Tabling the virginity business for a sec (forever and ever pretty please?) I do want to talk about where the good people of the MCU actually think Steve Rogers is. They opened another Smithsonian exhibit in his name. He has a whole musical honoring his life. And they put a shield on the Statue of Liberty. (Big ups to the Spiders-men for remedying that wildly contradictory symbolism.)
But, prior to She-Hulk, he was vaguely gone and definitely not dead, and definitely not playing shuffleboard in a super soldier retirement community in Boca. He is on the moon, maybe. He is not in an Avengers Con mural alongside Tony and Nat, honoring their sacrifice (x). And his ride-or-die pals are absolutely not allowed to mourn his absence in any real or meaningful way. (x - I have yelled about this at length already.)
Enter She-Hulk with the first explicit reference to Steve supposedly dying in the Battle of Earth. And I have so many questions, people! There were one zillion super hero witnesses to Steve being very much alive! And even if there weren’t, even if Steve and one-zillion of his closest super-buds made a pact to keep this secret for him, everyone and their mom was at Tony Stark’s funeral with a very not-dead Steve. You’re telling me this vast conspiracy hinges on that kid from Iron Man 3 keeping his dumb mouth shut?
So what the what is actually happening here? My most forgiving guess: the MCU wants to leave the door open for some multiversal cameos. My most cynical guess: if you acknowledge Steve’s real ending, you also have to acknowledge that there is no way in hell the citizens of the world are putting on a musical, putting a shield on the Statue of Liberty, or opening an exhibit for a guy who fucked off to the 50s and left everyone else to clean up the mess of the blip. Which means acknowledging that maybe that ending doesn’t sound so nice after all.
