Re-Casting ‘Captain America: Civil War’ With The 2016 US Presidential Candidates

This week welcomes the release of Marvel’s third instalment in the Captain America franchise, and the latest cog in the larger Avengers universe, Captain America: Civil War. This, a depiction of America’s #1 superhero team divided amongst itself, comes rather eerily at a time when the United States is also tussling between opposing internal forces ahead of the November presidential election. There are the Democrats and the Republicans, but also tensions within the parties as candidates compete for the nomination with their warring ideologies and blockbuster egos.

This timing is surely a bit of marketing savvy from Marvel. It puts a unique, politicised stamp on the film in a year in which five — seriously, five — other superhero movies are hitting cinemas (not to mention the serialised TV offerings all competing for your likely limited spandex affections). But it’s interesting to see how far the parallels can be drawn. The marketing department go so far as to spell things out with colour-coded posters: Democrat blue facing off against the crimson of the Republican party. Let’s take things to their logical conclusion.

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Donald Trump – Iron Man

If you’re subbing in White House hopefuls for members of the Avengers squad (which, yes that’s what’s happening here) you’d think leading Republican candidate Donald Trump would be a dead ringer for the grotesque, raging blunt instrument that is Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk. But looking closer at the political division of Civil War — chiefly, a superhuman registration act that would shackle vigilantes to administration by higher-ups — then Trump is surely the Iron Man/Tony Stark of this fight.

Think I’m wrong? Like Stark, Trump’s a billionaire tycoon fond of emblazoning his name on the side of buildings, not to mention he’s an unstoppable narcissist with a predilection for all things gold. But more than anything, Stark reflects Trump’s reactionary border “strengthening” policies with the industrialist telling his fellow Avenger-turned-combatant Captain America “I’m doing what has to be done… to stop something worse”.

Shit, they’ve both even got the questionable hair thing in common, though Stark’s is on his chin.

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Bernie Sanders – Captain America

Though he’s often pigeon-holed as a poster boy for the red, white and blue, Captain America has a history of butting heads with the US government in the comics (see the late ‘80s Captain America No More storyline where Rogers relinquishes his shield in a pre-cursor to Civil War). With this, Evans’ passionate yet jaded incarnation of the character would most definitely be feeling the Bern in 2016. Vermont senator and Democratic nomination-seeker Bernie Sanders’ crusade to overhaul tired party politics in this election aligns well with Cap’s rejection of the Avengers becoming an arm of the government.

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Hillary Clinton – Black Widow

The parallels for Trump and Sanders and their Civil War superhero counterparts come easier than others thanks to the candidates’ diametrically opposed ideologies and the huge schism between the two Avengers leads. But finding a suitable part in Civil War for Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is a little more tricky. Hawkeye’s too much of a second stringer for Clinton, Falcon’s probably too cool, and without knowing much about new Marvel cinematic arrival Black Panther it’s safe to say she doesn’t fit that well either. No, ultimately the only casting that feels right for Clinton is Black Widow (aka Natasha Romanov) played by Scarlett Johansson — and that’s not just because she’s consistently been the only woman in the superhero boy’s club.

Fittingly, Widow’s a seasoned insider and has the bad-ass abilities to dominate her opponents despite being repeatedly beleaguered by political bullshit in the past. In Captain America: Winter Soldier, Romanov even became embroiled in senate hearings following the leaking of classified documents, Benghazi style.

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John Kasich – Vision

As over-stuffed as the superhero lineup for Civil War is that’s nothing compared to the number of warm bodies (and Ben Carson who seemingly operated with the heat of room temperature milk) who originally stumped up for the Republican nomination. From an initial 17, we’re now down to three candidates still gritting their teeth through this hellacious ride to the GOP convention in July, but you’d be forgiven for forgetting that Ohio Governor John Kasich is still on the campaign trail.

Languishing at the bottom with a handful of delegates and a lone primary win, Kasich is the perfect match for Team Iron Man supporting cast member, Vision: a polite robot that nobody pays much attention to. Introduced in the Avengers sequel, Age of Ultron, Paul Bettany’s Vision is a bastard child created from a custom-made Ultron body and Tony Stark’s old J.A.R.V.I.S artificial intelligence system. He is activated by the mind gem found on Loki’s scepter; an origin nearly as ridiculous as Vision’s green, gold and beetroot colour scheme. Politically, Vision is as bland as the moderate persona Kasich publicly promotes. Behind the Trumps and Starks of their respective teams, why bother keeping up with these mild-mannered machines?

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Ted Cruz – War Machine

Trying to match Ted Cruz to one of the Marvel superheroes enlisted for Civil War is awfully difficult as they each have character traits that make them at least a little bit likeable — something that doesn’t seem to extend to the widely-loathed Texas senator. In what feels like an undeserved slap in the charismatic face of Don Cheadle, the most logical case is to re-cast Cruz as War Machine; a second rate Iron Man of sorts who is forever dwarfed by Tony Stark/Donald Trump’s shadow. While War Machine has never tried to outlaw sex toys, he has been known to lay the nationalism on thick like Cruz, one-upping Iron Man with his own abhorrent stars ‘n’ stripes Iron Patriot armour. And also, doesn’t the name War Machine just scream RNC stooge to you?

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Captain America: Civil War is in cinemas now.

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Dave Ruby Howe is a writer, broadcaster, listener and watcher of things from Sydney. He has contributed to FasterLouder, The Cool Hunter and The Canberra Times and tweets at @daverubyhowe.