No, Captain America Didn't Die in Avengers: Infinity War

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No, Captain America Didn't Die (Then Get Resurrected) in Avengers: Infinity War

By Alex Leadbeater

Published Aug 24, 2018

A recent Avengers theory suggests Captain America died and was resurrected in the final battle of Infinity War. Here's why that can't be true.

Captain America didn't die in Avengers: Infinity War. That may seem a pretty obvious statement given that Steve Rogers is clearly a survivor of Thanos' snap, but one popular theory suggests that - at least for a period - Cap was done for.

Thanos' hunt for the Infinity Stones in Avengers: Infinity War reaches its end in Wakanda, where, with just Vision's Mind Stone left to claim, the Mad Titan takes on the Earthbound Avengers. He effortlessly swats away various heroes, crushing War Machine, burying the Hulkbuster, and finally taking on Captain America, who grabs the Infinity Gauntlet before being knocked out by a hit to the head.

One new theory says that Thanos' blow against Steve Rogers was a little more damaging: a post on Reddit suggests that Captain America died and was only brought back when Thanos used the Time Stone to undo Scarlet Witch's destruction of the Mind Stone. While it's a bold suggestion, the theory has really taken off. However, it's very easy to debunk.

Putting aside how such a blow would be unlikely to kill a super soldier, revisiting the full scene from Avengers: Infinity War, it's immediately apparent that Cap couldn't be "brought back to life". Firstly, Thanos' time manipulation is focused entirely on Vision and the Mind Stone, with even the nearby Scarlet Witch not being affected; why would the far-off Cap be an (accidental) resurrection? Secondly and more damning, Thanos only rewinds time back to the point of Vision's death, well after his showdown with Cap. All of that says nothing for how this means next to the nothing in the bigger picture of the two-part Infinity War story: if Cap dies and is brought back without realizing anything's happened, it has no impact on the character or the story, making this a needless inflection.

The prospective death of Captain America has long-captivated fans, with his comic murder in the aftermath of the Civil War event building expectations that Steve Rogers will bite it in his past few MCU appearances: both Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War were preceded by theories of Cap's demise, and the same is already true of next year's Avengers 4. With such a weight of dashed hopes, it's easy to see why a theory like this is attractive. Unfortunately, aside from it fitting expectations, there's nothing in Avengers: Infinity War to back it up.