Captain America: The 10 Most Hilarious Memes From The Comics

Captain America is one of Marvel’s most recognizable characters and one who has significantly impacted the pantheon of other Marvel superheroes. Despite his intense patriotism and serious leadership qualities, some of his comic-book appearances have gone on to evoke humor (often unintentionally). Whether it be his conversations with Iron-Man or Rob Liefeld’s over-the-top art, these memes show the funny side of the so-called ‘First Avenger’.

With the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier bringing back the conversation around the character and his shield, now seems like a good time to revisit these comic book memes.

10 Captain America Eats His Shield

One of the weirdest Captain America scenarios has to be the Avenger thinking of eating his own shield while Bucky tries stopping him. This is a straightforward meme referencing this popular comic-inspired fan art by Kerry Callen. Captain America might surely be really hungry to resort to such an extreme measure.

People might be mistaken in thinking that this is an actual cover but this is Callen’s original art as he sought to image a ‘what if’ scenario of Marvel characters having DC-style covers. According to the artist, Marvel comic book covers in the ’60s often featured heroes fighting villains while DC, on the other hand, featured ‘outrageous character scenarios’.

9 Solid Advice

Considering how times have changed, comic books and their iconic characters have also changed over the years. A few of the vintage Marvel comics, when read without context, yield some laughable and questionable results. However, a particular comic panel from Captain America #176 was rather edited and misinterpreted with many people falling for it. In the original comic, Iron Man offers some ‘solid advice’ to Cap.

The speech bubble was eventually altered to ‘solid dick’. While such a lewd remark would never be published in a children’s comic, people believed it to be true (as shown in this meme) thinking of it as a yesteryear figure of speech. As Urban Dictionary also explains, ‘solid dick’ is interpreted as ‘straight talk’ by some people on the Internet.

8 Rob Liefeld’s Bulky Art Style

The comic book industry will forever be indebted to writer and artist Rob Liefeld for creating Deadpool and Cable. At the same time, he’s also heavily panned and parodied for his artistic style that often bloated his character with unrealistically exaggerated muscular features. His creations have drawn criticism for aspects like long legs, minuscule feet, heavily veined chests, and arms. Liefeld himself jokes about his version of Captain America as is evident from his tweets.

His take on Captain America similarly has been the subject of memes. If Chris Evans’ Captain America was as muscular and bulky as Liefeld’s version, it would surely seem unrealistic, even by superhero standards.

7 Flying With Iron-Man

The Super-Soldier serum might have granted Captain America several superpowers but he still lacks the ability to fly. A humorous trope that has been observed in several comics over time, is to find the Captain clinging on to his fellow Avenger Iron-Man when it comes to flying over long distances.

In this way, they both do form an effective team. While Iron-Man possesses a vast knowledge of science along with his technical achievements, Captain America’s superhuman senses and overall durability help the duo further.

6 WANK!

Captain America #366 was an ambitious comic as it was a part of the crossover event Acts of Vengeance. This storyline featured various iconic villains from different Marvel properties exchanging the heroes they usually go against. While Captain America battles the Controller, the Voice attempts to order Captain America to stop (as he has a superpowered voice that can hypnotize people).

But the Captain is too engrossed in fighting the Controller throwing his shield at his face. The result is a loud ‘WANK’ sound, and the rest is meme history.

5 ‘Hail HYDRA’

In the 2017 limited series Secret Empire, the Captain’s memories are altered turning him into a HYDRA agent. This was, of course, a really ironic development considering how he has harbored an enmity with the organization for decades. The particular part where Captain America ends up saying, ‘Hail HYDRA’ triggered a lot of buzz amongst comic-book fans who were quick to use it as a meme template.

The parodied versions of this scene reimagined other superheroes saying the unimaginable. For instance, Batman ends up killing his parents and Spiderman gives up his motto of ‘With great power, comes great responsibility.’

4 Three Seconds

Captain America suits the role of a parent in this meme, given his rule-abiding, morally right persona. This particular scene is borrowed from Amazing Spider-Man #523.

The entire quote in the comic is quite witty as the Captain says, ‘Good day, gentlemen. You have exactly three seconds to surrender. Unfortunately, it took me five seconds to say that. Avengers, Assemble!’. Steve Rogers definitely knows how to make an entrance!

3 Happy 4th Of July

Captain America originally served as an embodiment of hope for the Allied soldiers to defeat the Axis Powers in the Second World War, particularly the Nazis under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. One of Captain America’s most recognizable comic-book covers has to be the masked hero punching the German dictator. The cover is not only iconic for its historical context but also because it marked the debut of the hero in Captain America #1 (1941).

This meme highlights an undoubtedly iconic moment in pop culture.

2 ‘Stay Young’

A simple birthday wish from Captain America to a certain person named Christopher. That’s all that this meme is. However, the phrase ‘stay young’ seems pretty apt here as Cap isn’t just offering a generic birthday greeting but also ironically hinting at how he himself cheated old age.

It’s common knowledge that he was frozen for years, allowing him to retain his youth for decades. So, now, even if the Captain might be a hundred years old, he has retained his youthful physicality.

1 Casting Bucky

Sebastian Stan has garnered much acclaim among fans and critics for his portrayal of Bucky Barnes (Winter Soldier), Captain America’s right-hand man. This meme compares a scene from Captain America: Winter Soldier to a comic panel from the 2000s revealing the similarities between the character and the actor’s ‘duck face’.

In both cases, Bucky is attacking enemy facilities with firepower while making a sassy expression, biting on his lip. Whether this peculiar similarity was intentional or not, one can’t say. But what’s certain is that Stan indeed makes for a comic-accurate Bucky.

About The Author

Shaurya Thapa
(724 Articles Published)

Shaurya Thapa is an Indian freelance journalist who mostly dabbles in writings on cinema, music, and human interest features. When it comes to Screen Rant, he writes lists on a wide array of subjects ranging from international films to mainstream Netflix series and comic book trivia. He also hosts a podcast called ‘BhindiWire’, an Indian parody of IndieWire.

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