How The Avengers: Endgame Ending Changed The Comics

6. How Steve Rogers Retires As Captain America

Captain America Steve Sam
Marvel Comics

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.

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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.