JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a hit shonen anime series featuring a rotating cast of Joestar family heroes and a new villain for each story arc, with the vampire Dio Brando aka DIO being the archvillain of the "Phantom Blood" arc. DIO was hero Jonathan Joestar's foster brother and worst enemy, especially after causing George Joestar's death.
After being defeated, DIO spent a century inside a coffin on the seafloor until he was recovered in the 1980s. He became a villain out of time, making him oddly similar to Captain America of MCU fame. While both characters had to adjust to a brand new world, they reacted in very different ways. Dio Brando only has so much in common with the First Avenger.
What Time Travel Revealed About DIO & Captain America
Captain America and Dio Brando were both born in previous eras, and were at the top of their game in those decades. DIO battled Jonathan in 1880s Victorian England, while Captain America launched his heroic career in the 1940s during World War II. Both characters ended up frozen in time during their prime, and they remained hidden from the world for decades before finally being discovered and unleashed.
In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, DIO barely survived death in a coffin that sank to the seafloor. Once some unwitting fishermen recovered his coffin, he broke free and became the world's most powerful Stand user, operating in his Cairo headquarters. Meanwhile, in the MCU, Captain America ended up frozen in ice after defeating his nemesis Red Skull over the fate of the Tesseract, and was recovered in the early 2010s to renew his carer in a brand new era.
DIO and Captain America both got a major shock when they awoke in (to them) the far future, but remarkably, neither character changed who or what they were in the process -- aside from the Jojo's man acquiring a Stand. He and Steve Rogers both understood who and what they were, and what they wanted from life, and waking in the far future wouldn't change that so easily. DIO always dreamed of gaining power and ruling the world to escape the frustrating poverty of his childhood, and even in the 1980s and with Stands everywhere, he resumed his dark quest with the same enthusiasm.
Similarly, Captain America continued to fight as an inspiring defender of peace, justice and the American way as a modern Avenger -- shield and all -- and it made no difference if Nazi Germany had long since been vanquished. Captain America's deepest virtues survived his time travel experience unscathed, and that strength of character was why he had been chosen for the Super Soldier serum in the first place.
The Timelessness Of Captain America Vs DIO
While both DIO and Captain America stayed true to who they are despite the shock of awakening in a new era, they took different paths from there, and Captain America's was the superior one by far. His virtues and ideals involve justice, honor, defending the innocent and heroism, while DIO is all about conquest, exploitation and world domination -- and his methods are distinctly dated. In Victorian England, Dio Brando was the world's strongest man as a vampire overlord, and the world was not ready for him.
In the 1980s, the rebranded DIO was now a rusty relic of a bygone era, when a Dracula wannabe could rule all of England with his iron fist. But international politics and war don't work that way anymore, and DIO failed to adjust. He was little more than a petty tyrant holed up in Egypt, and his dreams of world domination in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure were already over. Jotaro defeating him in the "Stardust Crusaders" arc was more of a personal matter than a question of saving the world.
By contrast, Captain America's values are not only heroic but timeless, and the world will always need champions like him to stand up for what's right and defend the innocent from evil. Even if the Third Reich is long gone, Captain America still serves as a much-needed guardian of all that is good in the world; there will always be a new menace to threaten the innocent, whether it's HYDRA, the mad titan Thanos or anyone else. In that sense, Captain America aged perfectly, and he will continue to serve as an exemplary Avenger for years to come.
