Steve Rogers is Not a Himbo
I always find it odd when people refer to Steve as a “himbo” or make jokes about him being a “dumb jock” or whatever. I just… don’t know where that comes from?
In canon, Steve is really smart. It’s not just that he’s a “tactical genius”, we see over and over that he has great deductive skills, he’s observant, thoughtful, and knowledgeable, and he’s excellent at quickly assessing situations/people and figuring out a course of action based on that. Just a few examples off the top of my head:
manages to infiltrate a HYDRA stronghold, take it down, and save several hundred prisoners, BY HIMSELF
leads an elite team of five people to successfully take out more HYDRA bases
after the ice, he wakes up in a strange place and immediately figures out that it’s not New York and that the woman there is lying to him
figures out Loki’s plan to use Stark Tower at the same time as Tony
finds SHIELD’s stash of HYDRA weapons (before Tony is able to find out what SHIELD is hiding)
makes pretty much all the leadership decisions during the Battle of New York, including the timing of when to close the portal
realizes that something hinky is going on with SHIELD, and connects it to the helicarrier project (which Fury hadn’t done)
is able to successfully figure out who can be trusted and who can’t (when even Fury put his trust in the wrong people)
realizes that the ambush in the elevator is going to happen before it does
figures out where the secret HYDRA bunker is at Camp Lehigh
comes up with the (ultimately successful) plan to take down the helicarriers
is the only person we see actually READ THE ACCORDS and make his decision based on that
figures out how to dismantle the Iron Man suit enough that Tony won’t be able to keep fighting
rescues his friends from the Raft, one of the most secure prisons in the world
I think maybe people confuse Steve’s rashness with stupidity, but… Tony Stark is arguably more rash than Steve, and no one argues that he’s not a genius. Steve doesn’t have a strong sense of self-preservation, and he tends to take risks– but his risks generally pay off, and when he does make a mistake, it’s usually because he’s in the grip of strong emotion (like when Rumlow mentions Bucky in CACW,). I think perhaps it’s easy to overlook Steve’s intelligence because it’s less flashy than some of the other characters’, and perhaps because he’s not an inventor or a scientist. But he is, in fact, extremely intelligent, and I think that deserves to be acknowledged a bit more often.
