While Captain America is perhaps the greatest hero in the Marvel Universe, he has proven more than once that he is secretly the worst mentor.
While Captain America has garnered the reputation of being the pinnacle of what a hero should be and has thereby acted as a source of inspiration for younger heroes, he is secretly Marvel’s worst mentor–and two of his former proteges prove exactly why that is true.
The first and most well-known hero Captain America mentored was Bucky Barnes who acted as Cap’s sidekick during World War II. Captain America went on countless missions with Bucky, all the while ensuring his safety and training him in the ways of combat and heroism. However, their last mission together proved to be Captain America’s greatest failure as he became responsible for Bucky’s death. Before Captain America was frozen in ice, before being thawed out and joining the Avengers, he and Bucky were working to bring down a Nazi aircraft that was carrying catastrophic bombs aimed at Allied countries. Both Captain America and Bucky were on the outside of the plane, but it was Bucky who caused it to explode mid-flight thereby destroying the bombs it carried. This resulted in Captain America being frozen for years, and Bucky was believed to be dead. In reality he was actually undergoing a fate worse than death as he became twisted into the villainous Winter Soldier through years of endless torture and reprogramming.
In Avengers #7 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Captain America has been unfrozen and is getting used to modern society by continuing his super soldier training and becoming more involved in the heroics of the Avengers. Cap also takes on a new ward who he has decided to train just as he did with Bucky. That person was Rick Jones, who is a known ally of the Hulk but at this time decided to stick with Captain America after meeting him in a previous Avengers issue. However, Rick is perhaps a bit too zealous as he pushes to be Captain America’s official sidekick with his eyes set on becoming a full-fledged member of the Avengers. Because of what happened to Bucky, however, Captain America is reluctant to bring Rick into combat situations and his hesitancy leads to Captain America dropping Rick as his protege.
Little did Captain America know, however, that by abandoning Rick Jones and not letting him become a hero by his side, he doomed his former mentee to a fate of suffering beyond human understanding. In the Immortal Hulk series, Rick Jones is killed and is sent to the Below-Place due to his previous exposure to gamma-radiation. Instead of returning to life as other gamma mutates do, Rick merges with another gamma mutate who died in the earlier chapters of the series and becomes a twisted, two-headed monster that could do little more than scream in endless agony. If Captain America kept Rick Jones by his side rather than allowing him to once again become an ally of the Hulk, he would have never become that grotesque form of pain and suffering and perhaps would have been a natural successor to the Captain America title by that point in time, similar to Sam Wilson’s heroic progression.
Both Bucky Barnes and Rick Jones suffered fates worse than death after being taken under Captain America’s wing, and their respective situations were completely caused by Captain America’s actions. Cap allowed Bucky to serve with him before he was ready, and that led to Barnes being captured and experimented on for decades. Then, Captain America’s knee-jerk reaction to Bucky’s supposed demise led him to abandon Rick when he could have just spent more time training the young soldier rather than being blinded by the ‘death’ of his previous ward, leading Rick down a path that ended in excruciating pain and misery. This proves that Captain America is secretly Marvel’s worst mentor.
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