Is Captain America basically a Space Marine?

[IanR]

i would have said a cross between most of the avengers = Capt A / Iron Man/ Hulk & Thor. the Cap enhanced Physiology & shield + Starks suit & power supply + Hulks size & Thors hammer = space marine with thunder hammer & lightning shield.

[AndrewGPaul]

Well, if you have to crowbar a comparison to Marvel superheroes in, that'll do, I suppose.

[Askari]

Well, if you have to crowbar a comparison to Marvel superheroes in, that'll do, I suppose.

That would make an excellent sequel movie, somehow the Avengers land in a gigantic blender, much gore is to be shed, a thunderclap is heard shattering the blender, and in the center stands Lysander.

[agurus1]

lol Askari! so are we talking more scout marine stats?

oh also, did anyone else think dark eldar raid when the aliens started pouring out of that portal? They were all in skimmer craft too!!! lol

[Lothlanathorian]

Movie cap is quite a bit stronger than comic cap,...

No, he really isn't.

[Awilla the Hun]

A far worse marksman, for one thing.

[Charistoph]

A space marine is a divergent species, with different physiological and psychological capacities. He is also encased in giant tank armour with it's own muscles and carries a rapid fire armour piercing RPG rifle and pistol. Homo Sapien Astartes.

I wouldn't say they are a divergent species any more than Captain America is. They are heavily modified, but unless someone has a reference 2nd Edition & beyond indicating that Astartes can mate AND have those traits and extra organs pass on to their offspring, they don't quite qualify as a specie.

[khirsath]

They don't mate the way humans do, but they do reproduce. Astartes are parasites on the human populace (you could argue it's a symbiotic role between the two populations I suppose)

[Orthodox]

Right.... That is so apparent in the lore as we have had over the years. Garviel Loken, Tari Torgaddon, Nathaniel Garro, the various traitor Astartes in M41 and teh years leading upto it. They all think and act as a uniform body. Or even loyalists such as in the case of Uriel Ventris and Ragnar Blackmane and what not. Yep yep. Soul? Really?

You and I have always looked for separate things from GW; in aggregate, we each buy a totally different product from the other. It's why I skip your threads and wonder why you reply to my posts.

There's nothing to be ashamed of in media-victimhood. I can see how being really into x-box is appealing, and I sympathize when you ask things like whether it would be cool if Keanu Reeves from The Matrix met the assassin from Nemesis and they both had wings. So, try to sympathize in the same way with me and my social background for a minute.

Someone had to imagine that his friends had souls. Imagine why, if you didn't already have one, you would need a word fot the location of individuals' humors and aptitudes.



Personalities and attitudes change. One person can become like another by breaking and resetting each others' bones so they look the same, by living in the same places and submitting to the same experiences. Torgaddon was jocular and pugnacious, like Horus. His actions were the same as Horus' might have been if they had switched places. That is all a soul is, it is a word for individual accumulations of personality and fate. Though they are many, they are one body, for they share one bread and one cup.

[Felwether]

I'd put that down more to indoctrination than anything to do with a Marine's soul. They think and act alike due to their training and the amount of time they spend together and I personally don't believe those things add up to a 'soul'.

EDIT:

Imagine why, if you didn't already have one, you would need a word fot the location of individuals' humors and aptitudes.

Wouldn't that be the individual's brain?

[SomeRandomEvilGuy]

No, he really isn't.

Really? I thought in the comics, Captain America was supposed to be the best a human could physically be, whereas in the movies, he seems stronger than a human could be at that size. He tears hatches off and hurls people around one handed; I'm not sure a person could do the same.

[Col. Tartleton]

Thor's looks, Wolverine's immortality and nigh invulnerability, Captain America's perseverance and determination, Iron Man's gear, the Hulk's rage, Deadpool's perchance for genocide, and whatever else comes to mind.

In 40k, Captain America is just another Cadian Guard Captain.

Cadians are big, blond, and pissed off. Cap's super strength is probably ties to human super strength. A woman could pull a car off her kid in the heat of adrenaline and fear. I'm sure a giant super olympian guy could do some serious damage on that kind of stimulant boost.

[Orthodox]

Wouldn't that be the individual's brain?

Well, I've changed history so that we are in pharaonic egypt and you don't know that brains are for cognition. Also, are brains for cognition?

They think and act alike due to their training and the amount of time they spend together and I personally don't believe those things add up to a 'soul'.

Then what does add up to a soul? That is exactly what a soul is, it's the locus of an physical ability, accumulated wisdom, social influence and personality. It explains how you are closer to your mother than you are two your next door neighbors, even though she's 1700 miles away, and why violence begets violence and avarice perpetuates itself. The Emperor has a huge warp presence because he changed the world and he changed the world because he has a huge warp presence. When he wanted to make little lieutenants for himself to further changed the world, he made them strong and inspiring, which is the same as giving them big warp presences. When he wanted his lieutenants to have armies that would work for them seamlessly, he cloned their strong and inspiring qualities, which are also their souls, and grafted them on to other living people, whose own unmodified destinies were not to change the world.


Like seriously, what does a soul do?

[Askil the Undecided]

Like seriously, what does a soul do?

Nothing, it's imaginary. Just a word made up by ignorant pre-iron age peoples to explain away why they (in their own perception) seem to be more "alive" than a Tree.

A soul is just a flowery word for the self and that is just a non-existent abstact for the physical and mental capacities and capabilites of an individual.

In 40k however the soul is the warp reflection of the individual, it is the reflection of the energy an individual expresses reflected in a realm of pure energy.

The Emperor purposely infused the powers of the warp into the Primarchs to make them superior to anything else around (even to the point of giving himself a run for his money.) The space marines on the other hand are not psychically gifted in this manner, they are just given extra moist meaty chunks (20 of them in fact) the fact that all humans in 40k are inherently psychic and that upon induction to a legion/chapter they are hypno-indoctrinated makes them manifest weird phenomena regarding their primarch.

[Reivax26]

Cap is way too nice to be a Space Marine. He doesn't have the killer instinct it would take to be one. Now if you wanted to take him as some awesome Imperial Guard character with Space Marine like stats for Str, T, WS and Leadership then yeah I agree with that.

[Shamana]

Cap is way too nice to be a Space Marine. He doesn't have the killer instinct it would take to be one. Now if you wanted to take him as some awesome Imperial Guard character with Space Marine like stats for Str, T, WS and Leadership then yeah I agree with that.

Wait, Imperial guardsmen were supposed to be nice :P ? Personally, I'd expect that marines have almost as much character divergence as guardsmen, if in a somewhat different spectrum.

Anyhow, if we were to put a captain in 40k stats, how about a (perhaps slightly improved) crusader - one of those guys occasionally turning up in inquisition retinues? They are very skilled fighters and extremely devoted. They even have storm shields .

[Col. Tartleton]

Wait, Imperial guardsmen were supposed to be nice :P ? Personally, I'd expect that marines have almost as much character divergence as guardsmen, if in a somewhat different spectrum.

Anyhow, if we were to put a captain in 40k stats, how about a (perhaps slightly improved) crusader - one of those guys occasionally turning up in inquisition retinues? They are very skilled fighters and extremely devoted. They even have storm shields .

Threads like this remind me why 40k ruins everything else. Nothing will ever be as hardcore as the Dark Millenium. No matter what setting you come across you'll always be comparing it to 40k and using the phrase "but less so."

[Erikjust]

Maybe Captain America is more akin to a Thunder Warrior then a Space Marine.
Speaking of Marvel i once debated with a friend of mine where the different characters in the Marvel universe would fit if they where "born" in the W40k world.
I can´t remember quite what we agreed on on all of the characters but here´s what i remember(it should be said it was mostly X-Men we debated):

Wolverine: Would most defiantly be a Space Wolf
Sabertooth: Would most likely also be a Space Wolf
Jean Grey: Would most likely either be a working with the Inquisition to interrogate prisoners (like the one in the outcast dead, though i can´t remember what her profession was)
Xavier: Being paralyzed from the waist down he probably wouldn´t be much use as a Librarian (haven´t read anywhere of marines that have their spinal cords severed somehow being able to walk again) so he would either be an Astropath or working alongside Jean as an interrogator.
Iceman: Would probably be hiding on Fenris or working with Chaos.

Can´t really remember what we came up with for the rest of them.

[El_Machinae]

i would have said a cross between most of the avengers = Capt A / Iron Man/ Hulk & Thor. the Cap enhanced Physiology & shield + Starks suit & power supply + Hulks size & Thors hammer = space marine with thunder hammer & lightning shield.

Hmmmn, I was thinking in terms of relative power ... I think that a trained soldier, put into the Iron Man armor with Cap's shield and Thor's hammer would be more powerful than a Terminator. In that, if put into 40k stats, it would require more points.

[GodlessM]

Shouldn't the OP question have been Did GW base space marines on Captain America?

Good to see I'm not the only one that realises Cap predates GW Space Marines by more than 4 decades.

A woman could pull a car off her kid in the heat of adrenaline and fear.

No she really couldn't. Average car weighs 1000kg. The strongest man in the world under stress (i.e. with adrenaline already pumping through him) can lift 395kg. I tihink you can see what I'm getting at here. Simply put, adrenaline can only do so much, the ability has to exist in the first place.