Captain America Grins With a Rude Gesture on Retro Art — Print & Oil Painting

The image is pretending to be an old printed sheet and it has done the work properly. The stock is cream gone brown along the edges, brown foxing spots are scattered unevenly across it, a fold crease runs down the right side, and a double rule border in red and blue frames the whole design a little way in from the trim.

The figure is head and torso only, turned three quarters, and grinning with the mouth wide open and the upper teeth showing. It is a broad, unguarded, almost goofy expression, and the eyes behind the mask are open wide to match it. The suit is a deep plum blue with a white star at the chest, the gloves are dull red, and the winged mask carries a white A.

Both hands are raised in front of him and given equal weight. The right hand has the middle finger extended straight up; the left is closed with the thumb raised. The artist has drawn them large and pushed them forward of the body, so the two gestures sit side by side at the centre of the picture and the viewer is asked to take both at once.

Below that the type takes over the bottom third. AMERICA! runs across in black, then F-YEAH fills the full width in heavy slab capitals of black and red, then a small shield roundel, then a line of small even capitals reading BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER. This is the brightest canvas in the group by a wide margin, at two thirds of the scale, and the reason is simply how much bare paper is left showing.

Irreverence about the flag is not an invention of the poster. In 1974 the comics had him trace a conspiracy up through his own government to a figure at the top of it, and his response was to take the costume off, drop the name and work for a considerable stretch under a different one. Whatever this sheet is doing to the character, the character has done worse to the uniform. Part of our Marvel collection, next to the same head reduced to four flat colours and a profile printed in red, white and blue ink.