Ever since it was first revealed at E3 2019, fans have been suspicious about Captain America's fate in Marvel's Avengers. While it wasn't explicitly stated by Crystal Dynamics, it was clear that something major had happened to him, leading to widespread speculation about what exactly that may be. Now that Marvel's Avengers has been out for a few days, and even earlier for those that purchased the special editions of the game, we know exactly what happened to Captain America.
Please note that in order to explain what happened to Captain America in Marvel's Avengers, we have to go into MAJOR SPOILER territory. Those who don't mind can continue, but those who would rather play through the Marvel's Avengers campaign for themselves to get answers should turn back.
Here is what happened to Captain America in Marvel's Avengers.
A-Day
The first mission in Marvel's Avengers is all about the A-Day incident. After playing as Kamala Khan for a little bit, players are given control of the various Avengers as they attempt to thwart Taskmaster's attack on the Golden Gate Bridge. This tutorial of sorts gives players an idea of how to play each character and how the general gameplay mechanics work, but it also puts everyone in place for the Captain America twist at the beginning of the game.
Most of the Avengers are fighting on the Golden Gate Bridge, with Captain America still aboard the Chimera ship. An explosion is caused by the Terrigen Crystal that powers the Chimera, seemingly killing Captain America in the process. The game then jumps five years into the future, with the world having accepted Captain America as dead and the Avengers dissolved. A statue of Captain America becomes a memorial to the hero, and Thor leaves his hammer Mjolnir at its base as a tribute.
AIM's Experiments
As players progress through the Marvel's Avengers campaign, they discover that Captain America was actually the one who caused the explosion on the Chimera. It's unclear at the time exactly why Cap did this, but the revelation causes some infighting among the Avengers. Distressed, Kamala reviews footage of Bruce Banner interrogating AIM scientist Monica Rappaccini, and realizes that AIM has a secret lab in space on the Ambrosia satellite.
With this information, Iron Man heads to space to investigate the lab. While aboard the ship, he discovers Captain America, who has been used in AIM's experiments. Monica has actually been using Captain America's blood for her experiments on the Inhumans, as well as to keep fellow scientist George Tarleton (aka MODOK) alive. In any case, Iron Man manages to revive Cap, and it's revealed that he destroyed the Terrigen Crystal reactor because it was going to pull something up out of the ocean that would have destroyed the entire city of San Francisco.
Marvel's Avengers is out now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X versions also in development.