I suppose we owe it to the old Captain to give a little tribute post. The following is from Wikipedia. It IS good for some things. (LOL)
Captain America was one of the most popular characters of Marvel Comics (then known as Timely) during the Golden Age of Comic Books. Though preceded by MLJ‘s The Shield, Captain America immediately became the most prominent and enduring of a wave of patriotically themed superheroes introduced in American comic books prior to and during World War II. With his sidekick Bucky, Captain America faced Nazis, Japanese and other threats to wartime America and the Allies.
Comic Art Convention program book featuring Joe Simon‘s original 1940 sketch of Captain America.
In the post-war era, with the popularity of superheroes fading, Captain America led Timely/Marvel’s first superhero team, the All-Winners Squad, in its two published adventures. In his own series he turned his attention to criminals and Cold War Communists. After Bucky was shot and wounded in a 1948 story, he was succeeded by Captain America’s girlfriend Betsy Ross, who became the superheroine Golden Girl. Captain America Comics ended with #75 (Feb. 1950), by which time the series had been titled Captain America’s Weird Tales for two issues, with the finale a horror/suspense anthology issue with no superheroes.
Captain America was briefly revived, along with the original Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, in Young Men #24 (Dec. 1953), published by Marvel’s 1950s iteration Atlas Comics. Billed as “Captain America, Commie Smasher!”, he appeared several times during the next year in Young Men and Men’s Adventures, as well as in three issues of an eponymous title. Sales were poor, however, and the character again disappeared after Captain America #78 (Sept. 1954).
In the 1970s, the post-war versions of Captain America were retconned into separate, successive characters who briefly took up the mantle of Captain America after Steve Rogers went into suspended animation near the end of World War II.[3][4]
In the Human Torch story titled “Captain America” in Marvel Comics’ Strange Tales #114 (Nov. 1963), by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the brash young Fantastic Four member Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, engages in an exhibition performance with Captain America, depicted as a legendary World War II and 1950s superhero who has returned after many years of apparent retirement. The 13-page story ends with this Captain America revealed as an impostor: the villain the Acrobat, a former circus performer the Torch had defeated in Strange Tales #106. 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.
He did so in The Avengers #4 (March 1964), which story explained that in the final days of WWII, Captain America fell from an experimental drone plane into the North Atlantic Ocean and spent decades frozen in a state of suspended animation. (Retellings sometimes place the event over the English Channel.) The hero found a new generation of readers as leader of the all-star superhero team the Avengers, and in a new solo feature beginning in Tales of Suspense #59 (Nov. 1964), a “split book” shared with the feature “Iron Man“. The new Captain American stories were written by Stan Lee and generally penciled or laid out by Captain America’s Golden Age co-creator, Jack Kirby. Gil Kane, in some of his earliest Marvel work, also drew some stories. The feature went to full-length and took over the numbering of Tales of Suspense with #100. (Iron Man received his own, separate series.) 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.
This series — considered Captain America vol. 1 by comics researchers and historians,[5] following the 1940s Captain America Comics and its 1950s numbering continuation — ended with #454 (Aug. 1996). It was almost immediately followed by the 13-issue Captain America vol. 2 (Nov. 1996 – Nov. 1997),[6] the 50-issue Captain America vol. 3 (Jan. 1998 – Feb. 2002),[7] the 32-issue Captain America vol. 4 (June 2002 – Dec. 2004)[8] and Captain America vol. 5 (Jan. 2005 – ).[9]
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
As part of the aftermath of Marvel Comics’ company crossover Civil War, Steve Rogers was apparently killed in Captain America vol 5 #25 (April 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 [President 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].”[10] | ” |
Marvel Entertainment Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada commented, however, that a Captain America comeback wasn’t impossible. The character’s death came as a blow to co-creator Joe Simon, who said ‘It’s a hell of a time for him to go. We really need him now.'”[10]
In reaction to dialogue between two characters in another Marvel comic released the same day, Marvel issued a press release that said “[c]omments from Ms. Marvel in … Civil War: The Initiative, which seemed to indicate that Captain America is still alive, and being held prisoner by the Pro-Registration forces, may not have been exactly what they seemed on the surface … yes, Captain America, Steve Rogers, is dead”. The release also stated that the Captain America series would continue.[11]
From Right Wing News! Always a great site to check out. Thanks,