What Happened To Everyone Who Became Captain America?

by Ewan Paterson

1. Sam Wilson

Captain America Sam Wilson
Marvel Comics

The Falcon has long been one of Steve Rogers' closest friends and allies, but it wasn't until 2015 that he was called up to take on the star-spangled suit and shield of Captain America.

Following Rogers' unfortunate run-in with the Iron Nail which deprived him of the super soldier serum, thus ageing him rapidly and rendering him unable to continue as Captain America, Steve turned to Sam Wilson to continue the Cap legacy.

Wilson's Cap differed greatly from previous replacements in that he still looked to retain elements of his previous identity as Falcon while in the costume. His signature wings and goggles remained, two key signifiers that illustrated how he was going to make Captain America his own, rather than live up to someone else's ideal of what Cap should be.

Like all Cap replacements though, Sam eventually parted ways with the shield, honouring a tradition in that he did so out of a growing disillusionment with his own country. He was forced to take it up again when Hydra-Cap took control of the US, but reverted to his old identity as Falcon not long after.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.