Captain America History 101

Let’s go back a few years to Cap’s original glory days. He literally exploded on the comic scene in 1941 with Captain America Comics #1 from Timely Comics. That company had been trying to carve out a slice of the big super hero comics market pie since National Periodicals had caused a sensation with Superman in 1938 and Batman the following year. In 1939 they had a big seller with Marvel Mystery Comics #1 and introduced their two breakaway stars: The Human Torch and The Sub-Mariner. Who would come up with the next great super hero? Luckily for Timely the had the services of one of the greatest creative teams in comic book history – Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

Simon and Kirby had given Timely several new heroes, including The Vision, but nothing close to The Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner in popularity. The war was heating up and it was only a matter of time before the United States would be involved. Simon thought a patriotic hero might break through. MLJ(later known as Archie Comics) had come out with a red, white, and blue hero called The Shield which was a modest success. “Perhaps a character with America in his name?”, thought Simon. Maybe Super American? Nope, too many ‘supers’ out there. A military title-Captain! He sketched up the uniform and got the approval from publisher Martin Goodman. Kirby quickly got to work on the pencils. This new creation would not be introduced in one of the anthology books, but would debut in his own self titled book. Issue #1 stirred up quite a bit of controversy as it featured Cap planting a sock on Adolf Hitler’s jaw-a year before the US entered the war! It was cover dated March 1941, but hit the street in December 1940. It was a big hit and soon other comic companies had to have their own flag-wearing heroes (Commando Yank, The Patriot, Major Liberty).

Captain America’s origin was the first story in that very first issue. In response to act of sabotage, the president himself sends two high ranking military officers to witness an experiment. They are in the observation gallery when Professor Reinstein injects a scrawny volunteer with a chemical that transforms him into a muscled ’ super-soldier’. The professor proudly announces that he will be the first of many. Unfortunately one of the gallery audience attendees is an undercover Gestapo agent who opens fire on the scientist. He had never written down the formula, so the program dies with the professor. The only ’super-solider’ grabs the still firing spy and delivers a mighty blow. In trying to escape the spy gets tangled in some machinery and is electrocuted. The volunteer becomes Captain America and begins smashing up saboteur rings. At Camp Leigh, camp mascot Bucky Barnes walks into Private Steve Rogers’s tent as he dons the red, white, and blue uniform. Rogers swears Bucky to secrecy and enlists him as his spy smashing sidekick Bucky. A few pages later they would meet Cap’s arch enemy, the Red Skull. And so the legend begins.

Up to this point super hero comics were an extension of the popular newspaper adventure comic strips. Simon and Kirby turned this staid format on it’s ear. They had title splash pages filled to the edges with action. Panel layouts varied in size on a page as opposed to the standard grid format of most comics. Speaking of panels, the heroes and villains could not be contained in the panels. Their highly contorted, muscular bodies burst out of the borders. It was almost 3-D comics without the special glasses.

At the end of that first story, readers were invited to join the first comic book hero fan club-Captain America’s Sentinels of Liberty. For one thin dime you would receive an official membership card and a bright red, white, and blue metal pin. The club was discontinued a couple years later supposedly because of the scarcity of metal during the height of the war.

A poster for the 1943 Republic serial.

And starring as our hero, Dick Purcell!

Two years later Cap was on movie screens across the country. In 1943 Republic Studios released a fifteen chapter movie serial titled Captain America. It was a high quality production, although fans of the comic book were no doubt disheartened by the film interpretation. Gone were the wings on his mask, the shield, and Bucky. Gone also was Cap’s Steve Rogers identity. Instead of being a soldier he was now crusading district attorney Grant Gardner. And instead of hunting Nazi agents Cap was on the trail of the master criminal called The Scarab who’s murdering the members of an expedition. Horror film veteran Lionel Atwill made a great hiss-able villain as the Scarab and Dick Purcell ( THE BANK DICK ) was a good square-jawed hero, but it just wasn’t our Cap. A recent story about the serial gives an explanation for the many changes. Republic had done well with serials based on two characters from Fawcett Comics-Captain Marvel and Spy Smasher. Rumor has it that they had a script written based on another Fawcett super hero Mr. Scarlet, who was a district attorney in his secret identity. Supposedly the studio had a falling out with the comic publisher and instead of discarding the script, Republic got the rights to Timely’s Captain America and changed him to fit the completed script. Many years later film maker Don Glut borrowed the original serial costume from memorabilia collector Bob Burns and shot a Captain America short film. You can see it on the recent DVD release ” I Was a Teenage Movie Maker”.

After ten great issues Simon and Kirby were let go from Timely after a dispute and other artists ( Syd Shores, Al Avison ) continued Cap’s adventures in his own book along with appearances in USA Comics, Marvel Mystery Comics, and All-Select Comics ( artist Alex Schomberg contributed wild, action packed covers for these books ). Simon and Kirby went over to National ( DC Comics), revamped their Sandman and Manhunter characters and created the Newsboy Legion along with the smash hit Boy Commandos. A few years later they would invent romance comics and do a Captain America parody called Fighting American. Back at Timely, after World War II ended Steve Rogers put away his khakis and pulled on a tweed jacket as a high school teacher. His new occupation would not last long. With the Axis defeated, the superheroes lost their great enemy and the comic reading public lost interest in them. Not even having Cap and Bucky team up with other Timely heroes The Human Torch and Toro, The Sub-Mariner, The Whizzer, and Miss America in the All-Winners’ Squad could heat up comic sales. Funny animals and true crime tales were the new big trend on the comic racks. In an attempt to boost sales Bucky ( badly wounded and in the hospital ) was replaced as Cap’s fighting partner by the glamorous Golden Girl. Finally his book was renamed Captain America’s Weird Tales with issue # 74 to capitalize on another trend: horror. With #75 Cap was not in his book any longer. By the end of 1950, Captain America was gone, but far from forgotten.

Cap's 1940's comic book swan song.

Surprisingly he was back three years later. Buoyed by the success of the TV show ” The Adventures of Superman ” starring George Reeves, Timely ( now Atlas )decided to bring back the superheroes- specifically The Human Torch, The Sub-Mariner, and Captain America. They returned in Young Men #24. Steve Rogers was back teaching school, Bucky had healed, and Steve’s alter ego was now “Captain America-Commie Smasher” , reflecting the cold war concerns. Cap’s old Nazi foe The Red Skull was naturally now a ‘red’ agent. The principal artist was now John Romita, future Marvel art director ( and second Spider-Man penciller). But the new stories didn’t take off. After four more issues of Young Men, two issues of Men’s Adventures, and three more issues of his revived self titled book, Captain America was back in comic book limbo.

About ten years later, Cap was back in action thanks in part to rival DC Comics, strangely enough. In 1956 DC had decided to test the waters by featuring a new, revamped version of one of their 1940’s heroes, The Flash, in Showcase #4. New versions of Green Lantern, Atom, Hawkman, and a superhero team book, Justice League of America, soon followed. Legend has it that Atlas publisher Martin Goodman was golfing with one of the DC big-wigs, when the man started boasting about the sales figures on the Justice League book. Returning to the office, Goodman instructed editor Stan Lee to come up with a team of superheroes. He presented him with the Fantastic Four and soon Atlas became Marvel Comics. One member of the group, Johnny Storm, appropriated the name and powers of the old Timely hero, The Human Torch. In Fantastic Four issue #4, Lee brought back the Sub-Mariner as a villain. Several fans wrote in suggesting a revival of Captain America , although Lee wasn’t quite sure yet. He did have a soft spot for Cap as his first published piece with the Stan Lee by-line was a text story, “Captain America Foils the Traitor’s Revenge” back in 1941’s Captain America Comics #3. Still being cautious, he decided to feature Captain America on the cover of Strange Tales #114 in a solo story of the new Human Torch. By the end of the tale, Johnny Storm learned that this Cap was an imposter-it was an old enemy, the Acrobat! In the final panel, Lee asked readers if they’d like to see Captain America return. His office was hit by an avalanche of mail. Cap would return, but how would he become a part of this new Marvel age of comics in 1964?

Marvel tests the waters for Cap's return.

The real Cap came back in The Avengers issue #4 ” Captain America Joins the Avengers”. Stan Lee had decided that the Cap stories after the end of World War II did not exist. In the story the Avengers ( Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man, and the Wasp ) are returning to New York in their underwater transport craft after doing battle with the Incredible Hulk and the Sub-Mariner in the previous issue. Peering through a glass portal, they spot a man floating in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. Giant-Man opens the escape hatch, reaches up, and pulls the nearly lifeless body into the craft. The Wasp is the first to recognize him as the legendary hero. Cap suddenly bolts upright, screaming, “Bucky! Bucky! Look Out!”. Seems that in the last days of the war, Cap and Bucky leaped onto to a flying drone plane full of explosives. Realizing that the plane is seconds from blowing up, Cap drops from the craft and calls for Bucky to do the same. But he is too late. As Cap plunges down into the icy water he sees the drone plane explode. Since that incident he’s been frozen , floating in suspended animation. He’s not aged a day in the past twenty years. After a brief dust up with the other heroes ( a typical Marvel misunderstanding ), Cap saves them from an alien threat and is invited to join the Avengers. He would become a mainstay of the book during the 60’s , and after the departure of the first heroes in issue #16 Cap would be the leader of the new members (  former villains Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver ).

The real deal is back!

The response to Captain America’s return had Marvel thinking about giving him his own book. At that time the distributor Independent News  limited the number of titles Marvel could produce. Many of the heroes shared books that used it’s  titles from the sci-fi/ mystery books of the Atlas era. Tales to Astonish features the Incredible Hulk and Ant-Man/Giant-Man with the Wasp ( Sub-Mariner would later share the book with the Hulk). Strange Tales had Dr. Strange ( of course ) and the Human Torch ( soon replaced by Nick Fury, Agent  of SHIELD ). It was decided that Cap would share Tales of Suspense ( starting with issue #59 ) with his Avengers team mate Iron Man. Luckily  Cap’s co-creator Jack Kirby was on hand to draw up most of these ten page stories. Kirby had ended up back with  Timely ( now Marvel ) after ending his partnership with Joe Simon. When he returned he became one of the prime artists on the many books featuring giant creatures on the loose. After Stan Lee came up with the Fantastic Four, Kirby was the one who helped visualize them. He designed the look for most of the growing stable of stars ( although Steve Ditko would be that art force behind Spider-Man and Dr. Strange ). The Captain America stories were a showcase for Kirby’s incredible battle sequences. It’s amazing how much action he could pack in those ten pages. With issue #63 the series focused on Cap and Bucky’s wartime adventures. Cap was back in his glory days alongside the man who drew him in those early stories. The Red Skull was also brought into the Marvel age. Later it was revealed that the Skull had also been in suspended animation for the past two decades thanks to an experimental gas. Several other artist contributed to these short stories including George Tuska, John Romita, Dick Ayers, and Gil Kane.

Captain America returned to comic books just in time for the superhero explosion of 1966 ( thanks to the Batman TV show ). His smiling image appeared on countless toys. Cap got his own board game from Milton Bradley. Aurora, the company behind the classic movie monster models , produced a Captain America plastic model kit along with his Marvel co-stars Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk. And of course, Cap was a popular  Ben Cooper Halloween costume, One of the best remembered toys of this era was an action figure ( not a doll ) called  Captain Action from Ideal. Similar in size to Hasbro’s GI Joe, Captain Action could be dressed up as different comic book and comic strip heroes (as opposed to Joe who could be dressed in different military outfits). Captain America was in the first wave of outfits produced along with another Marvel star Sgt. Fury ( Spider-Man would soon join them). Cap was also on a View Master reel and a coloring book featuring art from a John Romita story.  Cap , along with Spider-Man, seemed to be the most merchandized of the Marvel heroes.

For a brief time Captain America entered the world of paperback novels. In 1967 Bantam Books released “The Avengers Battle the Earth Wrecker”  by Otto Binder featuring Cap on the cover alongside Goliath, Hawkeye, Quicksiver, and the Scarlet Witch. Inside they fought, with some help from Iron Man, the outer space menace known as Karzz. The next year Bantam released a solo book, “Captain America: The Great Gold Steal “ by Ted White. This paperback sports a gorgeous, full- color, painting of our hero( with shield in one hand and toting some sort of blaster gun in the other). Both books featured introductions by Stan Lee. Eleven years later Marvel would team up with pocket books for a series of paperbacks based on their heroes.  Marvel Novel Series #4 features Cap in “Holocaust For Hire” by Joseph Silva.  Marvel Novel series #10 has Cap along with the Avengers in “The Man Who Stole Tomorrow” by David Michelinie. Both books had great painted covers by Dave Cockrum. Almost twenty years later another Cap novel was released: “Captain America: Liberty’s Torch” by Tony Isabella and Bob Ingersoll. This had interior black and white illustrations by Mike Zeck and Bob McLeod and a shiny color cover by James Steranko.

The first Cap paperback novel.

Superheroes dominated children’s TV in 1966, so it was no surprise when Marvel entered animation. The Grantray-Lawrence Productions syndicated ” The Marvel Superheroes” cartoon shows to local TV stations across the country. Each half hour episode featured one of five heroes: Iron Man, The Mighty Thor, Sub-Mariner, The Incredible Hulk, or Captain America. To call them animated is a bit of a stretch. The animators Xeroxed the proof art from the books and would eliminate a limb that needed to move, say an arm or leg and then just animate that part. The mouths moved to the recorded dialogue and the eyes blinked. Besides an occasional sound effect word ( POW! ZONK! ), that’s all the movement there would be. Because some of the other characters had been at Marvel a bit longer, several Avengers stories were adapted for the Captain America episodes. These cartoons were a fixture on “Corky’s Colorama” that aired On KSDK channel 5 in the St. Louis area. In the early eighties Cap made some appearances on “Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends” on NBC Saturday mornings. Later he made guest spots on the Fox Kids show “The Avengers” and on Kids WB’s “X-Men Evolution”. Currently Cap is featured on Cartoon Network’s “The Super Hero Squad” and ” The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” on the DisneyXD cable network.

Back at the comic book rack, in 1968 Marvel reached an agreement with their distributor Independent News and was able to expand their line. The first two characters to get their solo books were The Incredible Hulk and Cap. With issue #100 Tales of Suspense became Captain America. The first few issues became a showcase for Jack Kirby’s talents. James Steranko (the wonder behind Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD) took over the penciling duties in issues #110, 111, and #113 and created an epic adventure where Cap and Rick Jones (garbed as Bucky) battled the evil organization HYDRA. At the end, Cap had faked his death and walked off into the night alone. The series then began to really explore Stan Lee’s take on Cap as a man out of his time, still wracked with guilt over Bucky’s death. He began to question his ideals and his faith in the government. Kirby did not return to the book so several artists took over such as John Buscema, John Romita, Gil Kane, and Gene Colan ( who stayed for several issues). Cap got an new partner, Sam Wilson AKA The Falcon in issue #118. The Falcon was one of the first black heroes that Marvel introduced in the 70’s. Cap tackled a Watergate-style conspiracy and discovered the truth about his 1953 incarnation in stories drawn by Sal Buscema. Jack Kirby returned to write and draw the book in the late 70’s followed by comic strip artist Frank Robbins. In the mid 70’s Roy Thomas created a new book, “The Invaders” which had Cap teaming up with The Sub-Mariner and the original Human Torch during World War II. In the 1980’s writer Roger Stern and artist John Bryne had Cap become a working artist, get a new girlfriend (Bernie Rosenthal), and ponder a run for the White House. They also revealed a great new villain- Baron Blood, a Nazi vampire! Cap would soon be part of the Secret Wars and then be revamped by Rob Liefeld in 1996’s “Heroes Reborn” universe. This occurred a couple years after Cap’s appearances in the epic mini-series “Marvels” written by Kurt Busiek and beautifully painted by Alex Ross. A version of Cap appears in the Ultimate Universe line in a more military uniform without his mask wings.

Cap finally gets his own book in the late 1960's!

Through this time Cap was brought to small screens in two made for TV live action movies produced by Universal and airing on CBS. In the late 70’s Universal Studios optioned several Marvel characters for potential TV movies and series. The first one was “The Incredible Hulk” which birthed a very successful TV series starring Bill Bixby. A Dr. Strange movie starring Peter Hooten aired in 1978. The next year” Captain America” aired on CBS starring Reb Brown ( UNCOMMON VALOR ) as Steve Rogers, the son of the original Cap. He’s recruited by a secret government agency to take the serum dubbed FLAG that had given his dad enhanced abilities. By the end of the film he gets a special suped-up motorcycle, a bulletproof shield ( that has red and clear stripes ), and a star spangled uniform. But not the one from the comics! His suit looks more like the Fighting American uniform that the comic book threads! The following year the suit in “Captain America II: Death Too Soon” was closer to the comic classic, but this did not help it get picked up as a series despite having the lovely Connie Sellica and horror movie icon Christopher Lee as the villain.

Reb Brown in the first Cap CBS TV movie!

Cap continued to be merchandised through the years. He was part of Mego’s action figure superhero line in the 70’s. Mattel put out a Secret Wars Cap figure. For the last few years Toy Biz has issued many different versions of Cap. He’s also been a star in video games with the Captain America and The Avengers arcade game from the 90’s. Cap has also been a part of several Marvel themed games for home video gaming systems.

In the late 1980’s Cap finally was poised to hit the movie screens again. For many years Cannon Films had taken out trade ads announcing their intention to star Cap in a live action feature film. In 1989 Menachem Golan split from the studio and began work ( perhaps prompted by the blockbuster 1989 Batman film )on making a Cap film for his new company 21^stCentury Film Corporation. The 12 million dollar production would be directed by Albert Pyun and shoot in Yugoslavia, LA, and Alaska. The cast included Ronny Cox ( as the US president ), Ned Beatty, Melinda Dillon, and Michael Nouri. Starring as Steve Rogers would be screen newcomer Matt Salinger ( son of author J.D. ). The Italian mastermind The Red Skull is played by Scott Paulin ( THE RIGHT STUFF, TEEN WOLF ). Yes, that’s right! Italian! It’s been speculated that the film’s German investors might have prompted that change. At least the movie gets a few things right. It begins in World War II. The shield and the suit look right- it’s rubber latex with fake ears attached to the mask. Oh, the doctor behind the  “super soldier program” is Italian, too. And a woman. Cap is strapped to a missile after being defeated by the Skull as Mussolini (!) looks on. The missile crashes into the arctic where Cap is discovered decades later, frozen in ice. He thaws and spends the rest of the film being pursued by US agents and the Skull’s henchmen. The movie could not get an American distributor and sat on the shelf for two years till it was released directly to the US home video market in 1992. It often pops up on cable TV. There was talk of a Captain America Broadway musical, but for now it seemed like there would never be another big screen film based on the character.

Matt Salinger in the 1990 straight to home video Cap movie.

In the last few years Captain America is still a big seller at comic shops ( no news stands and candy shops anymore ). Cap was a major player in the Civil Wars mini-series and made some news reports a few years back when he was assassinated by a sniper. There were attempts to fill the uniform with Hawkeye and a resurrected Bucky ( now known as Winter Solider-seems he was in suspended animation too). Of course most comics characters don’t stay dead too long and soon Steve Rogers was back in uniform, perhaps just in time for some major event.

Oh yes, just in time for July 22. That’s the date that CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER opens at movie theatres all across the country. A few years back Marvel decided to produce movies on their own based on several of their own characters not licensed out to other film studios. They entered into an agreement with Paramount Pictures and the first of the Marvel Studios films, IRON MAN was released to great accolades and big box office in 2008. IRON MAN 2 followed in 2010 and THOR hit theatres this past May. In this new Cap film Chris Evans ( Johnny Storm in the two Fantastic Four films) stars as Steve Rogers and Hugo Weaving ( of the Matrix trilogy) is Johann Scmidt AKA The Red Skull. Stanley Tucci is Dr. Erskine, the mind behind the “supersoldier” formula and is assisted by Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark ( Tony’s dad). Hayley Atwell is soldier and love interest Peggy Carter and Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones is Col. Chester Phillips. From the previews it appears that Cap leads the Howling Commandos headed by Neal McDonough as ‘Dum Dum’ Dugan and Sebastian Stan as James ‘Bucky’ Barnes, so we know it’s primarily set in the 40’s. The film is written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely and directed by Joe Johnson -no stranger to comic book based films as he also directed 1991’s THE ROCKETEER. It looks as though The Red Skull discovers the Cosmic Cube (introduced at the end of THOR ) and leads the forces of HYDRA going by the photos and previews. No other details of the plot have been released, but we do know that Captain America will be part of THE AVENGERS when the film is released through Disney to theatres next Summer.

So maybe a whole new generation will be introduced to the exploits of the good Captain in the multiplexes over the next few months. Perhaps will see some tykes grabbing a garbage can lid and leaping into battle against the forces of evil. We may even hear a few bars of that great cartoon theme song with lyrics by Stan ‘the man’ Lee:

When Captain America throws his mighty shield,

All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield,

When he’s lead to a fight

And a duel is due

Then the red and the white and the blue will come through,

When Captain America throws his mighty shield!