Why Every Super Soldier After Steve Rogers Has Gone Wrong

Including those seen in Marvel's The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, it seems as though every Super Soldier has gone wrong or somehow been corrupted after the success of Captain America in the MCU. Steve Rogers' transformation into the first true Super Soldier was a success physically as well as mentally, and the circumstances surrounding his transformation allowed him to be seen as a hero of WWII and an Avenger after he was thawed out in the modern era. However, every subject given the Super Solider Serum (or variants of it) since that success hasn't been able to measure up in the same way, though some of the reasons why have nothing to do with the serum itself.

While Arnim Zola's version of the serum seemed to be successful for Bucky Barnes, his circumstances and brainwashing corrupted him into a dark assassin for HYDRA for decades. Furthermore, HYDRA's attempts at creating more Winter Soldiers using Howard Stark's variation lead to mental breaks and heightened aggression, forcing HYDRA to put them on ice indefinitely. While Bruce Banner would eventually become a hero and Avenger, his formula was corrupted by his inclusion of gamma radiation, turning him into the Incredible Hulk instead of a Super Soldier as intended, and Emil Blonsky went dark using the same process along with the Hulk's blood, turning him into the dark Abomination.

The same trend of Super Soldiers gone wrong continues with the new subjects seen in Falcon & The Winter Soldier. During the Korean War in the 1950s, the U.S. government and undercover HYDRA agents experimented on Isaiah Bradley, who would have been another successful Super Soldier had he not been wrongly imprisoned until the 1980s. Likewise, Karli Morgenthau and her Flag-Smashers have become Super Soldiers using a new and optimized version of the serum made by Dr. Wilfred Nagel, though they're operating as revolutionaries who have arguably crossed the line into terrorism. Lastly, the new Captain America, John Walker, has just taken this same version of the formula, though it's evident his mental instability beforehand has been exacerbated thanks to the serum – which helps explain exactly why none of the rest worked as Super Soldiers.

Thanks to the Red Skull's transformation using an earlier version of Dr. Abraham Erskine's original serum, the renowned scientist working for the SSR came to the conclusion that his serum enhanced everything about the individual, not just their physical attributes, which was a big reason why he chose Steve Rogers when the serum was finally ready: "The serum amplifies everything that is inside. So, good becomes great. Bad becomes worse. This is why you were chosen." Keeping that in mind, it makes a certain amount of sense as to why certain subjects of future attempts to recreate Erskine's formula went so poorly, though it appears as though the specific circumstances surrounding said subjects play just as much of a factor as well (like with Bucky or Isaiah who had no choice in what happened to them).

The Super Soldier Serum is a coveted power and game-changer in the MCU, and power in any form has a tendency to corrupt. It's part of the reason why Baron Zemo is so against Super Soldiers to begin with, though even he concedes in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier that Steve Rogers was the exception to the rule. Perhaps that's Steve Rogers' true power in the MCU, though it should not be lost that he had by far the best circumstances out of all the future subjects of the Super Soldier Serum (along with the original and best version of the formula).

More: The MCU's New Villains Are Repeating Zemo's Civil War Plan