The Many Faces Of CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

By David Hawkins / July 15, 2011

Everyone knows who Captain America is. I'm an Aussie through and through, but still this patriotic symbol of the United States is an icon that I would recognise anywhere. The whole world is waiting with bated breath for the big screen release of Disney/Marvel's Captain America: The First Avenger but did you know that Cap has not always been the one man known as Steve Rogers? For the majority of his comic-book life (one that is much longer than any of ours will ever be) Steve Rogers, the frail boy from 1941 turned Super Soldier, has been the hero above all heroes: Captain America. He fought the Nazis in World War II, was blown up over the Arctic, revived into a world he no longer knew, and became the leader of the awesome super-team The Avengers. However there have been many ideological ups and downs along the way and Captain America, the iconic mantle, has been assumed by other men. The first major replacement was during the 1950's. When Captain America's popularity waned after the end of the war, Marvel cancelled the comic series. They tried to revitalise it in the 1950's by making Cap and his sidekick Bucky into 'Commie' hunters, feeding off the communist fear evoked by McCarthy and his witch-hunt.

This was a short lived revamp. After the writers at Marvel decided they wanted to bring Cap back yet again in the early 1960's, and setup the story that he had been frozen since 1945, they had to retcon the issues that had been published in the years between.

So it was decided that a variety of wannabes and impostors had faked the role during the end of the 1940's and through the anti-Communist era of the 1950's. What If...? Vol 1, #4 introduces two of the men who were hired by President Truman to replace the missing Steve Rogers; William Naslund & Jeffrey Mace. Naslund had originally been the superhero known as the Spirit of '76. He is killed in action whilst dressed as Captain America in 1946, and is succeeded by Jeffrey Mace who had been The Patriot during the war years. Jeff Mace retires from replacing Cap in 1949. Then a slightly unstable individual named William Burnside takes up the uniform on his own. A man obsessed with the original Captain America, Burnside goes so far as to have cosmetic surgery to make himself look and sound like Steve Rogers, before injecting himself and a new Bucky with a derivative of the Super Soldier serum. This then is the Captain America of the 1950's; he then goes crazy due to the effects of the untested new formula and begins attacking innocent civilians until he is placed in stasis by the American government. Wow. That got complicated. All of that just to help fix up the continuity mistake made when reintroducing Steve Rogers inThe Avengers Vol 1, #4! So now we get back to the original Cap, after he is found and worshiped (inside his block of ice) by Eskimos, thrown into the ocean by Namor The Submariner, and fished out of the water by The Avengers. Reworked into a interesting character for the modern age, Steve Rogers is now a man out of place, dropped into a world that has moved forward 20 years.

Time passes. Cap becomes popular again. He finds himself at the centre or Marvel's superhero community. And then in 1974, the comic world dealt with the real-life Watergate Scandal in the only way it knows how; by reflecting the public outrage through its characters. Steve Rogers abandons his nationalistic identity when a Watergate-esque event happens and he no longer wishes to represent a corrupt government. Instead Steve becomes the Nomad to continue his battle against evil (Captain AmericaVol 1 #180). Steve Rogers as 'The Captain' During the few issues that he went A.W.O.L, a handful of wannabes attempted to step into Captain America's empty shoes. These included baseballer Bob Russo and street thug Scar Turpin who failed in their attempts. The man who learned the ultimate lesson was gym-employee Roscoe who was murdered by the Red Skull for impersonating Cap. In the late 1980's Steve Rogers is once again pitted against the United States Government (although this time the Red Skull is behind the plot) and once more resigns from his role. He converts to a new identity as The Captain, wearing a black, red & white costume that is almost identical to his old uniform. And in his place the government employs a man named John Walker to become the newest Captain America stand-in. Once again it is not very long until Steve wants his old job back, and John Walker ends up swapping costumes with him, replacing the tile The Captain with his long standing one, U.S Agent.

Which brings us to the most recent events, and Steve Rogers being assassinated on the steps of a court house. As the world watched the original Captain America die, another was in the wings, ready to continue the legacy and the name. James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes was Steve Rogers' original sidekick during World War II. After being believed dead, then reemerging as the brain-washed Winter Soldier, Bucky was now offered the costume and responsibility of his mentor. He changed the costume for a more modern version. He also began using a gun and knives alongside the recognisible shield. As is ever the way in the world of comics, people never stay dead for long. Before we knew it Steve Rogers was revealed to have been transported to some form of time travel limbo due (once again) to the machinations of his arch-nemesis the Red Skull. Brought back into the world of the living, Steve fought alongside the new Captain America, both wearing versions of the blue, white & red costume. At the conclusion of the Marvel event known as Siege, Steve officially passes on the identity to Bucky. But as has been seen so many times before, Steve Rogers is unable to just relax into his retirement. Instead he is given the position of Head of U.S Security, and works under his civilian name. Will this be the end of the line for the yo-yo we know as Captain America? Well, seeing as Bucky has just been killed in the midst of the current Marvel event Fear Itself, I doubt it. And Steve Rogers has resumed the role in the July-release reboot Captain America #1, just in time to hit the shelves with the release of the film. There can only ever be one 'real' Captain America. Captain America: The First Avenger is released in the U.S. on July 22nd and in the U.K. a week later.