Comic books can get away with just about anything, as fans have become accustomed to increasingly outlandish and insane stories over the decades, but when it comes to their big screen adaptations, the filmmakers usually have to try and adapt established origins and narrative arcs to fit the vision for the movie, especially for a franchise like the Marvel Cinematic Universe where everything is connected.
Most of the MCU’s major heroes have largely retained their accepted origin stories, and they even made the wise decision not to show us how Peter Parker became Spider-Man because we’ve already seen it happen numerous time before. And for the most part, audiences have just accepted it and moved on, no questions asked.
One of Marvel’s most famous tales is the Avengers discovering Captain America frozen in a block of ice, which happened in 1964. Obviously, though, the MCU is a much more modern enterprise, so by the time the star-spangled superhero was thawed out, over 65 years had passed since the end of World War II. Waking up old people from a nap is never a wise idea, so you can imagine the concerns in S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters when they were dealing with someone that was pushing 100 years old.
It was never officially explained how the man Tony Stark dubbed a Capsicle survived, but it was clearly down to the super solider serum that turned him from skinny runt into buff superhero, and the explanation offered up by Marvel says that the high amounts of glucose generated by his liver created a cryo-protectant that thickened his blood but didn’t freeze it and ensured Captain America‘s survival, which is absolute nonsense but it makes complete sense in context ‘because comic books,’ as the old saying goes.
As ScreenRant explains:
The answer can be attributed to the super soldier serum that runs through his veins. Perfectly preserving humans through cryogenic suspended animation without any special conditions shouldn’t be possible, but it was with Steve Rogers. The official, scientific explanation offered by Marvel is that what happened to Steve is similar to how wood frogs hibernate. Apparently, the high amounts of glucose generated by his liver created a “cryoprotectant” that thickened his blood, but didn’t freeze it. Since Cap’s blood wasn’t frozen, he was able to survive in the ice for decades. Since this can’t happen with normal humans, it can be assumed that it was only possible with Steve because the super soldier serum has made him into the pinnacle of human perfection.
Tell us, though, does this explanation work for you? Let us know by dropping a comment down below.
