20 Best Performances In MCU History (So Far)

On paper, at least, Chris Evans had an easy job bringing Steve Rogers to the big screen. A selfless soldier and hero imbued with superhuman abilities that reflect his virtuous personality, Captain America's key trait is that he's morally sound and unblinking in the face of adversity.

Throughout the franchise, though, Cap gets put through the wringer, first losing everything after laying down his life to save New York during the war, then combating aliens as a part of the Avengers, then being turned into a fugitive after refusing to let Bucky Barnes take the fall for a crime he didn't commit.

During all of that, Chris Evans' portrays Rogers as increasingly lost and weathered, but never loses his heroism or selflessness. He becomes pressured, cast adrift, beaten and uncomfortable, and finds a way to balance Rogers' love for humanity with the immeasurably tragic twists of fate he's forced to face.

It's a much more powerful performance than meets the eye, since he lacks the darkness haunting his closest allies, but it's one Evans makes unflinching and brilliantly conflicted all the same.