In *Captain America: The First Avenger* (2011), the assessment of who ends up "better" or "worse" depends on whether you measure status by physical power, career success, or emotional well-being. By the end of the film, the world is saved, but almost every main character has suffered a profound personal loss.
### **Who ends up Better?**
* **Howard Stark:** Stark begins the film as a brilliant but somewhat eccentric inventor and socialite. By the end, he has provided the technology that won the war (including Cap’s shield), recovered the Tesseract (which secures his legacy for decades), and established himself as a founding pillar of the modern scientific and intelligence community.
* **Colonel Chester Phillips:** He starts the film as a cynical, skeptical commander who believes Steve Rogers is a mistake. By the end, he has overseen the destruction of HYDRA, won the war in Europe, and gained a deep personal respect for Rogers. He ends the film with a major career victory and a shift in character, moving from a rigid skeptic to a man who recognizes true heroism.
* **The Howling Commandos (Gabe Jones, Dum Dum Dugan, etc.):** At the start, they are prisoners of war or struggling soldiers. By the end, they are celebrated war heroes and "living legends." Although they lost Bucky, they survived the world’s most dangerous missions and achieved a status of respect and liberation they did not have at the beginning.
* **Steve Rogers (Physically/Symbolically):** This is a paradox. Physically, Steve is "better"—he transformed from a sickly 90-pound man with chronic health issues to a peak-human super-soldier. Symbolically, he achieved his dream of serving his country and became the world's first superhero. However, his personal life ends in tragedy (see below).
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### **Who ends up Worse?**
* **Steve Rogers (Personally/Socially):** While physically enhanced, Steve ends the film in a significantly worse personal position. He crashes into the Arctic to save millions, sacrificing his life and his future. He wakes up 70 years later in 2011, a "man out of time." Everyone he knew is likely dead or elderly, he has lost his era, and most poignantly, he "missed his date" with the woman he loved.
* **Johann Schmidt (Red Skull):** He begins as the powerful, feared leader of HYDRA with a plan to conquer the world. He ends the film literally "cast out" of his own reality. By touching the Tesseract, he is teleported to the desolate planet Vormir, where he is cursed to exist as a ghostly, soul-less guardian of the Soul Stone—a fate far worse than a simple death.
* **Bucky Barnes:** Bucky begins as the confident, protective "big brother" figure and a decorated sergeant. He ends the film (to the audience's knowledge at the time) dead, having plummeted off a high-speed train into a frozen ravine. Even with the hindsight of the sequels, he ends *this* film as a victim of HYDRA experimentation and a casualty of war.
* **Peggy Carter:** Though she is a hero of the SSR, Peggy ends the film in deep emotional mourning. She loses the man she loves just as they finally acknowledged their feelings. The final scene of the 1940s timeline shows her sitting alone in an empty office, looking at a photo of the "skinny" Steve, highlighting that her professional success is overshadowed by personal heartbreak.
* **Dr. Abraham Erskine:** The creator of the Super Soldier Serum, he is assassinated by a HYDRA agent shortly after his greatest success. He ends the film dead, and his life's work—the formula for the serum—is lost forever with him, ensuring no one else can ever truly follow in Steve’s footsteps.
* **Arnim Zola:** He begins as the lead scientist of a global superpower-in-waiting (HYDRA). He ends the film as a prisoner of the SSR, having betrayed his leader and lost his laboratory, forced to cooperate with the enemies he spent the war trying to destroy.