Captain America Movie News

Cover for Captain America #1 published in 1941

A bunch of news came out this weekend reguarding the upcoming First Avenger: Captain America movie. BEWARE SPOILERS AHEAD.

Director Joe Johnson, who is doing press for The Wolfman currently, revealed three bits of information: one regarding Cap’s costume, who the main villain will be, and what other WWII heroes will show up in the picture.

First, Cap begins the movie in a costume based off the original Kirby design when he is part of a USO show.

Johnson told the LA Times Hero Complex blog: “After he’s made into this super-soldier, they decide they can’t send him into combat and risk him getting killed. He’s the only one and they can’t make more. So they say, ‘You’re going to be in this USO show’ and they give him a flag suit. He can’t wait to get out of it.”

Johnson says that Cap eventually goes AWOL in order to join the fight, using the impractical costume as a way to get his fellow soldiers respect. Later, he’s given a more conservative costume by his superiors to continue fighting.

Second, Johnson confirmed with Comingsoon.net that Cap’s long time nemesis The Red Skull will be the films primary antagonist. It makes sense to use this character since he was the bane of Cap’s life in during the war and beyond, but I’m not sure how this will work.

For all extents and purposes, The Red Skull is to Captain America what The Joker is to Batman. My fear is that having the Big Bad in the first film will not leave enough time for the development of the hero or the villain.

Tim Burton’s Batman was hurt by having to two scene stealing characters in the same movie that required a good amount of time devoted to them. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight succeeded in this respect because both were given their own film to develop.

Lastly, The Invaders, Marvel’s premier superhero team during WWII, will play a major role in the film, Johnson told CHUD. More precisely, he said “they’ll be in the entire second half.”

The Invaders was made up of Captain America and his sidekick Bucky, Namor The Sub-Mariner, and The Original Human Torch; all characters that could support a movie on their own.

Marvel still owns the rights to use these characters in their films, which gives a pretty neat prospect to seeing a ton of heroes in one movie. Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury is expected to show up at the beginning and end of the film in bookends set in modern times, but the character was originally a Sergeant in WWII, leading his “Howling Commandos,” I’m hoping that they’ll show up as well.

And I still have high hopes for Jackson saying “goldbrickin’ yahoo’s” (a catchphrase of the comics character) at some point.

Does this sound good to you folks? Let me know in the comments.