Captain America: Difference between revisions

Captain America (Steve Rogers) is a comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics universe, and a member of The Invaders and The Avengers. He was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Captain America #1 (1941). Although he is not the first superhero to have a patriotic theme, he is the most prominent.

Golden age heyday

This character was one of the most popular characters that Marvel Comics (then known as Timely) had during the Golden Age of Comic Books. With World War II over and his main reason for existence (as a fictional war hero) receding into the past, the character's popularity faded. He was briefly revived in the mid-1950s as a blatantly anti-Communist superhero, but sales were poor. In the 1970s, that version would later be explained away via retcon as a reactionary imposter who soon lost his sanity due to a flawed replica of the Super Soldier Serum and had to be placed in suspended animation along with his equally ill sidekick.

Origin story

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In the current Marvel Universe history, Steve Rogers was a sickly American fine arts student specializing in illustration in the early 1940s before America's entry into World War II. He was disturbed by the rise of the Third Reich enough to attempt to enlist only to be rejected due to his poor constitution. By chance, an Army officer looking for test subjects for a top secret defense research project offered Rogers an alternate way to serve his country. The officer was looking for suitable test subjects for a top secret defense research project, Operation: Rebirth. This project consisted of developing a means to create physically superior soldiers and Rogers was deemed ideal. Rogers agreed to volunteer for the research and after a rigorous physical and combat training and selection process, was chosen as the first human test subject. He received injections and oral ingestions of a chemical formula that was termed the Super Soldier Serum, which had been developed by the scientist Dr Emil Erskine (who was code-named Dr Reinstein). Rogers was then exposed to a controlled burst of "Vita-Rays" that activated the chemicals in his system. Although the process was arduous physically, it successfully altered his physiognomy from his relative frail form to the maximum of human efficiency, including greatly enhanced musculature and reflexes.

Unfortunately at this moment of triumph, a Nazi spy revealed himself and shot Erskine. Because the scientist had committed the crucial portions of the Super Solder formula to memory, it could not be duplicated. Rogers killed the spy in retaliation and vowed to oppose the enemies of America. Meanwhile, the US government decided to make the most of their one super soldier and eventually made him a superhero who served both as a counter-intelligence agent and a propaganda symbol to counter Nazi Germany's head of terrorist operations, the Red Skull. To that end, Rogers was given a costume modelled after the American Flag, a bulletproof steel shield, a personal sidearm and the name of Captain America. He was also given a cover identity as a clumsy infantry private at Fort Lehigh where he made friends with a teenage mascot, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes. Soon, Barnes learned Roger's dual identity and offered to keep the secret if he could become his sidekick. Cap agreed, and trained Barnes appropriately. Rogers also received a new indestructible shield made from a chance mixture of iron and vibranium, light enough to use as a discus-like weapon that could be angled to return to him. It proved so effective that the sidearm was dropped. Throughout World War II, the duo fought the Nazi menace both on their own and as members of the superhero team called the Invaders.

1960s Revival

In The Avengers #4 (1964), the Avengers discovered Captain America's body in the North Atlantic Ocean. Rogers had been preserved in suspended animation in a block of ice since 1945, which melted when the block was thrown into the ocean by the Sub-Mariner. When Rogers revived, he related his last, failed mission in the closing days of World War II, when an sabotaged robot plane exploded, killing Bucky and hurling Rogers into the freezing waters. Rogers accepted membership in the Avengers, and although he soon adjusted to modern times well enough to eventually assume leadership of the team, he was plagued by guilt for not being able to prevent Bucky's death.

The character was given his own series, which has now lasted decades longer than his original run. The book has enjoyed the refined artwork of Jack Kirby, as well a notable short run by Jim Steranko. However, the most notable stories often had a political tone to them, most notably under the authorship of Steve Englehart. Under his run, Cap encountered his 1950s imposter and dealt with the Marvel Universe's version of the Watergate scandal. This so severely disillusioned Rogers that he abandoned his Cap identity in favour of Nomad only to resume it to face the menace of the Red Skull as a symbol of America's ideals rather than its government.

In the 1980s, a similar story was created by Mark Gruenwald when Rogers chose to resign his identity rather than resubmit to the United States government and became The Captain instead. This extended story arc was intended to illustrate the difference of Captain America's beliefs from his replacement who was intended to illustrate the jingoistic attitude that the popular movie character Rambo embodied.

Shortly after returning to the position of Captain America, Rogers narrowly avoided the explosion of a methamphetamine lab, and a chemical reaction between the drug and the Super Soldier Serum present in his system ensued. As a result, the Serum was removed from his system, and now Rogers had to train constantly to maintain his physical condition. This storyline was partly prompted by reader concerns that Captain America was effectively the beneficiary of steroid treatments.

However, this did not stop his system from deteriorating, and eventually Rogers's body began to break down. For a time, he had to wear an exoskeleton to keep moving and eventually had to be placed again in suspended animation. During this time, he was given a transfusion of blood from the Red Skull (who now inhabited a body cloned from Rogers's cells), which both cured of his condition and restored the Super Soldier formula to him. Captain America returned both to crimefighting and the Avengers.

Recently, Rogers has gone public with his identity, and has set up his residence in Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

Adaptations in other media

A 1944 movie serial called Captain America portrayed the hero as a district attorney named Grant Gardner and arbitrarily removed many other important elements of the character, such as his shield and his sidekick Bucky. A 1966 television animated series called Captain America appeared; the quality of the animation was very poor. There were two 1979 poorly received made-for-TV movies, Captain America and Captain America II: Death Too Soon. A poorly-made 1991 feature film called Captain America depicted the hero's battle against his arch-nemesis, the Red Skull.

Captain America has also appeared in a 1998 prose novel titled Captain America: Liberty's Torch by Tony Isabella and Bob Ingersoll in which the hero is put on trial for the imagined crimes of America by a hostile militia group.

The 1978 Kinks song Catch Me Now, I'm Falling, about the ailing U. S. economy in the late 1970's, refers to "Captain America calling".

The film Easy Rider also makes ironic reference to Captain America.

Bibliography

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items.

• Captain America (1968 series) #100-454 (April 1968 - August 1996)
• Giant-Size Captain America (December 1975)
• Adventures of Captain America (1991 series) #1-4 (October 1991 - January 1992)
• Captain America: The Medusa Effect (March 1994)
• Captain America: Drug War (April 1994)
• Captain America (1996 series) #1-13 (November 1996 - November 1997)
• Captain America (1998 series) #1-50 (January 1998 - February 2002)
• Captain America Sentinel of Liberty (1998 series) #1-12 (September 1998 - August 1999)
• Captain America: Dead Men Running (2002 series) #1-3 (March 2002 - May 2002)
• Captain America (2002 series) #1-present (June 2002 - present)
• Captain America: What Price Glory? (2003 series) #1-4 (May 2003)