On this day in 1990, Captain America burst onto the big screen…well, VHS…and flopped. If all you’ve ever known about Marvel superheroes is from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) which began with the release of Iron Man on May 2, 2008 (and, face it, Wikipedia, so you can hang in there with your comic book nerd friends) it may come as a shock to you that various directors and production companies took swings at Marvel characters long before the MCU was born. And one of the most misbegotten efforts was Captain America 1990.
Sure, one critical weakness was casting J.D. Salinger’s kid, Matt, as Captain America (who was terrible in the role), but the rest of the cast was pretty solid, including Ned Beatty, Darrin McGavin and Ronny Cox. Unfortunately the film’s other weaknesses include production flaws like clumsy direction, terrible editing and a budget that wouldn’t have kept the craft services table stocked on the set of The Avengers (2012).
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