Multicellular Heterotrophic Eukaryote

....but another thing I've been pondering is......would he necessarily want kids?

I've noticed, even if people don't see him in a heterosexual relationship, a lot see him with a baby. Maybe it's with Bucky or Sam, maybe the kid is biologically Peggy's (somehow), but they definitely see Steve as a dad (and to put a fine point on it, a bio dad). I've already seen a few posts ret-conning the Doomsday Baby to Bucky and Steve's.

But I want to question this assumption that Steve craves parenthood specifically.

Age of Ultron (Whedon, 2015) gives us this insight to Steve's feelings and thoughts about having a traditional family. There's something about the way Steve phrases it: "The guy who wanted all that went into the ice 75 years ago." He speaks about it like it may have been something he wanted in the past, but has changed over time. I think this tracks. In the early 20th century, it was presumed most people would go on to marry, settle, have kids and families of their own. Outliers excluded, it was basically expected. Even as Steve dealt with his disabilities and lack of traditional romantic prospects, it's probably something he still envisioned, if only because that's what everyone else around him was doing. Once he got the serum, its possible that he assumed, if he survived the war, he would actually have a better shot at following that path.

(I know I haven't mentioned Bucky, hang on, we're getting there)

ANYWAY, fate had different plans. Steve goes into the ice, and comes out nearly three quarters of a century later. Times have changed. Norms have changed. In many ways, the definition of "family" has changed.

If my understanding of Steve's character is right, he's always supposed to have been a "man out of time", even in his own time. The comic Captain America: Man Out of Time (Waid, 2011) shows that Steve's overall attitudes about people are far more egalitarian than those of his 1940s counterparts. Given this fact, he should be much more comfortable in the 21st century, where the idea that everyone doesn't need to follow the same life plan to have purpose or to find meaning and happiness is more accepted.

As we see in the MCU, he eventually does get a family: with Sam, with Natasha, with Bucky once they get him back. And he's shown to be close with Thor, Wanda, Maria, T'Challa, Scott, etc. The man has found companionship in this new century, even if it isn't the prescribed one that the 1940s and 1950s would have approved of.

Which brings me back to the idea of kids.

On the one hand, I can see why some could see him as a father. He's clearly the caring, nurturing type, who's super protective of not just his loved ones, but of people in general. Good qualities in a dad.

But, I do think his inability to "look away when a situation is going south" would make that very difficult for him to be a present father. Being a parent is largely about putting your kid first above all else, even other people. And I don't know. I see Steve as the kind of guy who, if he did have a child, wanting to genuinely be present for his kids and being a genuinely good father. And, given his own history with his father (depending on the continuity canon of his dad, either dying in war and never knowing the man, or having him being present, but an abusive drunk), I think he would want to do better for his own kids. But then that would mean giving up fighting the good fight on the scale he does. And so far, the MCU (I don't know about the comics, I haven't read all of them) has not given us a satisfactory compromise of how Steve can continue to fight the good fight AND not be Captain America full time. At this point in Steve's character development, fatherhood just doesn't seem to believably fit in anywhere.

And going back to the idea that the 21st century is more open to other options, Steve might see that not everyone did or wants to "settle down", and embrace that for himself. As described above, Steve definitely wants to work for the common good, and seems more comfortable operating like that. It's possible to interpret him finding more fulfillment in a community service role over a nuclear family one. His caring nature is spread over a whole neighborhood or other community (I haven't read it, but I've seen panels from I think one of the more recent runs...Sentinel of Liberty? I think that's it).

I've only ever seen, like, two posts here exploring the idea of Steve not really wanting kids of his own, but functioning more as an auxiliary adult to "the kids", like Morgan, Peter, Wanda ("Uncle Steve" if you will).

I could see him wanting to parent. But having his own kids? I have doubts about that. @hydry3000 left a great comment in the comment section about all of the potential downsides to Steve bringing biological children into the world, which I agree with. (In addition to a bunch of other reasons: his own trauma with dealing with health issues, worrying about that, even if it isn't likely with the super serum. He might also have concerns about bringing children into the world with the state it's in—he wouldn't be the first or last person who didn't want kids based on that—etc.)

What I can see, given Steve's history and his beliefs about people (my faith is in individuals, when I had nothing, I had Bucky, the fact that he always gravitates towards a rag tag bunch of people who are tied together by similar values and ideals), is him being willing to adopt. Steve sees the humanity in everyone, even the undervalued and unwanted. He knows what it's like to lose those you call 'family', and to be "adopted" by someone who may not be blood, but they end up being "family" regardless. In fact, I think there is a run of the comic where he does adopt a baby boy (oh yeah look, here it is). Not to mention how he takes Wanda under his wing in Civil War. And I don't see Steve as being one of those guys who is all "muh legacy!" about having bio children.

Yeah, another thing people forget is that he grew up super sick, as in he probably had a genetic disorder. Does the serum change your genes directly or mitigate them? I don’t think that’s been explained, and even if it has, I don’t think Steve “barely graduated high school in the 1930s” Rogers would totally understand all the nuances of what the serum would do to offspring.

Maybe no one does? I can’t recall any super soldier having bio kids after the serum, and theory is fine, but you’d want to test it. Like the serum could change your genes in a way where it would be kind of a disaster to try having kids with someone who hadn’t had it, like the mismatch would be worse than either parent. Hard to say.

Like I don't understand social norms or people's boundaries around casual friendly/familial touch--so I don't touch my friends ever to avoid crossing a potential boundary or violating a potential norm.

yall. he held his own against Steve in a full fight, easily. while *brainwashed*. can you imagine how intense both of them *sparring* (because they wouldn't fight, not like that, never again) would be when theyre recovered, going full out, in their right minds?

let alone the fact that Bucky survived getting his arm ripped off, falling off a fucking mountain, (have yall ever been to the alps? that fall was easily a couple hundred metres, meaning assuming a free fall he probably reached terminal velocity) that his serum is plenty strong enough to *repeatedly* recover synapses that were quite literally burned off? that he remembers even the bits in between the repeated brainwashing?

let alone that his body is strong enough to support the metal arm without it ripping out his spine whenever he moves?

he fucking outran both Steve and T'Challa in CW and held his own against a very furious Iron Man

all we know is that his serum is different because it wasn't the fancy shmancy version Erskine perfected to his liking. id argue its... well, maybe not stronger per se, but more ruthless. made for a different purpose. it ripped through him on that exam table and left him alive despite everyone else, from what we know, dying

1. Steve had a much better serum but his starting point was so awful that it’s a wash overall in terms of how he compares to other super soldiers

And

THAT IS AN

EXTREMELY

and I want to be clear on this

EXTREMELY TRAUMATIZED