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Although Captain America is often described as not being superhuman, he can clearly survive things that a regular human wouldn't, such as being frozen in ice for seventy years.

I'd like to understand how severe of an injury he can survive.

For that, I'd like two details:

  1. What is the worst physical injury Captain America has ever recovered from? Has he ever lost a limb or organ, or broken a bone?
  2. If he's ever died, what was needed to kill him?

I'm not limiting this to any particular continuity, as long as it's an official Marvel property.

DCShannon
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    The heart-break of losing his love, Peggy Carter. – Skooba May 05 '16 at 20:54
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    Two horrible TV movies and one horrible direct-to-video movie. If you find the current films lacking, take a look at the older versions. A motorcycle helmet? Rubber ears? Yuck! – John Sensebe May 05 '16 at 21:09
  • I think the point of Cap is that while he is superhuman he is still, primarily, human. He's basically just a "better" human being (stronger, faster, better than he was before...) but there's nothing extra-special about him. – Ben May 06 '16 at 01:41
  • @Ben He has enhanced healing capabilities. Not like Wolverine, obviously, but clearly he can survive things regular humans wouldn't. Such as being frozen in ice for seventy years. – DCShannon May 06 '16 at 02:06
  • @DCShannon again, it's not really a "healing factor", it's the same thing as what you or I have, just better. If he breaks a bone or gets a cut, it'll be healed within a matter of hours (slight exaggeration, but you get my point), his metabolism is faster, but there's only so much the body can survive. I believe this answer sums up my point nicely. – Ben May 06 '16 at 02:14
  • @Ben No, it's not a healing factor. I said that. "Not like Wolverine, obviously". If you're trying to make a point, I'm not sure what it is. Captain America can take some serious punishment and keep going. More than a normal person. My question is how much more. If you have an answer, go ahead and post it. – DCShannon May 06 '16 at 02:23
  • Ah ok, I misunderstood the question then. No worries :) – Ben May 06 '16 at 02:25
  • @Ben If you have any suggestions to make it clearer, I'd be happy to hear them. The lack of upvotes and your comments combined make me suspicious something isn't getting across the way I intended. – DCShannon May 06 '16 at 02:30
  • I suppose it does seem a little broad. Do you want to know what it will take to kill the Cap? Or do you want to know what sort of injuries he can survive? – Ben May 06 '16 at 02:40
  • @Ben Those are logically equivalent. If I know what he can survive I know what can kill him, and vice versa. I'm not asking for either of those though, as that would require speculation. To make the scope extremely clear and narrow, I asked for the two specific details about what has actually happened to him. These would be facts. – DCShannon May 06 '16 at 02:59
  • I'm not sure that it is necessarily true in-universe that a regular human couldn't survive being frozen in ice for 70 years. In the real world, we used to think cryogenics might be survivable - I reckon it's only a few decades ago that the idea it definitely wouldn't became widespread - and that seems like the sort of thing that might have crept into comic-book physics. – Harry Johnston May 07 '16 at 03:13
  • @HarryJohnston I'm pretty sure that his survival is credited to the serum, in-universe. I don't have a good citation on hand, but I have a bad one from Wikipedia: "After he revives, they piece together that Rogers has been preserved in a block of ice since 1945, surviving because of his enhancements from Project: Rebirth." – DCShannon May 07 '16 at 03:16

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In the Civil War arc in the comics, Steve Rogers/Captain America was killed by a sniper named Crossbones, so we know that bullets can kill him.

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To my knoweledge, the worst "injury" that Steve Rogers suffered in the comics was when he was forced to temporarily retire (allowing Sam Wilson to become Captain America for a while) because the Iron Nail had drained the super-soldier serum from his body. Even that he managed to recover from eventually.

Ixrec
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  • So he's never been shot and survived, had a limb cut off, broke his spine, nothing like that? – DCShannon May 05 '16 at 21:12
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    He wasn't killed by the sniper's bullet. He was, however (spoilers, look away now) killed by *a* bullet. – Valorum May 05 '16 at 21:14
  • @DCShannon Not to my knowledge, no. But I can't say for certain since I haven't read all of the comics. – Ixrec May 05 '16 at 21:15
  • I watched Winter Soldier last night, and he was shot like 6 times in rapid succession, including in the gut. Immediately after he was punched in the face with a metal arm repeatedly and then, while unconscious, fell hundreds of feet into a river. I might take it upon myself to write an answer at some point, but that would be the most severe injury that I'm aware of. – DCShannon May 07 '16 at 01:45