PTSD in Avengers: Age of Ultron

This might be late coming, but let’s think back to Avengers: Age of Ultron. If anyone knows me, they know that Captain America is my favorite Marvel character. They also know that I absolutely despised Age of Ultron. I hated the storyline, I hated the characters, and I hated what they did to my babies. But that’s not the point of this. The one thing that I really enjoyed about Age of Ultron, that made me go back and watch the movie again so that I could really zoom in and look at it, was the examination of Steve Rogers’ PTSD. The Russo brothers’ have already said that in Civil War, his PTSD will be explored even more, but the fact that there was even the vaguest introduction to it in Age of Ultron saved the movie for me at least a little bit.

            The two most obvious moments to me were the party scene after the opening battle and Steve’s fear sequence. We know that Thor is inherently “other,” he’s not from here, he’s a god, these are all things that we know. What’s interesting about the party is how Steve remains with Thor the entire night. He associates himself with the “other” and therefore “others” himself. When he’s not with Thor he’s usually by himself, except for that one conversation with Sam that ends with a staring off into the distance, lost in his thoughts.

            When Wanda forces Steve to imagine his worst fear, we first see a dance hall and him dancing with Peggy. The soldiers who are dancing and drinking are boisterous, spilling wine on themselves without a care in the world. He has his true love back, nothing seems to be wrong. But as the scene continues on, the wine on the uniforms turns to blood, and eventually the hall empties, leaving Steve standing alone in the center. He is always left alone. He is out of his own time, without Peggy, his true love, without Bucky, his best friend, and without the soldiers he used to command. Though he has leads on finding his best friend, he is essentially chasing a ghost. Nothing is guaranteed for him.

            I argue that this is the one thing that Age of Ultron did well in relation to their characters. The characterization of the rest of their characters was flat and it didn’t reach to their prior movies. It seemed as though the MCU canon didn’t exist in AOU. While the fight scenes were good, it was almost as though the movie revolved around making those fight scenes. But placing tidbits of Steve’s PTSD added something to his character that can be expanded on in later movies and was enjoyable while watching Age of Ultron.