In last year’s Avengers: Endgame, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes spent three hours undoing the biggest disaster that’s befallen the MCU to date. But along the way, the film also drops a subtle nod to a whole other tragedy from the Captain America comics.
As you’ll likely recall, the Avengers: Infinity War sequel features a sequence where Steve Rogers and Tony Stark travel to Camp Lehigh in 1970 to acquire the Space Stone. What you may not have noticed, however, is that Captain America infiltrates the site while wearing a uniform that bears the name “Roscoe,” a probable reference to a character who had an ill-fated run in the comics from 1974 to 1975.
Roscoe Simons was a well-meaning hero who took over the mantle of Captain America from Steve, though only for a little while. His run came to an abrupt end when he and Sam Wilson were ambushed by Red Skull, who mistakenly believed that he’d finally captured his arch nemesis.
Disappointed to find that it wasn’t Steve under the Captain America mask, Red Skull had Roscoe killed, and in Captain America #183, Steve is pushed to reclaim his old title after he stumbles upon the body of his successor strung upside down by the feet.
It’s strange to think that such a grim story is referenced so jokily in Avengers: Endgame by way of a quirky little Easter egg, but hey, at least someone’s remembering poor Roscoe.
In any case, now that Steve’s out of the game, it looks like the MCU will be getting a new Captain America in the form of Sam Wilson. We’ll find out how he gets on filling the shoes of the First Avenger when The Falcon and the Winter Soldier premieres later this year, but seeing how this is a Disney show, we can probably assume that Sam’s run won’t be quite as tragic as Roscoe’s.
