Avengers 4: Did A New Revelation Tease How Captain America Will Survive
Could Cap's special biology offer a massive hint?
Remember, Marvelites, there are no accidents in the MCU. Everything we see or hear in the sprawling franchise is intended to be there, like conscious brushstrokes that the artist demands we pay attention to. Sometimes it might take years for those brushstrokes to mean anything, but they usually do (unless Marvel retcon them out of existence or simply forget about them or something).
The same goes for any new supplementary details that th studio sanction the release of. Just as the Infinity War prelude comic was designed to explain Hawkeye and Ant-Man's absence (and Shuri's work on Bucky) and the One Shots filled in plot-holes, official character bios and factfiles that add new details need to be heeded. Because you never know, there may be a massive hint about a character like Captain America in one of them that could tease what happens to him in the wake of Avengers 4.
So what have we learned and why is it important?
4. Cap's Special Science
It turns out that it's not just super soldier serum that makes Captain America what he is. According to the Marvel Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. exhibition (currently in Las Vegas), the First Avenger managed to survive being frozen for decades because of a curious change to his biology, presumably thanks to the serum.
The revelation (from Reddit user darthalex22) offered brand new insight into Cap's physical make-up, and it's pretty eye-opening:
Physical examination of Capt. Rogers revealed that while thickened, his blood’s water was not frozen. Blood test revealed that his blood contained excessive amounts of glucose as a result of his liver processing his glycogen stores, thus lowering the freezing temperature of blood-borne water and creating a “cryoprotectant.” This process is similar to that of Water-Bears (Tardigrades) and hibernating Wood Frogs who metabolize glycogen in their liver to circulate copious amounts through their body to reduce the osmotic shrinkage of cells and stop from freezing. This, however, has never been seen before in humans.
The key point in there is that he's basically like a Tardigrade, now notorious as basically indestructible micro-organisms. And we've actually seen them in the MCU already...