The Ultimate Marvel Universe is too often reduced down to its worst issues, which is a shame considering that there are some uniquely awesome parts of that universe that go overlooked. A case in point is the Ultimate version of Captain America, the super-soldier who led his team, the Ultimates, to some of their greatest victories.
He may not have the moral fortitude of the mainstream Captain America and he had a far harder time adjusting to the 21st Century, but Ultimate Captain America has some of the most genuinely impressive moments in the entire Marvel multiverse. Here are just a few of his daring escapes, bloody battles, and iconic one-liners that make this version of the Super Soldier Marvel's most savage hero.
Red Guardian
The Ultimate universe was known for making its own changes to the Marvel Universe, and many of those were on full display in Warren Ellis and Trevor Hairsine's Ultimate Nightmare, the start to the Gah Lak Tus trilogy that saw Earth threatened by the planet-devouring monster. Investigating the source of a distress call, Captain America and company discovered a secret base of super-soldiers hidden by the Soviet Union and on lockdown since its fall. Within its depths was the Ultimate iteration of Red Guardian, and he was ready to fight.
Red Guardian relished the opportunity to prove himself in combat against the man he was designed to destroy. Unable to recreate Captain America's shield, the Soviet super-soldier instead formed his own shield out of the flesh and bones of his fellow soldiers. What really makes the moment a highlight for Captain America, however, is how anticlimactic it proves to be. He slaps down Red Guardian almost immediately with barely a challenge, a symbolic victory if ever there was one.
Nuke
The Soviets were not the only ones making their own versions of Captain America, and Jason Aaron and Ron Garney's Ultimate Captain America shows how the U.S. tried to recreate the super-soldier experiments many times after the World War II hero was frozen in ice. One of the most notable examples was Nuke, a physically imposing figure who turned on the country after the horrors of Vietnam tortured his psyche. Determined to force Captain America to follow in his footsteps, Nuke kidnapped the star-spangled hero and subjected him to weeks of torture and conditioning.
Even after he had liters of blood drained from him, was electrocuted, and tortured, Captain America never relented. In fact, it all served as the build-up to one of his greatest escapes. When a cobra slithered into his cell he caught it, bit out its venom sack, spit the contents into Nuke's eyes, and underwent a bloody battle for his freedom in which he ultimately prevailed. The fight ended when he punched out Nuke's eye and told onlooking children not to grow up to become terrorists, epitomizing the character once and for all.
Vampires
Every version of Captain America is known for being the greatest leader in times of dire conflict. The stakes certainly turned dire in Mark Millar and Steve Dillon's Ultimate Comics: Avengers #15 series when a clone of the Hulk led a band of vampires in a siege against the heroes' headquarters. When Captain America was turned into a vampire, it seemed unlikely he could save the day.
Regardless, Ultimate Captain America still rose to the challenge. Fueled by the super-soldier system that makes him virtually immune to all forms of disease, Captain America recovered from the vampiric virus at the eleventh hour. With less than a second to formulate a plan, Captain America seized the fallen Perun's extradimensional hammer and used it to transport the entire Triskelion base and everyone on it to Iran. Time zone differences meant that daylight suddenly flooded across the undead army, destroying all of them and winning the day for the heroes.
Avengers
There have been a few times when Captain America did not see eye to eye with other heroes, and after discovering that a government cover-up hid the existence of his son, the Red Skull, from him the Sentinel of Liberty was not so quick to heel to their orders. Tracked down by the Avengers who believed they had the upper hand, Captain America quickly turned the tables by spraying bug spray on Red Wasp, overturning a surveillance van, knocking Black Widow off a flag pole, and tranquilizing Hawkeye with his own darts. And that was only the beginning.
In the end, the Avengers did manage to apprehend him, but it turned out that the capture was all part of Captain America's plan. He used their own tracking methods to locate his son and then stole an experimental teleporting jet from S.H.I.E.L.D. to cross the distance to him, just in time to stop the Red Skull from devastating reality itself with his newly won Cosmic Cube.
Herr Kleiser
In a scene that would become an instant classic and become the #1 thing associated with the Ultimate iteration of the character for years to come, Captain America ended his fight with Herr Kleiser with the line "You think the letter on my head stands for France?" Perfectly epitomizing his dated and jingoistic approach to patriotism while still embodying his action-movie qualities, the line is so great that it overshadows the impressive fight scene that accompanies it.
Herr Kleiser proved to be no pushover in the action leading up to the moment, crumbling steel doors and throwing entire vehicles at the Hulk in combat. An invisible Nick Fury even shot off a chunk of Kleiser's head to no avail, and it seemed that the shapeshifting Nazi alien could simply not be beaten. Never one to accept loss as an inevitability, Captain America prevailed over the alien in a fight, chopped him in half with his shield, and left the cannibalistic Hulk to devour the remains.