download the new for ios Avengers: Endgame

To many, apparently, starting over is the worst way for Steve Rogers’s story to come to an end.

His final scene, one critic argued, “ makes no sense.” On Twitter, he’s #notmysteve and #notmycaptain, with the word selfish brought up the most. Yet the Endgame finale-with its heart-stoppingly romantic last shot, of Steve and Peggy dancing in their living room, reunited sometime in the past-has made Captain America a target of some less-than-Cap-friendly commentary since the film’s release. When Steve met the aging Peggy in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, she left him with a piece of advice: “All we can do is our best, and sometimes the best that we can do is to start over.” Or maybe he was only following Peggy’s orders. When he appears again in the present, he’s an old man who offers Sam (Anthony Mackie) a self-deprecating explanation involving Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.): “I thought, Maybe I should try some of that life Tony was telling me to get.” He travels back to the ’40s, goes on that date, builds the relationship both of them had been denied, and lives the married life. After spending most of the film leading the reassembled Avengers in search of the Infinity Stones to defeat Thanos (Josh Brolin), Cap wraps up his last mission-by taking some personal time. It should come as no surprise, then, that in his final scenes in Avengers: Endgame-spoilers incoming-Cap seeks out Peggy. There in the middle of 21st-century Times Square, his first thought wasn’t of this modern world it was of that missed date. When he woke up and learned of his new reality, he wasn’t relieved to be alive he was regretful. It’s a promise he couldn’t keep: To save the world, he crashed into the Arctic and stayed frozen for nearly 70 years. In 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, his introduction into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Chris Evans’s titular super-soldier promised to take Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) dancing.

This article contains major spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.

Download the new for ios Avengers: Endgame