Captain America
A good time to celebrate the Avengers who stand up to bullies.
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My first favorite superhero when I was a kid was Captain America.
So, when a handoff of Captain America’s shield happened this week, it piqued my interest.
For background, in July 2025, CBS announced that it would end “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and retire “The Late Show” franchise – originally hosted by David Letterman. [1]
Colbert had been an outspoken critic of President Trump, but here’s the timeline:
On July 1, 2025, Paramount, which owns CBS, decided to settle a lawsuit with Trump for $16 million over the editing of a "60 Minutes" interview. [2] At that time, Paramount was seeking approval from the Trump administration to merge with Skydance Media. [3]
On July 14, Colbert criticized Paramount's decision to settle the lawsuit. He said on his show that the technical name in legal circles for the settlement was “big fat bribe.” [4]
On July 18, CBS announces that “The Late Show” would end in May 2026. [5]
On August 7, Paramount and Skydance announce that the merger was finalized. [6]
[By the way, his CBS show was just awarded 2026 Emmys for Outstanding Variety Series and Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series…] [7]
Colbert is a big fan on Captain America, and this fandom eventually led him to receive Captain America’s star-spangled shield in 2007, as told by lifestyle website BroBible: [8]
A year after The Colbert Report kicked off, our beloved leader/political guru/master of the backdoor compliment played host to Marvel Comics editor Joe Quesada. As a huge fan of Captain America, Colbert was all too eager to talk about The First Avenger’s return in an all-new comic book arc of the time, Civil War.
In the story, a tragic event prompted the US government to issue a law mandating the registration of all super-powered individuals. As a civil-liberties-vs-personal-freedoms framing device, Iron Man and Captain America squared off on opposite sides. The title has since become one of the most famous and widely read comic runs in the Marvel canon…
Steve Rogers as Captain America, however, never made it out of Civil War alive. Knowing that Colbert was such a fan of the hero, Quesada did something that would forever change the course of The Colbert Report: on the March 12, 2007 episode, he bequeathed Captain America’s weapon-of-choice to Colbert.
Colbert was always the Avenger of political talk shows, so it seemed fitting. Afterwards, that shield became a mainstay on the show and Colbert’s title as the new Cap.
Captain America’s shield was given to Stephen Colbert in 2007, and he kept it on prominent display during his run on Comedy Central.
[…there’s a subtle controversy about the shield, since Mark Gruenwald – the 1985-1995 author of the Captain America storyline at Marvel - made the shield himself. It stayed in the Marvel offices after his passing in 1996, but then Marvel gave it to Colbert…][9]
Captain America was a superhero who fought bullies in the World War II timeframe and punching Nazis since the first publication in March 1941 [10] – most significantly from the storylines, his archenemy was Red Skull – a high-ranking Nazi officer, personally trained by Hitler himself. [11]
One of Cap’s quotes from the 2011 movie Captain America: The First Avenger: “I don’t like bullies. I don’t care where they’re from.” [12]
[The 2018-2021 omnibus collection of Captain America, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and where Red Skull makes a return, is still on my book list…]
Colbert has been described as the “Avenger of political talk shows,” [13] speaking up against political bullies. And it looks like his frank opinion about his employer’s settlement with the Trump administration got him fired.
Well, Colbert wasn’t the only late night host targeted by the Trump administration: ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel faced his own slings and arrows.
In September of last year, Kimmel was suspended indefinitely for remarks he made after conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Trump’s head of the FCC, Brendan Carr, went public with a mobster-like threat regarding his comments: [14]
Brendan Carr, the head of the Federal Communications Commission, issued a warning prior to Kimmel's suspension that criticized Kimmel's remarks about the Kirk assassination.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Carr said. "These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead."
President Trump posted on social media that Kimmel's suspension was "great news for America." He also called for other late-night hosts to be fired. [15][16]. However, Kimmel was reinstated days later after visible shows of support arose for him. [17]
But, Carr and the FCC weren’t done with Kimmel. A year later, according to Kimmel during his monologue on his September 9 show, the FCC threatened Kimmel about airing an interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico. There has been considerable FCC attention on any shows that interview Talarico, seemingly in an attempt to thwart his ability to defeat Republican candidate Ken Paxton; here is an overview of this from Texas Tribune reporting: [18]
Late-night show host Jimmy Kimmel will not broadcast an interview with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico to be taped Thursday, after the Federal Communications Commission “threatened” his show and its network, he said on his show Wednesday.
“For the whole 20-plus year[s] of our show, in fact, I’ve been interviewing Americans who are running for office with no problem at all,” including Hillary Clinton, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and President Donald Trump when he was a candidate in 2015, Kimmel said.
“But for some reason — and I can’t seem to figure out what that reason is — something has changed,” he continued. “Now that he is president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network ABC, our affiliates, our local stations based on simple traditional editorial decisions: guest bookings it would seem they don’t like.”
Talarico’s interview with Kimmel will be posted on YouTube, Kimmel said. Talarico was en route to Los Angeles from Dallas Thursday to tape the segment.
Talk shows have long been exempted from “equal time” rules when conducting “bona fide news interviews,” allowing them to book political candidates without bringing on their opponents. But in January, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr directed daytime and late-night TV talk show hosts to offer equal airtime to all political candidates running for a given office.
The FCC did not respond to a request for comment.
Republicans are “in danger of losing a Senate seat in Texas of all places where James Talarico is leading a piece of human silly putty named Ken Paxton,” Kimmel said. “I’ll be interviewing Talarico tomorrow night under unusual circumstances … out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas, who would have to deal with this nonsense, my interview tomorrow with James Talarico will not air on television.”
Kimmel opened the interview Thursday, which garnered over 2.2 million views on YouTube in 12 hours, with a claim that his show was “being targeted by the FCC for the crime of interviewing political candidates” and “because they want to make our editorial decisions for us, which of course we cannot accept.”
“This is not the first time you’ve been demoted to YouTube,” Kimmel said to Talarico. “Why are they so scared of you?”
In February, just as early voting kicked off in the primary, late-night show host Stephen Colbert accused CBS of pulling his interview with Talarico from the air over fears of running afoul of the Trump administration. CBS refuted that it had prohibited Colbert’s show from airing the interview. The FCC also opened an investigation into ABC’s “The View” after Talarico sat for an interview earlier this year.
The interesting part – rather than limit Talarico’s visibility, this may have had a “Streisand Effect” rise in attention as a result of the controversy. [19]
Kimmel’s return to live shows yielded an average viewership of 2.2 million in early September. [20] However, while being “demoted” to YouTube, the interview has generated 12.2 million views as of today’s writing. [21] You can watch the interview here:
By being attacked by and standing up to bullies, Colbert and Kimmel have earned the respect of quite a few Americans (including me), making the Colbert-to-Kimmel handoff of Captain America’s shield very appropriate between political comedy Avengers.
Kimmel had Stephen Colbert on as a guest for his September 15, 2026, show, Colbert’s first late-night appearance since the end of his own show and one day after his Emmy wins for his last Late Show season. [22]
You can actually watch the interview and Colbert-to-Kimmel shield handoff here: [23]
Bottom line: we need people who are fighters and surface the truth - where comedy and wit can sometimes be the best way for truth to be discussed and heard.
And I know it’s tough to do, given the forces around us to give up the fight: bullies who want us to give in and not challenge them to do what they want – still others would prefer that we stop talking about it and just get along, because surfacing the truth can make them uncomfortable.
Protecting these rights is what we wrap up in our First Amendment, but this is what we culturally believe in as Americans – standing up for our right to hear and voice the truth, because we decide better when that's so.
Any efforts to prevent free speech - especially having to hear things that people may not want to hear because it makes them uncomfortable - should meet significant resistance from us.
So today, it’s a good time to celebrate these Avengers.
Notes and Sources
[1] “’The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ to end in May 2026,” CBS News, July 18, 2025, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-late-show-stephen-colbert-end-may-2026/
[2] David Bauder, “Paramount will pay $16 million in settlement with Trump over ’60 Minutes’ interview,” AP News, July 2, 2025, https://apnews.com/article/trump-media-harris-minutes-paramount-6415042fe910ae60b432dd8c73ef61b2
[3] “’The Late Show’ to end,” CBS News, July 18, 2025.
[4] David Bauder, “The Paramount comics, Colbert and Stewart, are sharp critics of the ’60 Minutes’ deal,” AP News, July 15, 2025, https://apnews.com/article/colbert-stewart-trump-paramount-settlement-0c4cf4688718f8bada17cba10b44bebf
[5] “’The Late Show’ to end,” CBS News, July 18, 2025.
[6] “Skydance Media and Paramount Global Complete Merger, Creating Next Generation Media Company,” PR Newswire, August 7, 2025, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/skydance-media-and-paramount-global-complete-merger-creating-next-generation-media-company-302524343.html
[7] “Stephen Colbert,” Television Academy, Emmys, retrieved September 19, 2026, https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/stephen-colbert
[8] Nick Romano, “How The Comic Book Death Of Captain America Changed ‘The Colbert Report’ Forever,” BroBible, Horseneck Media LLC, October 12, 2022, https://brobible.com/entertainment/article/stephen-colbert-captain-america-shield/
[9] Christopher Chiu-Tabet, “Stephen Colbert passes Mark Gruenwald’s Captain America shield to Jimmy Kimmel,” The Beat: The Blog of Comics Culture, Superlime Media LLC, September 16, 2026, https://www.comicsbeat.com/colbert-cap-shield-kimmel/
[10] Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Captain America Comics No. 1, Timely Comics, March 1941.
[11] “Johann Shmidt – Red Skull,” Marvel, retrieved September 19, 2026, https://www.marvel.com/characters/red-skull-johann-shmidt
[12] Joe Johnston, director. Captain America: The First Avenger. Paramount Pictures, 2011.
[13] Nick Romano, “How The Comic Book Death Of Captain America Changed ‘The Colbert Report’ Forever,” October 12, 2022.
[14] Mark Kennedy, “ABC ends Jimmy Kimmel's suspension, says his late-night show will return Tuesday,” PBS News and Associated Press, September 22, 2025, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/abc-ends-jimmy-kimmels-suspension-says-his-late-night-show-will-return-tuesday
[15] Ibid.
[16] Donald J. Trump [@realDonaldTrump], TruthSocial, September 17, 2025, https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115222372625104790
[17] Mark Kennedy, “ABC ends Jimmy Kimmel's suspension,” September 22, 2025.
[18] Kayla Guo, “Jimmy Kimmel won’t air interview with James Talarico after threat from FCC,” Texas Tribune, September 10, 2026, https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/10/jimmy-kimmel-james-talarico-fcc-interview/
[19] “Streisand effect,” Wikipedia, retrieved September 19, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
[20] Jed Rosenzweig, “Weekly Ratings: Kimmel’s Return Lifts Jimmy Kimmel Live! 59%,” LateNighter, Snugglefish Media, September 18, 2026, https://latenighter.com/news/ratings/weekly-ratings-september-6-2026/
[21] Jimmy Kimmel Live! And James Talarico, “Jimmy Kimmel’s Interview with James Talarico That the FCC Doesn’t Want You To See,” Jimmy Kimmel Live, YouTube, September 10, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLDE9LrGpNk
[22] Brandon Marrow, “Stephen Colbert reveals gift for Jimmy Kimmel in late-night return,” USA Today, September 16, 2026, https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv-streaming/2026/09/16/stephen-colbert-jimmy-kimmel-live-show-emmys-shaves-beard/91774089007/
[23] “Stephen Colbert on the Emmys, His Wife Hating His Beard & Gifting Jimmy His Captain America Shield,” Jimmy Kimmel Live, YouTube, September 16, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcUeQW3tSq0
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