Captain America
is an American fictional
character, a superhero who appears
in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The
character first
appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (cover-dated March 1941),from Marvel Comics'
1940s predecessor, Timely
Comics, and was created by Joe
Simon and Jack Kirby. As
of 2007, an estimated 210 million copies of "Captain America" comic books had
been sold in 75 countries. For nearly all
of the character's publication history, Captain America has been the alter ego of Steve Rogers, a
frail young man who was enhanced to the peak of human perfection by an
experimental serum, in order to aid the United States government's efforts to win World War II. Captain America
wears a costume that bears an American flag motif, and is armed
with an indestructible, boomerang-like shield that can both be thrown as a
weapon, and defend against others' weapons.
An intentionally
patriotic creation who was often depicted fighting the Axis powers of World War II, Captain America was
Timely Comics' most popular character during the 1940s wartime period. After the
war ended, the character's popularity waned and the comic had been discontinued
by 1950 aside from an ill-fated, 1953 revival. Captain America was re-introduced
by Marvel Comics during
the Silver Age of comics, as an M.I.A soldier
retrieved from an iceberg and awakened from suspended animation by the superhero team
the Avengers in
The Avengers #4 (March 1964). Since then, Captain America has often led
the team, as well as starring in his own series.
Steve Rogers was
purportedly assassinated in Captain America vol. 5, #25 (March 2007),
although he was later revealed to be alive. The comic-book series Captain
America continued to be published,with Rogers' former sidekick, James "Bucky"
Barnes, having taken up the mantle until Rogers eventually again assumed the
role.
Captain America was
the first Marvel Comics character adapted into another medium, with the release
of the 1944 movie serial Captain
America. Since then, the character has been featured in several other
films and television series, including Chris Evans' portrayal in Captain America: The First
Avenger, released on July 22, 2011, and The
Avengers, released on May 4, 2012. In 2011, Captain America was ranked
sixth on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes
Captain America #109 (Jan.
1969).Cover art by Jack Kirby and Syd Shores.
Publication history
In 1940, writer Joe Simon conceived the idea for
Captain America and made a painting of the character in costume. "I wrote the name
'Super American' at the bottom of the page," Simon said in his autobiography.
"No, it didn't work. There were too many 'Supers' around. 'Captain America' had
a good sound to it. There weren't a lot of captains in comics. It was as easy as
that. The boy companion was simply named Bucky, after my friend Bucky Pierson, a
star on our high school basketball team."
Simon recalled in his
autobiography that Timely
Comics publisher Martin Goodman gave him the go-ahead
and directed that a Captain America solo comic book series be published as soon
as possible. Needing to fill a full comic with primarily one character's
stories, Simon did not believe that his regular creative partner, artist Jack Kirby, could handle the
workload alone:
I didn't have a lot of objections to putting a crew on the first issue.... There were two young artists from Connecticut that had made a strong impression on me. Al Avison and Al Gabriele often worked together and were quite successful in adapting their individual styles to each other. Actually, their work was not too far from [that of] Kirby's. If they worked on it, and if one inker tied the three styles together, I believed the final product would emerge as quite uniform. The two Als were eager to join in on the new Captain America book, but Jack Kirby was visibly upset. 'You're still number one, Jack,' I assured him. 'It's just a matter of a quick deadline for the first issue.'
'I'll make the deadline,' Jack promised. 'I'll pencil it [all] myself and make the deadline.' I hadn't expected this kind of reaction ... but I acceded to Kirby's wishes and, it turned out, was lucky that I did. There might have been two Als, but there was only one Jack Kirby.
I wrote the first Captain America book with penciled lettering right on the drawing boards, with very rough sketches for figures and backgrounds. Kirby did his thing, building the muscular anatomy, adding ideas and pepping up the action as only he could. Then he tightened up the penciled drawings, adding detailed backgrounds, faces and figures
1974 Comic Art
Convention program featuring Simon's original sketch of Captain America.
Al
Liederman would ink that first issue, which was lettered by Simon and
Kirby's regular letterer, Howard Ferguson.
Simon said Captain
America was a consciously political creation; he and Kirby were morally repulsed
by the actions of Nazi
Germany in the years leading up to the United States' involvement in World War II and felt war was
inevitable: "The opponents to the war were all quite well organized. We wanted
to have our say too."
Captain America
Comics #1 — cover-dated March 1941 and on sale December 20,
1940,a year before the
attack on
Pearl Harbor, but a full year into World War II — showed the protagonist
punching Nazi leader Adolf
Hitler in the jaw; it sold nearly one million copies.While most
readers responded favorably to the comic, some took objection. Simon noted,
"When the first issue came out we got a lot of... threatening letters and hate
mail. Some people really opposed what Cap stood for."The
threats, which included menacing groups of people loitering out on the street
outside of the offices, proved so serious that police protection was posted with
New York
Mayor Fiorello La Guardia personally contacting
Simon and Kirby to give his support.
Though preceded as a
"patriotically themed superhero" by MLJ's The Shield, Captain
America immediately became the most prominent and enduring of that wave of
superheroes introduced in American comic books prior to and during World War
II,as
evidenced by the unusual move at the time of premiering the character in his own
title instead of an anthology title first. This popularity drew the attention
and a complaint from MLJ that the character's triangular shield too closely
resembled the chest symbol of their Shield character. In response, Goodman had
Simon and Kirby create a distinctive round shield for issue 2, which went on to
become an iconic element of the character. With his sidekick
Bucky, Captain America faced Nazis, Japanese, and other
threats to wartime America and the Allies. Stanley Lieber, now better known
by his pen name Stan Lee, contributed to the
character in issue #3 in the filler text story "Captain America Foils the
Traitor's Revenge," which introduced the character's use of his shield as a
returning throwing weapon.
Captain America soon became Timely's most popular character and even had a
fan-club called the "Sentinels of Liberty."
Circulation figures
remained close to a million copies per month after the debut issue, which
outstripped even the circulation of news magazines such as Time during the period. After the Simon
and Kirby team moved to DC
Comics in late 1941, having produced Captain America Comics through
issue #10 (January 1942), Al
Avison and Syd Shores
became regular pencillers of the
celebrated title, with one generally inking over the other. The character was featured in All Winners
Comics #1-19 (Summer 1941 – Fall 1946), Marvel Mystery Comics #80-84 and
#86-92, USA Comics
#6-17 (Dec. 1942 – Fall 1945), and All Select Comics #1-10 (Fall 1943 –
Summer 1946).
In the post-war era,
with the popularity of superheroes fading, Captain America led Timely's first
superhero team, the All-Winners Squad, in its two published
adventures, in All Winners
Comics #19 and #21 (Fall–Winter 1946; there was no issue #20). After
Bucky was shot and wounded in a 1948 Captain America story, he was
succeeded by Captain America's girlfriend, Betsy Ross, who became the
superheroine Golden Girl.
Captain America Comics ran until issue #73 (July 1949), at which time the
series was retitled Captain America's Weird Tales for two issues, with the finale
being a horror/suspense anthology issue with no superheroes.
Atlas Comics
attempted to revive its superhero titles when it reintroduced Captain America,
along with the original Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, in Young Men #24
(Dec. 1953). Billed as "Captain America, Commie Smasher!" Captain America
appeared during the next year in Young Men #24-28 and Men's
Adventures #27-28, as well as in issues #76-78 of an eponymous title. Atlas'
attempted superhero revival was a commercial failure,and the
character's title was canceled with Captain America #78 (Sept. 1954).
Silver Age revival
In the Human Torch story titled
"Captain America" in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales #114 (Nov. 1963),writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Jack Kirby depicted the brash
young Fantastic Four
member Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, in an exhibition performance with Captain
America, described as a legendary World War II and 1950s superhero who has
returned after many years of apparent retirement. The 18-page story ends with
this Captain America revealed as an impostor: it was actually the villain the Acrobat, a former circus performer the Torch
had defeated in Strange Tales #106, who broke two thieves out of jail,
hoping to draw the police away while trying to rob the local bank. Afterward,
Storm digs out an old comic book in which Captain America is shown to be Steve
Rogers. A caption in the final panel says this story was a test to see if
readers would like Captain America to return.
Captain America was
then formally reintroduced in The Avengers #4 (March 1964), which explained
that in the final days of World War II, he had fallen from an experimental drone
plane into the North
Atlantic Ocean and spent decades frozen in a block of ice in a state of suspended
animation. The hero found a new generation of readers as leader of that
superhero team. Following the success of other Marvel characters introduced
during the 1960s, Captain America was recast as a hero "haunted by past
memories, and trying to adapt to 1960s society."
After then
guest-starring in the feature "Iron
Man" in Tales of
Suspense #58 (Oct. 1964), Captain America gained his own solo feature in
that "split book," beginning the following issue. Issue #63 (March
1965), which retold Captain America's origin, through issue #71 (Nov. 1965) was
a period feature set during World War II and co-starred Captain America's Golden
Age sidekick, Bucky. Kirby drew all but two of the stories in Tales of
Suspense, which became Captain America with #100 (April 1968); Gil Kane and John Romita, Sr.,
each filled in once. Several stories were finished by penciller-inker George Tuska over Kirby
layouts, with one finished by Romita Sr. and another by penciller Dick Ayers and inker John Tartaglione.
Kirby's regular inkers on the series were Frank Giacoia (as "Frank Ray") and Joe Sinnott, though Don Heck and Golden Age Captain
America artist Syd Shores
inked one story each. The new title Captain America continued to feature
artwork by Kirby, as well as a short run by Jim Steranko, and work by many of the industry's
top artists and writers. It was called Captain America and the Falcon
from #134 (Feb. 1971) to #222 (June 1978) although
the Falcon's name was not on the cover for issues #193, 200, and 216. The
1972-1975 run on the title by writer Steve Englehart and artist Sal Buscema saw the series
become one of Marvel's top-sellers. Kirby returned to
the series as writer and penciler with issue #193 (Jan. 1975) and remained
through #214 (Oct. 1977).
This series —
considered Captain America volume one by comics researchers and
historians, following the
1940s Captain America Comics and its 1950s numbering continuation of
Tales of Suspense — ended with #454 (Aug. 1996).
After the Silver Age
This series was almost
immediately followed by the 13-issue Captain America vol. 2 (Nov. 1996 –
Nov. 1997, part of the "Heroes Reborn" crossover), the 50-issue
Captain America vol. 3 (Jan. 1998 – Feb. 2002), the 32-issue
Captain America vol. 4 (June 2002 – Dec. 2004), and Captain
America vol. 5 (Jan. 2005 – Aug. 2011). Beginning with the
600th overall issue (Aug. 2009), Captain America resumed its original
numbering, as if the series numbering had continued uninterrupted after
#454.
As part of the
aftermath of Marvel Comics' company-crossover storyline "Civil War", Steve
Rogers was ostensibly killed in Captain America vol. 5, #25 (March 2007).
Series writer Ed Brubaker
remarked, "What I found is that all the really hard-core left-wing fans want Cap
to be standing out on and giving speeches on the street corner against the George W. Bush
administration, and all the really right-wing fans all want him to be over in
the streets of Baghdad, punching out
Saddam Hussein."The
character's co-creator, Joe
Simon, remarked, "It's a hell of a time for him to go. We really need him
now." Artist Alex Ross designed a slightly
revised Captain America costume that former sidekick Bucky Barnes began to wear
as the new Captain America in vol. 5, #34 (March 2008).
The storyline of
Rogers' return began in issue #600. Rogers, who was
not dead but caroming through time, returned to the present day in the six-issue
miniseries Captain
America: Reborn (Sept. 2009 – March 2010).
After Rogers' return,
Barnes, at Rogers' insistence, continued as Captain America, beginning in the one-shot comic
Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield? (Feb. 2010). While Bucky
Barnes continued adventuring in the pages of Captain America, Steve
Rogers received his own miniseries (Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier) as well
as taking on the leadership position in a new Secret Avengers ongoing
series.
Spinoff series
included Captain America Sentinel of Liberty (Sept. 1998 – Aug. 1999) and
Captain America and the
Falcon (May 2004 – June 2005). The 1940s Captain America appeared
alongside the 1940s Human Torch and Sub-Mariner in the 12-issue miniseries
Avengers/Invaders.The 2007 mini-series Captain
America: The Chosen, written by David Morrell and penciled by Mitchell
Breitweiser, depicts a dying Steve Rogers' final minutes, at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, as
his spirit guides James Newman, a young American Marine fighting in Afghanistan. The Chosen is
not part of the main Marvel Universe continuity.
Marvel stated in May
2011 that Rogers, following the public death of Bucky Barnes in the Fear
Itself miniseries, would resume his Captain America identity in a sixth
volume of Captain America, by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Steve McNiven. The Captain
America title continued from issue #620 featuring team up stories with Bucky
(#620-#628),Hawkeye
(#629-#632), Iron Man
(#633-635), Namor
(#635.1), and Black Widow
(#636-#640), and the title
ended its print run with issue #640.
Captain America is a
regular character in Uncanny Avengers (2012), beginning with
issue #1 as part of Marvel
NOW!. Captain America vol. 7 was launched in November 2012 with a
January 2013 cover date by writer Rick Remender and artist John Romita
Jr.
Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941). Cover art by Joe Simon (inks and pencils) and Jack Kirby (pencils).
1940s
Steven Rogers was born
July 4, 1922, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, to poor Irish immigrants, Sarah and Joseph Rogers. Joseph
Rogers died when Steve was only a child and his mother, Sarah, died of pneumonia
while Steve was a teen. By early 1940, before America's entry into World War II, Rogers is a
tall but scrawny fine arts student
specializing in illustration, and a comic book writer and artist.
Disturbed by the rise
of the Third
Reich, Rogers attempts to enlist, only to be rejected due to his physically
frail body. His resolution allows him to be noticed by U.S. Army General Chester
Phillips and "Project: Rebirth." Rogers is used as a test subject for the Super-Soldier project,
receiving a special serum made by "Dr. Josef Reinstein", later
retroactively changed to a code name for
the scientist Abraham Erskine.The
name "Erskine" was first used in a Captain America novel The Great Gold
Steal by Ted White published by Bantam Books in 1968.
The serum is a success,
and transforms the frail Steve Rogers into a perfect specimen—a nearly perfect
human being with peak strength, agility, stamina, and intelligence. The success
of the program leaves Erskine wondering about replicating the experiment on
other human beings.The
process itself has been inconsistently detailed: while in the original material
Steve Rogers is shown receiving injections of the Super-Serum, when the origin
was retold in the 1960s, the Comic Code Authority had already put a
veto over graphic description of drug intake and abuse, and thus the Super-Serum
was retconned into an oral formula. Later
accounts hint at a combination of oral and intravenous treatments with a
strenuous training regimen, culminating in the Vita-Ray exposure.
Erskine refused to
write down every crucial element of the treatment, leaving behind a flawed,
imperfect knowledge of the needed steps. Thus, when the Nazi spy Heinz
Kruger killed him, Erskine's method of creating new Super-Soldiers died as
well. Captain America, in his first act after his transformation, avenges
Erskine. In the 1941 origin story and in Tales of Suspense #63, Kruger
dies when running into machinery but is not killed by Rogers; in the Captain
America #109 and #255 revisions, Rogers causes the spy's death by punching
him into machinery.
Unable to create new
Super-Soldiers, and willing to hide the Project Rebirth fiasco, the American
government casts the now-powerful Rogers as a patriotic superhero, able to
counter the menace of the Red
Skull as a counter-intelligence agent. As such, he's
supplied with a patriotic uniform designed by Rogers himself,) a
bulletproof shield, a personal side
arm, and the codename Captain America, while posing as a clumsy infantry private at Camp Lehigh in
Virginia. He forms a friendship with the camp's teenage mascot, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes.
Eventually Barnes
learns of Rogers' dual
identity and offers to keep the secret if he can become Captain America's sidekick, being trained himself to act
as the perfect partner. During their adventures, Franklin D.
Roosevelt presents Captain America with a new shield, forged from an alloy
of steel and vibranium, fused by an unknown catalyst, so effective
that it replaces his own firearm.
Throughout World War II, Captain America and Bucky fight the Nazi menace both on
their own and as members of the superhero team the Invaders as seen in the 1970s comic of the
same name.Captain
America battles a number of criminal menaces on American soil, including a wide
variety of costumed villains: the Wax Man, the Hangman, the Fang,the Black
Talon,and the White
Death, among others.
In late April 1945,
during the closing days of World War II, Captain America and Bucky try to stop
the villainous Baron Zemo from destroying an experimental
drone plane. Zemo launches the plane with an armed explosive on it with Rogers
and Barnes in hot pursuit. The pair reach the plane just before take off. When
Bucky tries to defuse the bomb, it explodes in mid-air. The young man is
believed killed. Rogers is hurled into the freezing waters of the North
Atlantic. Neither is found, and both are presumed dead. It is later revealed
that neither character actually died.
Late 1940s to 1950s
Captain America
continued to appear in comics for the next few years changing from World War
II-era hero fighting against the Nazis to confronting the United States' newest
enemy, Communism. The revival of
the character in the mid-1950s was short-lived, and events during that time
period are later retconned to show that multiple people
operated using the code name to explain the changes in the character. These post
World War II successors are listed as William Naslund and Jeffrey Mace.
The last of these other
official Captains, William Burnside,was a
history graduate enamored with the Captain America mythos, going so far to have
his appearance surgically altered to resemble Rogers and legally change his name
to "Steve Rogers", becoming the new "1950s Captain America". He
self-administered to himself and his pupil James "Jack" Monroe a flawed,
incomplete copy of the Super-Serum, which made no mention about the necessary
Vita-Ray portion of the treatment. As a result, while Burnside and Monroe became
the new Captain America and Bucky, they became violently paranoid, often raving
about innocent people being communist sympathizers during the height of the Red Scare of the 1950s. Their
insanity forced the U.S. government to place both of them in indefinite
cryogenic storage until they could be cured of their mental illness.Monroe would
later be cured and assume the Nomad identity.
Captain America #180 (Dec. 1974). Captain America becomes "Nomad". Cover
art by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia.
1960s to 1970s
Years later, the
superhero team the Avengers discovers Steve Rogers' body in the
North Atlantic, the Captain's uniform under his soldier's fatigues and still
carrying his shield. After he revives, they piece together that Rogers had been
preserved in a block of ice since 1945, surviving in such a state only because
of his enhancements from Operation: Rebirth. The block had begun to melt after
the Sub-Mariner, enraged that an Inuit tribe is worshiping the frozen figure,
throws it into the ocean.Rogers accepts membership in the Avengers, and although long out of his time,
his considerable experience both in individual combat service and his time with
the Invaders makes him a valuable asset to the team. He quickly assumes
leadership, and has typically
returned to that position throughout the team's history.
Captain America is
plagued by guilt for having been unable to prevent Bucky's death. Although he
takes the young Rick Jones (who closely resembles Bucky)
under his tutelage, he refuses for some time to allow Jones to take up the Bucky
identity, not wishing to be responsible for another youth's death. Insisting
that his hero finally move on from that loss, Jones eventually convinces Rogers
to let him don the Bucky costume, but this
partnership lasts only a short time; a disguised Red Skull, impersonating Rogers with the help of the
Cosmic Cube, drives Jones
away.
Rogers reunites with
his old war comrade Nick Fury,
who is similarly well-preserved due to the "Infinity Formula." As a result,
Rogers regularly undertakes missions for the security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. for which Fury is
public director. Through
Fury, Rogers befriends Sharon Carter, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, with whom he
eventually begins a romantic relationship.
Rogers later meets
and trains Sam Wilson, who becomes the superhero the Falcon, the first African-American superhero in mainstream comic
books. The characters
established an enduring friendship and adventuring partnership, sharing the
series title for some time as Captain America and the Falcon. The two
later encounter the revived but still insane 1950s Captain America. Although Rogers
and the Falcon defeat the faux Rogers and Jack Monroe, Rogers becomes deeply
disturbed that he could have suffered his counterpart's fate. During this
period, Rogers temporarily gains super strength.
The series dealt
with the Marvel
Universe's version of the Watergate scandal, making Rogers so
uncertain about his role that he abandons his Captain America identity in favor
of one called Nomad,emphasizing the
word's meaning as "man without a country". During this time, several men
unsuccessfully assume the Captain America identity.Rogers eventually
re-assumes it after coming to consider that the identity could be a symbol of
American ideals and not its government; it's a personal conviction epitomized
when he later confronted a corrupt Army officer attempting to manipulate him by
appealing to his loyalty, "I'm loyal to nothing, General... except the
[American] Dream." Jack Monroe, cured of his mental instability, later takes up
the Nomad alias. Sharon
Carter is believed to have been killed while under the mind control of Dr.
Faustus.
Captain America #350 (Feb. 1989). Rogers as "the Captain" vs. John Walker
as Captain America. Cover art by Kieron Dwyer and Al Milgrom.
1980s to 1990s
The 1980s included a
run by writer Roger Stern
and artist John
Byrne. Stern had Steve Rogers consider a run for President of the United
States in Captain America #250 (June 1980),an idea originally
developed by Roger McKenzie and Don Perlin. Stern, in his
capacity as editor of the title, had originally rejected the idea but later
changed his mind about the concept.McKenzie and
Perlin received credit for the idea on the letters page at Stern's
insistence.Stern additionally
introduced a new love interest, law student Bernie Rosenthal, in
Captain America #248 (Aug. 1980).
Writer J. M. DeMatteis
revealed the true face and full origin of the Red Skull in Captain America #298-300, and had
Captain America take on Jack Monroe, Nomad, as a partner for a time.It is around
this time that the heroes gathered by the Beyonder elect Rogers as leader during their stay on
Battleworld in the 1984 miniseries Secret Wars Homophobia was dealt with as Steve Rogers runs into
a childhood friend named Arnold Roth who
is gay.
Mark Gruenwald became the
writer of the series with issue #307 (July 1985) and wrote 137 issues for 10
consecutive years from until #443 (Sept. 1995), the most issues by
any single author in the character's history. Gruenwald created several new
foes, including Crossbones and the Serpent Society. Other Gruenwald characters
included Diamondback, Super Patriot, and Demolition
Man. Gruenwald explored
numerous political and social themes as well, such as extreme idealism when
Captain America fights the anti-nationalist terrorist Flag-Smasher; and vigilantism when he hunts the
murderous Scourge of the Underworld.
Rogers receives a
large back-pay reimbursement dating back to his disappearance at the end of
World War II, and a government commission
orders him to work directly for the U.S. government. Already troubled by the
corruption he had encountered with the Nuke incident in New York City,Rogers chooses
instead to resign his identity, and then takes
the alias of "the Captain". A replacement
Captain America, John Walker, struggles to emulate Rogers' ideals until pressure
from hidden enemies helps to drive Walker insane. Rogers returns to the Captain
America identity while a
recovered Walker becomes the U.S.
Agent.
Sometime afterward,
Rogers avoids the explosion of a methamphetamine lab, but the drug triggers a
chemical reaction in the Super-Soldier serum in his system. To combat the
reaction, Rogers has the serum removed from his body, and trains constantly to
maintain his physical condition. A retcon
later establishes that the serum was not a drug per se, which would have
metabolized out of his system, but in fact a virus-like organism that effected a
biochemical and genetic change. This additionally explained how arch-nemesis the
Red Skull, who at the time
inhabited a body cloned from Rogers'
cells, has the formula in his body.
Because of his altered
biochemistry, Rogers' body begins to deteriorate, and for a time he must wear a
powered exoskeleton and is
eventually placed again in suspended animation. During this time, he is given a
transfusion of blood from the Red
Skull, which cures his condition and stabilizes the Super-Soldier virus in
his system. Captain America returns both to crime fighting and the Avengers.
Following Gruenwald's
departure from the series, Mark Waid took over and resurrected Sharon Carter as
Cap's love interest. The title was then relaunched under Rob Liefeld as Cap
became part of the Heroes
Reborn universe for 13 issues before another
relaunch restored Waid to the title in an arc that
saw Cap lose his shield for a time using an energy based shield as a temporary
replacement. Following Waid's run, Dan Jurgens took over and introduced new foe
Protocide, a failed recipient of
the Super Soldier serum prior to the experiment that successfully created Rogers
2000s
In the aftermath of
the September
11 terrorist attacks, Rogers reveals his identity to the world and
establishes a residence in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, as seen in Captain America vol. 4,
#1-7 (June 2002 – Feb. 2003).Following the
disbandment of the Avengers in the "Avengers Disassembled" story arc, Rogers,
now employed by S.H.I.E.L.D., discovers Bucky is alive, having
been saved and deployed by the Soviets as the Winter Soldier. Rogers resumes his
on-again, off-again relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter.
In the 2006-2007
company-wide story arc "Civil War", and its anchoring, seven-issue
miniseries, Civil War (July 2006 - Jan. 2007), Rogers opposes the new
mandatory federal
registration of super-powered beings, and leads the underground
anti-registration movement. He adopts the alias "Brett Hendrick", a mall security guard. After
significant rancor and danger to the public as the two sides clash, Captain
America voluntarily surrenders and orders the Anti-Registration forces to stand
down.
In the story arc "The Death of Captain America",
Rogers is indicted on criminal charges for his anti-registration efforts, and in
Captain America vol. 5, #25 (April 2007) is shot outside a federal
courthouse; taken to a hospital, he is pronounced dead.The
assassination, orchestrated by the Red Skull, involves Crossbones as a
sniper and Dr. Faustus, who poses as a S.H.I.E.L.D. psychiatrist and
gives Carter a hypnotic suggestion to surreptitiously shoot Rogers at close
range during the chaos surrounding the sniper shot.
The miniseries Fallen Son: The Death of
Captain America #1-5 (June–Aug. 2007) follows the stunned superhero
community after the apparent assassination. Captain America is purportedly laid
to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, but
Tony Stark (Iron Man) and others have actually returned Rogers' body to the Arctic where Rogers had been found years
before, and whereupon Namor swore to guard him. In Captain America vol.
5, #30 (Sept. 2007), Stark receives a letter containing Rogers' request that
Bucky become the next Captain America, which Bucky agrees to do four issues
later. Adopting the original shield, he dons a new costume incorporating a
pistol and a knife. The Norse god superhero Thor communicates with what appears to be
Rogers' spirit on the first anniversary of Rogers' death, in Thor vol. 3,
#11 (Oct. 2008.
Steve Rogers' presumed death. Art by Steve Epting
Captain
America: Reborn #1 (Aug. 2009) reveals that Rogers did not die, and that
the gun Sharon Carter had been hypnotized to use had actually caused Rogers to
phase in and out of space and time, appearing at events in his lifetime and
fighting battles. The Skull returns Rogers to the present, where he takes
control of Rogers' mind and body. Rogers eventually regains control, and with
help from his allies, defeats the Skull in the fourth and final issues of this
miniseries. In the subsequent one-shot comic Captain America: Who Will
Wield the Shield?, Rogers formally grants Bucky his Captain America shield
and asks his former sidekick to continue as Captain America. The American
President grants Rogers a full pardon
for his anti-registration actions.
Promotional art for Steve Rogers: Super Soldier #1 (Sept. 2010) by Carlos Pacheco and Tim
Townsend.
2010s
Following the
company-wide "Dark Reign" and "Siege" story arcs, the Steve Rogers character
became part of the "Heroic Age" arc.The U.S.
president appoints Rogers, in his civilian identity, as head of the nation's
security, replacing Norman Osborn. The Superhuman Registration Act is
repealed and Rogers reestablishes the superhero team the Avengers, spearheaded by Iron Man, Thor and
Bucky as Captain America. In the miniseries Steve Rogers: Super Soldier, he
encounters Jacob Erskine, the grandson of Professor Abraham Erskine and the son
of Tyler Paxton, one of Rogers' fellow volunteers in the Super-Soldier program.
Shortly afterward, Rogers becomes leader of the Secret Avengers, a black-ops superhero team.
During the Fear
Itself storyline, Steve Rogers is present when the threat of the Serpent
is known. Following the
apparent death of Bucky at the hands of Sin (in the form of Skadi), Steve Rogers ends up changing
into his Captain America uniform.When the
Avengers and the New Avengers are fighting Skadi, the Serpent ends up joining
the battle and breaks Captain America's shield with his bare hands.Captain America
and the Avengers teams end up forming a militia for a last stand against the
forces of the Serpent. When it comes to
the final battle, Captain America uses Thor's hammer to fight Skadi until Thor
manages to kill the Serpent. In the aftermath of the battle, Iron Man presents
him with his reforged shield, now stronger for its uru-infused enhancements
despite the scar it bears. It is then
revealed that Captain America, Nick Fury, and Black Widow are the only ones who
know that Bucky actually survived the fight with Skadi as Bucky resumes his
identity as Winter Soldier.
In the Avengers vs.
X-Men story arc, Captain America attempts to apprehend Hope
Summers of the X-Men. She is the
targeted vessel for the Phoenix Force, a destructive cosmic
entity. Captain America believes that this Phoenix Force is too dangerous to
entrust in one person and seeks to prevent Hope from having it. Cyclops and the X-Men
believe that the Phoenix Force will save their race, and oppose Captain
America's wishes. The result is a
series of battles that eventually take both teams to the blue area of the
moon. The Phoenix
Force eventually possesses the five X-Men present, leaving the Avengers at an
extreme disadvantage. The Phoenix
Five, who become corrupted by the power of the Phoenix, are eventually
defeated and scattered, with Cyclops imprisoned for turning the world into a
police state and murdering Charles Xavier after being pushed too far, only for
him to note that, in the end, he was proven right about the Phoenix's
intentions. From there,
Captain America proceeds to assemble the Avengers Unity Squad, a new team of Avengers
composed of both classic Avengers and X-Men.
In the Age of Ultron limited series wherein Ultron takes over the world, Captain
America is one of the few surviving heroes. He is a shattered hero whose spirit
is gone and shield is broken. He and the
remaining heroes are tasked with coming up with a plan to stop Ultron, which
takes them to the Savage
Land. Captain America
travels to the future with Iron
Man, Nick Fury, Red Hulk, Storm and Quicksilver
in an attempt to stop Ultron with the use of Doctor Doom's time platform, but are ambushed
by Ultron drones and Captain America is decapitated.
Steve Rogers' physical transformation, from a reprint of Captain America
Comics #1 (May 1941). Art by Joe
Simon and Jack Kirby.
Powers and abilities
Captain America has
no superhuman powers, but through the Super-Soldier Serum and "Vita-Ray"
treatment, he is transformed and his strength, endurance, agility, speed,
reflexes, durability, and healing are at the zenith of natural human potential.
Rogers' body regularly replenishes the super-soldier serum; it does not wear
off.
The formula enhances
all of his metabolic functions and prevents the build-up of fatigue poisons in his muscles,
giving him endurance far in excess of an ordinary human being. This accounts for
many of his extraordinary feats, including bench pressing 1200 pounds (545 kg)
and running a mile (1.6 km) in 73 seconds (49 mph/78 kph). Furthermore, his
enhancements are the reason why he was able to survive being frozen in suspended
animation for decades. He is highly resistant to hypnosis or gases that could
limit his focus. The secrets of
creating a super-soldier were lost with the death of its creator, Dr. Abraham
Erskine. In the
ensuing decades there have been numerous attempts to recreate Erskine's
treatment, only to have them end in failure. Even worse, the attempts have
instead often created psychopathic supervillains of which Captain America's 1950s imitator and Nuke are the
most notorious examples.
Rogers' battle
experience and training make him an expert tactician and an excellent field commander,
with his teammates frequently deferring to his orders in battle. Thor has stated
that Rogers is one of the very few humans he will take orders from and follow
"through the gates of Hades". Rogers' reflexes
and senses are extraordinarily keen. He has blended judo, western
boxing, kickboxing, and
gymnastics into his own unique fighting style and is a master of multiple
martial arts. Years of practice with his near-indestructible shield make him
able to aim and throw it with almost unerring accuracy. His skill with his
shield is such that he can attack multiple targets in succession with a single
throw or even cause a boomerang-like return from a throw to attack an enemy
from behind. In canon, he is regarded by other skilled fighters as one of the
best hand-to-hand combatants in the Marvel
Universe, limited only by his human physique. Although the
super-soldier serum is an important part of his strength, Rogers has shown
himself still sufficiently capable against stronger opponents, even when the
serum has been deactivated reverting him to his pre-Captain America
physique.
Rogers has vast U.S.
military knowledge and is often shown to be familiar with ongoing,
classified Defense Department operations. He is an expert in combat strategy,
survival, acrobatics, military strategy, piloting, and demolitions. Despite his
high profile as one of the world's most popular and recognizable superheroes,
Rogers has a broad understanding of the espionage community, largely through his
ongoing relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. He is a talented artist, and has
worked on the Captain America comic book published in the Marvel
universe. Other career fields include commercial arts, teaching high school
history, and law enforcement.
Although he lacks
superhuman strength, Captain America is one of the few mortal beings who has
been deemed worthy enough to wield Thor's hammer Mjolnir.
Weapons and equipment
Captain America uses
several shields throughout his history, the most prevalent of which is a
nigh-indestructible disc-shaped shield made from an experimental alloy of steel and the fictional vibranium.The shield was
cast by American metallurgist Dr. Myron MacLain, who was contracted by the
U.S. government, from orders of President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, to create an impenetrable substance to use for tanks during World
War II.This alloy
was created by accident and never duplicated, although efforts to
reverse-engineer it resulted in the discovery of adamantium.
Captain America often
uses his shield as an offensive throwing weapon. The first instance of Captain
America's trademark ricocheting shield-toss occurs in Stan Lee's first comics writing, the two-page text
story "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge" in Captain America
Comics #3 (May 1941).
The legacy of the shield among other comics characters includes the
time-traveling mutant superhero Cable telling Captain America that his shield
still exists in one of the possible futures; Cable carries it into battle and
brandishes it as a symbol.
When without his
trademark shield, Captain America sometimes uses other shields made from less
durable metals such as steel, or even a
photonic energy shield designed to mimic a vibranium matrix. Rogers, having
relinquished his regular shield to Barnes, carried a variant of the energy
shield which can be used with either arm, and used to either block attacks or as
an improvised offensive weapon able to cut through metal with relative ease. Much like his
vibranium shield, the energy shield can be thrown, including ricocheting off
multiple surfaces and returning to his hand.
Captain America's
uniform is made of a fire-retardant material, and he wears a lightweight,
bulletproof "duralumin" scale armor beneath his uniform for added
protection.
Originally, Rogers' mask was a separate piece of material, but an early
engagement had it dislodged, thus almost exposing his identity. To prevent a
recurrence of the situation, Rogers modified the mask with connecting material
to his uniform, an added benefit of which was extending his armor to cover his
previously exposed neck. As a member of the Avengers, Rogers has an Avengers
priority card, which serves as a communications device.
Captain America has
used a custom specialized motorcycle, modified by the S.H.I.E.L.D. weapons laboratory, as well as a
custom-built battle van, constructed by the Wakanda Design Group with the ability to
change its color for disguise purposes (red, white and blue), and fitted to
store and conceal the custom motorcycle in its rear section with a frame that
allows Rogers to launch from the vehicle riding it.
Enemies
Captain America has
faced numerous foes in over 70 years of published adventures. Many of his
recurring foes embody ideals contrary to the American values Captain America is
shown to strive for and believe. Some examples of these opposing values are
Nazism (Red Skull, Baron Zemo), Neo-Nazism (Crossbones, Doctor
Faustus), technocratic fascism (AIM, Arnim Zola), Communism (Aleksander Lukin), anarchism (Flag
Smasher), and international and domestic terrorism (HYDRA).
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