Captain America

A Captain America cosplayer.

Captain America is a fictional superhero created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon for Marvel Comics, and made his first appearance in 1941, in Captain America Comics #1. His real name is Steve Rogers.

Origin

Steven Grant Rogers was born on September 28, 1922. Growing up, he was bullied for being small and thin. However, he always had a big sense of bravery, never backing down from doing the right thing.

When World War II broke out, Steve wished to serve alongside his friends and the rest of the men enlisting in the war. However, Steve was rejected every time he applied because he had many health conditions and was simply too physically unhealthy to serve in the army. However, Steve continued to enlist, and was eventually noticed by General Chester Phillips.

Chester admired Steve's strong spirit and using his authority, enlisted him into a top secret experiment project named Operation Rebirth. Headed by Doctor Abraham Erskine, Steve was placed inside a special chamber and injected with a powerful serum that only Erskine knew, called Super Soldier serum.

The experiment was a success, and Steve came out of the chamber as the world's first super soldier. Now muscular, he became stronger, faster, and more durable than anyone in the world. However, tragedy struck when Erskine was shot and killed by a Nazi spy. Since Erskine kept the secret to the Super Soldier serum in his head, the formula died with him, leaving Steve as the only successful super soldier, who would go on to become Captain America.

Retcon

Since Captain America was first introduced in late 1940, he was used a lot by Marvel for Allied propaganda, encouraging readers to buy war bonds and to enlist in the army. After World War II ended, Captain America continued to fight spies and traitors alike well into the 1950s. However, his popularity declined, and the Captain America comic was cancelled in 1954.

The character was brought back in 1964 when Marvel explained that the villain Baron Zemo's drone plane exploded and threw Captain America into ice, where he was frozen for many years. He was found by the US Government and returned in Avengers #4, as the new leader of the superhero team.

The exact number of years that Captain America spent frozen in ice is different in the comics and other kinds of media because superhero comics work with something called a "sliding timeline", which means that as the years go on, birth dates for characters change as well as the events of certain things.

When he first returned in Avengers #4, Captain America had been frozen in ice for around twenty years. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's shown in the movie Captain America: The First Avenger that he had been frozen for around seventy years. As time goes on, the length of time that Captain America spent frozen will continue to grow longer.

Power and abilities

After being injected with the Super Soldier serum, Steve Rogers went from a short, weak man to a strong, powerful soldier, Captain America.

The serum enhanced Captain America's base abilities, making him much stronger, faster, and more durable than anyone else. While not exactly having superpowers, Captain America is at what is described as "the peak of human ability", similar to the DC Comics superhero Batman.

Captain America's famously-known shield is made of a rare metal called Vibranium, making it very shock-absorbent. This means that the shield can take gunfire and blunt hits with ease. It also acts like a boomerang, returning to Captain America after being thrown.

However, Captain America's strongest ability is his mind. He has a strong, resisting will to never give up no matter the odds, and a strong sense of patriotism. He is a very good tactician, allowing him to take on an entire enemy base all by himself. Though, he works best as part of a team, alongside other superheroes where he uses his sharp mind to its absolute potential.

Film and TV

Captain America has been adapted to many different forms of media such as movies, television series, and video games. He is also popular in the world of merchandising, starring in many clothes and action figure lines.

He first appeared in the film Captain America, released in 1940.

Captain America appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, played by Chris Evans. He was in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Captain America: Civil War (2016), as well as Marvel's The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Lawsuit

In 1966, Joe Simon, co-creator of Captain America, sued Marvel, saying that he should have the rights to use to use the character instead of them. It was eventually ruled by a judge that Captain America was made under the publisher's rules, and belonged to them.