Super-Soldier Army

[Shellhead]

This is a What If? scenario. What if Doctor Erskine had lived long enough to see the Super-Soldier Serum put into mass production to make an army of Super-Soldiers? How would that alter the course of history in the 616 universe?

[Sharpandpointies]

US basically steamrolls all opposing armies, nukes don't get developed until later, US essentially takes over the world? Something like that.

Basically they invade the mainland far earlier because they can, they take Berlin waaaay before the Russians show up, they likely decide 'screw it, let's go!' and invade Russia because why not?

If they don't, Russia still ends up lagging behind the US (possibly worse than before), and the moment the US works out that they're working on their own nuclear weapons program, the US invades Russia. Because they can. They stomp Russia flat, they look to China as the next possible problem...well, you get the deal. Things basically start going very poorly for the rest of the world (and by 'the rest of the world', I mean 'all of the rest of the world, eventually').

An army of people as strong, fast, enduring and tough as Captain America would be pretty hard to beat back in the days of WWII and the years afterwards. Would quickly lead to the US being the only nuclear power, which I suspect would lead to the US controlling basically everything.

[Pendaran]

There was an actual What If to this tune, but it dodged around having to really answer the question by swerving into "the Red Skull secretly lived and compromised the whole program and was controlling it while pretending to be Forever President Steve Rogers and etc."

[Postmania]

Did Steve say hail hydra in that one too then

[Shellhead]

What about downstream ripple effects? No Hulk because there is no need to research a gamma bomb? No Man-Thing, because the Super-Soldier Serum has already been successfully developed? No Avengers, because no Hulk to bring them together? No Fantastic Four, because no Cold War? Then eventually Galactus devours Earth because there is no Fantastic Four to oppose him.

[Sharpandpointies]

Seems pretty likely that things end very badly, yes.

[Sharkerbob]

What about downstream ripple effects? No Hulk because there is no need to research a gamma bomb? No Man-Thing, because the Super-Soldier Serum has already been successfully developed? No Avengers, because no Hulk to bring them together? No Fantastic Four, because no Cold War? Then eventually Galactus devours Earth because there is no Fantastic Four to oppose him.

I kinda figure Reed might still get involved and pull off a win against Galactus. He seems like even without powers, he'd eventually get roped into super science adventures. At some point, something is going to happen to cause an Avengers-esque team to form, but it depends on what, specifically, and who would actually get involved at that point. Maybe Thor still gathers a group with Loki doing shenanigans on Earth. Maybe Reed gets involved there, too, and the Avengers becomes more of a super-science action team to start off. The X-Men are still going to happen, at least. Ghost Rider, Dr Strange, Spider-Man probably, etc.

I think events would play out differently, but there are so many other heroes and origins involved in the MCU, taking one peg out of the equation, even with butterfly effects, shouldn't body the planet that much.

[The MunchKING]

An army of people as strong, fast, enduring and tough as Captain America would be pretty hard to beat back in the days of WWII and the years afterwards. Would quickly lead to the US being the only nuclear power, which I suspect would lead to the US controlling basically everything.

Well the US wasn't the only one with Super Soldier programs. Canada had Weapon X, other nations had their own stuff...

And once it becomes commonplace in the army, it only takes one good s-py to steal some of it and bring it back for analysis or something.

Alternately it could be an "American government creates its own worst problem" story by giving the Super Soldier Serum to people less ethical than Steve Rogers.

And all that is focusing on geopolitics and ignoring the impact of other Hero Units.

Mutants would still be popping up, and it would take a lot of Cap. As to overwhelm Professor X, Jean Grey, Moondragon, or Magneto (with any metal). Although a Super-FBI devision or something might delay or even negate the need for actual Sentinels; meaning cartoon X-men wouldn't actually be allowed to fight anyone. If they do go for a "Super Soldiers as Secret Police to stop Mutants and Super bad guys" approach, we'd rapidly be heading towards another "America goes fascist" storyline. Which would of course lead to Steve having to come out of retirement to punch the entire US government in the face.

[Sharpandpointies]

Well the US wasn't the only one with Super Soldier programs. Canada had Weapon X, other nations had their own stuff...

Which is great, but in this scenario it's 'The US gets it all figured out back in WWII', which isn't when the other countries did. They have it long before anyone else does, and in this scenario can mass-produce supersoldiers. None of the other programs managed that.

Mutants would still be popping up, and it would take a lot of Cap. As to overwhelm Professor X, Jean Grey, Moondragon, or Magneto (with any metal). Although a Super-FBI devision or something might delay or even negate the need for actual Sentinels; meaning cartoon X-men wouldn't actually be allowed to fight anyone. If they do go for a "Super Soldiers as Secret Police to stop Mutants and Super bad guys" approach, we'd rapidly be heading towards another "America goes fascist" storyline. Which would of course lead to Steve having to come out of retirement to punch the entire US government in the face.

This isn't about 'can they beat up a team of supers?' This is about 'What will happen with America having entire armies of Cap-level people?'

[Pendaran]

Did Steve say hail hydra in that one too then

No, he was somehow still frozen in ice, emerged in the modern day and sort of formed like a kinda sorta Avengers who sacrificed themselves to take down the Red Skull and the super soldier program and etc. etc. etc.

[K7P5V]

^^^Indeed. Here's proof...

[Beadle]

That’s such a Cap Avengers team.

All about hitting things hard, not at all about intelligence and subtlety.

“Sure, I’ve got Thor, Giant-Man, Hulk and Iron Man, but what I really need is Namor to hit things harder.”

And not only is it Namor’s brute force over Jan’s more tactical option, but in Iron Man, Giant-Man and Hulk, they’re replacing Stark/Pym/Banner with Castle/Wilson/Logan - not exactly a team of thinkers.

And people wonder why Steve wasn’t trusted with Infinity Gems…

[Pendaran]

That’s such a Cap Avengers team.

All about hitting things hard, not at all about intelligence and subtlety.

“Sure, I’ve got Thor, Giant-Man, Hulk and Iron Man, but what I really need is Namor to hit things harder.”

And not only is it Namor’s brute force over Jan’s more tactical option, but in Iron Man, Giant-Man and Hulk, they’re replacing Stark/Pym/Banner with Castle/Wilson/Logan - not exactly a team of thinkers.

And people wonder why Steve wasn’t trusted with Infinity Gems…

It's not exactly any kind of counter argument or even a counterargument at all, but he would also later recruit Woverine who could also turn into Wendigo, and Thor.

If you are wondering if they mostly solved problems with hitting things, that is indeed mostly how they solved problems.

(To be fair these were really his only options who said yes to him. To be less fair he totally recruited an all brute force team of Avengers.)

[Jackalope89]

So, less Steve Rogers, but I imagine it could turn into more Slade Wilson/Deathstroke.

[K7P5V]

It's not exactly any kind of counter argument or even a counterargument at all, but he would also later recruit Woverine who could also turn into Wendigo, and Thor.

If you are wondering if they mostly solved problems with hitting things, that is indeed mostly how they solved problems.

(To be fair these were really his only options who said yes to him. To be less fair he totally recruited an all brute force team of Avengers.)

I know, right?! Then they gave their lives away & end up with statues in the park (except for poor Namor ):