The Captain America lore has been expanded upon rather interestingly in recent years, especially with the release of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. The new Disney Plus series actually reveals that a new version of the Super Soldier Serum that created Captain America in the first place had been developed. Of course, it doesn’t quite work the same as the serum does when Steve Rogers takes it in Captain America: The First Avenger. Rather, it leaves those injected with it incredibly aggressive and violent. What’s more, we know that the serum didn’t quite have a positive effect on those who took it before Steve Rogers – Red Skull is an example of that. So what exactly is the secret ingredient that made the serum work so well when Steve Rogers took it? Well, a newly surfaced Falcon and The Winter Soldier theory aims to solve the mystery.
The theory, as summed up by a Reddit user, suggests that Dr. Erskine created the perfect version of the serum by using the Heart-Shaped Herb from Black Panther. They suggested that the scientists which located the vibranium from Wakanda could have very easily stumbled across the Heart-Shaped Herb as well. Dr. Erskine then could have used this Heart-Shaped Herb in a new way to insure that his Super Soldier Serum would work more effectively once Steve Rogers took it.
It’s definitely a believable theory. After all, the scientists did use vibranium to create the iconic Captain America shield. Why should they have stopped there? Perhaps they did take more Wakandan resources than we know about. Of course, it is rather hard to know for sure. There just isn’t that much information available about Dr. Erskine’s Super Soldier Serum and the differences from when the Red Skull was created with it to the refined version seen in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. With that being said, however, there definitely is something about Dr. Erskine’s perfected serum that makes it unique – so maybe we’ll find out what that could be in the future.
With that in mind, this Falcon and The Winter Soldier theory should certainly hold fans over until we have definitive answers. Perhaps we’ll know more when the newly announced Captain America 4 gets further into production. After all, there are lots of new directions they could explore with the upcoming movie. The mystery of the Super Soldier Serum would certainly be a good one to follow.
The recently announced Captain America 4 is currently being written by Malcom Spellman and Dalan Musson.