How The Avengers: Endgame Ending Changed The Comics

6. How Steve Rogers Retires As Captain America

Before Endgame released, most fans were convinced that Steve Rogers would pass away. Not only was there precedent for Steve to die in the comics, everything in the films seemed to be building towards some sort of sacrifice. Of course, as it turns out, Steve instead decides to live the life Peggy wished he'd lived in Winter Soldier, bringing a beautiful pay-off to his arc and taking everyone by surprise in the process.

Steve Rogers may have become a permanent fixture in the Marvel Universe after being thawed from the Arctic ice in Avengers #4, but he hasn't been Captain America for all that time. Ed Brubaker took the bold decision to kill Steve off after Civil War in 2007, at which point Bucky Barnes took over the mantle, and it wouldn't be for another couple of years until Steve would return.

At that point, however, he didn't immediately reassume the mantle. Instead he took on a new identity as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Super Soldier, later adopting the stars and stripes after Bucky's tried for his crimes as Winter Soldier.

So, where does Sam Wilson come into this? Well, in the next volume of Captain America, the effects of the super soldier serum wear off. Steve is aged to a 90 year-old man, and asks Sam to take over. He still maintains involvement in S.H.I.E.L.D., and is very much Captain America in the comics again now, but Endgame opts for a more permanent solution by committing to his retirement on screen.