As fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe know, Avengers: Endgame follows one of the biggest tragedies to occur within the massive superhero franchise. The movie takes place several years after “The Snap” that we see at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, a moment which sets the darker tone throughout most of Endgame. And while much of the movie follows in that direction, it turns out that there’s actually a reference to a completely different Marvel Cinematic Universe incident. An Easter egg that we know about from the Captain America comics.
The reference shows up not long after Captain America aka Steve Rogers and Iron Man aka Tony Stark travel back through time to the 1970. As they enter the past decade, they both make it to Camp Lehigh on a search for the Space Stone. As you may have noticed, Captain America enters the site with a uniform featuring the name “Roscoe” on it, and this is where the Easter egg comes from.
The name Roscoe is actually referring to a character named Roscoe Simons who appeared in Marvel’s Captain America comics throughout the years 1974 and 1975. He temporarily took on the mantle of being Captain America over from Steve Rogers, an identity which lasted up until Roscoe encountered Red Skull. Unfortunately for him, Red Skull captured Red Skull as he assumed Roscoe was the true Captain America.
The comics then revealed Roscoe Simons would be killed by Red Skull after he’d discovered it wasn’t actually Steve Rogers. It was an incident that, in Captain America #183, finally pushed Steve Rogers back into becoming the masked superhero after finding Roscoe’s dead body.
Of course, Avengers: Endgame only lightly references this rather dark Captain America subplot. But the fact it references Roscoe Simons at all is worth mentioning. It goes to show just how many sly references and Easter eggs can be found in a movie jam packed already with information like Avengers: Endgame.