How A Disgraced U.S. President Forced Steve Rogers To Quit Being Captain America

There have been several heroes to take on the mantle of Captain America beyond Steve Rogers. But on at least one occasion, a replacement was needed not because Rogers was gone, but because he no longer wanted to represent the U.S. government. And it all happens in a 1974 storyline where Rogers walks away from his role as Captain America after the U.S. President is revealed to be behind a criminal plot.

Though the president's face is never seen, the intention of writer Steve Engleheart (who once wrote a Doctor Strange story you'll never see on the big screen) was that it was the disgraced President Richard Nixon, which he acknowledged in a 2017 interview with Newsarama. "I was reacting to Watergate," Englehart said, referencing the scandal that saw Nixon caught in a corruption probe and forced to resign. And because Marvel Comics ostensibly takes place in the real world, Englehart felt this level of government scandal had to be addressed by Captain America.

"Some of it was just hubris and luck –- they could have convicted Nixon the next day, and I would have been writing a story about something that was already over with. But it looked like it was going on for a while, so I capitalized on that," he explained. But Englehart isn't sure that such a story could work today, even with Donald Trump, the twice-impeached president who regularly flouts the Constitution and ignores court orders. "In those days, there was a real idealism in the air," he said. "And the thought that the president of the United States could commit such a crime was unthinkable."

The "Secret Empire" storyline wasn't the only time that Steve Rogers has been in the White House. Elsewhere in the comics and places outside the MCU, Captain America has even found himself running for office — and on two occasions, he even took the oath of office himself and assumed the role of President of the United States. The first run-in with the Oval Office happened in 1980 in "Captain America" #250, where a group of populists tries to persuade the Sentinel of Liberty to run for president. 

Though Cap ultimately dismisses the notion of running for office in 1980, he does run in a 21st-century storyline in the alternate continuity known as the Ultimate Universe. It all went down in "Ultimate Comics: Ultimates" #15, when a national crisis prompts an emergency write-in vote for a new American president, and Steve Rogers wins, stepping in as President of the United States. It's part of a massive storyline that sees America torn apart from within, with Hydra rearing its ugly head once more.

That's not the only time we've seen Steve Rogers become President of the United States, though, and the other came on screen. And believe it or not, it's in a story that's set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as part of the "What If...?" animated series. Granted, we don't see much of him as president, but Steve Rogers is seen taking the oath of office on television in an alternate timeline. Could something like that play out in live-action, with Chris Evans returning to play President Cap? With rumors of "Avengers: Secret Wars" introducing countless new realities, anything is possible.