Did you know there's a new Captain America movie out this weekend? Since I have actually broken this news to multiple fandomy people in the past week, you might not! Brave New World (with Sam Wilson as Captain America and Harrison Ford being unhappily motion-captured) is in fact the 35th installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 17 years.
WIRED asked me to look back at the Captain America fandom's heyday (aka The Peak Stucky Era) and contrast it with now. That comparison is *complicated*โnot least because of fandom's longtime sidelining of/racism towards Sam Wilson. But the MCU is in a very different cultural position than it was in the mid-2010s, and fandom is, too: superhero and franchise fatigue, dramatically shortened fandom life cycles, the end of the "juggernaut ship," etc. etc. Add onto that an ongoing BDS boycott of the film due to the inclusion of an Israeli character (a Mossad agent in the comics) and it makes for a very messy pop-culture picture.
Featuring interviews with fans and scholars including the great JSA Lowe, who articulated a helpful framing for these franchises right now:
She offers the linguistic term โsemantic depletionโ for thinking about the MCU and other big franchises that have pushed out nonstop installments in recent years. โWith each iteration, something can get more watered down,โ she says. โYou can retcon your retcons, but at a certain point, you lose the audienceโs engagementโyou lose their willingness to keep entertaining these iterations.โ
