_thony: Other Times For Captain America to Wake Up In

A few weeks ago in my untitled Marvel Cinematic Universe viewing extravaganza leading up to and including Avengers: Age of Ultron I looked at some time periods that would have been worse for Captain America: The First Avenger to be set in. Now it's time for the sequel and I want to think about this from the other way. Captain America: Winter Soldier is about Steve Rogers adjusting to modern America after being frozen in time at the end of his previous movie. Throughout the film he faces current political issues and learns about the past 70 years of pop culture while fighting the evil Nazi offshoot Hydra.

The story of Steve waking from his cryogenic sleep has been told several times since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby first told it in the early 60's. With each generation Cap's ice nap lasts longer and longer and his awakening happens farther and farther from his asleepening. It makes me wonder what it would be like if Steve Rogers had woken up in a different time that hasn't been shown.

The 90's

"Hasn't been shown" includes the 90's Captain America
movie that is reportedly so bad I have not seen it and
probably never will.

I love the 90's as much as the next millennial, if not more. I listen to Nirvana and watch Seinfeld reruns and remember Power Rangers. I wouldn't trade the 8 years I spent alive in the 90's for anything but I don't think Steve Rogers would feel the same way if he woke up there after spending his whole life in the early 20th century. It was obviously difficult for Steve to adjust to life in the the 2010's but the 90's were something entirely different. Imagine going from the early days of film and the last days of jazz to this:

In case you were doubting my 90's cred.

You can't go straight from Billie Holiday to Butthole Surfers. Grunge is my favorite music genre but without knowledge of the decades of music leading up to it it probably sounds like absolute horse manure. There's a scene in Winter Soldier when Steve goes incognito by putting on hipster glasses and a hoodie; modern clothes that are radically different from the collar and tie he wore for much of The First Avenger. He might have felt a little uncomfortable but that would have been a lot worse if he had to wear the grunge uniform of flannel and aggressively bad posture.

The Same Time as Austin Powers

Speaking of the 90's, can you prove that Austin Powers doesn't take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Apparently Steve's friend Bucky, AKA the Winter Soldier, had been frozen and thawed out repeatedly after he seemed to die back in the 40's. In the first Austin Powers movie the international man of mystery of the 60's volunteered to be frozen after his nemesis Dr. Evil did the same, no doubt basing his science on that used on Bucky. Surely, if Captain America had been found by the time Dr. Evil returned in the 90's Steve would have been unfrozen along with Austin and the two would have had to work together against such an immense threat.

Immense.

Observant readers may have noticed that this post is not about worse time periods but simply different. That's because an Austin Powers/Captain America team up would be objectively incredible and I just wanted to point that out. Steve Rogers would make a great straight man for Austin Powers. Also, there's an interesting role reversal between the two. British people are typically seen as very stuffy and uptight, much more so than Americans, but Steve Rogers is generally very stiff while Austin Powers is famously groovy. It would be like an Odd Couple reboot mixed with the time displacement of The Brady Bunch Movie.

Immediately After the Events of The Avengers or Winter Soldier

As great as Captain America is, I can't think of anything he did in The Avengers that someone else couldn't have done. Still, I imagine it would have been a punch in the gut to happen upon the greatest soldier in history right after the greatest battle the world has ever known. It certainly seems unlikely that anyone in the middle of an alien attack would think "Good thing Captain America isn't here. He would bring absolutely nothing to the table."

On the other hand, for obvious reasons, Captain America played a much larger role in Captain America: Winter Soldier. As the star of the movie he sets everything in motion and is practically the only obstacle between Hydra and world domination. If Cap had stayed in the ice for a few more years millions of people would have died There's a chance no one would even know why if Hydra chose to stay in the shadows. If they found Steve just after the events of Winter Soldier no one would know just how much they needed him. It wouldn't have the same ironic edge as finding him after The Avengers but the loss would have been much worse.