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The shields

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There is more than one, they are not the same object, and the difference is the whole argument of two of these stories.

Most people watching these films think there is a shield. There are at least three, and the catalogue lists them separately because the story keeps turning on which one somebody is holding.

The first is made by Howard Stark from vibranium and given to Steve Rogers during the war, and it is destroyed in the last battle of the Infinity Saga. The one Rogers hands to Sam Wilson afterwards is an alternate version, which is a small phrase in a reference work and a large hole in an afternoon. And the third is scrap metal, welded together by a man who was told he could not have the second.

Show detailsWhy the second one exists

The shield Thanos breaks in Endgame is the original. The shield Rogers gives away at the end of the same film is described in reference works as an alternate version, because the man giving it away has just come back from living a life in another timeline.

The films do not explain this. It is one of the clearest cases in the whole catalogue of a continuity question that has an answer, but only if you go and look for it.

  1. The vibranium shield

    The vibranium shield

    The original, made from a metal Howard Stark had exactly enough of to make one thing.

    It is created by Howard Stark and given to Steve Rogers during the Second World War, and it is vibranium: it absorbs what hits it instead of passing the shock through to the arm behind it. Stark had one supply and no more, which is the scene that quietly establishes how rare the metal is nine films before Wakanda appears.

    It is destroyed during the Battle of Earth, seventy-eight years after it was made, by somebody strong enough that absorbing the impact stops being relevant.

    First seen inCaptain America: The First AvengerLast seen inAvengers: Endgame

  2. The alternate shield

    The alternate shield

    The one that gets handed over at the end, which is not the one that was broken twenty minutes earlier.

    Reference works describe this as an alternate version of the shield. It is the one an elderly Steve Rogers is holding when he gives the job to Sam Wilson, which is possible because the original was destroyed in the same film.

    Wilson donates it to the Smithsonian. The government takes it back out and gives it to John Walker, and the argument of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is what an object means when it can be reassigned.

    First seen inAvengers: EndgameLast seen inCaptain America: Brave New World

  3. John Walker's shield

    John Walker's shield

    Scrap metal and a medal, welded into a copy by a man who was told the real one was not his.

    After he is stripped of the title, John Walker builds a shield of his own out of scrap metal and his Medal of Honor. He abandons it later.

    It is the least impressive object in this collection and the most revealing. Two of these shields are about who is worthy of a symbol. This one is about somebody who could not let go of it.

    First seen inThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Sources

Facts last checked on Sep 8, 2026