Captain America Probably Doomed the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Death and destruction is coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and a lot of the blame can be placed at one man's feet: Captain America.

The heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are about to face their biggest threat in Avengers: Infinity War in the form of the Mad Titan Thanos and his army of fearsome alien invaders. We've only seen glimpses of Thanos's power so far -- granting Loki his Chitauri army in Avengers or working with Ronan the Accuser to retrieve the Power Stone in Guardians of the Galaxy. However, we know that Thanos will be the Avengers' biggest enemy yet, and one that they're not really equipped to defeat.

It doesn't help that Marvel's heroes are more broken and divided then ever, the result of conflicts played out in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War. Captain America is presented as the hero in both movies; a bastion of ideals in a world of compromise. However, his decision-making is suspect in both movies, the result of reactionary thinking without considering potential consequences and an emotional over-attachment to his past. Let's take a look at some of Captain America's actions and how they've directly weakened Earth's defenses against Thanos.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Cap and his partner the Falcon work together with Black Widow and Nick Fury to expose Hydra's infiltration of SHIELD, which directly leads to the organization's disbandment. Captain America's actions against SHIELD/Hydra aren't necessarily wrong -- punching Nazis is never a bad thing! -- but his reactionary moves against the organization show an incredible lack of forethought.

Yes, Hydra is evil and needed to be exposed to the world, and yes, Cap and his allies were working against the clock to stop Project Insight, but hundreds of SHIELD agents were killed when Hydra came out of hiding. We saw a lot of this play out in the Marvel's Agents of SHIELD television show, as a lot of good people died because they were caught flat-footed when Cap outed Hydra and forced their hand.

Cap burned down an entire world defense organization in order to stop Hydra, which led to the deaths of many of his co-workers -- people who had supported or even saved Cap in the past. And while it's easy to argue that Cap couldn't trust anyone besides notoriously duplicitous Nick Fury, the ex-Soviet spy Black Widow, and the Falcon, a man who he had just met at the start of the movie, it's hard to believe that he didn't have any other allies within SHIELD, people that he knew weren't secret Nazis.

In the end, Captain America and Black Widow decide the best course of action is to leak classified information to the public, forcing SHIELD to disband/go underground, and ridding the world of its premier superpowered peacekeeping operation. SHIELD eventually returned in some fashion, but without the resources or manpower needed to stop an alien invasion.

Captain America: Civil War

Steve Rogers' actions in The Winter Soldier were questionable, but his actions in Captain America: Civil War were flat-out wrong. Cap allowed his emotions to get the better of him, causing an international incident and leading to several of his friends becoming fugitives.

Civil War frames Cap as an idealistic man standing up for his beliefs, but he's really an emotionally compromised leader clinging to the last vestiges of his past. The inciting incident of Civil War, an Avengers' mission that ends with the death of civilians, was due to Cap getting distracted by the mere mention of Bucky Barnes. Bucky is the personification of Cap's lost past, a fact made more obvious when Peggy Carter dies near the beginning of the movie.

At Peggy's funeral, Cap subconsciously uses Sharon Carter's eulogy as an endorsement of his later actions... even though he ends up tearing down everything that Peggy built in Cap's memory. Driven by Peggy's "last words" (a quote about not compromising one's ideals), Cap decides to protect Bucky at all costs, putting his friendship with Bucky over his relationships with everyone else. And while Captain America started off on the "right side," his refusal to compromise directly led to a conflict that didn't need to happen.

What's more, Captain America drags several of his friends into his very personal mission without informing them of his motives. People trust Captain America, and he manipulated that trust to recruit soldiers for his feud with Tony Stark. Did Hawkeye or Ant-Man know that Captain America was working through his grief over Peggy Carter when they got called in to fight Iron Man's internationally sanctioned team of superheroes? Or did they just trust that Captain America was doing the right thing?

It's a bit ironic that Iron Man is cast as the "villain" of Civil War when he tries to get revenge on the Winter Soldier for murdering his parents. Tony Stark's thought process during his final fight with Cap and Bucky was clouded by his emotions, but that's exactly how Cap had acted throughout the movie.

By the end of Civil War, the Avengers are basically split up because of Steve and Tony's personal feud. Sure, Cap provides Tony with a lifeline and Tony basically lets Cap break the "Secret Avengers" out of prison, but any trust that the heroes had for each other was shattered.

A Selfish Soldier

Captain America is supposed to be the heart of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; he's presented as the best of the Marvel superheroes, the one character who always does the right thing. And while Captain America's morals are unquestionably beyond reproach, his decision-making is terrible. He's an escalator -- a person who believes in punching first and never questioning whether he's making the right call. He doesn't take his friends or allies into consideration when he starts punching, which usually leaves them in worse situations when the fighting is done.

Honestly, Captain America comes off as selfish and short-sighted. It's not that his actions are or aren't wrong, but he puts his own feelings ahead of others and doesn't really care about the aftermath as long as his personal emotions are sated.

Captain America is a soldier that needs to be a leader off the battlefield. Not every conflict can be solved by beating the other side into submission, and it's that mentality that has put Earth in a uniquely vulnerable spot at the start of Avengers: Infinity War. Luckily, there's not much diplomacy to be had against Thanos, so hopefully Captain America's decisions won't lead to any more disastrous consequences.

Captain America's story arc is that of a naturally charismatic leader blinded by his own emotions. Cap seems to be so caught up struggling with the skeletons of his past, he fails to really shoulder his responsibilities as a leader and a friend in the present day. Hopefully, Cap can correct his priorities, or otherwise Earth will be doomed by the end of Avengers: Infinity War.