What If The Red Guardian Fought The Winter Soldier Instead of Captain America?
Among the numerous releases this year from the MCU, we got an opportunity to bid farewell to the character of Black Widow through Black Widow that came out last month. While we got to know more about the character and her past, we were also introduced to a lot of new characters from her world too. These characters are from her world and hence we might get to some rendition of Black Widow in the form of these characters in the future. One thing from the movie still makes us scratch our heads – did Red Guardian actually fight Captain America as he said he did? A popular fan theory suggests that what actually happened was that Red Guardian fought the Winter Soldier.
Red Guardian
Between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, we follow Natasha after she is also on the run from the government following the events of Civil War in Black Widow. She is forced to join her family, comprising of Yelena Bolova (Florence Pugh), Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz), and Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian (David Harbour). The movie explores their exploits as they unite with a common goal to finish something they were a part of for a long time. Red Guardian was able to gain much attention from the audience due to his charm and his laughable acts.
Shostakov was the sole recipient of the Soviet rendition of the Super Soldier Serum, and he took the identity of “Red Guardian” and became the Soviet counterpart to Captain America. After the scenes from the opening moments of the scene, he was thrown off by the government and put into prison. We saw him arm-wrestling with some of the fellow prisoners and narrating a tale about how he once defeated Captain America himself back in the 1980s. One of the fellow prisoners Ursa Major points out that Steve Rogers was still frozen at that period of time. Fun fact, Ursa Major is actually the first mutant to make an appearance in the MCU. There is a possibility that he might have fought Captain America, but not the one we have been used to.
Theory – Red Guardian Fought The Winter Soldier
The popular fan theory suggests that Red Guardian might have fought either the Winter Soldier or one of the HYDRA’s super-soldiers disguised as Captain America. According to the theory, HYDRA and Red Room might have been on opposite sides during the Cold War period of the 1980s. During one of their fights, they might have put forward their super soldiers and pitted them against Red Guardian.
The idea of the disguise as Captain America is probably a reference to the idea of having a fear amongst the enemies. It is hardly believable that Red Guardian could beat up the original Captain America. One can think of a circumstance where Winter Soldier or the other super soldiers are defeated by the Red Guardian, considering this was the time Alexie was in his prime. This could clearly explain why Red Guardian was so sure about having fought Captain America.
Other Theories
What if (no pun intended) Red Guardian fought a version of the Captain America that was the result of what we got to see at the end as an old man in the events of Endgame. This means that the Captain America who existed in the MCU’s original reality did come across Red Guardian and they probably battled out. This could also mean that Time Variance Authority didn’t take any action on the events of what Captain America did after staying back at his timeline with Peggy.
Another possibility could be that Captain America did create a branched reality and he was able to carry out missions for different realities during his stay in this reality. This means that he might have come across Red Guardian sometime and then would have had battled out with him. Both these theories can also explain why Red Guardian could have been able to defeat him considering Captain America would have gotten older over time. Whether Red Guardian fought Captain America or not there is a massive chance he might get to battle it out with the new Captain America and we cannot wait to see that.
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