
Captain America comics have been around for many years and when they were first written back in 1941 they were written to be propaganda for World War II. The original comic's portrayed Captain America, or Steve Rogers, fighting against different villains who were meant to represent communism through their Russian names and Russian ties. The comic takes place in two different times, one is the present day, and the other is a flashback of Captain America’s childhood. In the revamped comic recently written, Captain America lives in the present day in which he is seen trying to prevent a suicide bombing and is shown in bright vibrant colors, while the flashbacks are shown in black and white. Looking more in depth to the black and white flashbacks, there are different techniques used to instill a deeper meaning. Marvel’s comic “Captain America: Steve Rogers #1” used a lot of different color shading and color techniques to help emphasize what is taking place in the scene. The authors use monochromatic colors to set the scene’s location and time for each frame.

In this first frame at the bottom of page three there is the use of red on top of the black and white color scheme to express the violence that is taking place. The use of black and white in this photo are to represent the time in which this scene takes places. The black and white means that this is a flashback, however the entire scene is not just black and white, there is also some red in the frame. There is also the use of the color red in this image, and red has associations with anger, danger, and violence. This frame shows physical abuse between Steve Rogers’ mother and father, and the use of the color red and its associations line up perfectly with the ties to violence and anger. In this scene, Steve’s father was drunk and angry over his mother taking Steve to another man’s house. Feeling embarrassed and ashamed of himself, the father verbally attacked the mother until eventually he resorted to physical violence. There is a shadow across the faces of both the mother and father, meaning that there is little detail in their faces. The lack of detail in their faces could help readers associate more with the scene, had maybe they been through abuse and can connect with the faceless characters. The frame also appears to have no background in it, which can help draw focus toward the action at hand or also aid in allowing more connections with readers who have had similar experiences.

The top right frame of page four is in all black and white except for part of the woman’s 

clothing, which happens to be red which represents a warning of who she is and what ties she is involved with. This frame appears to be a close up of a woman, that of which resembles a flapper through the bobbed hair and the make-up. She has a stern angry look on her face, which is heavily detailed so that her emotion in the frame can be conveyed. She has dialogue, in which she says: “You should help her up.” Because of her irritated look, she is not making a mere suggestion, but telling him directly what she wants Steve’s father to do. There is a great deal of clear intensity in this frame from the woman looking directly at the reader and helps to focus on the fact that she is angered or upset. The use of red in her clothing could also be used as a representation of the anger she feels towards the abuse she just witnessed. In the context of this comic, the red is meant to represent the communist group Hydra. The red could also be interpreted as a warning, because Hydra is the evil communist group, the red could be a warning to stay away from the woman.

The very middle frame of page 18 brings more detail to the black and white faces of the women and the only color different than black and white is red showing the mother’s slow decent towards communism. In this frame there is more detail on both Steve’s mother and the woman in red’s faces. This amount of detail separates the characters from being connected because unlike the earlier frame, there isn't much emotion to really connect with. There is use of some color again, in the color red. The stripe on the woman’s hat, the red wine, the red napkin are all red. All of the red things in this image could show the conversion of Steve’s mother over to Hydra, as there begins to be more red in each frame and she is even holding a red napkin herself. There is an over the shoulder shot of the woman in red, which gives a better view of Steve’s mother and it allows a better view of Steve’s mother can show the napkin in her hand which is a representation of her slowly falling into communism with Hydra. There is semi reciprocal attention between the woman and Steve’s mother, in which Steve’s mother is focused on the woman but the woman is focused on something else. 

The bottom frame of page 30 has changed the black and white background to red, while maintaining the black and white color scheme some and the Hydra logo on the paper is a darker, almost blood red which represents their communist ways and the violence that is brought out from the group. The background of the entire frame is red, which could be a huge warning to what bad things will come from this scene. This scene was when Steve’s mother joined Hydra, which meant that Steve himself would be a secret Hydra agent and explains parts of the present day comic scenes. The over the shoulder shot allows a clear view of the flyer from Hydra and allows the view of who is reading the flyer. The viewpoint of this frame is object oriented over the flyer, and Steve’s mother is looking into joining Hydra. The text in the bottom right corner says: In the right moment it only takes one person to change the world forever.” This means that the choice Steve’s mother makes will determine Steve’s future and eventually make Captain America into a double agent for Hydra. The dark blood red color of the Hydra symbol could be a symbol for death yet to come, death that could be brought by Captain America who is now growing up under the influence of Hydra.

The colors used in “Captain America: Steve Rogers #1” helped to emphasize important elements in a frame and to help deliver a deeper message through the use of color. Black and white helped establish the idea of a flashback taking place, but with the extra hints of red added into some frames there was extra emphasis on what the red is meant to represent. The color red in this comic were used to represent the violence of communism, as well as warnings for them. As the comic went on there was more and more red added to each frame furthering the idea of a warning to what may happen. The final text box in the final frame summarizes what happened as a result of ignoring the warning signs of future violence and communism.

