From Light to Shadow: MCU’s Super Soldier Lore Darkens with Marvel’s Canon Shift

Now that the Defenders are a part of MCU canon, one show in particular makes the nature of the Super Soldier Serum even darker than it was before.

Super Soldier Serum is one of the MCU‘s most prevalent and important substances, and its origins have become far darker now the Defenders Saga is officially canon. The Defenders Saga comprises Marvel’s Netflix shows that starred the eponymous team and the Punisher, including Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage. Marvel recently confirmed that the shows’ events are part of MCU canon, integrating them into the official MCU timeline alongside shows that originated on Disney Plus like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Super Soldier Serum is the source of Captain America’s powers, affording him a litany of enhanced abilities including super strength, durability, and speed debuting in 2011’s Captain America. Yet multiple MCU installments would reveal that Captain America’s success and celebrity made the serum one of the MCU’s most desirable assets. This has given rise to a vast number of super soldier serum recipients in the MCU, with very few being willing participants in the experiments with the serum. The Defenders Saga now being canon, however, makes the history of the serum and those that administer it even worse.

Netflix’s Marvel Shows Being MCU Canon Makes Its Super Soldier Narrative Even Sadder

The Falcon and the Winter Soldierintroduced Isiah Bradley to the MCU, who elaborated on the legacy of Captain America’s super soldier experiment to Sam Wilson. This involved the US government’s attempts to replicate what was achieved with Steve Rogers on its soldiers participating in the Korean War, with Isiah Bradley and his comrades being administered the serum against their knowledge. After surviving the experiment in the 1950s and being tasked to eliminate the Winter Soldier, Isiah Bradley was falsely imprisoned and experimented on for several decades in one of the MCU’s darkest plot threads.

Luke Cage being canon shows that this bleak history has continued, with Cage’s powers being bestowed by similar experimentation on Seagate Prison inmates. Evidently, the fact that the experiments carried out in the 1950s occurred in the midst of war did not preclude nefarious authorities from continuing the practice over several decades. The longevity of the practice even suggests that the MCU’s modern day is still replete with unscrupulous experimentation on unwilling individuals.

MCU’s Super Soldier History Explained

The MCU’s Super Solder Serum was created by Abraham Erskine, portrayed by Stanley Tucci, who debuted in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger. An early sample of Erskine’s formula was taken by Johann Schmidt, transforming him into the Red Skull, before the refined version was administered to Steve Rogers, turning him into Captain America. Erskine was swiftly assassinated thereafter, leaving Rogers as the sole recipient of his formula in its truest form. Rogers’ successful transformation, however, prompted several attempts to replicate the formula to create more enhanced individuals like Captain America.

These attempts had varying degrees of success, with the likes of Bucky Barnes, Isiah Bradley, and Red Guardian being among those who came closest to measuring up. In nearly all cases, however, the replication of the super soldier serum and its administration was nefariously clandestine – especially in the case of Bradley and his cohorts. The most recent recipient of a replicated serum is John Walker, whose failure to carry the Captain America mantle helped to demonstrate how dangerous the serum can be when in circulation after he murdered a surrendering Flag-Smasher.

Why MCU’s Super Soldier Stories Will Always Be Some Of Its Most Powerful

As the name suggests, the MCU’s Super Soldier Serum is inexorably linked to war and the people deployed to fight it. Its use is almost always as a means to create human weapons with which to overcome and outmaneuver political enemies. It is therefore no surprise that the governments and organizations involved with its attempted replication and administration tend to emerge as the true villains of the situation, with the recipients of the serum being victimized as a result.

This will always contrast the origin stories of superpowered individuals like Captain Marvel and Spider-Man, whose powers came as a result of unforeseeable circumstances and freak accidents. What these people share, however, is their human origins, giving way to a vast narrative potential when it comes to depicting how they navigate their newfound powers. For the MCU‘s super soldiers, this almost always results in their powers being exploited by third parties, multiplying the casualties of its use by a significant degree.

Luke Cage , The Falcon and the Winter Soldier , and all other MCU canon TV shows can be streamed on Disney+.