Warning! This article contains spoilers for Fantastic Four #40
The vibranium shield famously wielded by Captain America has a secret power that presents itself while being used by its other rightful owner. Vance Astrovik aka Justice is a hero who should never have existed as his origin story lies with the actions of his distant-future self. Within the alternate timeline of his future variant, Vance proves himself to be such a formidable fighter that his actions transcended time and space, granting his younger self a power he didn’t know he had while wielding Captain America’s shield.
In Fantastic Four #40 by Dan Slott and Rachael Stott, Reed Richards has been given the ability to see the universe as a Watcher. Using this newfound power, he is masterfully maneuvering Earth’s heroes as they are battling the invading forces of the Reckoning and the Badoon. During the battle, Mr. Fantastic tells Captain America to throw his shield to Justice as the vision of Vance wielding the shield instills a deep-rooted fear into the Badoon and thereby giving him the added advantage while fighting the alien army.
When Mr. Fantastic tells Justice to use Captain America’s shield to fight the Badoon, he says, “All Badoon share a deep-rooted psychological fear of the day you, armed with that shield, will rise up to destroy them!”. Using the Watcher’s sight of all things that ever were and ever could be, Mr. Fantastic is referencing Vance Astrovik’s alternate future self, Vance Astro aka Major Victory. In the distant future of 3007 of Earth-691, Major Victory is a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. During that year, Vance and the other Guardians have gone to Earth to help save the remaining humans after the Badoon invaded and effectively conquered the world. The moment Mr. Fantastic is referring to in this Fantastic Four issue is the day Major Victory finds Captain America’s shield, effectively becoming the Guardians of the Galaxy’s own version of Captain America. Major Victory uses the shield and his newfound position to instill hope in those around him and to rise up against the evil alien forces.
The reason there are two widely different versions of Vance Astrovik/Astro is because of the future version’s meddling with time. Major Victory ends up in the distant future in his timeline after volunteering for a deep-space mission that would leave him in stasis for a thousand years. When he awoke, the technology he was using became obsolete and he found himself forever altered and stuck in an unfamiliar future. While he made a life for himself as a Guardian of the Galaxy, he wanted to save his past version from the pains he had to endure. So, Major Victory went back in time and convinced his younger self to not become an astronaut, and in doing so created an alternate timeline.
Despite having become a fear-inducing warrior in a different reality, Justice used the reputation established by Major Victory to fend off the swarming Badoon forces. The secret power Captain America’s shield contains is the fear Major Victory instilled deep into the Badoon’s collective psyche, a power that can only be used when the shield is wielded by its other rightful owner.