Captain America

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Captain America

Captain America is one of the oldest and most recognizable superhero characters in American comic books. A flagship property of Marvel Comics, Captain America has entertained generations of young people since the 1940s. Perhaps no other costumed hero has stood as a bolder symbol of patriotic American ideals and values. Indeed, the history of Captain America can not be understood without attention to the history of America itself.

Captain America sprang forth from the political culture of World War II. In early 1941, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created the character for Marvel Comics, which was struggling to increase its share of the comic-book market. As early as 1939, comic books had periodically featured stories that drew attention to the menace of Nazi Germany. Simon and Kirby, who were both Jewish, felt very strongly about what was happening in Europe under the Nazis and were emboldened to defy the still powerful mood of isolationism in America. Captain America would make the not-very-subtle case for American intervention against the Axis powers.

The cover of the first issue of Captain America Comics portrayed the superhero in his red-white-and-blue costume, punching Adolf Hitler in the mouth. That brash image set the aggressive tone for the entire series. In the first issue, readers were introduced to Steve Rogers, a fiercely patriotic young American. Physically inadequate for military service, Rogers volunteers for a secret government experiment to create an army of super soldiers. After drinking a serum developed by Dr. Reinstein, Rogers is transformed into a physically perfect human fighting machine. Immediately thereafter, a Nazi spy assassinates Dr. Reinstein, whose secret formula dies with him, thus insuring that Rogers will be the only super soldier. Donning a mask and costume derived from the American flag and wielding a striped shield, Rogers adopts the identity of Captain America and pledges to wage war against the enemies of liberty at home and abroad.

Assisted by his teenage sidekick Bucky, Captain America spent the war years safeguarding American interests against conniving German and Japanese agents. Simon and Kirby dreamed up some of the most delightfully grotesque Axis caricatures to pit against the heroes. Foremost among these was the Red Skull, a sinister Nazi mastermind who became Captain America's perennial archenemy. Jack Kirby's artwork for the series was among the most exuberant, energetic, and imaginative in the field and helped to establish him as one of the most influential superhero comic-book artists.

Captain America quickly became Marvel's most popular attraction and one of the most successful superheroes of the World War II years. Despite some early hate mail from isolationists who did not appreciate the Captain America's politics, the character found an avid readership among young people receptive to the simple and aggressive Americanism that he embodied. More than any other superhero, Captain America epitomized the comic-book industry's unrestrained assault on the hated "Japanazis." Indeed, the star-spangled superhero owed so much to the wartime popular culture that he seemed to drift when the war ended. During the postwar years, Captain America's sales declined along with those of most other costumed superheroes. Even the replacement of Bucky with a shapely blond heroine named Golden Girl failed to rejuvenate interest in the title. In 1949 Marvel cancelled Captain America.

Marvel revived the hero in 1954 and recast him for the Cold War era. Now billed as "Captain America—Commie Smasher," the hero embarked on a crusade to purge America of Reds and traitors. Reentering the glutted comic-book market at a time when horror comics predominated and McCarthyism was going into decline, it was little wonder that this second incarnation of Captain America became a short-lived failure.

The Captain's third resurrection proved far more successful. In 1964, at the height of Marvel's superhero renaissance, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby revived the hero in issue number four of The Avengers. The story explained that Captain America's absence over the years was due to the hero having literally been frozen in suspended animation since the end of World War II. In keeping with Marvel's formula of neurotic superheroes, the revived Captain America struggled with an identity crisis: Was he simply a naive relic of a nostalgic past? Could he remain relevant in an era when unquestioning patriotism was challenged by the turmoil of the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and youth revolts?

By the early 1970s, Captain America symbolized an America confused over the meaning of patriotism and disillusioned with the national mission. The hero himself confessed that "in a world rife with injustice, greed, and endless war … who's to say the rebels are wrong? I've spent a lifetime defending the flag and the law. Perhaps I should have battled less and questioned more." Accordingly, Captain America loosened his longtime affiliation with the U.S. government and devoted himself to tackling domestic ills like poverty, pollution, and social injustice. He even took on a new partner called the Falcon, one of the first African-American superheroes.

In a memorable multi-part series unfolding during the Watergate scandal, Captain America uncovered a conspiracy of high-ranking U.S. officials to establish a right-wing dictatorship from the White House. This story line, written by a young Vietnam veteran named Steve Englehart, left Captain America deeply disillusioned about American political leadership—so much so that for a time he actually discarded his stars and stripes in favor of a new costume and identity of "Nomad—the Man Without a Country." But Captain America returned shortly thereafter, having concluded that even in this new age of cynicism, the spirit of America was still alive and worth defending.

Captain America has remained a popular superhero in the last decades of the twentieth century. The character may never be as popular as he was during World War II, but as long as creators can continue to keep him relevant for future generations, Captain America's survival seems assured. Although his patriotic idealism stands in stark contrast to the prevailing trend of cynical outsider superheroes like the X-Men, the Punisher, and Spawn, Captain America's continued success in the comic-book market attests to the timelessness and adaptability of the American dream.

—Bradford Wright