captain america

Watch the Avengers transform into Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

So far, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a beautiful tapestry of heroism, intricate plotting, and Spandex. 14 movies and over two “phases” in, things are going swimmingly. Hardcore fans are happy, the movies make billions of dollars, and the web of characters and their adventures is getting ever larger.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe, now in its eighth year, has been known to kickstart a lot of otherwise unknown actors’ careers, and give some their big break while rebooting others’ careers. While Robert Downey Jr. definitely had the biggest name at the start, it wasn’t easy for Jon Favreau to convince the Marvel execs that he was right for Tony Stark, but we’re all so glad he did. Chris Evans’ only other blockbuster credit was as the Human Torch in Fox’s Fantastic Four (2005) and its ill-fated sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), but his chiseled jawline soon landed him the title role in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger.

Now here are some true heroes in action. Chris Evans won his Super Bowl bet with Chris Pratt last month, resulting in Pratt paying a visit to a children’s hospital dressed as Star-Lord. Be that as it may, Evans still decided to don his Captain America costume and visit a children’s hospital, too. That’s just the Captain America way.

Marvel stars Chris Pratt and Chris Evans—Seahawks and Patriots fans, respectively—made a bet on Twitter on which of their teams would win the Super Bowl. At stake? The loser would have to visit a local charity dressed as their superhero. The Patriots beat the Seahawks in dramatic fashion, so Pratt, in full Star-Lord costume, lived up to his end of the bargain and visited Christopher's Haven, a home for kids and their families battling cancer in Boston.

There are lots of ways to express your dedication to a particular film or character: you can write about it, you can post GIFs on Tumblr, you can get a tattoo or wear officially licensed merchandise, or you can get really into cosplay. The choice is yours. But for one fan of ‘Captain America,’ these things were simply not enough. In order to better emulate his favorite Marvel villain, one fan has gone so far as to have a large portion of his own nose removed. Yikes.

Kids love and look up to Captain America from ‘The Avengers,’ so it was a shock for this one boy to see his favorite superhero show up on his doorstep. Though the bigger shock came when he realized that this real-life strong man was actually his army dad returning from Afghanistan.