Warning! Spoilers for The United States of Captain America #2!
In the sprawling film series that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America isn’t a hero that appreciates vulgar language, cuss words, or any kind of talk that he wouldn’t want his own mother to hear, and now his comic counterpart has doubled down on an MCU quote that shows just how closely related the two are in terms of their (mostly) squeaky clean reputation. Of course, that famous MCU quote is none other than the single word of “language” that Cap first utters during the opening moments of Avengers: Age of Ultron in response to a certain someone — aka the infamously obnoxious Tony Stark — stepping over Cap’s accepted vocabulary line.
Seen in the second issue of The United States of Captain America, by Christopher Cantwell and Dale Eaglesham, comic book Cap is shown to be following closely in his MCU doppelgänger’s ways by doing anything he can to not use language that his movie self would scoff at. Looking for the villains that are hunting down multiple civilian Caps, dubbed the Captains Network, whom have taken it upon themselves to help their communities across the board, Steve Rogers and one-time Captain America, Sam Wilson, find themselves in Pennsylvania in search of the next psuedo-Captain America to help and protect before something terrible befalls them.
Wondering whether or not he and Sam Wilson should “ditch the uniforms entirely with all this imposter crud,” Steve draws attention to the predicament that he himself and the ideals he stands for are currently up against, while simultaneously throwing in a hilarious “cuss” word (at least in his book) to get his point across. Saying “crud” instead of the decidedly more vulgar alternative, Steve follows this gem of a replacement word up a few pages later with a very wholesome exclamation of “good gosh” when he and Sam arrive to witness a scene that even Steve didn’t expect.
Being all about old fashioned ways, patriotism, American values and the thought that using curse words in public is entirely unacceptable regardless of who you are, Captain America has always been the most stand up and morally good hero of the Marvel Universe both in the comics and up on the big screen. Usually surrounded by comic characters that relish in a few expletives during the heat of battle (looking at you, Wolverine), comic Cap does his best not to stoop to their level of rudeness, despite getting into situations that would easily call for such a thing.
While replacing a few words here and there might stay in line with Cap’s hilarious “old man” image across both comics and film, it more so acts as a character moment that continues to show a man who won’t tolerate language that others would find offensive or just plain rude, further putting a spotlight on a quality of Captain America's that essentially makes him who he is. And not only that, but as this issue proves, subbing in a “crud” or “gosh” every so often is just plain funny to see, no matter which way you cut it.
So although the MCU version of Captain America has been the source of some hilarious memes in regards to his 1940s mentality over the years, comic book Cap has doubled down on an aspect inherent to his character that should never go away. Captain America most certainly won’t hesitate to punch the newest big bad right in the mouth if needed, but asking him to cuss at the dude on top of it? Better go see what Wolverine’s doing because Cap won't be having any of it.