9 Worst Sins Of The Captain America Movie Series

The Captain America franchise is one of the most beloved corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it still has some flaws. Chris Evans embodied the stalwart Steve Rogers a.k.a. Captain America in a strong eight-year run across the Marvel movie timeline, from 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger to Avengers: Endgame. Evans’s Cap consistently stood as a super-soldier with a heart of gold, culminating in him lifting Thor’s hammer in Endgame (to thunderous worldwide applause.)

Still, even super-soldiers don’t fight as many wars as Steve Rogers has without some trouble along the way. For as big an MCU victory as Chris Evans’s Captain America movies have been, there have been some areas where his movies didn’t quite hit the mark. Occasionally, the opposite also happened, with the strengths of Cap’s films highlighting problems elsewhere in the MCU. Here are the 10 worst sins of the Captain America movie franchise.

Related: 10 Best Superhero Movies Of All Time

9 The MCU Did Not Unpack Bucky’s Trauma Enough

Steve Rogers’s best friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) is, like him, a super-soldier, but Bucky gains his abilities completely involuntarily when he is kidnapped and transformed into the Winter Soldier by HYDRA. Even worse, Bucky has lived for 70 years as a brainwashed assassin for the terrorist group, and while Steve eventually manages to free Bucky, he has lost as much if not more than Steve. Sebastian Stan himself wears Bucky’s grief on his sleeve through his performance in the role, but in terms of the franchise’s storytelling, the MCU did not devote much attention to the impact of being the Winter Soldier had on Bucky.

8 Cap Never Met Red Skull Again

Captain America: The First Avenger wastes no time in bringing Cap’s arch-nemesis the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) into the fold, and he is a very memorable MCU villain prior to being teleported to an unknown location by the Tesseract. Avengers: Infinity War eventually revealed that the Red Skull had been taken to Vormir and became guardian of the Soul Stone, but the fact that Steve himself did not cross paths with the Red Skull again feels like a sadly missed opportunity. Surely, the shock of seeing Red Skull alive would be immense for Steve, and could’ve served as a final capstone to their enmity before Steve’s retirement.

7 The MCU Didn’t Delve Much Into The Downsides Of Becoming A Super-Soldier

As Peggy Carter (Haley Atwell) explains in Captain America: The First Avenger, the super-soldier serum has given Steve a metabolism four times faster than a normal person’s, but Steve solemnly points out “I can’t get drunk” in a time of sorrow like mourning the apparent death of Bucky. While the MCU never needed to push Steve into outright alcoholism, his mourning period of Bucky shows there are disadvantages to the gifts the super-soldier serum has granted him. Surely, the pros of the super-soldier serum vastly outweigh the cons, but seeing a bit more of the latter could have added another dimension to what it means to be Captain America.

6 Cap Never Became A Real Ally To Spider-Man

As in the Civil War comics story, Captain America and Spider-Man (Tom Holland) are on opposite sides of the conflict in Captain America: Civil War, but they have long been trusted allies in the comics (and even the comics version of Civil War sees Spidey switch to Team Cap eventually.) Captain America and Spider-Man only have one interaction in Civil War, which consists of a brief confrontation during the movie’s airport battle, and they never directly meet again after. Sadly, this means that Cap and Spidey never got the chance to become heroic allies in the MCU, with their respective stories taking them in two opposite directions.

RELATED: What If Spider-Man Had Been On Captain America’s Side In Civil War?

Steve Rogers becomes a man out of his own time when he awakens in the 21st century after being frozen for decades at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger, but his MCU story devotes precious little time to his acclimation to the modern world. Much of it happens subtly, with Steve’s hairstyle gradually becoming more contemporary, while Captain America: The Winter Soldier briefly mentions Steve taking notes on modern developments like the internet. In the end, Steve Rogers adapting to the 21st century is still mostly left in the background of his character arc, and showing it more comprehensively would have been a great addition to his story.

4 Cap’s Modern Martial Arts Training Is Glossed Over

While Steve shows real fighting skill during his World War II battles in Captain America: The First Avenger, his fighting style in all of his modern day adventures is clearly far more eclectic. Steve obviously trained in a wide variety of different martial arts since being thawed out (just as Chris Evans himself did for the role), but the MCU devoted virtually no time to showing Steve’s actually martial arts training. While Steve was far better equipped as a super-soldier to pick up his new martial arts skills much faster than most people, it would still have been a fun side of his character development for the MCU to show.

RELATED: Why Thor Knew Captain America Was Worthy

3 Cap’s Iconic Catch Phrase Makes Other Heroes Look Bad

Cap’s “I can do this all day” catchphrasemost certainly pre-dates the MCU, but Steve Rogers made it into a one-liner that has become forever associated with Captain America’s indomitable spirit. However, for as quippy and joke-laden as the MCU famously is, virtually no other character has created a similarly memorable catchphrase. The only exception is arguably Tony Stark, who made “I am Iron Man” into both a mic drop and his literal dying words in Avengers: Endgame. Even still, Steve’s is far more easily plugged into real-life banter and conversations, which makes Captain America the only MCU hero to be instantly recognizable by a simple line of dialogue.

RELATED: Captain America Movies In Order: How To Watch Steve Rogers’ Films

Avengers: Infinity War introduces a more jaded, rugged Steve Rogers in the aftermath of Civil War, having essentially shed the moniker of Captain America and become Nomad. While Steve returns as Cap in Avengers: Endgame, the MCU missed the chance to tell a story focusing on a disillusioned Cap struggling to return to his ideals of heroism and patriotism before the arrival of Thanos. This could have even been told as an interquel movie similar to Black Widow. While Steve’s time as Nomad in the comics adds some new layers to his character growth, it’s a side of him that the MCU only featured fleetingly.

1 Captain America: Civil War Is Really Just Avengers 2.5

2016’s Captain America: Civil War adapted the Civil War comic book story for the MCU, and while it tries to position Cap as the central figure, it is an Avengers movie, through and through. Admittedly, that’s built into the Civil War story itself, in which Captain America and Iron Man lead two factions of Marvel heroes in a conflict over new legislation relating to superhero activity. Still, when Captain America‘s co-stars include the majority of the Avengers, in addition to Spider-Man and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) making their MCU debuts, Captain America: Civil War is a classic case of a rose by any other name.

Key Release Dates

 Even super-soldiers aren’t flawless.  Read More