Captain America

Captain America is a fictional comic book superhero published by Marvel Comics. Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, he first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941), from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics. more...

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Over the years, an estimated 210 million copies of \"Captain America\" comic books have been sold in a total of 75 countries.

Captain America is the alter ego of Steve Rogers, a sickly young man who was given enhanced strength and reflexes by an experimental serum in order to aid the United States war effort. Some have drawn parallels between the Super-Soldier Serum and the steroid scandals of today. Captain America wears a costume that utilizes an American flag motif, and is armed with an indestructible shield that can be thrown as a weapon.

An intentionally patriotic creation who was often depicted fighting the Axis powers of World War II, Captain America was Timely's most popular character during World War II. After the war ended, the character's popularity waned and he disappeared by the 1950s aside from an ill-fated revival in 1953. Captain America was reintroduced during the Silver Age of comics when he was revived from suspended animation by the superhero team The Avengers in Avengers #4 (March 1964). Since then, Captain America has often led the team, as well as starring in his own series. Steve Rogers was killed in Captain America vol. 5, #25 (March 2007), although the Captain America series continues publication.

Publication history

Writer Joe Simon conceived the idea for Captain America, which was refined by his partner, artist Jack Kirby, in 1941. Captain America was a consciously political creation. Simon and Kirby were morally repulsed by the actions of Nazi Germany in the years leading up to the United States' involvement in World War II and felt war was inevitable. Simon later said, \"The opponents to the war were all quite well organized. We wanted to have our say too.\"

Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941) — on sale in December 1940, a year before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and already showing the protagonist punching Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the jaw — sold nearly one million copies. While most readers responded favorably to the comic, some isolationists and Nazi sympathizers took objection. Simon noted, \"When the first issue came out we got a lot of . . . threatening letters and hate mail. Some people really opposed what Cap stood for.\" Though preceded as a \"patriotically themed superhero\" by MLJ's The Shield, Captain America immediately became the most prominent and enduring of that wave of 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. Captain America soon became Timely's most popular character and even had a fan-club called the \"Sentinels of Liberty.\" Circulation figures remained close to a million copies per month after the debut issue, which outstripped even the circulation of news magazines like Time during the period. After the Simon & Kirby team moved to DC late 1941, having produced Captain America Comics through issue #10 (Jan. 1942), Al Avison and Syd Shores became regular pencilers of the celebrated title, with one generally inking over the other. The character was also featured in All Winners Comics #1-19 (Summer 1941 - Fall 1946), Marvel Mystery Comics #80-84,86-92, USA Comics #6-17 (Dec 1942 - Fall 1945) and All Select Comics #1-10 (Fall 1943 - Summer 1946).

Read more at Wikipedia.org