Since his creation in 1940, Captain America has become one of the most popular superheroes in the world. Taking on everyone from Nazis to comic book supervillains like Thanos, Cap is an enduring symbol of patriotism, as well as American values and heroism. His red, white, and blue colors just scream, “USA! USA! USA!” Cap’s introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), where he’s played famously by Chris Evans, turned him into a more mainstream hero and increased his popularity.
The recently released Captain America: Brave New World, where Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) has taken on the mantle of Captain America, brings this hero back to the forefront of the MCU. When you include cameos, the character has appeared in many MCU films. However, despite the character’s tremendous popularity, there are many misconceptions about Marvel’s most patriotic hero. Let’s now rewind time, all the way back to the 1940s, and identify 10 things that people always get wrong about Captain America.
10
His Superhero Name Wasn’t Always Captain America
Walt Disney Studios
Our hero has gone by a few names over the years. Captain America, Cap, Steve Rogers. But what most people don’t realize is that the earliest iteration of this character wasn’t named Captain America. In early drafts, he was actually named “Super American.” Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it?
Fortunately, the powers that be decided there were already too many heroes out there with the word “super” in their names. And so, Super American was scrapped for the much more superior alias, Captain America.
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9
His Only Interest Wasn’t the Military
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
When people think of Captain America’s interests and passions, they generally think of war and America. In their minds, Cap is a soldier through and through, and there’s not much else to his character. The MCU films have certainly added to this belief.
In the comics, however, Steve Rogers started out as a fine arts student who excelled in and had a passion for illustrating comics. Perhaps this could’ve been a career that he pursued. But like many young Americans in the 1940s, Rogers surrendered his life and his interests to fight for the greater good in World War II.
8
He Will Not Fight in Just Any American War
Marvel Comics
Captain America started out as a wartime superhero. In his earliest comics, he aided America during World War II and fought the Nazis, a reflection of his creators’ beliefs that America should intervene in the war. Because of his history and name, audiences expect Cap to help America in all of its wars, to always fight for the red, white, and blue without hesitation, without question. But this actually isn’t the case.
During the 1960s and ’70s, Cap was noticeably absent from America’s Vietnam War. Because Marvel maintained a position of neutrality on Vietnam, the subject was rarely ever broached in the comics. Stan Lee himself wrote in an editorial that most readers didn’t want to see Cap get involved with the messiness of Vietnam and that he could not “see any of our characters taking on a role of super-patriotism in the world as it is today”. And that included Captain America.
7
Peggy Carter Isn’t His One True Love
Marvel
Thanks to the MCU, most viewers regard Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), Steve Rogers’ wartime lover during the 1940s, as his one true love. The pair even get their happily-ever-after in the movies. But this doesn’t happen for Cap and Peggy in the comics. In fact, Cap has a number of romantic interests besides Peggy. He has an on-again, off-again relationship with Peggy’s grandniece, Sharon Carter, who’s played by Emily VanCamp in the MCU.
Despite them sharing an on-screen kiss, the films never fleshed out their romance like the comics did. More notably, Cap was engaged to a character named Bernie Rosenthal in the comics, though they eventually broke off their engagement.
6
He’s Not A Other Marvel Superhero
Disney
Despite his youthful appearance, Cap is regarded as “the old man” of the Avengers, even though there’s an ancient Norse god on the team as well. Obviously, this joke stems from Cap’s involvement in World War II. But really, he’s not much older than many of Marvel’s most iconic superheroes. Cap made his grand debut in 1940. Meanwhile, the Hulk, Ant-Man, Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man, and many others all debuted in the early 1960s. In terms of comic book years, Captain America is only 20 years older than Iron Man. This is a big difference from the 70-year difference that we see in the movies.
5
He Only Knows How To Fight Because of the Super Soldier Serum
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Everybody knows how Captain America got his powers. He was exposed to Super-Soldier Serum, which greatly enhanced his strength and speed. In the MCU, as soon as Rogers receives the serum, he becomes a superhuman soldier, an expert in the ways of combat without any previous knowledge, training, or experience. While the serum does enhance Rodgers physically in the comics, it doesn’t simply turn him into a warrior. He endures an intense training regimen to increase his strength and takes on martial arts and boxing lessons to amplify his skills on the battlefield. He even studies history’s greatest military leaders and battles to broaden his knowledge of military tactics. Cap worked hard to become one of America’s greatest superheroes; it didn’t just happen in the blink of an eye.
4
He Was the First Avenger
Marvel Studios
In the MCU, Captain America is regarded as America’s first superhero and the very first Avenger. His debut film is called Captain America: The First Avenger, after all. However, that isn’t the case in the comics. The Avengers were already a full-fledged team by the time Cap joined them; he wasn’t even an original member. The original Avengers were Ant-Man, the Wasp, Iron Man, Thor, and the Hulk. Cap joined the Avengers in issue #4, and it was only to replace the unstable and dangerous Hulk.
3
He Received the Shield from Howard Stark
Marvel Studios
Few objects in the MCU, or in cinema, are as powerful as Captain America’s shield. It’s his signature weapon, both offensively and defensively. In the movies, the shield is created and given to Cap by Howard Stark, the founder of Stark Industries and the grandfather of Tony Stark, who would famously become Iron Man and team up with Captain America in the future. While Howard is involved with Cap’s creation in the comics, he isn’t the one who gives Cap his iconic shield. It was actually America’s president at the time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt — a fitting honor for America’s greatest hero.
2
He Was Created by Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Captain America is a major superhero in Marvel Comics, so naturally, everyone assumes that he must’ve been created by them. But that’s not technically true. When Cap was created in 1940, Marvel Comics didn’t even exist yet. At that time, the company was known as Timely Comics, who published Cap’s very first issue on December 20, 1940.
Over the years, Timely Comics expanded and evolved into the comic book titan that we all know today as Marvel Comics. Timely Comics does still exist, though, as an imprint of Marvel, publishing low-priced reprint comic books.
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1
He Was Created by Stan Lee
ABC
Stan Lee is the most significant and prolific writer and publisher in the comic book industry. He’s like the god of Marvel Comics. Lee created countless characters over the years, including iconic heroes like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, X-Men, Thor, Black Panther, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, and…well, you get the idea. The list goes on and on. Because of Lee’s immeasurable contributions to comic books, people naturally assume that he also created Captain America. And they’d be surprised to learn that they’re wrong.
Captain America is the one major Marvel superhero that Lee did not create. Cap was created by writer Joe Simon and illustrator Jack Kirby (a frequent Stan Lee collaborator), both of whom supported America’s intervention in World War II. They crafted Captain America to represent these beliefs, pitting the newly created hero against the real-life supervillain, Adolf Hitler. And from there, the rest is history.
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