Captain America's whole deal has long been that he'll always get back up and keep fighting, even when he's battered, bloodied, and vastly overpowered. His MCU catchphrase, "I can do this all day" eventually reached the level of parody because Marvel had Chris Evans say the line with complete conviction so many times that the only route left was to poke fun at it. But despite its last utterance in a Marvel Studios project being used as a gag, Steve Rogers backed up those six words with his whole heart. In fact, he was so accustomed to war, that he once questioned what he would do after his last battle was won.
Steve's existential quandary was answered in the final scene of 2019's Avengers: Endgame. Rogers showed up as an elderly man in the present to pass the Captain America mantle, shield and all, to Sam Wilson. The shot then transitioned to a peaceful suburbia in 1948. As Kitty Kallen's vocals on "It's Been a Long, Long Time" tenderly seeped into the soundtrack, the camera revealed a youthful Steve, slow dancing with his only true love, Peggy Carter, in the living room of their humble home.
It was the close of an nine-year-long chapter. Chris Evans' time as Cap had come to a soft, emotionally earned conclusion (Evans has been rumored for a comeback, but maybe not as the same Steve Rogers). And although the MCU's Captain America got his happy ending, the fight will likely drag on for as long as Marvel prints comics. In print, Steve Rogers has been in this game since the Avengers thawed him out of that ice block in 1964 (although thanks to the House of Ideas' sliding timescale, Cap's canonically only been unfrozen for a little over a decade in the books).
Case in point, prolific Marvel writer Chip Zdarsky is launching a new story, which he crafted for the Sentinel of Liberty with the help of artists Valerio Schiti and Frank Martin. The adventure begins in Captain America #1. As Zdarsky explained to SFX Magazine, Cap's status as the quintessential man out of time is used to its full effect in the opening arc:
"Yesterday, Steve was a Captain in the army in the middle of a war and today he's thawed out into his future. But he's still a soldier, and in that situation the first thing he'd do is return to base, whatever that looks like."
The comic book run will flash back to one of Steve's initial post-deep-freeze missions. As he grapples with the fact that it's not the '40s anymore and scrapes together a fresh purpose, a young Victor Von Doom, who has recently installed himself as Latveria's dictator, blips onto Cap's radar.
Naturally, a power-hungry European autocrat lording over an unsuspecting civilian population feels all too familiar for Steve Rogers.
Captain America promptly leaps into action and takes the fight to Doctor Doom! Meeting his armor-clad adversary where he lives, Rogers infiltrates Latveria to face Doom square in his metal mask for the very first time.
Chip Zdarsky confirmed that the implications of Steve's original scuffle with Doctor Doom from yesteryear reverberate into the Kingdom of Latveria's future:
"While this first arc is set in the past, it definitely informs the future of Latveria when we come back to the modern era in our second arc."
And if artwork for the comic series (seen below) is any evidence, with Doom prowling in the shadows, fearsome green eyes alight, and hoping to get the drop on his Star-Spangled trespasser, Captain America will have met more than a match for his super-soldier strength.
Captain America #1 hits comic shop shelves and digital marketplaces on Wednesday, July 2. The issue was written by Chip Zdarsky, with interior art by Valerio Schiti and colors by Frank Martin.
Avengers: Doomsday Will Include a Different Captain America vs. Doom
When it rolls into cinemas in late 2026, Avengers: Doomsday will see its titular squad of super friends band together on screen for the first time in a startling seven-and-a-half years (or roughly five years, in-universe, which is a bit easier to swallow).
Leading the charge, on both foot and vibranium wing, is the MCU's second Captain America, Sam Wilson. By that point in the narrative, Sam will have been wielding the shield for a little over four years (Thunderbolts*' post-credits scene jumped ahead on the timeline to 14 months after the Fall 2027 New Avengers press conference, landing it around December 2028).
However, despite his promise to wingman Joaquin Torres in Captain America: Brave New World, based on dialogue from Thunderbolts*, Sam seemingly hasn't made much headway in reassembling the Avengers.
Wilson's apparent deliberation has lead the government-backed New Avengers to pick up the world-saving slack.
But Doomsday is on the MCU's calendar, and time's march toward it can't be slowed. The Avengers, The New Avengers, The Fantastic Four, and whoever else will have to quit squabbling, learn to collaborate, and prepare for the arrival of Doctor Doom. Because Doom never comes to play.
Victor Von Doom may even impose a greater threat than the Avengers' previous big bad, Thanos, ever did. But this is why these heroes do what they do. In the same way Steve Rogers never failed to, in the face of insurmountable danger, they suit up to stop it. And if they get knocked down, they pick themselves up again.
Steve gave Sam that shield for a reason. He knew full well that Wilson was ready to take the reins of leadership (much more than Bucky was).
So, perhaps when all hope seems lost, in the heat and haze of the calamity unfolding around the Avengers, Captain America will stand upright and tall, in his red-white-and-blue glory, tighten the shield around his arm, and deliver the quote that was first spoken by the man who believed in him: "I can do this all day."
Marvel Studios' Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters on December 18, 2026.
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