Captain America Was SHIELD’s Best Director Until He Became Its Worst

Captain America has proven to be one of Marvel’s most beloved concepts over the decades. The character came at the height of the superhero boom of World War II, becoming the de facto leader of Timely’s Golden Age heroes throughout the war. Like most other superheroes, he would go away in the ’50s, but made his triumphant return during the boom years of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby at Marvel Comics in the ’60s. Since then, Cap has become one of the most important characters in Marvel history. The MCU was able to show the rest of the world what comic fans have known for years and the 21st century has been another renaissance for the character, reaching new heights of popularity and acclaim.

It’s been a great time to be a Captain America fan for a while now. We entered the new millennium with the underrated Dan Jurgens run on the character, would get the excellent post-9/11 John Ney Reiber/John Cassaday reboot, which led into the biggest era for Cap in years, when Ed Brubaker began his Winter Soldier saga, leading to the return of Bucky. This story has taken its place among the best Captain America stories ever and it led to one of the biggest changes to Cap’s status quo ever. After Steve Rogers returned in Captain America: Reborn and Siege, Marvel decided to give him a huge promotion, making him Director of SHIELD. While it didn’t last very long, Rogers proved to be the best SHIELD Director ever, which makes his second stint as Director even more interesting. He’s run the spectrum of quality in command of SHIELD, leading it in two very different directions.

Captain America’s Two Stints as SHIELD Director Are Vastly Different

Captain America and SHIELD have gone together for years. Steve Rogers fought alongside Nick Fury back in the World War II and when he found his old friend still around when he was unthawed decades later, they began their working relationship again. Over the decades, we’ve seen his relationship with the organization go in two directions; sometimes, he’s basically an agent of the group, working with them and Agent 13 Sharon Carter, or is at odds with them. The 21st century has seen him move closer than ever to SHIELD, which played a huge role in the Winter Soldier saga. He missed out on the post-Civil War SHIELD shenanigans because he was dead, returning at the end of Norman Osborn’s “Dark Reign”.

Rogers’ return saw him finally beating the Red Skull’s scheme that he had been building since Captain America (Vol. 5) #1 and then lead the Avengers in battle against Osborn and his Dark Avengers. After the battle, the US government decided that if they were going to put someone in charge of SHIELD, it should be someone everyone trusted. Steve Rogers was given the job and he accepted, leading into the “Heroic Age”, an Avengers centric-status quo that saw Rogers in charge of the superhero community. Basically, he was officially given the unofficial job that he had for years.

Rogers as Director of SHIELD was an interesting proposition. To begin with, it allowed Ed Brubaker to continue to use Bucky Cap as the star of Captain America, which fans had been loving since 2007. It also meant that new leaders got to step in the Avengers, as Steve wasn’t Cap during this time and had way more to worry about. However, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t heroing anymore; we got Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier, by Brubaker and Dale Eaglesham, and Secret Avengers, an all-new Avengers team that went on different kinds of missions.

There was something about the idea of Captain America as Director of SHIELD that just worked for readers. There were few characters better suited to the job and it showed him that the world wasn’t always as cut and dry as he wanted it to be. If there was any problem with his time as Director, it’s that it didn’t really last long enough. He gave up the job when Bucky “died” in Fear Itself, restoring the status quo just in time for Captain America: First Avenger to hit theaters. We didn’t get to explore his time as SHIELD for very long, but we did get to see him as a much more successful, albeit evil director in 2016.

This was during the Hydra Cap years of Captain America, when he was manipulating everyone in order to get Hydra more and more power. He was able to parlay Captain Marvel’s failures in Civil War II into more power for himself, taking over SHIELD, and was able to put himself in a position where he would be able to take over everything if the United States was attacked. Of course, all of this was part of the plan, and he was able to use the job to take over the country when the Chitauri tried to invade, something Hydra has set up themselves. Whereas his time “Heroic Age” stint as the Director saw some of his skills wasted somewhat, he was able to make his short time in the big chair count while he was evil, proving that his tactical abilities made him as useful in command as anywhere else.

Cap Is SHIELD’s Most Bipolar Director

Captain America as Director of SHIELD is one of those ideas that never would have happened back in the day. We may have gotten a single story arc with him leading the organization, but it wouldn’t become a major part of the status quo. However, 21st century Marvel is much better about allowing ideas like this to play out and it led to readers getting to see what SHIELD would be like if Cap was in charge. His two stints as Director came at two very different times, but taken together, they show that he’s the best Director ever.

His first stint was great because he was able to use his years of experience as a superhero to find the best people for the jobs that needed doing. It was basically him being leader of the Avengers, writ large. His second stint showed how well he would do in the actual black ops world. Hydra Cap was all about moving the pieces in ways no one expected, playing the spy game better than Sharon Carter, Maria Hill, and Carol Danvers, keeping his true motives hidden. These two stints show that he has what it takes to be the perfect leader of SHIELD; he knows how to lead and engender loyalty, while also being able to use the organization and its shadowy powers to accomplish even the most difficult missions (like setting up a total Hydra takeover under everyone’s nose). His stints are bipolar, but that doesn’t change the facts.

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