Favorite Cinematic Captain America (Steve Rogers)

[Tomato]

So I got it in my head to come back to these again, though unlike with Hawkeye, I decided to do things a bit different this time: Instead of "Definitive" or "Best" I'm playing this "batch" (aka however many I decide to do) with the much more nebulous and subjective "Favorite". That's how most people were taking them from the start anyway, but for anyone who was like "well I actually really like X, but Y looks more like the character".

That said, while that probably should open the door to the Stealth Suit or the Nomad one, with so many options out there, I decided to narrow the field to just the fully Captain America costumes. However, this time I am including the First Avenger "Star Spangled Man" costume, since I know it's a favorite.

Star Spangled Man Combat Suit Avengers Age of Ultron Civil War Endgame

[Tomato]

So part of the reason I changed the idea from "Definitive" to "Favorite" here is because when I think of Cap specifically in the MCU, I think of his Endgame suit. It's the culmination (for better or worse) of everything the MCU has been doing with the costume from Winter Soldier onward. And, in complete fairness, there's elements of the Endgame suit I really do like: the addition of the "chainmail" texture to the upper torso feels tasteful and looks really good on screen.

But I'd be lying if I said it's my favorite. The blue is just too dark, and the lack of white on the arms makes it feel off-balance. Admittedly, they didn't really implement it WELL most of the time, but the white on the sleeves helps balance the white on the torso and breaks up the sea of blue, and I missed it on everything from CW forward.

That all in mind, I think to this day, my favorite costume is still the AoU suit. There's a bit too much random red bits across the blue and I wish they did a darker red for the gloves and boots rather than brown, but at least the AoU costume HAS red in the gloves/boots. It's also at that perfect stage of blue... darker than the bright blue of Avengers 1, but not the near-black later movies would implement.

As for why I personally don't love the SSM outfit... While I do really like it (and think it'd pair great with a 70s Hammond Spidey + Ferrigno Hulk) my biggest issue is the poofy neck/mask shape. It's very off-putting for me, same with the shape of the Avengers 1 mask. The more helmet + strap style masks work better with Evans' face shape, and that's worth a lot. Also... MCU suits (rightfully) get a lot of flack for adding too much visual noise to their outfits, and Cap's later suits definitely go too far in that direction, but there's a reason it works.

Edit: For funsies, I made a mock up of what my ideal MCU Cap would be.

Spoiler