The original Avengers
Steve Rogers
Captain America
Lived a full life in the past; returned aged and handed over the shield. D — how, unexplained
- Appearances
- 7
Along the chronological spine
Where the guide talks about them (16)
Adamantium, since it starts here. It's a near-indestructible metal found only in Tiamut's body. In the X-Men films it's what's bonded to Wolverine's skeleton and claws. It becomes the central plot object of Captain America: Brave New World (film, 2025), and
Steve Rogers, a physically frail young man from Brooklyn repeatedly rejected for military service, is selected by Dr Abraham Erskine for the perfected serum. It works. Erskine is assassinated immediately afterward, making Rogers the only successful subject.
- Steve Rogers — will wake in 2011 and lead the Avengers
- Bucky Barnes — is not dead. HYDRA finds him
- Peggy Carter — founds S.H.I.E.L.D. and lives a full life; Rogers's unresolved grief over her drives his final choice in Endgame
- Howard Stark — co-founds S.H.I.E.L.D.; father of Tony
- Arnim Zola — HYDRA scientist, captured, and quietly allowed to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. This is a catastrophe nobody notices for seventy years
This film sat ignored for seventeen years. Then Captain America: Brave New World picked up every single thread: Ross, Sterns, Betty, and Blonsky.
- The Incredible Hulk (film, 2008) — commissions the experiment that creates the Hulk, hunts Banner, creates the Abomination via Blonsky
- Captain America: Civil War (film, 2016) — now Secretary of State; the man who presents the Sokovia Accords
- Avengers: Infinity War (film) — brief video appearance
- Avengers: Endgame (film) — attends Tony Stark's funeral
- Black Widow (film) — brief
- Captain America: Brave New World (film, 2025) — President of the United States, recast from William Hurt (who died in 2022) to Harrison Ford, and this is the only film where he becomes Red Hulk
Steve Rogers returns the Stones to their original moments — and then stays in the past, living a full life with Peggy Carter, returning as an old man to hand the shield to Sam Wilson.
Underneath that is his belief that a Black man cannot be Captain America in this country and be accepted.
So the sequencing is: Bradley has a serum and no recognition; Walker has recognition and no serum, and takes one out of desperation; and Sam takes no serum at all. He becomes Captain America with wings, a shield, and no enhancement whatsoever, which is precisely the point.
| Character | Premiered | Appeared in | Status now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tony Stark / Iron Man | Iron Man (2008) | IM 1–3, Avengers, Ultron, Civil War, Homecoming, Infinity War, Endgame | Dead — used the Stones to erase Thanos, 2023 |
| Steve Rogers / Captain America | The First Avenger (2011) | First Avenger, Avengers, Winter Soldier, Ultron, Civil War, Infinity War, Endgame | Lived a full life in the past; returned aged and handed over the shield. D — how, unexplained |
| Thor | Thor (2011) | Thor 1–4, Avengers, Ultron, Infinity War, Endgame, Guardians 3 | Alive, raising Gorr's daughter Love. D |
| Bruce Banner / Hulk | The Incredible Hulk (2008) | Avengers, Ultron, Ragnarok, Infinity War, Endgame, She-Hulk, Brand New Day | Alive as Smart Hulk — Banner's mind, Hulk's body. Has a son, Skaar, on Sakaar |
| Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow | Iron Man 2 (2010) | IM2, Avengers, Winter Soldier, Ultron, Civil War, Infinity War, Endgame, Black Widow | Dead — sacrificed herself on Vormir for the Soul Stone |
| Clint Barton / Hawkeye | Thor (2011, cameo) | Avengers, Ultron, Civil War, Endgame, Hawkeye | Alive, retired to the farm, mentoring Kate Bishop |
| Nick Fury | Iron Man (2008, post-credits) | Most of Phases 1–3, Captain Marvel, Secret Invasion, The Marvels | Alive, aboard the SABER space station |
| Character | Premiered | Appeared in | Status now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Wilson / Captain America | The Winter Soldier (2014) | Winter Soldier, Ultron, Civil War, Infinity War, Endgame, FATWS, Brave New World | Alive — Captain America, rebuilding his own Avengers. D |
| Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier | The First Avenger (2011) | First Avenger, Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, Endgame, FATWS, Thunderbolts | Alive — congressman and New Avenger. Conditioning removed. D |
| James Rhodes / War Machine | Iron Man (2008) | IM 1–3, Ultron, Civil War, Infinity War, Endgame, Secret Invasion | Alive — though he was replaced by a Skrull for an unspecified period |
| Vision | Age of Ultron (2015) | Ultron, Civil War, Infinity War, WandaVision | Dead. His rebuilt body, White Vision, is active and the subject of VisionQuest |
| Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch | Winter Soldier (2014, post-credits) | Ultron, Civil War, Infinity War, Endgame, WandaVision, Multiverse of Madness | Presumed dead under Mount Wundagore. No body shown. Not in Doomsday |
| Pietro Maximoff / Quicksilver | Winter Soldier (2014, post-credits) | Age of Ultron | Dead, 2015. The WandaVision Pietro is a fake — Ralph Bohner, an impostor Agatha cast as a joke |
| Peggy Carter | The First Avenger (2011) | First Avenger, Agent Carter, Winter Soldier, Endgame | Dead of old age. Founded S.H.I.E.L.D. |
| Sharon Carter | The Winter Soldier (2014) | Winter Soldier, Civil War, FATWS | Alive — secretly the Power Broker, and reinstated at the CIA with full access |
| Helmut Zemo | Civil War (2016) | Civil War, FATWS | Alive, imprisoned on the Raft |
| Isaiah Bradley | FATWS (2021) | FATWS, Brave New World | Alive and freed after decades of wrongful imprisonment |
| Joaquín Torres / Falcon | FATWS (2021) | FATWS, Brave New World | Alive — the new Falcon, on Sam's team. D |
| Pepper Potts | Iron Man (2008) | IM 1–3, Homecoming, Infinity War, Endgame | Alive, raising Morgan Stark |
| Happy Hogan | Iron Man (2008) | IM 1–3, Homecoming, Far From Home, No Way Home | Alive — and no longer remembers Peter Parker |
- Sam Wilson's Avengers — Sam as Captain America, Joaquín Torres as Falcon, and Isaiah Bradley as an ally rather than an operative. Small, and being rebuilt since Brave New World
- The New Avengers — Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, John Walker, Ghost, Alexei Shostakov, Bob Reynolds/Sentry — operating from the rebranded Avengers Tower, "the Watchtower," with Valentina de Fontaine nominally in charge and actually under their control
Returning MCU: Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Chris Evans (Steve Rogers), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang), Kathryn Newton (Cassie Lang), Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Danny Ramirez (Joaquín Torres)
Phase One (2008–2012): Iron Man · The Incredible Hulk · Iron Man 2 · Thor · Captain America: The First Avenger · The Avengers
Phase Two (2013–2015): Iron Man 3 · Thor: The Dark World · Captain America: The Winter Soldier · Guardians of the Galaxy · Avengers: Age of Ultron · Ant-Man
Phase Five (2023–2025): FILMS — Quantumania · Guardians Vol. 3 · The Marvels · Deadpool & Wolverine · Captain America: Brave New World · Thunderbolts* SERIES — Secret Invasion · Loki S2 · Echo · Agatha All Along · Daredevil: Born Again S1
- Howard Stark's vibranium. Klaue's theft from Wakanda is dated 1992, decades after the shield was made. Marvel has never explained the earlier supply chain.
- How Steve Rogers stayed in the past. The directors and the screenwriters have publicly given contradictory answers, and Marvel has never picked one. With Chris Evans confirmed for Doomsday, whatever that film does will probably become the retroactive answer.
- Returning the Soul Stone. Rogers goes back to Vormir. Natasha does not come back. The film never addresses how you return a Stone that cost a life, and nothing since has either.