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At the dawn of what’s now known the whole world over as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, video game publisher Sega and a cadre of developers navigated tight deadlines and short development cycles to build games starring superheroes like Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America. These were all based on the films released from 2008-2011 that would eventually culminate with The Avengers in 2012 and released on just about every device on the market during that era.
Though there are a few gems among them, most are what players came to expect from titles launched next to a film. Games like Iron Man and Thor: God of Thunder on at-the-time next generation machines quickly found themselves with slashed sticker prices or traded back to retailers like GameStop. One, however, stood out among the pack and is a game that many defend over a decade past its release: Captain America: Super Soldier.
Developed by Canadian studio Next Level Games, who nowadays are the stewards of the Luigi’s Mansion franchise, Super Soldier was an Arkham-like starring the Star Spangled Avenger. While it borrowed from Rocksteady’s ground breaking Batman games, it did so in a way that still made it standout as an interactive Captain America adventure above all else. Captain America himself, Chris Evans, even admitted on the set of Captain America: The Winter Soldier that he was never a video game player, but he loved this one.
Christos Gage is a name that needs little introduction. If you’re someone who loves comics, as well as adaptations based on them, chances are you’ve seen his name on covers or in credits. Christos lent his talents to shows like Daredevil and video games like Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Iron Man VR. The first video game he’s credited on is Captain America: Super Soldier, and he was kind enough to give up some of his very valuable time to speak about working on it.
COMIC BOOK VIDEO GAMES: Captain America: Super Soldier released alongside Captain America: The First Avenger during the summer of 2011. When did you officially join the project?
CHRISTOS GAGE: I can’t remember the exact date, but I am pretty sure it was in late 2009, possibly early 2010. I got a call from the then-head of Marvel Games, T.Q. Jefferson, asking if I was interested in writing for a Captain America video game. They wanted someone who had experience with and knowledge of the comics, but they were also impressed with my record of writing for television and film. I had never written video games at that point, so I was intrigued to give it a try.
CBVG: When you started on Super Soldier, did the developers have an idea of what the game was going to be both from a story and mechanical standpoint?
GAGE: Up to a point. They knew where in the movie it took place, and it was already a given that it would be set in an old medieval castle that had been remade into a Hydra stronghold. I believe the goal of rescuing the Howling Commandos was also set. I was told that the Red Skull could be a sort of background evil presence but could not be a villain who Cap fought, in order to stay consistent with the events in the movie, so it was suggested that Arnim Zola be the main villain, but through a robot persona similar to the body he uses in the Jack Kirby comics. Beyond that, I was asked to suggest other possible villains. I recommended most of the other villains in the game…Baron Strucker and his Satan Claw, Iron Cross, Madame Hydra (using the idea that Madame Hydra is a title that has been used for decades or centuries). I lobbied for Baron Blood, but I was told that at that point vampires did not exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the BLADE films notwithstanding. The devs really liked my suggestions and I thought they did an amazing job bringing the villains to life.
CBVG: The game is seemingly set during the montage in Captain America: The First Avenger after Cap rescues Bucky and the other POWs. How much freedom were you given to play around in that time window? Was there ever the chance it was just going to be a straight adaptation of the film?
GAGE: No, it was never going to adapt the film. It was always going to be a sort of open world within an enclosed environment, if that makes any sense, within this elaborate castle, and it was always going to take place during the montage in the movie when Cap and the Howling Commandos were active in the European Theater. I think the notion of Cap having to find and free the Howling Commandos was also there from the start. So we weren’t looking to reinvent the wheel or do anything wild or shocking. It was a pretty straightforward search and rescue mission, and the idea was to make it the best it could be within that framework. Incidentally, at that point in the development of the movie, the Howling Commandos were being referred to as the Invaders, although I don’t remember why. They got switched to the Howling Commandos at some point, but I think it was too late to change it in the game, if I remember right.
CBVG: You had experience writing Marvel characters prior to working on Captain America: Super Solder. How different was the writing process for you when working in the interactive medium in contrast to comics? I stand to be corrected, but I believe this was your first video game credit.
GAGE: You’re right, it was. It was a new and different process. The first task was to figure out the basic framework, which wasn’t that different from outlining a movie, the beats in a TV show or the plot points in a comic book storyline. That involved all the department heads working together. Then different levels would be worked out, and I would be sent placeholder dialogue that I would revise, or I would be sent requests like “please provide 25 lines of Hydra guards reacting to hearing a noise”. Writing the cut scenes or cinematics, which are the scenes that play like mini-movies in between gameplay, was much like writing a scene in a TV or movie script, except they have to be very short.
CBVG: The First Avenger pits Captain America mostly against the forces of HYDRA led by Red Skull. Super Soldier expands its villain roster with the likes of Iron Cross, Lady Hydra and Baron Strucker. Were you able to suggest these characters, or were they already decided upon as the bosses?
GAGE: As I mentioned, I suggested most of the bosses, including the ones you mentioned. But the devs came up with a lot of the very cool variations on the Hydra troops you mentioned, like the ones with shields, flamethrowers, and other weapons, and the altered humans found in the castle’s depths that had been experimented on by Hydra to the point where they had psychic powers but had also gone mad.
CBVG: Are there any deep cuts from the comics that you were able to sneak in that people to this day may not have caught?
GAGE: Haha! I don’t recall anymore, it’s been a while. We did want to try to get Union Jack in there. At one point there was a side mission where Falsworth, the British member of the Howling Commandos, is being held separately, and Cap has to go find him. He discovers that Falsworth has been brainwashed to believe Cap is an enemy of Britain and that Falsworth, who has been given the identity of Union Jack, has to defeat him to save his country. But there wasn’t time to do that, ultimately. I also tried to get the line “America still needs your help” in there – a nod to the Captain America and the Avengers arcade game from the early 90s (that I played obsessively) – but I don’t remember where, and I have no idea if it made it into the finished game or not. Now that I think about it, I think it may have been as a “game over” screen message.
CBVG: Was there a character, hero or villain, that you loved writing for?
GAGE: This might sound weird, but my favorite characters to write for were the Hydra guards. Getting to write dialogue like “Vas ist – ? NEIN!!” was like bringing the comics of my childhood to life. Jack Kirby’s Captain America, the Invaders, Sgt. Rock and Sgt. Fury…it was such a blast.
CBVG: Captain America: The First Avenger still stands out today among many Marvel films because of its unique retro sci-fi aesthetic. How fun was it to play around in that world and the lingo of the era?
GAGE: It was really enjoyable. I wasn’t so much trying to capture accurate 1940s dialogue as going for a slightly heightened version of what we’ve come to believe 1940s dialogue is from film noir, war movies and other such sources.
CBVG: Actors from The First Avenger like Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell and Neil McDonough reprise their roles in Super Soldier. Did you get to sit in on any of the recording sessions? What did it feel like knowing the words you wrote would be spoken by these performers?
GAGE: I did not, although I would have loved to. But there was a very short timeframe when they were recording and at the time I was not living in Los Angeles, so I couldn’t make it. But I was very happy that they got such a wonderful cast, not just the actors from the film but the voice actors for the game-only characters as well. What I heard from the people who were there was incredibly positive. Obviously Hayley Atwell and Neal McDonough are accomplished and brilliant actors who elevate everything they do. Sebastian Stan especially was said to be super enthusiastic about the whole process by the people I spoke to who were present. And as a side note, I have read in interviews that Chris Evans was very impressed with the fighting in the game, to the point that when he met with the Russo brothers about the Winter Soldier movie, he talked to them about making the fighting in that film more like it was in the game. It turned out the Russos had been fans of the game as well, and had already talked among themselves about going in that direction. Continuing the “small world” theme, among the stunt performers in Winter Soldier were Philip Silvera, who was a stunt and fight coordinator on Daredevil when I worked on that, and Chris Brewster, Chris Evans’ stunt double, who was also Charlie Cox’s stunt double on Daredevil. That’s what I call the circle of superhero life!
CBVG: You’re credited on the at-the-time “next gen” version of Super Soldier from Next Level Games and the Wii version from High Voltage Software. Do you remember any major differences in the scripts? I know one is that Falsworth is teased to become Union Jack in the PS3/360 game and that’s shifted to Bucky becoming Winter Soldier in the Wii version.
GAGE: I forgot about that. The only other thing I recall is that in the Wii version there was a rather unusual “trophy” collectible the player could collect, in the form of Allied POWs that Cap would set free, which I thought was cool. Cap would liberate a G.I. and the soldier would say something like “Thanks, Cap! I thought I was a goner!” and Cap would say something along the lines of “Your country owes you a debt, soldier!” and salute him, and you’d get points. I enjoyed writing that dialogue. I was trying to walk right up to the line of corny without crossing over. I wanted it to come across as sincere, without the snark and wink-wink-nudge-nudge that’s been part of our collective dialogue since the 60s. Chris Evans delivered the lines perfectly, exactly how I had hoped. I thought it was a really cool in-game collectible as opposed to something like gems or coins…a reminder that actual people won the war for us, and some of them are still with us, and they deserve our eternal gratitude.
