Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Spirit of '76 (Marvel Comics)

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The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was merge‎ to List of Marvel Comics characters: S. Liz Read! Talk! 03:41, 21 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Spirit of '76 (Marvel Comics) (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log | edits since nomination)
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A minor comic book character, the article is the usual plot summary+publicaiton history with nor reception or analysis. BEFORE is no giving much except a few mentions in passing; realistically any reception we could write would be "this character, like several others, was inspired by Captain America"). I am afraid this fails WP:GNG. The best WP:ATD I can think of would be a slight merge to List of Marvel Comics characters: S. (The character is also mentioned in Alternative versions of Captain America, but I don't recommend merging there as that particular article likely fails GNG itself). He is mentioned in passing in our Captain America article, and I am afraid that, plus a brief plot summary in the list, is really all this minor character deserves. Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 03:37, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  • Merge: to List of Marvel Comics characters: S as per nom. Off-chance of more out-of-universe material in Amazing Heroes or Back Issue! articles on Invaders (comics) (will try to have a look later, I think I had these hooked out before I realised editing Marvel articles was pointless) but most likely passing mentions only (IIRC the character's awful name was occasionally commented on). BoomboxTestarossa (talk) 07:23, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
    • Comment: actually had this closer to hand than I thought. A 'Hero History' overview of The Invaders in Amazing Heroes #97 (June 15, 1986) posits the character is an expy of DC's Uncle Sam but mentions little else about the character beyond the bald minor facts that a) he existed and b) the later Captain America retcon, maybe two sentences total across a 10-page article. A similarly themed article in Back Issue! #37 mentions him even less, merely stating that the Crusaders were a "team too many". And that's pretty much it; other articles on the Invaders don't mention the character at all beyond the passing trivia note that it was Naslund's codename before he was retconned to be Captain America (a plot angle that has even less secondary coverage). So, in short, nothing to change my vote has turned up in the places this stuff usually does. BoomboxTestarossa (talk) 07:46, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep or merge to List of Marvel Comics characters: S per improvements made and sources added to the article and WP:PRESERVE. BOZ (talk) 15:24, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep or merge with List of Marvel Comics characters: S in the spirit of WP:PRESERVE just as @BOZ: suggested. --Rtkat3 (talk) 23:49, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment. I'll note that since this AfD started, User:Higher Further Faster has added a tiny reception section. Sadly, it seems to be based on WP:SIGCOV-faling mentions in passing in listicles. But it is nonetheless somethng worth considering for merging as suggested above. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here 23:41, 15 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
    Dealing with that kind of thing is why I gave up editing Marvel articles. As you say, both of those sources are questionable beyond being trivial mentions and I don't seem anything to change the idea that it should instead be merged. Seeing as a merge would effectively mean just dropping the entire article into the correct place on the list it seems to be another case of the fannish|arrogant|vain assumption that all Marvel characters are somehow entitled to their own pages and that in-universe notability (he fought Nazis in WW2 and was Captain America for years) is the same thing as real-world notability (he was a guest-star in some largely second-tier comics a couple of times). BoomboxTestarossa (talk) 08:55, 16 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.