probably think Batman’s the most realistic superhero because he has no powers; he’s just a normal guy who trained himself physically and mentally and therefore he’s a hero anyone can aspire to be. But really think about that statement: “anyone can be Batman”. You’re basically saying that anyone can have a genius level intellect, a mastery of martial arts and a huge cave under their house with all manner of cool s**t in it. Doesn’t sound too feasible when you say it out loud does it? In my opinion, Batman is not a “regular guy” by any stretch of the imagination. On another note, the world Batman inhabits may be visually more dark and gritty than the worlds of other heroes such as Superman or Spider-Man, but it’s still a world where people can have the ability to morph into clay monsters, make freeze guns and control plant life (and I’m also not entertaining the bulls**t argument that Batman’s world is the only one in which characters can get injured and/or die, because it’s just not).
Captain America may technically be a super-powered hero, but his powers aren’t really that extravagant. He just has enhanced strength and speed that he gained from being pumped with super steroids (and of course that never happens in real life does it?). On top of that he never travelled the world to master every kind of fighting style (as far as I know, correct me if I’m wrong), he just has the regular military training that any soldier would receive. His equipment isn’t even all that fancy, all he uses are a shield and regular firearms: I’m pretty sure people use those in real life (granted his shield is made out of a fictional metal alloy that absorbs kinetic energy like a sponge and is virtually indestructible, but that’s a detail).
Speaking of firearms, this brings up another very interesting fact about Captain America that sets him apart from a lot of other superheroes: he isn’t above killing. Superman? Batman? Spider-Man? None of these guys would ever take a human life; this is the defining principle of each of their heroic personas. Captain America? If you’re one of the bad guys, he will shoot you, blow you up or throw you off of the SHEILD Hellicarrier to meet a sticky end without even a second thought. Why? Because he’s a soldier, and that is what soldiers are taught to do. That’s what a soldier in the real world would do. So yeah, evildoers beware! And while we’re on that subject, who are the evildoers that like to oppose the Cap? In his solo stories, he mostly fights terrorists and fascist warmongers so there’s even more “real-world” credit for the character.
When it comes to realism, audiences also like their movie superheroes to be relatable. They want to identify with these people in order to be invested, and in order for them to do that the heroes must be forced to deal with the same everyday problems many of them face. A classic example of this is Spider-Man; when he’s not doing the hero thing he’s just a normal everyday guy who has to deal with making ends-meet, relationship issues and all of that soul crushing crap we all have to go through from time to time. He’s not a billionaire, he can’t just sit in his mansion and brood, he’s a society drone like everyone else. However, when he’s swinging around as Spider-Man he takes on a very different persona. The power and anonymity he has gives him confidence and some might say a slight arrogance.
Captain America was also an everyday guy before he became a superhero, but when he does become a superhero it doesn’t change his personality. He takes his everyman persona into his superhero role and you could argue that this is what makes him such a champion of the people, unlike Spider-Man who’s always been a sort of underdog. I don’t know about anyone else but I found Captain America to be the most relatable character in the Avengers (not that I didn’t enjoy the other characters, because I did, and they're awesome). You always got the impression that he was just an ordinary guy who’d been dragged into this world of spies, gods and monsters. He’s been thrown into a situation he never imagined and all he’s concerned about is doing his duty to protect his nation (and his planet). I don’t pretend to be an expert on this subject, but I imagine this to be a similar feeling to that experienced by many real-life soldiers.
So we all know (hopefully) that superheroes don’t actually exist, and will more than likely never exist. But it’s my personal opinion that if there was a real-life superhero, chances are he would be like Captain America. What are your thoughts?