Winter Soldier is Responsible for Captain America’s Most Heroic MCU Moment

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While Captain America has proven time and again throughout the MCU that he is a hero beyond question, there is one heroic deed that stands above the rest as it was one of selflessness and sacrifice–though in the comics, Captain America’s ultimate act of heroism never happened as it was instead carried out by the Winter Soldier years before Bucky Barnes donned that intimidating moniker.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Captain America: The First Avenger, fans are given Steve Rogers’ origin story which details how he became the iconic super soldier as well as his most impactful missions throughout the course of World War II. At the end of the movie, after Red Skull was defeated and the Allied Forces were on the verge of victory, Captain America finds himself in a Hydra aircraft which carried a number of catastrophic bombs that were to be flown via autopilot to heavily populated areas with Allied countries. After disabling the autopilot, Captain America realizes that there is no way to land the plane safely, and as it made its way over the icy waters between Europe and the northern United States, Captain America decided he must sacrifice himself as the only thing he could do was to guide the plane directly into the water to protect the lives of millions of innocent people, even if it meant he may die in the process.

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In Avengers #4 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Captain America joins the team of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes after he is discovered frozen in a block of ice and is thawed out by the Avengers themselves. Once he was awakened, Captain America tells his new teammates about how he ended up frozen in the first place. During the war, Captain