Captain America has flaws? Oh wait, his speech in Civil War has flaws, but yeah, Cap does have a few flaws to his character as well, one of them being that he’s so incredibly stubborn that he’s not willing to bend or break when he’s actually in the wrong since he goes by his moral compass and is usually convinced that what he’s doing is for the greater good. You know, like destroying public and private property while fighting to save the city of New York, or destroying a lot more property when fighting in any battle he happens to get into. Now realistically we can’t say the heroes are always at fault for that since the bad guys really have no sense of personal property other when they start tearing things to pieces. But one of Cap’s biggest flaws came during a speech he was making to Spider-Man when Peter was on the run with people chasing him. Cap told him to stand his ground and not move from a moral standpoint, that he should make all others move. In other words he told Peter to be stubborn and cling to his own beliefs, which isn’t the worst thing in the world, but is bound to keep people apart more than it keeps them together. It could be that Cap’s whole point is to stand up for what you believe in and refuse to be bullied, which is a great message, but the fault comes from that being the wrong thing to do at that time.
Morality in the comics and in the movies is a malleable thing with some characters, but not with Captain America since he’s the hero, the upstanding and shining example of what the good guy should be and that others should aspire to be. The only downside is that Cap does have a few flaws and he has been kind of in the wrong before. For one his whole stance of not moving and forcing everyone else to move is kind of self-defeating since without any movement at all on the part of a single individual there’s no room for compromise, for growth, for a sharing of viewpoints and so on and so forth. Steve is advising Parker, in the comics, to basically just stand his ground and don’t bother listening or even pay attention to anyone else’s train of though when in truth this is how compromises are born and trouble is averted. It’s great to have pride in what you do and who you are, but something’s gotta give sometimes in order for anything to move forward.
Pride is definitely a big thing with Cap since he might be humble when needs to be, but his pride can get the best of him at times, as can his insecurities. When you think about it, the fact that he didn’t really earn his body or the skills that he has as a lot of others have has left him with a great number of insecurities since despite being a big, buff individual that can take down pretty much anyone in his weight class, he’s still that wimpy kid on the inside since that was something the super soldier serum couldn’t touch. It was proven when he had an issue with Howard Stark and then Tony Stark since he was still an insecure individual given that he thought Howard was making a play on Peggy Carter and when he believed that Tony was just like his father. Steve is the guy that talks tough, is tough, but deep down inside he’s likely hoping that no one sees past that since he does have a few weak points to his psyche that he’s hidden away behind such things as duty, honor, and other noble notions that he’s been handling for so long.
No one really wants to think that Cap is fallible or that his speech might have some serious flaws in it, but there are moments when standing your ground and being stubborn can be a serious detriment to learning and to moving forward in life, and that’s where a big flaw in his speech can be found. While it’s understood by a lot of people that he’s telling Peter not to give up his principles and to remain the same kind of person he’s always been, Cap is also telling him to be stubborn and refuse to compromise as well. People will take this any way they want to really since when it comes to interpreting the words spoken by another person, even if that person is fictional, folks tend to follow whatever narrative they feel is right, no matter if it might be kind of skewed in relation to what the individual actually meant. In other words, Cap might have needed to explain himself a little more.
