Captain America portrayed as killing American soldiers in new, Vietnam-era comic book

In Fantastic Four: Life Story #2, written by Mark Russell with art by Sean Izaakse and colors by Nolan Woodard, Captain America attacks American soldiers in an effort to free communist prisoners held by the US.

"I cannot tell you how outraged I am," a Vietnam veteran who served in the US Marine Corps told The Ari Hoffman Show on 570 KVI. "It is bringing back the feelings I thought I had long gotten over of the way so much of the garbage in the country treated us when we came home. I think they are trying to go after us again."

The Fantastic Four’s origin story is being retold in the series through the "lens of the era in which their comics debuted: the '60s and '70s," Screenrant explains.

"These are tumultuous times for everyone," they go on to say, "superheroes included, and Americans slowly lose faith in their leaders and authority figures. As Susan Storm ponders the state of the world, heroes like Namor and Captain America take matters into their own hands. 'Because when you can't trust those in charge to do the right thing...who else is there?' At that moment in the Vietnamese jungle, Captain America leaps into action and attacks a United States soldier guarding prisoners."

In the traditional biography of Captain America, the super soldier was discovered frozen in ice by the Avengers and thawed in 1964. He spent the rest of the decade re-discovering the world while battling evil geniuses and other super villains. The Vietnam war was largely ignored in the comics.

This narrative was used as a tool to reintroduce Cap after a lengthy absence following the decline in popularity of the hero after World War II. The character was used to promote the American war effort. Fans were surprised by the news that Cap is now intent on killing American soldiers, considering that the hero wears the American flag and punches Hitler in the face in his debut issue in March 1941.

This is not the first time Marvel has made the American soldier turn traitor. In 2019, in the Spider-Man: Life Story series, Captain America defended the Communist forces of North Vietnamese and attacks American soldiers about to execute prisoners.

In April, a Captain America comic book, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, a left-wing racial activist and journalist, who has written for The Atlantic, Washington Post, and various other media outlets turned Cap’s arch enemy the Red Skull into a version of author Dr. Jordan Peterson.

In one of the comic book frames, Red Skull, a Nazi villain featured in Captain America comics, appears on a computer screen with the caption "ten rules for life," a reference to Peterson's book 12 Rules For Life. On the other side of the screen there are three captions. The first, "chaos and order," is a reference to Peterson's division of the world into the realms of order and chaos, which exist in the world like yin and yang.

The final caption read "the feminist trap," a reference to Peterson's opposition to feminism. The middle caption, "Karl Lueger's genius," references the controversial Austrian political Karl Lueger whose legacy includes the modernization of Vienna and a vicious anti-Semitism which some say inspired Hitler. It is unclear how this may reference Peterson.

In another series of frames, the comic book references followers of Red Skull as "young men" who are "looking for purpose" and are told by Red Skull "what they've always longed to hear." What they want to hear, apparently, is "that the whole world is against them" and that they should "fight back" if they want to be "truly men."

Peterson's audience is often described as being composed of young men who are searching for direction in life. Peterson tells his audience, which is actually comprised of men and women, to take on responsibility, grow up, and become actual adults capable of navigating the world.