Happy Birthday, Captain America!
Yes, Steve Rogers was canonically born on the Fourth of July
Today is a very important holiday. That’s right. It’s Steve Rogers’s birthday. The man better known as Captain America was born on this day in 1920 or possibly 1922 (it’s not entirely clear depending on which comic you read). I think we can all agree he looks great for his age regardless of whether he’s 101 or 103. Though he wasn’t the first superhero created for what was then known as Timely Comics (Namor and Human Torch both predate him among others), he has certainly become the most famous Golden Age superhero of what would go on to become Marvel Comics. What better time to take a look at the history of Steve Rogers than on his birthday?
The Golden Age
Captain America is an especially fascinating character when considering when and by whom he was created. One of those creators was a freelance comic book writer and artist named Joe Simon. Simon had been hired by Martin Goodman of Timely Comics in 1940 to create a new superhero to compete with rival National Comics (the publisher that would later become DC) and their bestselling character, Superman. Simon, who was Jewish, took an interesting path to creating this new hero. He started the process by choosing who this hero’s antagonist would be first, and he decided there would be no better villain than Adolph Hitler and the Nazis. What made this decision especially interesting is that this came at a time when the United States had not yet entered World War II. Simon was a firm believer that the United States should join the fight against the Nazis, and creating a superhero dedicated to fighting that specific enemy would serve as a powerful political statement. After settling on the villain, Simon sketched out some ideas for the look and name of the character and settled on Captain America.
Goodman gave Simon the green light on the character and decided he should debut in a brand new self-titled series called Captain America Comics. This is noteworthy as previous heroes published by Timely Comics appeared in anthology series first and would only get their own self-titled series after proving their profitability. Simon would be the writer of this new series, and he specifically sought out Jack Kirby to be the penciler. Simon and Kirby already had a close working relationship at this time. Kirby also happened to be Jewish and shared Simon’s belief that the United States should enter World War II to fight the Nazis. Al Avison and Al Gabriele were assigned by Goodman as inkers for the book, and with that the creative team was set.
Captain America Comics #1 would debut on December 20, 1940 featuring one of the most iconic covers in comic book history. Captain America’s costume is immediately iconic with the red, white, and blue color scheme complete with wings on the head and a shield as his weapon. Even more iconic is him punching Hitler directly in his stupid Nazi face. This is delightfully homaged during a sequence in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).
Also on the cover is Captain America’s teenage sidekick, Bucky. I’m not sure about the morality of dragging an unarmed teenager into World War II, but I’ll leave that alone for now.
That first issue really contains everything that has come to define the character. A scrawny young man named Steve Rogers is injected with a super soldier serum that grants him enhanced strength, speed, agility, stamina, and durability (plus a rockin’ bod). The scientist responsible for the serum is tragically assassinated by a Nazi spy (thus ensuring that there will only be one super soldier to be created by the program). Steve Rogers neutralizes the assassin (permanently), and from that point forward he will fight the Nazi menace as Captain America.
That first issue actually includes four separate Captain America stories. The first is the aforementioned origin story. The second story introduces Bucky as Steve’s sidekick. The third story sees the two heroes avenge an assassinated admiral. The fourth and final story starring Captain America introduces the man who would go on to become his archenemy: Red Skull.
Well…kinda. This first appearance is of a man named George Maxon who is going around in a red skull mask (hence the name) injecting high ranking American military officers with a lethal poison until he gets beaten up by Captain America and Bucky. He then accidentally rolls over onto his own needle and dies. Whoopsie! This would be retconned almost immediately in Captain America Comics #7 when the “true” Red Skull appears. It would be much later that this new version would be revealed as a high ranking Nazi officer named Johann Schmidt, Adolph Hitler’s protege. Regardless of which version being referred to, the Golden Age Red Skull was merely a normal human being with no super powers wearing a mask. He was more dangerous as a schemer than a physical threat. His powers would change over the decades, but his cunning and command over others would always be what made him so dangerous as a villain.
Ironically, one particular bit of Captain America’s iconography would emerge due to the threat of litigation. MLJ Comics (now known as Archie Comics) argued that Captain America’s shield in his first appearance was too similar to the chest symbol on their own patriotic superhero named The Shield. This was resolved by giving Captain America a circular shield beginning in Captain America Comics #2. I’d say that has worked out just fine.
Captain America Comics quickly became Timely’s bestselling comic, and Captain America became their flagship character throughout the duration of World War II. America’s entrance into the conflict in 1941 only increased the character’s popularity as he traveled the world fighting Nazis. This would actually lead to the creators getting threats from American Nazis, but they remained undeterred. In fact, Jack Kirby famously received a call once from a group of Nazis claiming to be in the downstairs lobby of his apartment building in an attempt to scare him off drawing the comic. Instead, Kirby told them he’d be right down to kick their asses. They had run away by the time he got down there.
While Captain America was one of the most popular superheroes in the 1940s, that popularity began to wane once World War II ended (along with the popularity of superhero comics in general). The series was ultimately canceled in 1950. Timely Comics would end up rebranding as Atlas Comics and attempt to revive the series in 1954 with the character now portrayed as an anti-communist fighter, but it never caught on with the general public and was canceled shortly thereafter.
I know what you’re thinking. The classic story of Captain America in both the movies and comics today is that he is a “man out of time” who was frozen alive during a mission in World War II where he sacrificed himself to save the world. He was later found and unthawed in the present day where he would then join the Avengers. How could that be the case if he was still headlining his own comic series into the 1950s? Don’t worry. We’ll get there.
The Silver Age
Superhero comics had effectively died by the 1950s, but they were back in a big way in the 1960s thanks to a wave of new comics being published by Marvel Comics (formerly Atlas Comics which was formerly Timely Comics). These included multiple titles from the duo of Stan Lee and the previously discussed co-creator of Captain America, Jack Kirby, that included Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, X-Men, Thor, Avengers, and many more. The two worked together on an issue of Strange Tales in 1963 that saw Captain America return but ultimately revealed as an impostor. The success of that issue led the two to bring him back for real in Avengers #4 published in 1964.
This is where the retcon was established that Captain America had been in suspended animation following his final mission in World War II. It was also established that Bucky had been killed in action during the war. That retcon would go on to receive another retcon, but that’s still many years away. Captain America would quickly join the Avengers and arguably become the face of the team going forward. He would also receive his own ongoing solo stories told in the pages of the Tales of Suspense anthology comic also written and drawn by Lee and Kirby. A new self-titled solo series would be launched in 1968 to continue those stories with Lee and Kirby again at the helm. Most of these stories were standard superhero fare for the era with Captain America taking on a host of different villains and threats (including the reintroduction of Red Skull).
The end of the Silver Age would see the introduction of Falcon as Captain America’s new partner in Captain America #117 by Stan Lee and Gene Colan. Falcon (whose real name is Sam Wilson) is the first Black American superhero to appear in a mainstream American superhero comic. If you have watched the movies, you’re probably aware that Falcon flies using a harness with wings on it. What you might not realize is that in the comics he also has a telepathic link with birds. That objectively rules. Give Falcon his bird mind powers in the movies, cowards!
The Bronze Age
The 1970s and 1980s saw some major changes to the way Captain America stories were told. That would first become apparent when Steve Englehart began writing the book starting with Captain America #169 in 1974. He and artist Sal Buscema reintroduced the villainous organization known as the Secret Empire in Captain America #173. This neo-fascist organization sought to frame Captain America for murder to remove him as an obstacle to their quest to remake America in their own image through the Committee to Regain America’s Principles (CRAP). That fascist messaging sounds familiar for some reason. Trying to return America to some previous state of imagined greatness when women and minorities had fewer rights. I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’ll probably come to me later.
Anyway, the story reaches its conclusion when Captain America realizes that the leader of the Secret Empire is none other than Richard Nixon. Well, he’s never specifically referred to as Nixon. He’s merely the sitting President of the United States, and the Watergate scandal is referenced during the story as a recent event. You can do the math on that one. Upon this reveal, the leader of the Secret Empire commits suicide rather than face justice for his crimes. A shaken Captain America then questions whether he wants to be associated with America at all.
Ultimately, Steve Rogers would give up the mantle of Captain America and adopt the a new superhero identity as Nomad. It’s quite a costume change to say the least. Gone are the shield and American flag colors. In their place are a cape and one of the deepest V-necks you have ever seen. He would only maintain this new identity from Captain America #180-183 before picking up the shield again to take down Red Skull.
Englehart and Buscema also came up with a retcon to explain how Captain America and Bucky were appearing in comics in the 1950s when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had established that Steve Rogers had been frozen since 1945 and Bucky was dead. The explanation was that the heroes posing as Captain America and Bucky were actually impostors by the names of William Burnside and Jack Monroe put in place by the FBI.
Englehart and Buscema’s run is held in high esteem and helped boost the sales on the book to being one of Marvel’s bestsellers.
1975 saw the return of Jack Kirby to the character he helped create. He both wrote and drew the series starting with Captain America #193 until #214. He took the book back to a more dynamic action series than the more overtly political direction of Englehart and Buscema.
There was rarely a long term creative team on the title until J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck came aboard starting with Captain America #261 in 1981. Much like how the Englehart and Buscema run was a reaction to Nixon’s time in office, the DeMatteis and Zeck run was a reaction to Reaganism. The duo established Baron Helmut Zemo as one of Captain America’s chief villains and created brand new antagonists like Vermin and Sinthea Shmidt (the daughter of Red Skull). They also introduced a new member of Captain America’s supporting cast named Arnie Roth. Arnie is the first openly gay character to appear in an American superhero comic. He was Steve’s childhood friend who would protect him from bullies. Their run culminated with a classic fight between Captain America and Red Skull in Captain America #300.
The Modern Age
Mark Gruenwald would take over as writer for the series with Captain America #307 in 1985. He would embark on an unprecedented run on the character stretching all the way to Captain America #443 in 1995. One of the most memorable stories he told began in issue #332 when the United States government asserts that Captain America needs to report directly to itself. Refusing to surrender his autonomy, Steve Rogers takes off the costume and quits as Captain America.
Not content to leave well enough alone, the United States government recruits a replacement for Steve Rogers to become the new Captain America. Their choice is a nationalistic costumed vigilante going by the alias of Super Patriot. His real name is John Walker, and he’s more than happy to be the new Captain America.
Refusing to just sit idly by and do nothing, Steve Rogers adopts a new black costume and a new superhero identity as The Captain. While Walker is unquestioningly carrying out whatever orders his government handlers demand as Captain America, Rogers is out doing whatever he can to help people as The Captain.
The parallel stories of these two Captains would continue all the way until Captain America #350 when they finally come into conflict with each other. Rogers proves himself to be the better man (no surprise there), and Walker graciously abdicates the role of Captain America and returns it to Rogers. Neither Walker nor the black costume would be gone for long. Walker would end up wearing it himself and adopting the alias of U.S. Agent a few issues later in Captain America #354.
The transition from the 1980s to the 1990s was a difficult one for Captain America. That might not be a fair description. The transition from the 1980s to the 1990s was a difficult one for any Marvel property that wasn’t connected to Spider-Man or the X-Men. The grim and gritty era was in full swing, and the wave of new artists headlined by names like Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, and Rob Liefeld were dominating the sales charts. That combined with the speculator boom saw Marvel launch brand new series of X-Men, Spider-Man, and X-Force (drawn by Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, and Rob Liefeld respectively) where the artists were handed the keys to those series over the writers. When those artists would subsequently leave Marvel to found Image Comics and produce creator owned series that emphasized stylized art over storytelling, Marvel scrambled to try and match that method with their own books. Attempts to do so with Captain America in particular were unsuccessful, and the poor sales were exacerbated when the speculator bubble popped midway through the decade.
The comic book industry as a whole was in a very bad place, but Marvel had a plan to revitalize the brand of their struggling non-Spider-Man and non-X-Men titles: hand them over to the Image Comics founders that had ditched them just a few years earlier. The plan went like this: Marvel would “kill off” all of their non-mutant characters excluding Spider-Man and Hulk at the end of the massive “Onslaught” companywide event in 1996. These “dead” heroes would actually be whisked away to an alternate universe where they would be rebooted with modern takes on their classic origin stories. Marvel would outsource these titles to the studios owned by Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. Jim Lee would be responsible for Fantastic Four and Iron Man series. Rob Liefeld would be responsible for Avengers and Captain America series. This would be known as the “Heroes Reborn” initiative, and it was seen as Marvel’s last chance to boost the readership numbers of these books.
Something funny happened before this Hail Mary attempt went effect. The stopgap creative team assigned to Captain America following Gruenwald leaving the book in 1995 and before Liefeld would take over in 1996 had actually defied the odds and made Captain America a popular title again. That creative team was Mark Waid and Ron Garney. They told a fast paced action thriller of a story that reintroduced classic characters like Sharon Carter and Red Skull. Unfortunately, the wheels were already set in motion to hand the character over to Rob Liefeld for the planned reboot. Waid and Garnet’s run was canceled after just ten issues.
The “Heroes Reborn” reboot kicked off in 1996 with Captain America #1 from Rob Liefeld and Jeph Loeb. Liefeld is credited as being responsible for the story, pencils, and edits with Loeb being credited as the writer. Chuck Dixon is also credited with a “plot assist.” Liefeld was also given an opportunity to modernize Captain America’s costume, but the only change was the “A” on his forehead was replaced with an eagle symbol. The plot for this reboot is fairly simple. Captain America has been brainwashed to forget his life as a super soldier in World War II, and he is living a suburban family life with a wife and son (who are both robots). Meanwhile, a neo-Nazi group led behind the scenes by Red Skull is going around recruiting local teenagers to join their hate group. It’s very similar to the neo-Nazi group in American History X (though this comic predates that movie by two years). Over the course of the series, Captain America regains his memories and begins a one man war against Red Skull and his forces.
Sales for the book were initially strong, but Marvel ended up filing for bankruptcy in the middle of the run. Liefeld would leave the book after just six issues and hand the rest over to Jim Lee’s WildStorm Productions to finish. All of the “Heroes Reborn” titles were canceled after thirteen issues, and the characters were all folded back into the Marvel Universe proper after that.
Liefeld’s Captain America series is mostly remembered for one hilariously bad promotional image of a misshapen Captain America drawn by Liefeld than anything that actually happened in the series.
Remember how Mark Waid and Ron Garney were in the midst of a fan favorite run on Captain America before the “Heroes Reborn” reboot? Well, Marvel also remembered. The creative team was handed the keys to the new Captain America series that launched in 1998. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another case of a creative team forced off of a book after ten issues and then put back on that same book a mere thirteen issues later. The creative team didn’t miss a beat as they began a run that matched the spirit of their previous run. Garney would leave the series after just five issues, but Waid would remain on the book until Captain America #23.
The series itself would run for fifty issues before being canceled and rebooted under the Marvel Knights imprint in early 2002 with a creative team of John Ney Rieber and John Cassaday. This new series was a radical departure from the previous series. It was much more serious and somber, and Captain America saw himself fighting Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups instead of costumed supervillains. Hey, did anything happen towards the end of 2001 that would make Marvel want to reboot the series featuring a character in American flag colors fighting terrorists?
While I understand what the creators are going for, these issues read very much as a product of their time. Cassaday’s art is phenomenal, and Rieber’s storytelling chops are clearly strong. You can tell they don’t want these comics to feel overly jingoistic, but it’s difficult to read them now and not find them a bit passé.
The series lasted until 2004 when it was rebooted once again with a new Captain America #1. The new creative team consisted of Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting. This run is easily the most influential of the last twenty years. Brubaker and Epting essentially transformed the comic into a spy thriller with Captain America running covert missions against dangerous enemies and organizations. Most famously, Brubaker and Epting introduced the character of the Winter Soldier in Captain America #6. It is revealed that Bucky (Captain America’s teenage sidekick during World War II) was actually alive and brainwashed to be a super assassin. This served as the basis for the Captain America: The Winter Soldier feature film (Brubaker even made a cameo in it).
This run also happened to coincide with Civil War. This was a companywide event (also adapted into a feature film) that saw the superhero community take sides in a fight over whether those with superpowers should be forced to register with the government. Iron Man leads the side in favor of registration, and Captain America leads the side opposed. The conflict ultimately ends when Captain America surrenders, and then he is assassinated by a sniper on the steps of the courthouse in Captain America #25.
Bucky would go on to become the new Captain America following Steve’s death, and that would remain the status quo until Steve’s return from death in 2009.
Brubaker’s celebrated run was followed by Rick Remender and John Romita, Jr.’s run (rebooted once again with Captain America #1) in 2012. This run ran for twenty-five issues before Steve Rogers loses his super soldier status and reverts to an old man. With Steve no longer physically able to fight, Sam Wilson takes on the mantle of Captain America.
Sam would get his own rebooted title (also written by Rick Remender) that would last six issues before yet another reboot in 2015 with a creative team of Nick Spencer and Daniel Acuna. Is it just me or is Marvel addicted to rebooting their comics? Sheesh. Spencer would also restore Steve’s abilities, but it would come at a cost. Those powers were restored via a Cosmic Cube wielded by Red Skull who altered reality so that Steve was now secretly a Nazi his entire life.
Nazi Steve would go on to overthrow the government and install himself as the dictator of a new Nazi America during the Secret Empire event comic. To say this story was controversial would be a bit of an understatement.
Ultimately the status quo would be restored when the “real” Steve Rogers returned and kicked the crap out of Nazi Steve.
Following the end of Spencer’s run, Captain America was rebooted once again with Ta-Nehisi Coates and Leinil Francis Yu that tried to tackle the aftermath of Secret Empire. That series ran for thirty issues before a new creative team of Tochi Onyebuchi and R.B. Silva would come aboard for a new Sam Wilson helmed series called Captain America: Symbol of Truth and a new creative team of Colin Kelly, Jackson Lanzig, and Carmen Carnero was brought on to helm a Steve Rogers series called Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty.
Both series are currently ongoing, but Marvel has already announced that a brand new Captain America series will be launching in September headed by a creative team of J. Michael Straczynski and Jesus Saiz.
Wow. This one really took on a life of its own. I initially just planned to explain the history of the character and some of the fascinating behind the scenes aspects of his creation, but there are just so many interesting moments during the character’s publication that I just couldn’t help but keep going. Hopefully it’s as interesting to read as it was to research and write. Captain America may be a constant presence in the pop culture world, but the comics themselves are always changing.