Captain America, the alter ego of Steve Rogers (in some accounts Steven Grant Rogers), is a Marvel Comics superhero. Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, he first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941).

Captain America was the most prominent of a wave of patriotically-themed superheroes that American comic book companies introduced during World War II. With his sidekick Bucky, Captain America faced Nazis and Japanese troops during his 1940s heyday, but the hero faded into obscurity after the war.

In 1964, Marvel revived Captain America, revealing that he had fallen from an experimental drone plane into the North Atlantic in the final days of the war and spent the past decades frozen in a state of suspended animation. The hero found a new generation of readers as the leader of the all-star group The Avengers and in a new solo series.

Since then, Captain America has been a much more serious and less jingoistic hero. Writers have used the character to reflect the conflict between politics and ideology by placing him at odds with the United States government and angry and troubled about the state of the country. He considers himself dedicated to defending America’s ideals rather than its political leadership, a conviction summed up when Captain America confronted an army general who tried to manipulate him by appealing to his loyalty. Rogers responded, "I'm loyal to nothing, General.. except the Dream." (Daredevil #233, August 1986)

The 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 retconned away.

Character history

Origins

Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941), art by Jack Kirby.In current Marvel Universe history, Steven 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 and stabilized the chemicals in his system. Although the process was arduous physically, it successfully altered his physiognomy from its relative frail form to the maximum of human efficiency, including greatly enhanced musculature and reflexes.


Captain America Vol. 5, #5, together with fellow Invaders Namor and the Human Torch. Art by Steve Epting.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 United States 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 the teenage camp mascot, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes.

One night, Barnes accidentally learned of Roger's dual identity and offered to keep the secret if he could become his sidekick. Rogers agreed, and trained Barnes appropriately. Rogers also met President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who presented him with a new shield made from a chance mixture of iron, vibranium and an unknown catalyst. The alloy was indestructible, yet the shield was light enough to use as a discus-like weapon that could be angled to return to him. (Some sources erroneously describe the metal as an adamantium-vibranium alloy.) It proved so effective that the sidearm was dropped. Throughout World War II, Captain America and Bucky fought the Nazi menace both on their own and as members of the superhero team called the Invaders.

Rogers was not the first to be given the Super Soldier formula. It was revealed years later that while Rogers was still being assessed, some military members of the project felt that a non-soldier was not the right candidate and secretly gave Erskine's incomplete formula to Clinton McIntyre instead. However, this made McIntyre violently insane, and he had to be subdued and placed in cold storage. The criminal organization AIM would later revive McIntyre as the homicidal Protocide. (Captain America Annual, 2000).

The second man who was given the formula before Rogers was Isaiah Bradley, the only survivor of a group of African-American soldiers that the military experimented on with Erskine's cooperation in 1942. After the last two members of his group were killed, Bradley stole the costume meant for Rogers and invaded Germany on his own. He was captured, but eventually rescued and court martialed. He was imprisoned for 17 years in Leavenworth until he was pardoned by President Eisenhower. By the time of his release, the long-term effects of the formula turned Bradley into a hulking, sterile giant with the mentality of a 7-year-old. Rogers would not find out about Bradley until decades later (Truth: Red, White and Black, 2003). Patriot, leader of the Young Avengers, has been revealed to be the grandson of Isaiah Bradley.

According to files in the Weapons Plus program, a clandestine government organization that developed superhumans to combat and eventually exterminate mutants, Rogers was "Weapon I", the first living weapon of the program. However, Rogers was never given any such assignments, so the veracity of this information is uncertain (New X-Men #145, October 2003).


After the war
In the closing days of World War II in 1945, Captain America and Bucky tried to stop the villanous Baron Zemo from destroying an experimental drone plane. Zemo launched the plane with an armed explosive device on it, with Rogers and Barnes in hot pursuit. They reached the plane just before it took off, but when Bucky tried to defuse the bomb, it exploded in mid-air. The young man was killed instantly, and Rogers was hurled into the freezing waters of the North Atlantic. His body was not found, and he was presumed dead.

Fearing a blow to morale if the news of Captain America's demise was revealed, President Truman asked William Naslund, the patriotic costumed hero known as the Spirit of '76, to assume the role, with a young man named Fred Davis as Bucky. They continued to serve in the same roles after the war with the All Winners Squad, until Naslund was fatally injured in a battle with the android Adam II in 1946. With Naslund's death, Jeff Mace, also known as the Patriot, took over as Captain America, with Davis continuing to act as Bucky. However, Davis was shot and injured in 1948 and was forced to retire. Mace then teamed up with Betsy "Golden Girl" Ross, and some time before 1953 gave up his Captain America identity to marry her. Mace contracted cancer and died from it some decades later (What If? #4, August 1977).

In 1953, an unnamed man who idolized Captain America and had done his American History Ph.D. thesis on Rogers discovered some Nazi files in a warehouse in Germany, one of which apparently contained the lost formula for the Super Soldier serum. He took it to the United States government on the condition that they use it to make him Captain America. Needing a symbol for the Korean War, they agreed, and the man underwent plastic surgery to look like Steve Rogers, even assuming that name. However, the war ended and the project never went forward. "Rogers" found a teaching job at the Lee School, where he met Jack Monroe, a young orphan who also idolized Captain America. They decided to use the formula on themselves and became the new Captain America and Bucky, this time fighting the so-called Communist scourge (Young Men #24, December 1953).

Unfortunately, "Rogers" and Monroe did not know of and therefore did not undergo the "Vita-Ray" process. The imperfect implementation of the formula in their systems began to make them paranoid, and by the middle of 1954 they were irrationally attacking anyone they perceived to be a Communist. In 1955 the Federal Bureau of Investigation managed to hunt them down and placed them in suspended animation. The 1950s Captain America and Bucky would be revived years later after the return of Steve Rogers, go on another rampage, and would be defeated by the man they had modelled themselves after. (Captain America #153, September 1972).


The return of Steve Rogers

Avengers Vol. 1, #4 (March 1964), art by Jack Kirby.In Avengers #4 (March 1964), the Avengers discovered Steve Rogers's body in the North Atlantic, his costume under his soldier's uniform and still carrying his shield. Rogers had been preserved in a block of ice since 1945, which melted after the block was thrown back into the ocean by the Sub-Mariner, enraged that an Arctic tribe was worshipping the frozen figure. When Rogers revived, he related his last, failed mission in the closing days of the war. 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. He also undertook missions for the national security agency SHIELD, which was commanded by his old war comrade Nick Fury.

Captain America was once again given his own series (now in its fifth incarnation), which has lasted decades longer than its original run. The book initially enjoyed the artwork of Jack Kirby as well as a short run by Jim Steranko, and many of the industry's top artists and writers have worked on the book. The most notable stories often had a political tone to them. For example, during Steve Englehart's stint as writer, Rogers encountered his revived 1950s counterpart and dealt with the Marvel Universe's version of the Watergate scandal. This last story so severely disillusioned Rogers that he abandoned his Captain America identity in favour of one called Nomad only to reassume it to face the menace of the Red Skull, this time as a symbol of America's ideals rather than its government. During this time, several men tried to assume the Captain America identity, all without success. Jack Monroe, cured of his mental instability, would, years later, take up the Nomad alias. (Captain America #176-#183, 1974-1975).

In the 1980s, a similar story was written by Mark Gruenwald when Rogers chose to resign his identity rather than submit to the orders of the United States government and took the alias of "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 and which Rogers did not share. During this period, the role of Captain America was assumed by John Walker, the former Super-Patriot. When Rogers returned to his Captain America identity, Walker became the U.S. Agent (Captain America #332-#351, 1987-1989).

Some time after returning to the position of Captain America, Rogers narrowly avoided the explosion of a methamphetamine lab, but it triggered a chemical reaction between the drug and the Super Soldier serum in his system. To combat this reaction, 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, the removal of the serum did not stop his system from deteriorating, and eventually Rogers's body began to break down. For a time, he had to wear a powered 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 his condition and restored the Super Soldier formula to his system. Captain America returned both to crimefighting and the Avengers (Captain America #425-#454, 1994-1996).

Recently, Rogers went public with his identity, and established a residence in Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.


Powers and abilities
Rogers has no superhuman powers. However, as a result of the Super Soldier serum, he was transformed from a frail and sickly young man into a "nearly perfect" specimen of human development and conditioning. Captain America is as strong, fast, agile, and durable as it is possible for a human being to be without being considered superhuman. Mentally, his battle experience and training has also made him an expert tactician and an excellent field commander, with his teammates frequently deferring to his orders in battle. Rogers's reflexes and senses are also extraordinarily keen, and he is skilled in unarmed combat and several martial arts. Years of practice with using his indestructible shield has made it practically an extension of his own body, and he is able to aim and throw it with almost unerring accuracy.

Rogers has used several shields over the years. His first shield was a badge-shaped one made of a bulletproof experimental alloy, which was then replaced with the disc-shaped indestructible one. When he returned from suspended animation, Tony Stark "improved" the shield by incorporating electronic and magnetic components in it so that Rogers could even control it in flight. However, Rogers soon discarded the additional components because he found that it upset the balance of the shield.

When Rogers gave up the costume and shield to John Walker and became the Captain, he used a pure adamantium shield provided, once again, by Stark. Rogers returned this shield to Stark, however, when he discovered that it had strings attached; Stark had hoped that Rogers would not interfere in his efforts to retrieve his Iron Man technology from others by force. Rogers then turned to the Black Panther, who provided him with a vibranium shield. When Rogers reassumed the Captain America identity, he regained his indestructible shield along with his costume.

Rogers has also used two energy shields, during periods when the indestructible shield was unavailable - a cool-temperature plasma shield which was later on reconfigured to become a photon shield, both provided by SHIELD technicians. The photon shield worked by creating a force field whose frequency mimicked a vibranium matrix, being able to store and return energy in the same way. Both energy shields were controlled by an emitter in the uniform's gloves, expanding only when needed. Despite all these, however, Rogers has always returned to using the indestructible shield that is most associated with him.