Captain America has appeared in many movies and TV shows,
but which screen adaptations wield the shield with the most might? Join us as we answer that
question by ranking every adaptation of the original Captain America from worst to best.
1944's Captain America stands as the first instance of a live-action Marvel Comics adaptation
undergoing a theatrical release. It remained the only one of its kind until 1977's Spider-Man,
originally a made-for-TV movie, played in international theaters.
While this serial warrants attention for its historic significance, it's hard to say how
much it holds up on its own merits. This version of Captain America isn't a World
War II super soldier named Steve Rogers, for one thing. Instead, he's a district attorney
named Grant Gardner who uses a gun instead of his signature shield. In the first episode,
Cap investigates a series of mysterious deaths linked to an ancient Mayan artifact.
"I don't make excuses, but I do have a definite plan."
This really sounds like a job more suited for Batman or any of the other numerous
costumed detectives who starred in adventure serials of the era.
Aside from the name, costume, and a vague sense that they share a powerset,
there's little connection between this Captain America and the character in the
comics. But what the film lacks in fidelity to its source material, it makes up for in
over-the-top Hollywood fight scenes. If that's your thing, it's worth a gander.
The mere implication that Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends is anything less than
a groundbreaking cross-media achievement is blasphemy against the nerd gods. So don't get it
mixed up: We're not saying there's anything wrong with Amazing Friends, only that the iteration of
Steve Rogers who appears in Pawns of the Kingpin is not one of Cap's more impressive turns.
Unlike other Captains America, this one's a glory hound who spends loads
of time on athletic exhibitions to show off for Empire State University students.
Before one such demonstration,
he proudly brags about his amazing abilities to a cheering crowd like a carnival barker.
"Today you will see what years of training and exercise have done for me!"
Not exactly humble - and then he performs feats that would be utterly impossible without the
super-soldier serum everyone knows gave him his powers, "training and exercise" be damned.
Computer animation can be one heck of a dice roll. Somehow, 2014's Iron Man and Captain America:
Heroes United looks like a giant cut scene from an outdated video game. Meanwhile,
you could convince us 1995's Toy Story came out yesterday,
if we didn't already know better. Something's gone wrong here, but we're not sure exactly what.
Instantly dated though it may be, Heroes United is significant for being one of
the first contemporary instances of Cap getting brainwashed into joining HYDRA.
This idea would prove aggressively unpopular years later when replicated in Secret Empire,
a 2017 Marvel Comics crossover storyline. Then again, Cap's notorious proclamation
of HYDRA loyalties at Secret Empire's onset paved the way for one of the most
gut-busting moments in Avengers: Endgame, so we suppose it all comes out in the wash.
"Hail Hydra."
Ultimate Avengers: The Movie and Ultimate Avengers 2: Rise of The Panther predate
Robert Downey Jr.'s first on-screen outing as Tony Stark by roughly two years. Therefore,
viewers of these movies didn't necessarily understand they were being prepared - or
should we say indoctrinated? - to go see a series of live-action Avengers movies.
That said, the animated Ultimate Avengers projects
were clearly influenced by the 2002 comic book series The Ultimates,
which were tonally quite different from what the live-action MCU would come to be.
The Ultimates, written by Mark Millar, reimagines Earth's mightiest heroes in
a post-9/11 setting with a grim-and-gritty attitude. But Ultimate Avengers: The Movie
is a pretty cut-and-dry Avengers origin story - maybe a bit too mature for the littlest kids,
but a far cry from the dark territory The Ultimates comics had a tendency to slide into.
With their mature tone, hardly anyone at the time understood why these films existed or who
they were for, and they were quickly rendered superfluous by superior Avengers cartoons.
Is 1990's Captain America really as bad as its dismal Rotten Tomatoes score makes it out to be?
Is it possible that audiences of the time got their hopes up
for Marvel's answer to 1989's Batman, and had their spirits crushed by a mediocre,
straight-to-VHS action romp? Of course, this movie isn't particularly good,
but it's only terrible because it made us think Marvel superheroes wouldn't work as movies.
"Oh."
Despite all of the hokiness, this version of Steve Rogers still feels relatively true to its
source material. This Cap, at the very least, gets his powers via a super soldier program in WWII,
gets frozen, and ends up having to awkwardly adjust to modernity once he unfreezes. However,
it's not all true to the comics: Red Skull is inexplicably Italian, and Cap's mask includes
deeply creepy rubber ears, presumably as a means to strike additional terror into his adversaries.
We don't want to sound overly dismissive of an Avengers adaptation that isn't
targeted at an English-speaking audience. This adaptation may very well fly over our heads,
only to land gracefully and with precision for the Japanese kids it's meant for. But,
if we understand correctly, Disk Wars is basically
a combination of Avengers and Pokémon, in which Cap and his teammates are trapped
in pocket-sized plastic disks and must be summoned when a combat-situation arises.
It's not an ideal concept for Cap, however, who's a little too much of an anachronism to
fit into a Pokémon-style world. Even when the storyline continues in Marvel Future Avengers,
an anime series that drops the shtick with the disks,
Cap doesn't necessarily make a case for himself as an anime star.
In 1979's made-for-TV movies Captain America and Captain America II:
Death Too Soon, Steve Rogers is a monumentally chillaxed and creative
dude who's never seen an Arctic ice field in his life. His father served in World War II,
which means by the time Steve was born, Hitler was already too dead to punch.
Late '70s Steve tosses around a shield, but he also cruises in a customized red, white,
and blue motorcycle that converts into a hang glider for the frequent occasions in which he
finds himself needing a hang glider. This Cap's also got a tricked-out van,
as well as a bulky blue and white helmet to keep his head safe on the road.
This Cap strays too far from the original for us to really consider him an authentic
Captain America. But even if he's not at all a comics-accurate Cap,
he still seems kind of awesome.
The '90s was a pretty wild time for Marvel animation. X-Men kicked off in 1992,
setting the template for that era's batch of shows. Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Iron Man,
The Incredible Hulk, and Avengers: United They Stand all went on to varying degrees of success.
Their interconnected continuity isn't as overt, or as important, as it is in the Marvel Cinematic
Universe, or even as it typically is in the comics. But nevertheless, it's certainly the
most ambitious shared universe Saturday morning cartoons could possibly muster at the time.
Captain America teams up with Wolverine in a World War II flashback in X-Men's
"Old Soldiers." He also makes multiple appearances in Spider-Man,
most prominently during the Secret Wars crossover, which also includes the Fantastic Four, Iron Man,
and the Black Cat. Perhaps most importantly, this Captain America marks the millennial
generation's first exposure to a solidly-executed, almost-comics-accurate version of the character.
This rendering of Marvel's signature team remained on the air from 2013 to 2019,
longer than any other Avengers show, and it just so happens to coincide with the team's
all-time highest level of cultural visibility. So, if we're ranking these Captains America
partially on their scope of influence, even a casual and infrequent Avengers
Assemble viewer would have to place its Cap among the mightiest of this lot.
During the '90s explosion of Marvel animated projects aiming to capitalize on X-Men's success,
Cap never got his own show. That means Assemble,
with about half a decade on the air, contains a larger total quantity of
televised Captain America than you'll find in any other existing animated Marvel timeline.
But, if we may pick a nit, a viewer might notice that the Roger Craig Smith-voiced
take on Steve Rogers comes close to flat-out mimicking Chris Evans' MCU
performance. So while we've got to dock this Cap some points for a lack of creativity,
perhaps it earns those points back for its strength of cross-media synergy.
"Earth is under imminent cosmic threat. It's unlike anything we've ever faced,
and Skull has information on how to stop it."
Today, The Marvel Super Heroes is better understood as pop art, rather than action-centric
television. You've only got to pull Cap's adventures barely out of context to recreate
them as surreal, mind-expanding fever dreams. But the Andy Warhol-esque elements of 1966's Cap
aren't the sole reason for his high status on this list. Each of the show's heroes boasts his
own theme song penned by composer Jack Urbont, and Cap's musical call-to-attention is the
only jingle from that generation of Marvel cartoons many people still remember today.
The lyrics trumpet,
"When Captain America throws his mighty shield,
all those who choose to oppose his shield must yield!"
In terms of classic superhero songs, that one's almost up there with Batman's iconic
"Na na na na" from the 60s show, and that tune about Spider-Man doing whatever a spider can.
It's iconic as all get-out, and pairs beautifully with this cartoon's out-there aspects.
After Iron Man hit theaters and revealed Marvel Studios' intention to assemble
the Avengers on screen, plenty of people weren't sure exactly how that would look.
This strange and ambiguous period in Marvel-licensed media resulted in The Avengers:
Earth's Mightiest Heroes, which originally aired on Disney XD in the fall of 2010.
The series gives a glimpse of how the MCU might have panned out if Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne
co-founded the Avengers. Ever wanted to know what it would have looked like if Black Widow eschewed
Avengers membership and stuck to professional espionage? How about if Black Panther joined
the team in a more official capacity, and much earlier? What might've happened if the secret
Skrull invasion took place before Iron Man and Cap left the franchise? The answers to these
questions, and many more, can all be found within Earth's Mightiest Heroes. No wonder fans adore it.
Earth's Mightiest Heroes' Captain America carries himself a bit more obviously like
an old man in a younger man's body than other entries on this list. He
also pushes back against Iron Man's confidence in the value of futurism,
and gives him grief about having no idea what to do in a fist fight. He's multifaceted,
entertaining, and an essential part of the best Avengers cartoon ever made.
By the time Captain America: The First Avenger arrived, we had seen one or two reverent,
well-executed animated incarnations of Steve Rogers. But prior attempts to transfer the
star-spangled soldier to live-action hadn't panned out especially well. For whatever reason,
creatives weren't able to quite effectively translate a superhero with such an optimistic
disposition to a live-action real world that can often feel dark and dreary. That all changed with
the MCU, and no matter what the future holds for Captain America and other comic book characters
on screen, fans will be able to point to The First Avenger and give it credit for
breaking that cycle. In the wake of that movie's release, Cap swiftly became one of the MCU's most
popular characters - and a lot of that has to do with Chris Evans' pitch-perfect performance.
In his take on the role, Chris Evans emphasizes the "kid from Brooklyn" aspect
of Cap over his super soldier side. His temporal displacement is often played up for corny humor,
rather than as an ever-present source of angst or resentment - which also means
that when his man-out-of-time nature is taken seriously, it hits all the harder.
"It's been so long… so long."
"Well I couldn't leave my best girl."
Moreover, despite being a century-old scientifically-enhanced super human,
Cap adds a much-needed sense of down-to-Earth relatability to an ensemble of billionaires,
gods, robots, and monsters. It's hard to imagine that there will ever be a
live-action version of Captain America that ever does better than this one.
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