5 Great Chris Evans Comic Book Acting Performances Outside of Captain America

Chris Evans will likely be forever known as Captain America, as he fit the role of the Avengers’ most honorable hero to a tee. However, while he was perfect as Steve Rogers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), this wasn’t his only comic book movie performance. There are at least five other comic book appearances that showed he could do more than just Captain America. Despite that, his long tenure as Cap overshadowed all his other comic book movie roles. In all, Evans appeared in one way or another as Captain America in 11 different films in the MCU, from the Captain America movies and four Avengers films to cameos in Thor: The Dark World and Spider-Man: Homecoming.

While he was a great choice to play the best of all heroes, he has also played a man trying to keep his head down, a computer tech nerd, and even one of Marvel’s first-ever superheroes in a role he later reprised in the MCU movie Deadpool & Wolverine.

5) Nick Gant (Push)

While Push is not based on an original comic book, it is a comic book movie at heart and ended up getting a WildStorm prequel miniseries released the same year the movie came out. The movie follows a group of people who gained powers and are all placed into categories based on their power sets. Evans plays Nick Gant, a “mover,” which makes him a telekinetic. When the movie starts, he is hiding in Hong Kong from a government agency called the Division, which experiments on these people to turn them into soldiers.

This is because a Division agent named Carver (Djimon Hounsou) killed his father while Nick was a child, and he grew up untrained. Dakota Fanning stars as a 13-year-old Watcher named Cassie who finds Nick and asks for help in finding a missing Pusher (Camilla Belle) so they can expose the Division for what it is. This movie came out a few years after Evans starred as the Human Torch and offered a very different character in a superhero movie, something that would soon lead him into the MCU.

4) Jensen (The Losers)

The year after his appearance in Push, Chris Evans took on a role in another comic book movie, but this one had nothing to do with superpowers. It was also a very against-type role for Evans, as he played a computer hacker in the adaptation of The Losers. Based on the Vertigo series by Andy Diggle and Jock that debuted in 2003, this story followed an elite black ops team of United States special forces operatives who are betrayed and left for dead by their superiors. The team fakes their deaths and sets out for revenge.

Chris Evans’ character, Jensen, infiltrates the company that made a crucial hard drive and steals an algorithm that unlocks classified files proving their former superior Max’s illegal arms dealings. He is also the team’s comic relief and tech brain. Evans fits the comic character perfectly, and his fast-talking personality made him one of the highlights of the movie adaptation. Evans helps round out a great cast that also includes Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldaña, Idris Elba, and Columbus Short.

3) Curtis Everett (Snowpiercer)

Snowpiercer is another adaptation that sees Chris Evans starring in a comic book story that has nothing at all to do with superheroes. The story this movie is based on is the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette. While most people know about the TV series based on the story, this movie came first from future Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho (Parasite). The story follows a self-sufficient train that keeps its passengers alive as the world slips into a new ice age.

Chris Evans plays Curtis Everett, the reluctant leader of the tail-section passengers who revolt against the elite controlling the front of a perpetually moving train. The tail section houses the poor, and the elite in the front have food and necessities that are not available to those in the back, leading to the rebellion. He leads his fellow survivors forward on the train, car by car, and the story’s big reveal about his past is tied to the character’s guilt. Curtis is an original character who doesn’t exist in the graphic novel.

2) Lucas Lee (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World)

The same year that The Losers came out, Chris Evans had a role in the comic book adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. This movie had him play a role much more similar to what he played in Fantastic Four, but with a villainous intent. Based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World stars Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim, a young slacker who falls for a woman named Ramona Flowers but then learns he has to defeat her ex-boyfriends in battle to win her love.

Evans plays one of those evil exes, a skateboarding actor named Lucas Lee. The character debuted in Volume 2 of the comic series and was originally based on extreme sports stars turned action movie heroes. Director Edgar Wright had no problem bringing in Evans because the actor was a huge fan of Wright’s past work. Lucas was arrogant and full of himself, and he was one of the funniest evil exes in the movie.

1) Human Torch (Fantastic Four)

Fantastic Four was released in 2005, directed by Tim Story for Fox. Chris Evans took on his biggest role at that point in his career, playing the arrogant, fast-car-loving Johnny Storm, the Human Torch. His role as the reckless younger brother of Susan Storm, the Invisible Woman, showed that he could do more than just play the stoic and genuinely honorable Captain America, which ended up being his bigger role in comic book movies.

Evans also returned in the sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Neither movie was a critical success, although both of them made good money and helped elevate Evans’ status in Hollywood. The films received more positive praise after the 2015 reboot, which was universally panned and is considered one of the worst comic book adaptations of the 21st century. Evans remains popular for the role, and he had a chance to play it one more time when he had a small role in Deadpool & Wolverine as the last surviving member of the Fantastic Four in the Void until his untimely end thanks to Deadpool’s big mouth.

What are your favorite Chris Evans comic book roles? Let us know your favorite Evans moment in any comic book movie in the comments below.

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