Avengers: Endgame - 13 Things It Actually Took From The Comics
7. Captain America Fights Captain America
Marvel Comics
Although most fans believe that Captain America was gone between the years of 1945-1964 (when Steve Rogers returned in Avengers #4), that's not entirely accurate. Both the character and his sidekick Bucky Barnes appeared in a series of comics during the 1950s, even though Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's comic established that both had gone missing during World War II.
It was later revealed that this version of Captain America was a man called William Burnside. Burnside idolised the original Captain America to the point of obsession, and managed to track down a version of the super soldier serum. He injects into his bloodstream but the procedure goes wrong, making Burnside even more mentally unstable than he was before.
Burnside works as a stellar commentary on how certain groups have misappropriated the character, and so of course the original Captain America has fought him repeatedly, much to the delight of those who love to see Nazis getting their just desserts.
It's not at all the same context that saw Steve face off with his younger self in Avengers: Endgame, but the visual was likely inspired by one of the many duels between the character and Burnside.
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.
