Captain America Throws His Mighty Shield a Bit Early

As predicted, the Captain America trailer was begotten to the internet a full day and a half before it comes to theaters. That wasn’t much of a shock, really, but I tell you what is — that thanks to this trailer, I’m officially looking forward to Cap more than Thor. I don’t know exactly why this is — I mean, half this trailer is about 80-lbs. weakling Chris Evans, who looks incredibly freaky — so I think it’s the World War II setting that’s getting me. Or maybe it’s the incredibly badass Tommy Lee Jones voiceover, which is so well-suited to telling people to go kill the shit out of Hitler. Probably it’s a combination of the two.

But the thing I like most of all is that line “Because a weak man knows the value of strength.” That’s something I never considered about Captain America before, something I never saw or realized reading all those Avengers comics in the ’80s. The reason he’s so compassionate and determined to help the weak and powerless is because he was weak and powerless himself. I think that the “man out of time” thing is so prominent in Cap lore that I — and most people, I guess — kind of forget about the ramifications of his origin. I’m very impressed the Cap movie is bringing that kind of insight to a character I thought I had figured out.