The Role Of Nazis And "The Hitler Punch" In Captain America Revealed!

The creative team emphasized that they didn't push the Nazis to one side because they were afraid of using them - as Joe Johnston put it, they're a universal villain and can be killed with impunity, so they didn't leave them out for fear of somehow offending people. And, indeed, they pointed out that there are still plenty of Nazis in the movie, they just aren't the primary antagonists for Cap. That said, Feige acknowledged that Cap very much does fight Nazis as well as supervillains in the original comics, and he alluded to the iconic cover of Captain America #1, in which Steve Rogers punches out Hitler. The problem, he explained, is that it's very difficult to come up with any logical scenario that could get Cap to that moment.

Instead, he said that they decided to just tip their hats to that cover by incorporating that imagery into the USO show in which Cap is forced to participate. And "forced" is the right word - Joe Johnston said it's his favorite sequence of the movie, but they made sure Steve seemed out of place and uncomfortable amid this silliness. As a bonus, Feige explained that the USO show actually inspires the creation of the in-universe version of Marvel Comics, which is an homage to the comic book universe's longstanding contention that Marvel Comics exists as a not always accurate chronicle of the superheroes' various adventures.