Captain America, the iconic symbol of American ideals, has faced a myriad of villains throughout his 80+ years in the comics. These adversaries, often political subversives, reflect the issues of the day and the character's evolution. From the Red Skull to the Winter Soldier, each villain presents a unique challenge to Captain America's values and ideals. Here's a deep dive into the five best Captain America villains, ranked by their impact and enduring legacy.
5. Aleksander Lukin
The Winter Soldier, a character created by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting, is a canonical story that changed Bucky forever. But truly, the Winter Soldier was only an adversary of Cap for about a dozen issues before Bucky's true self returned. Even as a bad guy, he was a tool of the true villain: former KGB officer turned energy oligarch Aleksander Lukin, the protege of the Winter Soldier's creator, Vasily Karpov.
Lukin's first appearance in "Captain America" #1, where he executes the Red Guardian, symbolizes the death of the old Soviet Russia for a new capitalist one. At the end of that issue, he then has the Winter Soldier assassinate the Red Skull — not to rid the world of evil, but to take the Skull's reality-warping Cosmic Cube. Lukin ultimately kills hundreds of people in Philadelphia to power the Cube and delights in tormenting Cap with all his past failures (Bucky most of all).
Lacking the flair or dual identity of a typical Marvel villain, Lukin feels all the more real for it. He's a cautionary tale of how you invite evil inside yourself by reaching for power.
4. The Secret Empire
Captain America has fought many evil/terrorist organizations filled with legions of masked members. Thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, the most famous one is HYDRA. But of the evil conspiracies, I've got to give the edge to the Secret Empire, thanks entirely to a 1970s "Captain America" storyline written by Steve Englehart.
The story follows Cap and the Falcon disrupting the Secret Empire's attempts to take over the U.S. It's all in a day's work for Captain America ... until the ending, when Cap unmasks the conspiracy's leader Number One. The villain's face is not seen, and then he takes his own life, but between Cap's aghast reaction and Number One saying public office wasn't enough power for him, it's heavily implied to be U.S. President Richard Nixon.
"Secret Empire" redefined Captain America; if he's the American paragon, then his stories can and should engage with the flawed reality of what the U.S. really is. Richard Nixon's corrupt administration, and the public exposure of that corruption, left its scars on (Captain) America.
3. Crossbones
Mark Gruenwald wrote "Captain America" for over 100 issues, and he left his mark by expanding the book's supporting cast. One of his most enduring co-creations (with artist Kieron Dwyer) is the villain Brock Rumlow/Crossbones, a white supremacist mercenary who dresses in black-and-white skeleton-themed tactical gear.
Crossbones is a loyal servant of the Red Skull, and within that devotion lies the origin of his name: Skull and Crossbones, i.e. the symbol for death (whether by pirate or poison). Crossbones lives up to that symbolism, and as much he loves guns and knives, he doesn't need them to deal out death. Tall and burly like a bodybuilder, Crossbones can give Cap a one-on-one bare knuckle challenge not many other villains can.
Frank Grillo played Crossbones in the MCU films "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "Civil War.". Even if I'd contend this version (reimagined as a HYDRA sleeper agent inside S.H.I.E.L.D.) didn't match the brutal skinhead characterization of the comic Crossbones, Grillo's Rumlow still left his mark by kicking off the titular superhero civil war.
2. Baron Zemo
During both Captain America's original adventures in World War II and his ongoing ones in the modern day, one name has caused him more pain than almost any other: Zemo. First, there was Baron Heinrich Zemo, 12th of his name. A Nazi scientist, Zemo was the proudly self-described "most hated man in Europe" and the Führer's chief doomsday weapon architect.
Given Heinrich worked for the Nazis, it's no surprise the Zemos are eugenicists; they're not just racist, they're classist. Father and son both deem themselves "born better" due to their noble lineage. Aristocracy is a European tradition that the United States threw off during its War for Independence, making Captain America a perfect foe for the evil German Barons.
1. The Red Skull
The original "Captain America" villain, Red Skull debuted in "Captain America Comics" #1 alongside his heroic nemesis. In those early stories, the Red Skull was George Maxon, an Axis-sympathizing industrialist and saboteur. When Captain America was revived for publication in the 1960s, the Red Skull was retconned with him.
Maxon was a mere imposter for the true Red Skull, Johann Shmidt. Once a mere hotel bellhop in Germany, the future Red Skull initially served Adolf Hitler. Recognizing a capacity for evil in the boy's eyes, Hitler remade Shmidt into the ultimate Nazi.
The Red Skull's red skull is (usually) a mask, but it shows the true face of both Nazism and Shmidt's rotten soul. "Captain America: The First Avenger" made this literal; the MCU Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) took the same Super Soldier Serum that remade Steve Rogers and it revealed his true self, i.e. the Red Skull.
Other "Captain America" villains, like twisted scientist Arnim Zola, evil hypnotist Dr. Faustus, the aforementioned Crossbones, and sometimes even Zemo, have often worked in subservience to the Red Skull. One of the Skull's most nefarious acts was, with the help of his favored weapon the Cosmic Cube, rewriting history to make Captain America submit to fascism's vision, too.
