Is Captain America Gay, Bisexual or Straight? What Is Marvel Canon?
Captain America is the most notable American superhero of all time. The First Avenger was the symbol of freedom and patriotic supersoldier who fought the Axis powers of WWII and because of that, his popularity skyrocketed during the 1940s. Discussion of Captain America’s sexuality, especially one of Steve Rogers, has been frequent with Marvel fans, which prompted us to investigate ourselves. In this article, we will look into if Captain America is gay, bisexual or straight, and what is Marvel canon.
Captain America, at least Steve Rogers is straight in the Marvel canon. He was truly the product of his time, and in the MCU Peggy Carter was his one and true love. There have been a few other individuals who took over Captain America’s mantle like Bucky Barnes who did hint at the attraction to other men, and Sam Wilson who is mostly straight. The recent 80th anniversary of the US hero, a comic book series The United States of Captain America, revealed a new Captain America Aaron Fischer, who is gay, and even has a boyfriend.
We will discuss Captain America’s sexuality closely, mention each individual who canonically “worn” or acted under the Captain America mantle, and in the end conclude our reasoning, both in MCU and Marvel comics. If you are interested, stay with us until the end of the article!
Captain America’s Relationships in MCU and Comics
Captain America was always a symbol of “freedom and patriotism” and a true product of its time. The superpowered supersoldier who fought nazis during World War II was really empowering at the time, and the hero motivated the U.S. troops who were going overseas fighting for their lives. Captain America was a product of the U.S. government and progressively changed during the last few decades.
Steve Rogers was a textbook American everyone looked up to and aspire to be, however, in recent decades, the perfect American superhero got flawed and a lot more interesting character. Captain America and him being frozen for seven decades and waking up in modern times, was a really interesting premise on how a traditional 1940s superhero will behave and adapt to a drastically different world.
A hint of comedy was added to Captain America’s character, and fans loved that notion, which transferred to Captain America’s personal romantic relationships. Let’s start with Steve Rogers. An original Captain America and most notable one out of the bunch, Steve was always an inspiring man to a lot of people, and even superheroes.
His romantic relationships were quite notable – his first true love was Peggy Carter. She fell in love with Steve after he was injected with supersoldier serum. Unfortunately, during the battle in WWII, they were separated and Steve disappeared. While in the comics their relationship was quite brief, in the MCU Peggy’s and Steve’s love was really present, especially in the First Captain America movie and Avengers: Endgame. After the battle with mighty Mad Titan Thanos, Steve decided to use Pym’s particles and come back in time to spend his life with his true love Peggy Carter.
We also saw Steve being in a relationship with Sharon Carter, Peggy’s niece. Twice. Their relationship is probably one of the notable ones during Steve’s life. In the comics, he was also in an odd relationship with Scarlet Witch, who was really young at the time, and after suffering through a series of hallucinations, Scarlet Witch eases Steve’s troubles, and the two of them sleep together.
It was revealed in the comic book story Avengers Disassembled, that Steve was hallucinating the whole thing and Wanda did not recall them being together. Tough break, Steve.
In the alternate universe, Captain America marries Natasha Stark, an alternate version of Tony Stark. We find out about that after Reed Richards looks for the solution to the problem in the other universes’ futures. Well, at least Stony shippers can partly rejoice.
Natasha Romanov and Steve are not romantically involved at all and are close friends in the comics. In the MCU, they kissed while undercover during Captain America: Winter Soldier, but nothing came out of that. In the animated films, Ultimate Avengers and Ultimate Avengers 2, Black Widow and Captain America are romantically involved.
Those were notable Steve Rogers relationships, but let’s now talk about Bucky Barnes, who became Captain America after Steve Rogers allegedly died. For Bucky, the most notable relationship has to be with Natasha Romanov, which was really healthy one might say, but there is a catch – both Natasha and Bucky admitted they had crushes on Steve Rogers, which gives off a lot of bisexual vibes from Bucky.
This was confirmed by one of the writers Mark Waid, who was working on the 2016 Black Widow comic book story, and since then fans doubled, and tripled down onto Stucky ship. Bucky was also in a relationship with Valkryie, before joining the Future Foundation after being reincarnated once again.
Sam Wilson is another notable Captain America, both in MCU and comics. Leila Taylor was his notable lover, but the rumors of Sam Wilson being queer in some way was always present with the fans, especially in the MCU. Falcon, who later became Captain America was never canonically with another man or gender but he was really close with Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes.
The relationship with the latter, Bucky Barnes, was portrayed by the actors as really close, especially during the Disney+ TV show Falcon and Winter Soldier. Their chemistry was present in every scene, and knowing none of the Marvel writers or creators ever said something, the notion that these two could be anything else than straight, is quite open in the moment.
Even though there are a few more Captain America’s, we will mention the last and most recent one, well at least one of them in the comic book storyline published last year, as a part of the 80th anniversary since the most patriotic superhero was first time released.
In the limited series, The United States of Captain America, Steve Rogers, and his fellow Captain America’s go on the journey to find his beloved shield. On the way, they encounter everyday people who had taken the mantle of Captain America to defend their communities.
One person that stood out was Aaron Fischer, also known as Captain America of the Railways, a fearless teen who was revealed to have a boyfriend and consequently became the first LGBTQ+ character in the Marvel comics to carry the mantle of Captain America.
Is Captain America Gay, Bisexual or Straight?
We can safely that the “most American superhero of all time” is canonically gay in the Marvel comics, or at least the version of him is. Steve Rogers was never confirmed to be gay or bisexual, even though some comics, especially MCU movies, saw Steve have quite a chemistry with another man. Besides being the best “America’s ass”, Steve is straight.
The more we analyze the characters that carried the mantle of Captain America, the queerer they become, and even though Bucky was never dating men in the comics, the Marvel writer confirmed his crush on his best and oldest friend Steve Rogers. Any writer can say whatever they want about the character when writing their story, but this would not come out if not greenlighted by someone from above in Marvel. Bucky Barnes is possibly bisexual.
Sam Wilson could be considered bisexual as well at least, but no one said anything about his sexuality so we won’t speculate without any proof. Falcon and later Captain America, Sam Wilson does have chemistry with other men, like Bucky, but for now, we will conclude he is straight.
Aaron Fischer’s revealed sexuality showed that none of the comic book characters can stay the same for more than a decade since many different writers are working on these characters. Being the most American superhero of all time, and fighting Axis in Europe, most definitely very religious, Steve Rogers and Captain America are truly the product of their time, but that doesn’t mean that the superhero cannot love any other gender besides the female.
That also does not take away from his patriotism and heroism – Captain America can be and will be a great inspiration to people even if he loves men, as Aaron Fischer showed us in the recent United States of Captain America limited series.
