Black Widow introduced another super soldier in Red Guardian, Captain America's counterpart. They have similar abilities, but who's actually stronger?
Warning! This post contains spoilers for Black Widow.
Black Widow introduced Red Guardian, a super soldier created by the Soviet Union, but is he stronger than Captain America? The super soldier program, unsurprisingly, didn’t only affect Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier confirmed there were more vials of the super soldier serum out there (most, if not all, were destroyed), as well as other men, like Isaiah Bradley, who were injected with the serum to fight on behalf of the United States. Black Widow reveals the former Soviet Union also created their own super soldier so they could have their own Captain America.
When audiences first meet Red Guardian (aka, Alexei Shostakov), he isn’t wearing his red costume or doing anything remotely heroic. He’s on the run from local authorities in Ohio with his family — wife Melina and adoptive daughters Natasha Romanoff and Yelena Belova — in tow. Alexei confirms early on that he’s in cahoots with General Dreykov, who runs the Red Room, a training facility where hundreds of kidnapped women are brainwashed to become spies and assassins. While Alexei spent the next two decades in prison despite having successfully completed his mission for Dreykov, he maintained his super soldier strength and showed it off throughout Black Widow.
Red Guardian lifts up a steel trailer; he completely destroys another man’s wrist; on his way out of prison, he easily takes a door clear off its hinges. But because his decades-long imprisonment put him out of commission and left him without much use for his skills, Alexei likely retained only the basics of his superhuman abilities. What's more, Steve Rogers has had a lot more experience working in the field over the years — battling Thanos, pulling a helicopter down one-handed while mid-flight, lifting Thor's hammer, among several other things. Whereas Alexei traded in being Red Guardian to become an operative, which arguably sees a lot less action and perhaps doesn’t require as much physical strength. To that end, the Russian super soldier is more than a bit rusty and it's likely Captain America could best him in a fight if the two ever battled each other.
On the surface, Red Guardian might seem as strong as Captain America, but Black Widow primarily portrays him as more of a spy and less of a combatant. That said, Red Guardian is fairly proud of his abilities and enjoys boasting about the fact he is a super soldier with superhuman strength. Most of it is really him reliving his glory days while occasionally putting his superhuman prowess to good use. In the comics, Red Guardian fought alongside Captain America at one point, though the relationship was somewhat competitive and the former was trained to kill his American counterpart. However, when he is pushed by the Soviet Union to battle Cap, he isn’t able to beat him. This makes it clear Captain America is indeed the stronger super soldier of the two.
Captain America is no longer around after Avengers: Endgame, so MCU fans may never get to see the two super soldiers duke it out onscreen. However, with John Walker having taken the super soldier serum, Red Guardian may get the opportunity to fight a former Captain America, if not the original one. Black Widow didn’t fully utilize Red Guardian’s abilities, but the film is not likely to be the last time he appears and there is much more to learn about his history as a super soldier.
Next: Black Widow Ending Explained: How It Connects To The Wider MCU
