While Captain America may be the greatest hero in the Marvel Universe, he’s proven more than once to be the secretly worst mentor.
Whereas Captain America Earned a reputation as the pinnacle of what a hero should be and thus acted as an inspiration to young heroes, he’s secretly Marvel’s worst mentor – and two of his former proteges prove exactly why. This is true.
The first and best known of the heroes mentored by Captain America was Bucky Barnes, who acted as Cap’s sidekick during World War II. Captain America has flown countless missions with Bucky, keeping him safe and training him in the ways of combat and heroism. However, their last mission together turned out to be Captain America’s biggest failure as he became responsible for Bucky’s death. Before Captain America was frozen in ice, before being thawed out and joining the Avengers, he and Bucky were working to bring down a Nazi plane that was carrying catastrophic bombs aimed at Allied countries. Captain America and Bucky were outside the plane, but it was Bucky who blew it up midair, destroying the bombs it was carrying. This resulted in Captain America being frozen for years and Bucky believed to be dead. In reality, he suffered a fate worse than death as he became the evil Winter Soldier through years of endless torture and reprogramming.
In avengers #7 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Captain America has been unfrozen and getting used to modern society by continuing his super soldier training and becoming more involved in the heroics of the Avengers. Cap also takes on a new serve which he has decided to train as he did with Bucky. That person was Rick Jones, who is a known ally of the Hulk but decided at this point to stay with Captain America after meeting him in a previous avengers publish. However, Rick may be a little overzealous as he strives to be Captain America’s official sidekick in an effort to become a full-fledged member of the Avengers. However, because of what happened to Bucky, Captain America is hesitant to bring Rick into combat situations and his hesitation leads Captain America to drop Rick as his protege.
Little did Captain America know, however, that by abandoning Rick Jones and not letting him become a hero by his side, he had condemned his former mentee to a fate of suffering beyond human comprehension. In the Immortal Hulk series, Rick Jones is killed and sent to the lower location due to his previous exposure to gamma rays. Instead of coming back to life like other gamma mutants do, Rick merges with another gamma mutant who died in previous chapters of the series and becomes a twisted two-headed monster who could do little more than scream in endless agony. If Captain America had kept Rick Jones by his side rather than allowing him to become an ally of the Hulk again, he would never have become this grotesque form of pain and suffering and might have been a natural successor to the Captain America title. point in time, similar to Sam Wilson’s heroic progression.
Both Bucky Barnes and Rick Jones suffered a fate worse than death after being taken under Captain America’s wing, and their respective situations were entirely caused by Captain America’s actions. Cap allowed Bucky to serve with him before he was ready, which led to Barnes being captured and experimented on for decades. Then, Captain America’s knee-jerk reaction to Bucky’s supposed disappearance led him to abandon Rick when he could have spent more time training the young soldier rather than being blindsided by Bucky’s ‘death’. his former service, leading Rick down a path that ended in excruciating pain and misery. That proves that Captain America is secretly Marvel’s worst mentor.
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