Jung's love for comics, Marvel and more

This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry’s Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ARLINGTON -- Josh Jung tries to find a comic book store in every city when the Rangers are on a road trip. It's something that he feels takes him away from baseball for a bit.

His love for comic books is one that was born first out of the premiere of one of Marvel’s first films in “Captain America: The First Avenger” in 2011. A few years later, when working with the Miracle League in high school, the kids he was working with asked him to dress like Captain America for Halloween.

“That's kind of how it all really came to be kind of embedded in me,” Jung said. “I just really fell in love with the Marvel Universe and then got into all the comic books.”

It’s only grown deeper and deeper ever since.

That love for Marvel Comics, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and more specifically, Captain America, is present in his day-to-day life, both on and off the baseball field. His ever-present water bottle has a Captain America logo and a mini Captain America shield is in his locker at Globe Life Field.

When asked in Spring Training who his favorite superhero was, Jung simply pulled out a Captain America t-shirt from his locker without comment.

“Yeah, like I said, everywhere we go, I try to go to a comic store or something because I collect baseball cards, but I'm more into comic books and stuff right now,” Jung said. “So it’s kind of cool, because there's more backstory in the comics. It’s like reading a book and then watching the movies. The movie isn’t gonna have everything. So knowing what's in the movies and reading the comic books, it’s almost like, ‘Oh, wait, that's how it all connects.’ It’s cool.”

His favorite Marvel movie remains “Captain America: The First Avenger,” but as he’s dug deeper into the comic book storylines, he’s begun to enjoy all the different aspects of the universe.

And to no surprise, most of the focus is on Captain America.

“Of the stuff I have right now, my favorite is a little spin-off after ‘Endgame,’” he said. “Like ‘Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty’ and ‘Symbol of Truth.’ But those have been coming out afterwards, and it's like Sam Wilson’s Captain America and then like Captain America, when he goes back in time kind of doing his thing. So just kind of reading those things is fun.”

And his love for Marvel and Captain America has no-doubt evolved in recent years, assisted by the pandemic that left him with lots of free time, and simply by being an adult with the means to invest in his own interests however he pleases. It’s more than just t-shirts and water bottles.

In addition to Jung’s small -- but still growing -- comic book collection, he’s got a replica Captain America shield and a few statues lying around in his house in Lubbock.

“Now I’m collecting all kinds of stuff,” Jung said. “It's kind of cool when shows come out and you can go back and read about it. It’s just all-encompassing. I’m always looking. I have some apps and it's like with comics you get a key, and keys, certain keys, are like first appearances of people and all that kind of stuff. So I’m always looking at those keys and seeing all that kind of stuff, looking at what's hot and what's not.

“It’s fun. It kind of takes me away from baseball a little bit.”

His fandom isn’t limited to Marvel, either. He loves DC comics just as much and enjoys the CW/DC universe of shows, like "Arrow." "Supergirl," "Legends of Tomorrow" and "The Flash". His comic book collection includes just as many Star Wars stories -- maybe even more -- as Marvel and DC Comics.

“I have Ahsoka Tano’s first appearance in "Clone Wars" [the comics], it came out in like 2007 or something,” Jung said. “I've mainly got Star Wars stuff and comics, especially newer Star Wars stuff.”

And he could talk way more about Star Wars than he can about Marvel. Back in 2022, coming off an injury-riddled season the previous year, Jung escaped baseball by binging “Book of Boba Fett” -- another Star Wars spinoff to go along with “The Mandalorian” -- on Disney+.

He’s also vocal about his love for “The Clone Wars,” a cartoon spinoff of the Star Wars prequels series following Anakin Skywalker before his turn to the dark side between “Episode II: Attack of the Clones” and “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.”

And now, even still, he’s digging deeper and deeper into the lore.

“The Star Wars convention was a couple of weeks ago and they talked about how they're expanding their little universe,” Jung explained. “One of the series is ‘Dawn of the Jedi,’ which is supposed to be a prequel to all the stuff we've seen already that they're going to work on. They have these comic books that came out like 2014 or something that are literally called ‘Dawn of the Jedi,’ so they blew up and I was trying to get them.”

If he had to pick a fandom, which is he picking?

“I have to pick one? Oh, god, I don’t know. You can’t make me, they’re different worlds! I can have them both!

“But I guess if I have to, Captain America is my favorite Marvel comic. Like when I go comic book shopping, it's usually just Captain America stuff. With Star Wars, it's everything, all-encompassing. So I guess if I had to pick, I would probably go to Star Wars. I collect all kinds of Star Wars stuff, and then Marvel's just Captain America stuff.”