Captain America

On today’s show we discuss Captain America! You may recognize him as the patriotic super soldier that fights off evil armed with his indestructible shield, But did you know he also possesses the power to wield Thor’s Hammer? Our own, sketch comedians Imran and Phil are back live on the drawing boards.

Captain America is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (cover dated March 1941) from Timely Comics, a predecessor of Marvel Comics.

Breakdown of Captain America’s new suit in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ – Fanside Reports:

While the poster for ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ did give us our first look at Captain America’s new suit, post-Civil War, it’s difficult to tell if the new suit is a version of the Nomad costume, or The Captain.

To be clear, it’s been some time since the poster for Avengers: Infinity War was released. It was unveiled by Marvel at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, driving fans crazy the moment it dropped. The poster had fans going wild for many reasons, but the most pertinent being the character reveals. War Machine and Bucky Barnes back in action were probably the most surprising, but Captain America’s appearance on the corner of the poster definitely got more people interested in the suit Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is going to be wearing, now that he’s no longer going by the Captain America alias.

BackStory

Steven Rogers was born in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, in 1925 to poor Irish immigrants, Sarah and Joseph Rogers.Joseph died when Steve was a child, and Sarah died of pneumonia while Steve was a teen. By early 1940, before America’s entry into World War II, Rogers is a tall, scrawny fine arts student specializing in illustration and a comic book writer and artist.

Disturbed by the rise of the Third Reich, Rogers attempts to enlist but is rejected due to his frail body. His resolution attracts the notice of U.S. Army General Chester Phillips and “Project: Rebirth”. Rogers is used as a test subject for the Super-Soldier project, receiving a special serum made by “Dr. Josef Reinstein”,later retroactively changed to a code name for the scientist Abraham Erskine. The serum is a success and transforms Steve Rogers into a nearly perfect human being with peak strength, agility, stamina, and intelligence. The success of the program leaves Erskine wondering about replicating the experiment on other human beings. The process itself has been inconsistently detailed: While in the original material Rogers is shown receiving injections of the Super-Serum, when the origin was retold in the 1960s, the Comic Code Authority had already put a veto over graphic description of drug intake and abuse, and thus the Super-Serum was changed into an oral formula.

Creation

• 1940 Joe Simon conceived the idea for Captain America and made a sketch of the character in costume. “I wrote the name ‘Super American’ at the bottom of the page,” Simon said in his autobiography, and then considered: “No, it didn’t work. There were too many “Supers” around. “Captain America” had a good sound to it. There weren’t a lot of captains in comics. It was as easy as that.” The boy companion was simply named Bucky, after my friend Bucky Pierson, a star on our high school basketball team.
• Simon recalled in his autobiography that Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman gave him the go-ahead and directed that a Captain America solo comic book series be published as soon as possible. Needing to fill a full comic with primarily one character’s stories, Simon did not believe that his regular creative partner, artist Jack Kirby, could handle the workload alone

Golden Age

• Cover-dated March 1941 and on sale December 20, 1940,a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, but a full year into World War II — showed the protagonist punching Nazi leader Adolf Hitler; it sold nearly one million copies.
• 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.
• 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, as evidenced by the unusual move at the time of premiering the character in his own title instead of an anthology title first. This popularity drew the attention and a complaint from MLJ that the character’s triangular shield too closely resembled the chest symbol of their Shield character. In response, Goodman had Simon and Kirby create a distinctive round shield for issue 2, which went on to become an iconic element of the character

Silver and Bronze Age

• In the Human Torch story titled “Captain America” in Marvel Comics’ Strange Tales #114 (Nov. 1963), writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Jack Kirby depicted the brash young Fantastic Four member Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, in an exhibition performance with Captain America, described as a legendary World War II and 1950s superhero who has returned after many years of apparent retirement. The 18-page story ends with this Captain America revealed as an impostor.  Captain America was then formally reintroduced in The Avengers #4 (March 1964), which explained that in the final days of World War II, he had fallen from an experimental drone plane into the North Atlantic Ocean and spent decades frozen in a block of ice in a state of suspended animation.
• After then guest-starring in the feature “Iron Man” in Tales of Suspense #58 (Oct. 1964), Captain America gained his own solo feature in that “split book”, beginning the following issue.
• This series — considered Captain America volume one by comics researchers and historians,following the 1940s Captain America Comics and its 1950s numbering continuation of Tales of Suspense — ended with #454 (Aug. 1996)

Modern Age

As part of the aftermath of Marvel Comics’ company-crossover storyline “Civil War”, Steve Rogers was ostensibly killed in Captain America vol. 5, #25 (March 2007).  The storyline of Rogers’ return began in issue #600.  Rogers, who was not dead but caroming through time, returned to the present day in the six-issue miniseries Captain America: Reborn (Sept. 2009 – March 2010).

After Rogers’ return, Bucky, Rogers’ sidekick, continued as Captain America, beginning in the one-shot comic Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield? (Feb. 2010). Bucky continued adventuring in the pages of Captain America, while Steve Rogers received his own miniseries (Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier) as well as taking on the leadership position in a new Secret Avengers ongoing series.

Marvel announced that Rogers will become Captain America once again in the comic series Captain America: Steve Rogers.This new series follows the events of “Avengers: Standoff!,” in which Captain America is restored to his youthful state following an encounter with the sentient Cosmic Cube, Kobik, and his past is drastically rewritten under the instructions of the Red Skull. Afterward, Captain America plots to set himself and Hydra in a position where they can conquer America in Marvel’s upcoming event “Secret Empire.”

Fun Facts I bet you didn’t know about Captain America

Fact 1 – In 1966 Joe Simon sued the owners of Marvel Comics, asserting that he—not Marvel— he felt he was legally entitled to renew the copyright upon the expiration of the original 28-year term. The two parties settled out of court, with Simon agreeing to a statement that the character had been created under terms of employment by the publisher, and therefore it was work for hire owned by them.

Fact 2 – He can use Thor’s Hammer – Casual Marvel fans who have only watched The Avengers and related movies could be forgiven for assuming that it takes Chris Hemsworth’s arms to lift the mighty hammer Mjolnir. However, as any Thor nerd is happy to point out, picking up the hammer does not require physical strength. The not-so-fine print of the hammer reads “Whosever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.” Hence, a number of Marvel characters (along with Superman and Wonder Woman), have held the hammer.

Fact 3 – He once fought Wolverine as a Werewolf – The idea of heroes turning into werewolves in a Marvel comic is not as far-fetched as you might think. Given that this universe contains all sorts of monsters, it’s more surprising that such transformations don’t happen more often. At any rate, while fighting Nightshade, the self-styled “Queen of the Werewolves,” Captain America is injected with a new serum that turns him into a werewolf.

Fact 4 – Captain America is older than Marvel –  Captain America has become a very public face for Marvel comics, billed as the “First Avenger” and known as the moral center of Marvel’s universe. The only problem with that is that Marvel didn’t create him. He was actually created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the latter of whom later helped Stan Lee create heroes such as the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, and the X-Men.

Fact 5 – Captain America has no idea what drugs are – For characters as old as Captain America, it’s a challenge to come up with a foe that Cap has not fought before. Since Cap is such a powerful symbol of America itself, writer Mark Gruenwald came up with a foe new to Cap but very familiar to America: drugs.

Follow and Subscribe to  Sketching Comedy at:

Sketching Comedy on iTunes

Sketching Comedy on Stitcher

Sketching Comedy on Facebook

@Sketchingcomedy on Twitter

Sketching Comedy at Blazing Caribou Studios

 Facebook| Twitter| Email| Blazing Caribou Studios

660x660.jpg" alt="Ms Marvel" width="200" height="200">Rood-660x660.jpg" alt="Swamp thing" width="200" height="200">660x659.jpg" alt="Swamp thing" width="200" height="200">