10 Characters Who Replaced Captain America

After the Skrull invasion of Earth, things weren't looking good for Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Captain America was still dead, Iron Man was on the run and the rest of the Avengers had been forced underground. It was time for a new team to rise up.

Unfortunately, that team was led by Norman Osborn. After assassinating the Skrull Queen, the former Green Goblin had been made director of SHIELD. One of his first moves was to form a new team of Avengers.

The Dark Avengers mostly consisted of supervillains like Bullseye and Venom disguised as heroes like Hawkeye and Spider-Man. Osborn led the team himself as the Iron Patriot.

Iron Patriot was clearly meant to be a pastiche of Marvel's big two missing heroes, combining the advanced armour of Iron Man with the patriotism of Captain America. Much like Cap, Iron Patriot was designed to be a symbol of hope for America and an inspiration to its people.

Behind the scenes though, Osborn was just as corrupt as ever and used his suit and the Dark Avengers to consolidate and abuse his power.

The Iron Patriot armour was destroyed by Tony Stark during the Siege of Asgard. Underneath the suit, an unstable Norman Osborn was shown to the world, his face painted to look like the Green Goblin. This obvious sign of madness was enough to bring Osborn's whole regime crumbling down.