This chapter is the concluding epilogue of the story. Thank you to everyone who has followed, favorited and reviewed this story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Zephyr One
Steve was in the medical ward of Zephyr One as Jemma Simmons, Leo Fitz and some of the doctors were examining his blood, while Natasha, Sam, Bucky, Walker and Lemar looked at him worriedly.
"Well?" Steve asked.
"The Super Soldier serum in your bloodstream is breaking down, Captain Rogers." Jemma said.
"I'm not sure what the device exactly did, but the radiation it emitted, it negated the Vita radiation saturating the serum. Without it, the serum just… degrades in your blood until it wears off." Fitz said.
"There has to be something we can do. I mean, we can give Captain the serum Sin had, right?" Walker suggested. He couldn't believe his idol wasn't going to be a Super Soldier anymore.
"It doesn't matter." Steve said, surprising them all.
"What do you mean, it doesn't matter? You… you're Captain America! You can't be…" Walker gestured at Steve's scrawny body.
"Super Soldier is not what makes Captain America who he is. Captain America isn't only a soldier. Captain America is a symbol. An idea. It's not about being strong, fast or the perfect soldier… but a good man. Someone with strong morals, selfless, loyal and doesn't compromise his values and beliefs. Erskine told me that he didn't want the Super Soldier to be a perfect soldier… but a good man." Steve said as he turned to Walker. "I heard what you did, John. You're a great soldier and I knew you had the potential to be a good man."
Walker smiled appreciatively, while Lemar gave his partner a smile of his own.
"You have the potential to be as good as me. You might be a perfect soldier, but… I think you're still a bit rough around some edges." Steve said jokingly and Walker chuckled. He then turned to Sam. "Sam. You may not be the perfect soldier, but you're a good man. At every turn you tried to do the right thing, even when it wasn't certain what it was. And you've proven more than once that sometimes the world doesn't need a perfect soldier to protect it, but a good man."
Sam smiled, knowing what he was going to say next. "All it takes is a few good men." He then picked the shield, remembering, when Steve had offered it to him the first time around after he had returned the Infinity Stones to their proper places in time. "I wasn't sure if I was ready, Steve, but… I promised you I'd do my best." He put the straps of the shield on his arm as he held it in his arm. "I think it's time I honored that promise."
Steve smiled, while Walker, Lemar, Bucky and Natasha looked at Sam, seeing for themselves the similarities between him and Steve. While Sam didn't have the Super Soldier serum in him, just like Steve, he was a man with strong moral values with a good heart, compassionate and empathic, trying to do the right thing, even when it wasn't clear what the right thing was, just like when he was trying to reason with the Flag-Smashers first, making Walker realize that his flaw was thinking that he had to follow orders and live up to the expectations of his superiors and that a good soldier should is also a good man, someone who has strong morals and should never compromise his beliefs, no matter the circumstances. Whatever enmity he may have had towards Sam and Bucky at this point vanished completely, replaced by growing respect.
Inova Fairfax Hospital, Washington, D.C.
After feeling a bit better, Sharon was transferred to the U.S. to recover at home. She had not been yet in a condition to move, so transfer by normal means was out of the question, so S.H.I.E.L.D. put her into hyperbaric chamber to keep her stable, while they had flown with her to the U.S.
A nurse was currently changing the bandages around her bandaged abdomen as Sharon ran her hand down her stitched wound. She had to admit she was feeling differently before and after being stabbed by Sin. She had felt more tired, felt some nausea, while traveling across countries and she had felt at times differently… she was having her suspicions, but if Sin had stabbed her in the abdomen, that meant…
Suddenly, using her S.H.I.E.L.D. training, Sharon banished the thoughts, compartmentalizing and putting them into a dark corner of her mind. If her suspicions were true, it would just tear her up and Steve even more after all the losses he had suffered. Steve was alive, she was alive, they would find a way to make it work, that was all that mattered.
The nurse helped Sharon get up from the stretcher as she tried to walk, with the IV bag full of painkillers attached to the vein in her arm. The nurse offered Sharon to lean onto her, but Sharon brushed her off, slowly walking.
"I'm fine. Thank you." Sharon assured.
"Good to see you on your feet."
Sharon smiled as she looked up, recognizing the voice before she gasped at the sight of Steve. She had seen the photos of him small and scrawny many times, when Peggy had shown her and in the museums and in school, but seeing it firsthand shocked her.
"Steve?" Sharon asked, eying Steve. "What… you look…"
"Smaller?" Steve joked.
"I was going to say 'tired.'" Sharon said with a smile.
"Well, I think we both could use some rest." Steve said as he approached her and she sat down before they kissed as she hugged him.
"Is it over?" Sharon asked and she felt Steve nod on her shoulder.
"It's over, Sharon." Steve assured and Sharon sniffed, tears forming in her eyes, while he patted her on her back.
New York
Natasha was in bed, sleeping as she stirred before she noticed she was in the bed alone. She got up and wrapped the sheet around her naked body to cover herself, when she saw Bucky put on his jacket and walk towards the door but stopped, not even bothering to turn to her as he sighed.
"How am I supposed to live with this?" Bucky asked, though the question wasn't aimed at Natasha, at least not intentionally.
Natasha took a breath. It was never easy to escape your inner demons. "Forgive yourself. It may not be easy… but first you need to recognize you're not the same person anymore."
Bucky considered and took a deep breath, mustering the courage, while Natasha sighed. They had been through this too many times to count… but for some reason, Natasha felt like Bucky was going to finish it this time. Not that Bucky was noticing, but she gave him an encouraging smile before he closed the door behind him.
Bucky walked down the hallway before knocking on the door of the apartment. A moment later, Yori opened the door and was surprised to see him.
"Hey, what are you doing here? It's late, come in before someone calls the cops." Yori said and Bucky entered, while Yori closed the door, looking at Bucky in confusion. "What are you doing here? It's not Wednesday."
Bucky looked at the memorial of Yori's son RJ and took a breath, trying to find the strength to finally give closure to them both.
"I, uh, I have to tell you something. About your son." Bucky said and Yori looked confused as Bucky took off his glove to reveal his metal arm and they both sat down. "He was murdered."
"What?" Yori asked, not understanding.
"By the Winter Soldier. And that was me." Bucky said with his voice shaking.
Yori's lips quivered, his eyes full of pain and grief at the revelation. "Why?"
Bucky inhaled before looking at Yori with remorse and guilt washing all over his face. "I didn't have a choice."
Yori's face twitched as he was slowly on verge of tears before Bucky left. He had given Yori closure and to himself… so why wasn't he feeling any better?
The following day, Bucky and Natasha walked to Izzy's, where he and Yori were going for lunch as they observed Yori talking with Leah as she poured him a drink before spotting Bucky through the window and she gave him a kind smile.
Bucky smiled and relaxed, realizing that despite knowing the truth about what had happened to his son, Yori was doing well as he drank and Natasha held him by his arm as they left, happy that Bucky got some sense of closure with Yori. And whatever would happen next, Natasha would always be there for him.
Baltimore, Maryland
Steve and Sam approached the Bradley residence and knocked on the door before Eli, the boy who was living with Isaiah, opened the door and was a bit shocked to see Steve looked scrawny and slim. "Oh, hey. What are you two doing here?"
"I read the news." They turned to see Isaiah approach. "Nice job."
"Thanks." Steve said.
Isaiah looked at Steve in confusion, wondering what had happened. "What happened? Did someone squeeze the serum out of you like juice from orange?" He asked sarcastically.
"Well… you could say that." Steve said with a chuckle.
Isaiah walked to the garden as he picked a cloth, rubbing his hands before Sam patted him on his shoulder, while Isaiah looked at him confused. "Why don't you clean up?"
"There's something we'd like you to see." Steve said.
Isaiah nodded as he went back into the house.
"So, where are we going?" Eli asked.
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.
Sam accompanied Isaiah and Eli to Steve Rogers/Captain America exhibition as they followed him until they stopped and Isaiah and Eli were shocked to see an exhibit of Isaiah with a golden statue of him in military uniform.
Isaiah held Eli by his shoulders before he looked at Steve and Sam, lost for words, on verge of tears.
"Now they'll never forget what you did for this country." Sam said.
"I told you, I know you were a hero, Isaiah. And soon enough, the world will too." Steve said.
Isaiah hugged them both, almost crying, his hands shaking, silently thanking them both for making sure to preserve his memory.
Few days later
Karli was in special restraints and a prisoner outfit escorted by the U.S. Navy soldiers into an armored van as she heard the radio chatter.
"Confirmed that the prisoner has cleared final processing. We are transferring her to the Raft."
Karli fumed as she entered the back of the van and the door behind her closed. Fuming, she clenched her fists, staring at the wall in front of her. She had lost… but she would have her revenge. She would find more followers to her cause eventually. And she would make sure Captain America and his friends would pay.
The transport drove down the road, when suddenly, the containment unit holding Karli exploded as the transport stopped, the driver and the guards in the front of the van alive, but shocked by what had just happened.
From the upper level of the garage nearby, Oeznik was observing the van in flames from his car as he pocketed the detonator.
The Raft
In his cell, Zemo was reading a book, sitting on his bed, when he heard the news announcement on the radio.
"Karli Morgenthau, the leader of the radical group the Flag-Smashers, was killed today in a car bomb attack as she was being transferred to a high security prison. There are no suspects in the bombing. The group had opposed to the global relocation efforts of the GRC, who just this week had announced that the Patch Act was going to be postponed due to reevaluating humanitarian efforts to help not only the displaced citizens of the nations across the globe, but to put into consideration all citizens in the world until all necessary amendments are made."
Zemo smirked as he heard the news. He did it. The Flag-Smashers were no more. The Super Soldier terrorists were all gone… except…
His thoughts were interrupted, when he saw the warden and guards drag in a containment unit with Sin, whose face was now burned, with exposed flesh beneath the burned layers of skin, similar to how Red Skull looked like, inside, but unlike Bucky, she wasn't on a chair, but restrained to a bed, held in place due to shackles placed on her arms, torso and legs, restricting her movement, not unlike how Bucky had been restrained, when Zemo had framed him for bombing the U.N. building in Vienna, when the Accords were going to be ratified that had led to his capture.
"You two, play nice. Don't expect us to babysit you kids, if you mess around." The guard said as he left.
Zemo smirked as he got up from his bed and faced Sin, whose eyes widened as she recognized the man in front of her. She tried to shake and free herself from her restraints, but she was weak, which infuriated her. The only reason she had survived being impaled was the Super Soldier serum and after they arrested her, the U.S. army experimented on her, drained her blood of the serum. Even though her injuries had healed, the burns on her face remained, even though she wasn't bothered by the parallels with her face being like her grandfather's, but what infuriated her was that even though she had taken away Steve Rogers's power, he still prevailed somehow, the loss of serum and the power not breaking his spirit anyhow, while she was reduced to a weakling, the exact thing she had wanted to turn Steve into.
"You must be Sinthea Schmidt. I've been looking forward to meeting you. The granddaughter of the leader of Hydra. Last remnant of forgotten legacy." Zemo said as 'click' was heard, the lock on the door of his cell turning green as he opened it and went out.
Sin's eyes widened in horror as Zemo exited his cell, though the holding area was still on lockdown. Sin shook violently, trying to free herself from the restraints, while Zemo marched towards her and looked down at Sin.
"You and I… we have all the time in the world." Zemo smirked.
Few weeks later, Washington, D.C.
Steve was lifting weights, doing pushups, crunches, sit-ups, anything he could to get himself at least to proper physical condition, if not to the peak the serum had given him. It wasn't that he missed being Super Soldier, but, if nothing else, at least the serum had cleansed his body of the ailments he used to suffer from, but still, he hated the idea of feeling powerless to protect humanity again.
Then, he heard the lock click and the door open as Sharon entered with bags of groceries in her hands.
"Hey." Steve said as he got up, putting the weights aside.
"Hi." Sharon said.
"What are we having for dinner tonight?" Steve asked.
"I was thinking risotto." Sharon said.
"Well, nice change of pace from Italian." Steve said.
"Could you just prepare the rice in the cooker? I'm just gonna hit the shower first." Sharon said.
"Sure. Might have time to slice the vegetable too." Steve said as he approached the kitchen, preparing the food as Sharon put the bags on the kitchen counter.
In the bathroom, Sharon turned the valves as the water in the shower began running. Sharon then took off her top and looked at the scar on her abdomen, running it with her fingers, the fight with Sin flashing in her mind, alongside the fact that she had feeling in the past few weeks and she could tell that the doctors were not telling her everything about her injuries, but, as long as they assured her she was alright, Sharon was telling herself it didn't matter. Even Bucky, Sam and Natasha insisted that it was no use looking into this further, so why bother? Though it still made her wonder…
Steve was cutting the vegetable, when he saw the news on TV, with the senators behind Global Repatriation Council and the Patch Act.
"After much debate and putting into consideration the recent events with the terrorist group known as the Flag-Smashers, the Global Repatriation Council has decided to delay its vote on the Patch Act to focus more on humanitarian efforts for the displaced citizens and refugees. Further reexamination of the refugee situation will be put into consideration to amend the Patch Act, with John Walker, also known as the U.S. Agent and Lemar Hoskins, also known as Battlestar, aiding in the humanitarian efforts."
Steve sighed. Well, it was a start. He understood Karli's intentions, but she was an extremist and he could trust Walker to try to do what Karli did in more peaceful way.
Sharon leaned her hands onto the shower stall as the warm water sprayed all over her body and she sighed tiredly, trying to cleanse herself of the stress of the day and everything she had been through recently. She was running her hands with soap down her arms and was making her way to her chest, breasts and then abdomen until she felt the scar again and then it all came flashing back to her mind.
Sharon chased Sin down the streets and through a park until they reached a vacated cemetery as Sin stopped, while hearing 'click.'
"Hands in the air and turn around. Slowly. You're under arrest." Sharon said.
Sin just smirked as she slowly turned around with her hands up. "Fräulein Carter. You know who I am. Do you really think you can stop me? With a gun, no less?"
"I said, you're under—"
Next thing Sharon knew, Sin kicked the gun away from her hand but did nothing else. Fuming, Sharon reached for her belt and pulled out a knife as Sin just smirked, amused.
"Very well." Sin said.
Growling, Sharon rushed at Sin, swinging her knife, while Sin retreated, dodging the attacks before she grabbed Sharon by her wrist and then held her throat as Sharon choked. Sneering, Sharon drew another knife and tried to stab Sin, who let go of Sharon and jumped back to avoid Sharon cutting her before Sin grabbed Sharon by one hand and knocked the knife away before she slammed Sharon against a nearby statue, dazing her. Sharon quickly recovered, clenching the remaining knife in her hand before she roared, rushing to attack again.
Sin grabbed Sharon by her wrist before Sharon could stab her and slammed her against the railing and threw her down. Sin then grabbed Sharon by her hair, but Sharon stabbed her in the arm as Sin hissed, letting go, while Sharon got up, rushing at Sin, climbing on her and wrapping her legs around Sin's head, using Hurricanrana, but Sin threw Sharon to the ground, anticipating that move. Sharon kicked her in the groin and Sin stumbled back as Sharon got up on her feet, twirling her knife, while Sin picked the other one from the ground, both women twirling the blades before they resumed trading blows.
Sharon dodged as Sin tried to stab her and knocked the knife off her hand before Sin slammed Sharon against a statue, dazing her before Sin grabbed Sharon's hand with her knife. Next thing Sharon knew, she felt numb as she froze and saw the smug grin on Sin's face. Sharon then felt her legs turn into jelly and metallic taste in her mouth before she coughed out blood and looked down to see a knife sticking out of her abdomen as Sin began twisting the blade and Sharon slowly slumped to the ground.
Sin smirked in satisfaction before she pulled away, twirling the knife and about to finish it, when…
"Sharon!"
Hearing Steve's voice, Sin turned and ran off, disappearing in the distance, having no intention of confronting Captain America at the moment.
Steve saw Sharon shaking on the ground, her hands trembling, her breathing erratic as she was trying to stop the bleeding.
"Sharon." Steve said as he knelt towards her, pressing his hand against her wound to reduce the bleeding.
"She—"
"No, no, no. We can't worry about her right now." Steve said.
"I…" Sharon gasped.
"It's going to be alright, just hold on." Steve assured before Sharon held his hand as they met each other's eyes.
"Steve… I… I love…" Sharon said weakly, unable to form the words as she caressed Steve's cheek before her eyes closed and her hand slumped down limply.
Sharon was in the bed, stirring and holding her abdomen, when Steve entered and Sharon smiled weakly. "Hey."
"Hey, Sharon." Steve said as they smiled at each other. "I should've known you'd pull through."
"You're not the only one too stubborn to die." Sharon said weakly.
"How are you feeling?" Steve asked and Sharon sighed.
"Honestly, just waiting to recover and sign the discharge papers before I can report back to duty and kick Sin's ass for what she did to me." Sharon said and Steve chuckled.
"That sounds like the Sharon I know." Steve said, sitting down as they held each other's hand before Sharon noticed the worried look in his eyes.
"What is it, Steve?" Sharon asked.
"When we confronted Sin, before you chased her…" Steve sighed. "At first I thought we were dealing with just another power-hungry despot like the Red Skull or Loki, but Sin… she's… she reminds me of Thanos."
Sharon frowned. "Steve, it's not like we're dealing with another alien with stones with universal—"
"That's not what I mean, Sharon. I've faced a lot of enemies in many years." Steve said. "But, Sin, she's not like Hydra, even though it's in her blood. It's clear she wants revenge against me and the Avengers, but even if she succeeds, she has nothing else to live for. Hydra was always about world domination, but we beat them years ago. She knows that even if she kills us, she won't achieve their goals and she doesn't care about it. She has only one objective, destroy those who took everything from her, no matter the cost. She doesn't care about power, control or even revenge. The Flag-Smashers, the terrorist attacks, it was all about tearing everything around her apart and she'll stop at nothing to get her way. Thanos was willing to destroy an entire universe to rebuild it in his image, but she… in her eyes, we'd burned her entire world down. She now wants to see the entire world burn. She's even more dangerous than Red Skull, Loki, Ultron and Thanos were."
"And you will beat her." Sharon assured, holding his hand. "I don't know how yet, but one thing I know, you have heart. She doesn't. That's what separates you from her. Because you know in your heart who you are and what you fight for. That's the man that I love."
Steve looked at her in surprise. In the time they were together, they had not said those words to each other yet.
"I love you, Steve. And I believe in you." Sharon said.
They looked at each other with profound looks as they neared each other, neither one of them sure who had made the first move as the attraction began to build up as they kissed.
"In other news, Steve Rogers has announced retiring from his role as Captain America after his efforts to stop the Flag-Smashers took the toll on him and Sam Wilson, previously known as the Avenger Falcon, has decided to step up in the role as the next Captain America." The news anchor said.
"I'm not Steve and I'm not trying to replace him." Sam said, now wearing a Falcon suit mixed with the design of Captain America, holding Steve's shield. "I know why some people might have doubt about me, I'm not sure if it's because I'm not a Super Soldier or because you see a black man as the new hero, but let me tell you, regardless of our skin, regardless of our beliefs, regardless of where we're from, everyone can be a hero. And Steve told me something that I've been taking to heart ever since I heard it. The night before he became Captain America, he promised to Dr. Erskine he wouldn't be a perfect soldier. But that no matter what, he would be a good man. And everytime I've fought side-by-side with Steve, I never saw a Super Soldier. I saw a good man trying to do his best in the world, where it's far more easier for people to do their worst. And that's exactly what I'm going to do."
Steve smiled at Sam proudly, but then turned down the volume, when he heard sobbing and turned to the bathroom as he got up. Steve checked to see if it was locked but noticed it wasn't as he opened it to see Sharon, naked, curled to the ball in the tub as the hot water sprayed on her as she was sobbing into her knees and Steve sighed.
This was happening very often now, though everytime Steve tried to get her to talk, she found herself unable to, some times he was lucky enough that she at least said that she was remembering her fight with Sin, but broke down in tears and lost it everytime she tried to bring herself to tell him what exactly was bothering her. Steve just approached Sharon and knelt down, pulling her in for a hug as she sobbed into his shoulder.
"It's alright, Sharon. It's alright." Steve assured, the water soaking into his clothes. Sharon's sobs were becoming softer and quieter as he soothed her, though how could she tell him about that they might have lost great future together? The child they might have had? Part of her at times was wondering if she had been pregnant, but she was unable to face the possibility she might have lost her and Steve's child, so she had decided to shut that possibility out in her mind, alongside taking the comfort in knowing that Sin had already paid for what she had done, but there were times, when the emotions just became too overwhelming for her and everytime she tried to tell Steve what was wrong, her own fear, pain and grief won. She wanted to shut those emotions out so badly and compartmentalize like Fury taught her, but right now her emotions were too strong for her to get ahold of them.
Steve didn't fully understand what was going on, but it didn't matter to him. All that mattered to him was that he loved Sharon and she loved him back. And they would be there for each other, no matter what.
Avengers Compound, New York
"How do we look, Cap?" Natasha asked as she, Bucky and Sam, now in his Captain America suit walked down the hallway.
"Still not calling you that." Bucky said.
"Get used to it." Sam quipped.
"Boys, behave." Natasha said, rolling her eyes.
"Well, I took a look at our potential recruits. They've got potential." Sam said, looking at the tablet in his hand before Clint joined in.
"Well, while you were busy training with the shield and learning the ropes, I've been busy talking with Wanda at Westview and during Christmas too and found a new partner. She's quite talented and a good team player." Clint said.
"Well, the recruit I was considering is a different kind of a team player, but she just might need only some good influence." Natasha said.
"And then there's that Busboy from the Internet who wanted to see us. Let's see what they've got. They're good, but they're not a team yet. Time to get to work." Sam said as he entered the hangar and eyed the new recruits.
There was Walker as U.S. Agent and Lemar as Battlestar.
Then, there was a blonde woman in a suit similar to Natasha's, only with white color, with batons strapped to her back as she looked up to reveal herself as Yelena Belova, who she winked at Natasha, who smiled back.
Then there was a dark-haired girl in her early 20s in a purple suit similar to Hawkeye's with a recurve bow and a quiver of arrows strapped to her back and Kate Bishop smiled as she saw Clint and they smiled at each other.
Then, there was an Asian man with a bulky physique and they could already tell he was skilled, given that they had seen him fight some thugs on a bus in a viral video from San Francisco as the man had introduced himself as Shang-Chi.
Sam took a breath as he eyed the new recruits, having a strange feeling at saying the words out loud. "Avengers! Assemble."
In comics there have been cases, where the Super Soldier serum was taken from Steve's body, each time with different effects, like Steve turning old, or becoming small and scrawny again or just simply being weaker, so the consequences of losing the serum are inconsistent, then again, in comics there are some more things that aren't consistent. At first I'd planned to have Steve slowly become older and older due to the loss of the serum, but it would make no sense for him to just magically become as old as he was at the end of Endgame, Steve would just age at natural rate without the serum, since from what I understand, the serum regenerates Steve's cells at faster age than average human, not as close as Logan/Wolverine, but it explains how he keeps staying young. Still, without being a Super Soldier, Steve would be considered useless and retire and I'd like to think Sam in this story has proven his worthiness as the next Captain America much better than in that garbage Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Originally I considered, whether Sharon would learn she had been pregnant and then tell Steve she had lost the child because of Sin, since something similar happened to them in comics that Sharon was pregnant with Steve's child but lost it due to Sin stabbing her in the stomach and Sharon was then hypnotized to forget the pregnancy to spare her of the pain and grief, but that felt like too emotionally wrecking to write and after everything going on in the fic, I didn't feel like adding more emotional weight to the story. if nothing else, Sharon might have suspected she'd been pregnant, but made a subconscious decision to not look into the matter and ask the doctors to spare herself of the pain and grief, similarly to Steve deciding not to look deeper into the death of Tony's parents and making the subconscious decision to spare himself of facing the possibility that Bucky may have killed them, but still, even considering the possibility she might have been pregnant but lost the child would be emotionally devastating from her until she would be in denial to spare herself of any further pain, so I hope writing the Steve/Sharon scenes made sense, in my mind, in the end she'll just eventually make the subconscious decision to deny the possibility of being pregnant with Steve's child and losing it because of Sin, but right now the trauma is still fresh to her. Poor Steve and Sharon, but at least they still have each other and their friends.
And Sin is now in Raft with Zemo as her cellmate, with him free to screw with her as much as he wants. Given how Zemo despises Hydra, exactly what she deserves.
And no Wanda going nuts or Westview mess here, let's just say Clint talked some sense into her and they took down Hayward and S.W.O.R.D. and gave Vision a proper burial, since do not get me started on how Wanda was done dirty after Endgame.
So, Steve and Sharon are retired, Bucky can move on from his past and the heroes, just like with has Sam, Wanda, Vision and Rhodey, are training a new generation of Avengers with Kate Bishop, Yelena Belova, Walker and Shang-Chi, with Sam and Natasha at the helm. I found them a good addition to Phase Four and Yelena was one of the few saving graces of Black Widow movie and she and Kate were gold in Hawkeye series. Then there are others, that were just 'Eh', even later on in Phase Five. No comment on certain parody of the Hulk. Eternals felt just redundant and while Moon Knight series with Oscar Isaac was not as bad as WandaVision or actual FATWS for example, it misinterpreted the lore and character. Loki Season 1 was very mindboggling, but the second season was somewhat better and fixed the mess. Not a fan of America Chavez in comics and while she was a decent character in Multiverse of Madness, I felt like she'd give a strange dynamic to the Avengers. Kamala Khan is an OK character, but the writing for her powers was inconsistent and in the scale of MCU I find her redundant and Monica Rambeau didn't leave me with big impression. Plus, putting aside the change of actresses and how Disney screwed Emma Fuhrmann after Endgame and replacing her with Kathryn Newton, Cassie in Quantumania became an activist and another political agenda tool of the franchises and as much as I get that she was a teenager, she was just snarky and rude and her treatment of Scott just ruined the father/daughter bond they had in the first two Ant-Man movies. I like Kathryn because of Supernatural and other movies I've seen her in, but they did Scott and Cassie so dirty in Quantumania.
Well, I hope you guys have enjoyed this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it and I think this was much better than FATWS, since at least Walker was treated better and Sam wasn't turned into Sham Wilson by talking about things he knows nothing about, defending terrorists and Karli and the Flag-Smashers don't end up being martyrs as I've wanted to write a proper story with Steve/Sharon and Bucky/Natasha as main pairings, even though Steve/Sharon had more focus here, though Bucky/Natasha had their share of spotlight too.
Quite honestly, after Endgame, MCU has hit a weak track record, the only good things so far have been Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 7, Shang-Chi and Legend of the Ten Rings, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Loki Season 2, the only thing I put faith in is Deadpool 3 because of Hugh Jackman reprising his role as Wolverine and Ryan Reynolds having creative control over the movie, with Echo and Daredevil: Born Again, it remains to be seen.
See you next time with my next story.
Please review and let me know if you have enjoyed the story to its end.
With regards
Bl4ckHunter
