It seems there’s a part of the Internet that was hoping Captain America and his best friend growing up in Brooklyn, James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes (a.k.a. the Winter Soldier), would be lovers in the new Marvel superhero film, “Captain America: Civil War.”
https://twitter.com/jowrotethis/status/709728742990417920
SPOILER ALERT: They’re not gay.
And apparently the worst thing about the new film — at least according to Vanity Fair’s Joanna Robinson — is that not only are Cap and Bucky not gay, but they bristle with “heterosexual virility” and even — gasp! — “reminisce about their days chasing skirts in pre-War Brooklyn.”
Is this the one flaw in the otherwise great #CaptainAmericaCivilWar? https://t.co/qHxHeNpulN pic.twitter.com/Ltw1JZZk4Y
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) May 9, 2016
So while Marvel was likely never going to make the homoerotic subtext of Cap and Bucky into text, would it really have hurt to keep their relationship more ambiguous? As if to put the nail in the coffin of speculation, Bucky and Cap paused for a moment in the middle of snowy Siberia to reminisce about their days chasing skirts in pre-War Brooklyn. It’s a sweet, human bonding moment but one that also bristles with heterosexual virility. If Disney isn’t inclined to give audiences a gay superhero, couldn’t they have at least left us the dream of Bucky and Cap?
Other than the heterosexual stuff, it was a pretty good flick and you should definitely go see it.
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