While there are some that are more famous than others, Chris Evans’ comic book roles throughout his career have helped to solidify the actor as a legend in the genre. The comic book movie genre has taken over the movie industry in the past decades, but the history of the genre and its offerings goes far beyond just the popular MCU and DCU roles. Evans himself has starred as some of the most iconic comic book characters of all time while also playing more obscure ones.

Evans is certainly not the only actor to play multiple comic book characters, with Ben Affleck playing Daredevil and Batman, Halle Berry playing Storm and Catwoman, and most recently, Robert Downey Jr. following up Iron Man with Doctor Doom. However, with eight different characters in the comic book genre, Evans has been able to show various sides of his acting chops in these types of movies, from the stoic hero to the complex protagonist to the comedic goofball to the entertaining villain.

Captain America

Notable Projects: Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Avengers: Endgame

Captain America is easily the comic book character that Evans is best known for at this point. Just like in the comics, Evans’ version of Captain America is a super-soldier with an unwavering moral compass. He first played Steve Rogers in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger after nearly turning down the role. Luckily, he reconsidered and helped provide one of the cornerstone characters to the MCU as the noble soldier who was always willing to put the lives of others before his own.

Fans had the chance to see the origins of Captain America and then see how he struggles with the more complex world of global politics in the 21st century in movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War. Cap also grew into the true leader of the Avengers over the course of the four team-up movies to date. In total, Evans has appeared as Captain America in nine MCU appearances since 2011, including cameo roles in Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: The Dark World.

While the earnestness of Steve Rogers and the patriotism of Captain America can be a tricky thing to pull off in a 21st-century live-action movie, Evans’ performance was the reason the character worked so well. He presented Steve as a man who made mistakes and could be stubborn but was a good man at the center of it all. Even when the first movie presented Evans as a skinny young man in his early scenes, the actor made the audience believe this was a man people would follow. Following Avengers: Endgame, it appears Evans’ time in the role is done.

Johnny Storm/Human Torch

Notable Projects: Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Deadpool & Wolverine

Before joining the MCU as Captain America, the first Marvel character Evans played on the big screen was Johnny Storm aka Human Torch. Evans’ debut came in 2005’s Fantastic Four, where he presented the youngest member of Marvel’s first family as a cocky and reckless pilot alongside Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, and The Thing. He returned two years later for the sequel, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. As Human Torch’s name suggests, his entire body can become engulfed in fire at will, and these transformations are usually accompanied by him saying, “Flame on.”

Although these Fantastic Four movies weren’t highly praised, Evans was viewed as a bright spot for bringing the hot-shot nature of Johnny to life. Human Torch wasn’t just the first Marvel character Evans played though, as it is actually the very first time he played any comic book character. Nearly two decades after he last appeared in the role, Evans was given the opportunity to play Johnny Storm one last time in his hilarious cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Evans’ appearance in the meta superhero adventure offers an entertaining bit of commentary on the actor’s history of comic book characters. When he first appears, Deadpool assumes that it is Steve Rogers who has come to save the day, only for Evans to reveal himself as Fox’s version of Johnny Storm.

Jensen

Notable Projects: The Losers

While Captain America and Johnny Storm might be the most notable comic book roles Evans has played, there are certain projects he has been in that fans might not even realize are based on comic books. The 2010 movie The Losers is directed by Sylvain White and is an adaptation of Andy Diggle’s 32-issue series published by Vertigo and DC. The movie follows a dysfunctional band of CIA special forces operatives who are betrayed and left for dead, reuniting to clear their names and find redemption.

Evans played master hacker and master of disguise Jake Jensen in The Losers. The movie also featured Evans’ future MCU co-stars Idris Elba and Zoe Saldaña, as well as Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who frequently appears in comic book adaptations. However, Evans is the one who steals the show with his comedic performance as the energetic and fun-loving member of the team. There is a particularly memorable scene of Jensen using his sniper comrade to make it seem like he can shoot bullets with his mind.

Lucas Lee

Notable Projects: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off

The final comic book character Evans played before joining the MCU was in Edgar Wright’s adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The movie stars Michael Cera as the titular character, a young Canadian man who falls in love with a girl named Ramona Flowers, only to learn that he must defeat all of her Seven Evil Exes in order to be with her. Evans plays Lucas Lee, the second evil ex of Ramona Flowers.

Within the universe of the movie, Lee is a skateboard turned mediocre action movie star, giving Evans the chance to have a lot of fun playing up his movie star status. Compared to his other comic book roles, Lee is a brief part for Evans in the overall story, but he makes for perhaps the most memorable of the movie’s evil exes. His tough-guy delivery of his lines makes Lee into a hilariously pompous character and the first comic book villain Evans has played.

Evans returned along with the rest of the case to provide voices for the animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.

Curtis

Notable Projects: Snowpiercer

The first non-Marvel comic book character Evans played after becoming Captain America was a very different and much more complex hero in the sci-fi movie Snowpiercer. Bong Joon-ho’s 2013 movie is an adaptation of the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, which was written by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette and published in 1982. Set in a post-apocalyptic future in which the outside world has become an inhospitable frozen wasteland, survivors circle the land in an unstoppable train.

Evans plays the lead role of Curtis Everett, who is one of the passengers at the back of the train who leads a revolt against the passengers in the front of the train, who are given more food and luxuries while those in steerage starve. Curtis doesn’t have any superpowers, but is shown to be a lethal fighter as he helps incite a revolution aboard the train. However, he is also someone filled with guilt over the things he has done to survive, with Evans giving a powerful monologue late in the movie about some of those atrocities.

Loki

Notable Projects: Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Endgame

Captain America isn’t the only character Chris Evans has played in the MCU, as he also briefly portrayed Loki on occasion. He did so in Thor: The Dark World and Avengers: Endgame, though it is complicated since Evans was actually playing Loki impersonating Steve Rogers. The first instance of this comes in Thor: The Dark World, when Loki transforms into one of Thor’s “new companions”. Evans then plays Loki disguised as Cap as he proceeds to mock his tight-fitting costume and patriotic sensibilities.

While that moment is brief, the second time it happens is even briefer, as it occurs in Avengers: Endgame. As Cap and the others travel back in time to get the Infinity Stones, they witness the aftermath of the Battle of New York as the Avengers arrest Loki. Even in defeat, Loki keeps up his mischievous ways, transforming into Cap to mock home again. Evans seems to have fun in these brief moments, breaking out of the rigid Steve Rogers role and poking fun at it.

Nick Grant

Notable Projects: Push

Chris Evans’ role as Nick Grant in the 2009 film Push is also tied to comic books but in a different way than the rest. The movie is set in a world in which certain people have superpowers following government experiments from the past. Chris Evans plays the character of Nick, whose telekinetic abilities allow him to move things with his mind. He seeks to use his abilities to help a young clairvoyant girl (Dakota Fanning) who is being pursued by a shadowy agency.

There was no source material for Push when Doug Liman’s movie was being developed. So, when Evans was cast in the lead, this was an original character for him to play. This changed as the film continued to move forward, as a prequel comic to the movie was created. DC released the six-issue limited series written by Bruno Redondo, Marc Bernardin, and Adam Freeman in the months leading up to Push’s theatrical release. As a result, Nick becomes another character for Evans with comic book ties, and this time the character is modeled after him instead of the other way around.

Casey Jones

Notable Projects: TMNT

Chris Evans also provided the voice for Casey Jones in the 2007 animated TMNT movie. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were created in comic form in 1984 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. They became so popular that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics were made for the next thirty years and inspired animated shows, live-action movies, and animated ones. While the 2007 movie might not be the most popular of the TMNT movies and shows, it does provide some big names voicing some iconic characters.

Casey Jones made his comic debut in 1985, twenty-two years before Evans would voice the hockey mask-wearing vigilante. The movie finds Casey in a relationship with April O’Neil and struggling with the idea of settling down. It provides a more mature take on the character of Casey, who is normally seen as a reckless and rebellious young man. Due to the poor reception of TMNT, a sequel was never made, and Evans never got a chance to voice Casey Jones again.