Black Widow: Why Red Guardians Shield Is Better Than John Walker’s

Black Widow’s Red Guardian (David Harbour) seemingly carries a better Captain America-esque shield than the one used by Steve’s first MCU successor, John Walker (Wyatt Russell). In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Walker temporarily wielded Cap’s shield but had to create his own when Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) took his away.

Having lost the mantle of Captain America for needlessly killing a member of the Flag-Smashers, Walker decided not to let his situation keep him out of the final fight. After using tools to forge his own metal shield, Walker joined the new Captain America and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) for the final battle with Karli Morgenthau’s Flag-Smashers. Despite Walker’s shield being battered and rendered practically useless by the villains, Walker ultimately played a role in foiling their scheme. In the aftermath of the battle, Walker was given his comic book codename, “U.S. Agent”.

U.S. Agent has emerged as a formidable super soldier in the MCU, but his shield is seemingly inferior not only to Cap’s, but also to his Russian counterpart’s. The Black Widow trailers have confirmed that David Harbour’s Alexi Shostakov will have his own shield when he suits up as the Red Guardian. Exactly what it’s made of and what its capabilities are haven’t been revealed yet, but the trailers have shown him throwing it with the same level of efficiency that Captain America did with his own shield. Its effectiveness at least in this area is clearly superior to Walker’s, which was immediately (and quite effortlessly) deflected the first time it was thrown at a Flag-Smasher. It could be that his shield isn’t as well-balanced as the ones used by Steve and Red Guardian.

As far as durability goes, it makes sense that Walker’s shield would be the weaker or the two. After all, it was just a makeshift, metal shield that Walker apparently made in just a matter of days. Red Guardian, on the other hand, should have much better equipment in Black Widow. In Marvel Comics, Alexi (and most other incarnations of the Red Guardian) are superheroes chosen to represent their country by the Russian government. So if the government provided Alexi with his shield, it should be made of the highest quality metal available to them. It’s hard to imagine it being as strong as Cap’s vibranium disc, but it should be good enough to reliably serve him in combat.

Since Black Widow’s Red Guardian is a retired superhero with a long history of defending his country, it’s likely that his shield has been tested countless times out in the field. That’s more than what can be said for U.S. Agent’s shield, which couldn’t survive one mission. Hopefully, Val (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) can use her financial resources to hook U.S. Agent up with a more sufficient replacement.

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