Skip to main content

marvel - Is Captain America super-human?



Thanks to the super-soldier serum, Steve Rogers has greatly increased physical abilities, often described as being at the peak of human potential. Going along with this is usually the statement that he doesn't have superpowers or superhuman abilities. Both Wikipedia and the Marvel Wikia say that Captain America has "no superhuman powers". His official Marvel Power Grid gives him a strength rating of 3 ("peak human") and a speed rating of 2 ("normal"), both one point below "superhuman", which is consistent with this description.


His actions, however, seem to contradict this.


For example, he can run a mile in 73 seconds (1:13). That's about three times faster than the current world record, and even outpaces a champion thoroughbred. If the rules allowed it, Captain America could win the Kentucy Derby without a horse.


His strength is a little harder to measure. Wikipedia says that he can bench-press 1200 pounds, which again surpasses the world record, but not by nearly as much. His MCU incarnation is shown, in The Avengers, punching a heavy bag off its hanger and across the room, and replacing it with no visible effort. He is also able to pry open a door on the Helicarrier with his bare hands. In Agents of Shield, Mike Peterson pushes a bulldozer across a football field, and is told that he didn't do it as fast as Captain America.


Steve Rogers is said to be at peak human potential and not superhuman, but he is shown doing things that no ordinary human could do, no matter how much they trained. So, is he super-human or not?



Answer



It would depend on who you ask. Captain America has always been listed as the Pinnacle of Human Evolution. The concept of Peak Human would be considered superhuman to anyone who wasn't. If you had a person who was an Olympic level athlete IN EVERY SPORT POSSIBLE, he would appear to be an awe-inspiring superhuman even to those people who were already Olympic athletes because of his breadth of abilities.




  • Captain America is NOT considered superhuman because in the canon Marvel Universe, it is at least possible for a human being to be capable of SOME of the feats he performs.





  • He is considered NOT Superhuman because he does not have any significant abilities outside of the BEST A HUMAN (any particular well-trained, Olympic-level athlete) could have (except for his running) -- that IS superhuman, no matter how you slice it.




  • He is not considered superhuman because if you were to analyse his DNA, you would find nothing out of the ordinary; no mutant genome, nor any trace of extensive mutagenic effects similar to the Fantastic Four or the Hulk. The Super-Soldier Serum altered his body by bringing out the BEST HUMAN GENOME OPTIONS possible (and the continued regeneration of the serum over time.)




  • In our universe, he would be most assuredly be considered superhuman because he has:




    • Strength greater than any known Olympic athlete.




enter image description here



  • The agility of an Olympic-level gymnast, capable of feats of acrobatics not possible without his unique brand of strength, coordination and stamina.


enter image description here





  • The hand-eye coordination of an Olympic-level archer or marksman. He can throw an object like a baseball for over 100 yards with near-perfect accuracy.




  • The combat ability of a master martial artist, fusing, Judo, Akido, Boxing and his own acrobatic martial arts style into a unique and powerful offensive-defensive fighting style.




enter image description here





  • He is able to swim as fast as any Olympic-level swimmer and hold his breath for over 20 minutes.




  • The running speed and stamina twice that of any Olympic runner to have ever lived! He is faster than a horse!




enter image description here



  • He does not build up fatigue poisons at the same rate as a normal human, giving him unheard of levels of stamina and endurance. He can fight for over an hour, full out without fatigue, loss of puissance, or loss of accuracy.



In our universe, Captain America would be considered Superhuman because there wouldn't be anyone even remotely as capable in as many fields as he can encompass. In the Marvel Universe the border between Human and Superhuman has a slightly wider spectrum and in it, Captain America resides just at the border between Peak Human and Minor Superhuman.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.
Post a Comment
Read more

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more