Warning: Spoilers for Ultimate Avengers #4!
Within the realm of the Ultimate Universe in Marvel Comics, Captain America made a move against S.H.I.E.L.D. for the sake of his own family and War Machine shows up to bring him down, but Cap is able to beat Rhodey’s best armor in the creepiest way. Ultimate Captain America is depicted as a much more hardened soldier than his star-spangled Earth-616 counterpart. Most moral quandaries Cap runs into in prime continuity are not shared by his Ultimate version, which leads to Captain America using a fighting tactic to beat War Machine that is completely unethical and absolutely disgusting.
In Ultimate Avengers #4 by Mark Millar and Carlos Pacheco, Captain America learns that S.H.I.E.L.D. is after his son when the organization learns that he has top secret intel that they cannot let out into the public. Choosing his family over work, Captain America goes rogue and attempts to retrieve his son before S.H.I.E.L.D. does. Since Captain America was blatantly disobeying orders with the added threat that he may let his son go free, which would allow the dangerous information being released, S.H.I.E.L.D. launches the alternate Avengers team to take Cap down. The biggest threat to Captain America’s continued freedom was War Machine, who was wearing beastly high-tech armor, and was succeeding in beating Captain America during their fight, that is until Cap pulled the infamous move.
Captain America and War Machine were fighting in Paris, France, a highly populated area with many witnesses to the destruction the battle was causing. Captain America quickly learned that War Machine’s best armor was too much for him, so he goes to a place where War Machine wouldn’t dare attack him, a kindergarten. Captain America uses a bunch of little kids as shields to hide behind so that Rhodey would stop fighting, and he could get the jump on him. Because of War Machine’s hesitation after seeing Captain America standing amid a room full of children, Steve Rogers is able to use that momentary pause to take the Avenger down.
While the other Avengers were successful in incapacitating Captain America, War Machine would have easily been able to take him down himself. Many times throughout the fight, it is clear to readers that War Machine is actually having fun while fighting Cap, having new armor that has surpassed the world’s greatest super soldier. What War Machine couldn’t surpass, however, was Steve’s tactical skills. While those skills are shared by Captain America’s Earth-616 counterpart, the original would never do what Ultimate Captain America did just to save his own skin, a code of honor War Machine mistakenly believed Ultimate Cap lived by.
Using kids to win a violent battle that has already caused so much destruction is one of the most abhorrent tactics Captain America has ever made just to win a fight. So many things could have happened as Cap entered the preschool, like War Machine not registering where he went and firing a rocket into the building to get him, or just blindly running in swinging to defeat Captain America. Any number of things in the heat of their battle could have resulted in the deaths of every one of those kids. Captain America didn’t care about the potential repercussions, he just wanted to win the fight and thought using children to do so was a great idea. Captain America beat War Machine’s best armor in the most awful way, by putting children in mortal danger to come out on top.