The idea of Captain America doing something that makes him come even close to being a jerk sounds laughable, as the character seems to do no wrong. In fact, we even placed him on par with a certain DC comics counterpart, making Steve Rogers truly stand out as among the very best.
And yet, it would be a total lie if we claimed Captain America has never done anything bad, as the history of Marvel comics is littered with many questionable actions this man has done. The setting and the universe does vary here, but it is still the Steve Rogers we know who went through these 10 worst things you wouldn’t expect from Captain America.
10 Killing With Intent
While the MCU Captain America has no qualms in killing people, the comic book version isn’t so willing to take lives... that is until we point out this instance where he very viciously offed HYDRA agents. As it happened in Captain America #113, our hero lured in these bad guys with the intention to kill them the way a villain would.
The HYDRA agents were led to believe that Captain America was on his bike, only to learn that the bike was rigged with an explosive that set off and wiped off all of Captain America’s victims. It was extremely brutal for a guy who claims he doesn’t want to kill, especially considering he planned the whole thing.
9 Being A Part Of The Civil War
In the Civil War storyline, the heroes in the Marvel universe were accused of doing more good than bad, and were ordered to sign their names in the Superhuman Registration Act, which would reveal their identities to the public.
However, Captain America refused to conform, effectively creating several factions of heroes with their own agendas, thereby causing a permanent fracture around the world and leading to many tragedies. He wasn’t the only to blame here, but Captain America certainly was one of the main reasons for things spiraling out of control.
8 Dating Both Sharon & Peggy Carter
For the modern fan, Steve Rogers went missing way back in the past and woke in present day; this wasn’t the case originally, though. Steve had initially been shown to wake up only about two decades after the war, meaning Peggy Carter was still young enough for him to get back together with.
However, Steve instead started a relationship with Sharon Carter (who was shown as Peggy’s younger sister here), while still not having broken up with Peggy. Before he went through with ending the Peggy relationship in favor of pursuing her sister, Captain America basically had both sisters in the palm of his hand. That’s not exactly something a nice guy would do, is it?
7 Ditching The Captain America Moniker
The Watergate scandal rocked the United States back in the early-1970s, which led to a mass lack of trust in the government against the youth of the time. In order to cash in on these new ideals, Marvel had Captain America follow suit as well.
Figuring corruption was inherently rampant after finding out the president was a villain too, Captain America dropped everything he stood for and ditched being a symbol for hope and goodness. Instead, he turned into Nomad in Captain America #180. Looking back, this is a cool direction to take Captain America's story but it also signifies that he isn’t as good and pure as we were led to believe.
6 Intending To Apprehend Hope Summers
X-Men: Dark Phoenix was much maligned due to characters like Beast and Magneto jumping to conclusions and seeking to capture Jean without giving her the benefit of the doubt; something similar happened in Avengers Vs. X-Men #11.
Here, Captain America figured that just because the Phoenix was looking for Hope Summers, it meant she was a threat to everyone and sought her out to apprehend her as if she were a criminal. This is seen as him turning his back on everything he’d stood for in the Civil War arc, as Captain America branded Hope Summers as a villain because he felt he couldn’t understand her powers, not because she'd actually done something wrong.
5 Dating Janet Van Dyne While She Was Still Married
Captain America went after a married woman in Ultimates #9, where his “Ultimate” universe version had no problems stepping between a husband and a wife. Sure, this world’s Hank Pym was a huge jerk who took to hitting his wife, but clearly Steve Rogers’ intentions were malicious regardless.
When he found out what Pym did to Janet, Rogers proceeded to beat the former up in retaliation, after which he immediately made his plans clear to pursue Janet for a romance. Janet might have been in an abusive relationship, but this was definite emotional pressure that Steve was putting on her through for his own selfish gains.
4 Murder By Decapitation
In another instance of Captain America’s brutality that did little to separate him from a villain, he used his trusted shield to not only beat an opponent, but to dismember him! In Captain America #254, Rogers went up against a vampire by the name of Baron Blood, and proceeded to take the latter’s life.
Rather than figuring out a way to take Blood out without lethal means, Captain America instead employed the use of his shield to decapitate Baron Blood in a way that would make you avert your eyes.
3 Triggering An Avalanche To Kill
Here, Captain America had an easy shot at capturing his target rather than killing him, but he opted to launch an entire avalanche on his victim instead. In Captain America #32, our hero went out in search of a man called Ali Baba, who had plans to cause multiple explosions on the military; this is when Captain America made his move.
After tracking Ali Baba down, you’d think things were quite elementary and all Rogers needed was to apprehend him. However, he figured killing Ali Baba was easier and proceeded to cause an avalanche to trample him and his men. This simultaneously made all of Ali Baba’s weapons explode as well, making Captain America something of a ruthless mastermind.
2 Killing Mystique
In this alternate timeline shown in Age of X Universe, a mass hunting of all mutants was in effect and it was one Captain America who was at the helm of these missions. After he landed intel on the whereabouts of where several mutant kids were hiding, he infiltrated their hideout and had a showdown with Mystique.
Upon entering the mutants' hideaway, Captain America didn’t flinch and shot Mystique, who hadn’t been in her usual villain mode and was instead protecting the children. It was a far cry from the Steve Rogers who places the path of goodness above any other misplaced agenda that might be there.
1 Turn Into A HYDRA Agent
The biggest twist of the decade (apart from the one in The Superior Spider-Man) has to be the reveal of Captain America being a HYDRA agent all along. It was a long time before it was revealed that this was the result of a combination of reality altering and brainwashing, but Steve Rogers had committed numerous heinous acts by that point.
We started off big in Captain America: Steve Rogers #1, where Captain America took the life of Jack Flag, who confronted him over his changed attitude; Rogers proceeded to kick Jack out of a moving plane. This put Jack in a comatose state, and even then Captain America tried to kill him, but it was a moot point as the brain-dead Jack died anyway.