7. The Time He Was Stripped Of His Title
MarvelThe Watergate scandal rocked American society like no other event in living memory. Richard Nixon, now widely discredited and reduced to a joke most people know from Futurama, managed to completely shake a whole generation's faith in their government and their country by indulging in such dirty, underhanded and paranoid tactics as spreading false news stories about political rivals and even breaking into their offices to plant material that would make them easy to blackmail. Once uncovered, Nixon was forced to resign, which ushered in a whole wave of dark, cynical popular fiction about how you can't trust the White House as far as you can throw it. Even if you have super strength and can through it really, really far. So what's a living embodiment of the national identity to do at a time when that identity seems to be irrevocably compromised, a lie, a sham? He hangs up his shield, takes off the stars and stripes and changes his name to something less patriotic, that's what. Which is exactly what happened as writer Steve Englehart and artist Sal Buscema rebranded Steve Rogers as Nomad - because it means "man without a country", see? - and loses the American flag details from his now dark blue and yellow uniform. Of course this only lasted about four issues before everything got straightened out (in the Marvel Universe the Nixon analogue was not only a bit dodgy but a member of a secret international terrorist group), but it sent a powerful message. One we're unlikely to see ever again from Captain America.