There’ve been a few different characters aside from Steve Rogers taking on the role of Captain America in the MCU and the Marvel comics series, with the most notable being Anthony Mackie in The Falcon and the Winter Solder. While Chris Evans hasn’t ruled out returning to the part of Rogers, and a zombie Cap likely to happen in the What If…? Disney Plus series, one of the more exciting versions of the character has now been revealed by the House of Ideas as part of a celebration of 80 years of Marvel Comics.
Thanks to the appearance of Spider-Man 2099‘s Miguel O’Hara in the present, it seems to have been confirmed that Roberta Mendez is canonically the next Captain America. While Mendez has previously been identified as the future Cap in the Marvel 2099 universe, for the first time the company have come out and confirmed that this will now be the main Marvel Universe’s future, and not just an alternate timeline or ‘what if…?’ scenario.
Referring to the appearance of the Marvel 2099 world in The Amazing Spider-Man #34, editor Nick Lowe had this to say:
“The story is huge! And like a Spider-Man story should be, also really small, and about Peter Parker and his life, and everything that’s going on.This isn’t an alternate timeline! This isn’t a What ‘If?’…! This is the future of the Marvel Universe!”
Why is this so important? Well, up to this point, the future of the present-day Marvel series has been reasonably flexible, but it now seems that the company are committing to a single continuity that will make Marvel 2099 an extension of the core Earth-616 Universe. In the past, Marvel 2099 titles were separated into Earth-23291, but now appear to be part of the main canon of Marvel comics, something that’ll be supported by a range of new future-set titles. This also means that, as stated above, Mendez is the successor to Steve Rogers in the 2099 future.
It remains to be seen where things will go from here, but we’re definitely happy to see Marvel 2099‘s Roberta Mendez be more firmly recognized as the successor to the original Captain America, rather than just a possible future incarnation of the character. And who knows, maybe in time we’ll even have Mendez on-screen as the hero, with the Marvel 2099 world offering many opportunities to extend the current MCU.