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280:, Captain America immediately became the most prominent and enduring of the wave of superheroes introduced in American comic books prior to and during World War II, as evinced 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. With his sidekick
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262:; it sold nearly one million copies. While most readers responded favorably to the comic, some 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." The threats, which included menacing groups of people loitering out on the street outside of the offices, proved so serious that police protection was posted, with
37:
300:, in his first professional fiction writing task, contributed to the character in issue #3 in the filler text story "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge", which introduced the character's use of his shield as a returning throwing weapon. Captain America soon became Timely's most popular character and even had a fan-club called the "Sentinels of Liberty".
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book, but Jack Kirby was visibly upset. "You're still number one, Jack," I assured him. "It's just a matter of a quick deadline for the first issue." "I'll make the deadline," Jack promised. "I'll pencil it myself and make the deadline." I hadn't expected this kind of reaction ... but I acceded
218:
book with penciled lettering right on the drawing boards, with very rough sketches for figures and backgrounds. Kirby did his thing, building the muscular anatomy, adding ideas and popping up the action as only he could. Then he tightened up the penciled drawings, adding detailed backgrounds, faces
208:
often worked together and were quite successful in adapting their individual styles to each other. Actually, their work was not too far from Kirby's. If they worked on it, and if one inker tied the three styles together, I believed the final product would emerge as quite uniform. The two Als were
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The line reads: "With the speed of thought, he sent his shield spinning through the air to the other end of the tent, where it smacked the knife out of Haines' hand!" It became a convention starting the following issue, in which the art in a Simon and Kirby comics story illustrates the following
174:
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
234:
and felt war was inevitable: "The opponents to the war were all quite well organized. We wanted to have our say too." It has been observed that the
Captain America character has numerous elements of Jewish iconography as a variant of the idea of the
187:
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
170:
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 decided:
309:
during the period. The character was widely imitated by other comics publishers, with around 40 red-white-and-blue patriotic heroes debuting in 1941 alone. After the Simon and Kirby team moved to
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Cap was not the first patriotically themed super hero, but he would become the most enduring. He was Timely's most popular hero with nearly a million copies of his comic sold per month.
406:#27–28, as well as in issues #76–78 of an eponymous title (May–September 1954). Atlas' attempted superhero revival was a commercial failure, and the character's title was canceled with
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Circulation figures remained close to a million copies per month after the debut issue, which outstripped even the circulation of news magazines such as
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to Kirby's wishes and, it turned out, was lucky that I did. There might have been two Als, but there was only one Jack Kirby ... I wrote the first
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attempted to revive its superhero titles when it reintroduced
Captain America, along with the original Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, in
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for two issues (October 1949 – February 1950), with the finale being a horror/suspense anthology issue with no superheroes.
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In the post-war era, with the popularity of superheroes fading, Captain
America led Timely's first superhero team, the
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Simon said
Captain America was a consciously political creation; he and Kirby were morally repulsed by the actions of
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398:#24 (December 1953). Billed as "Captain America, Commie Smasher!" Captain America appeared during the next year in
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Al
Liederman would ink that first issue, which was lettered by Simon and Kirby's regular letterer, Howard Ferguson.
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caption: "Captain
America's speed of thought and action save Bucky's life – as he hurls his shield across the room.
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I didn't have a lot of objections to putting a crew on the first issue ... There were two young artists from
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370:#19 and #21 (Fall–Winter 1946; there was no issue #20). After Bucky was shot and wounded in a 1948
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story, he was succeeded by
Captain America's girlfriend, Betsy Ross, who became the superheroine
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The Marvel Vault: A Museum-in-a-Book with Rare Collectibles from the World of Marvel
258:, but a full year into World War II – showed the protagonist punching Nazi leader
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ran until issue #73 (July 1949), at which time the series was retitled
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654:#1 went on sale around the end of 1940, with a March 1941 cover date.
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The Amazing Spider-Man and Captain America in Dr. Doom's Revenge!
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Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America
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in the years leading up to the United States' involvement in
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Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics
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March 1941 and on sale December 20, 1940, a year before the
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Fromm, Keif (June 2005). "The Privacy Act Of Carl Burgos".
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personally contacting Simon and Kirby to give his support.
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Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed
272:
Though preceded as a "patriotically themed superhero" by
546:"Captain America Is A Jewish Golem - Theory Explained"
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Captain America in: The Doom Tube of Dr. Megalomann
1054:Captain America and Nick Fury: The Otherworld War
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292:, and other threats to wartime America and the
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333:over the other. The character was featured in
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329:of the celebrated title, with one generally
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149:from 1941 to 1950, with a brief revival by
1047:Captain America and Nick Fury: Blood Truce
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837:American Comic Book Chronicles: 1940-1944
491:Reissued by Vanguard Productions in 2003.
200:that had made a strong impression on me.
179:Simon recalled in his autobiography that
145:. The series was originally published by
141:series featuring the superhero character
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351:#6–17 (December 1942 – Fall 1945), and
968:Alternative versions of Captain America
802:
728:Marvel Chronicle A Year by Year History
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364:, in its two published adventures, in
296:. Stanley Lieber, now better known as
284:, Captain America faced villains from
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1419:Marvel Comics set during World War II
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839:. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 63.
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1098:The Strange Death of Captain America
835:Mitchell, Kurt; Thomas, Roy (2019).
912:
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192:, could handle the workload alone:
16:Comic book series (1941–1949, 1954)
13:
1202:Captain America II: Death Too Soon
772:Stan Lee's Amazing Marvel Universe
726:; Gilbert, Laura (2008). "1940s".
544:Isaak, Joshua (December 3, 2021).
317:through issue #10 (January 1942),
14:
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1272:The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
357:#1–10 (Fall 1943 – Summer 1946).
339:#1–19 (Summer 1941 – Fall 1946),
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1311:Captain America and The Avengers
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676:(49). Raleigh, North Carolina:
475:Simon, Joe; Simon, Jim (1990).
1318:Captain America: Super Soldier
1068:Captain America and the Falcon
1022:Captain America and the Falcon
635:. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
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521:Johns Hopkins University Press
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452:
420:List of Captain America titles
313:in late 1941, having produced
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45:#1 (March 1941). Cover art by
1:
1061:Truth: Red, White & Black
1040:Adventures of Captain America
443:Captain America's Weird Tales
425:
385:Captain America's Weird Tales
242:
1138:The Death of Captain America
582:at the Grand Comics Database
515:Wright, Bradford W. (2001).
479:. Crestwood/II. p. 50.
209:eager to join in on the new
21:Captain America (comic book)
7:
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730:. London, United Kingdom:
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19:Not to be confused with
519:. Baltimore, Maryland:
59:Publication information
49:(inks and pencils) and
1414:Captain America titles
1158:"Secret Empire" (2017)
1104:"Secret Empire" (1974)
1076:Captain America: White
994:Captain America Comics
861:Captain America Comics
810:. New York, New York:
774:. New York, New York:
695:. New York, New York:
691:Cronin, Brian (2009).
652:Captain America Comics
599:. New York, New York:
571:Captain America Comics
410:#78 (September 1954).
380:Captain America Comics
315:Captain America Comics
256:attack on Pearl Harbor
248:Captain America Comics
221:
177:
134:Captain America Comics
43:Captain America Comics
30:Captain America Comics
866:Grand Comics Database
678:TwoMorrows Publishing
597:Kirby: King of Comics
477:The Comic Book Makers
448:Grand Comics Database
342:Marvel Mystery Comics
194:
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1424:Timely Comics titles
699:. pp. 135–136.
460:Comic Art Convention
1409:Atlas Comics titles
1357:Rogers: The Musical
776:Sterling Publishing
345:#80–84 and #86–92,
267:Fiorello La Guardia
157:Publication history
1404:1941 comics debuts
1244:The Winter Soldier
1124:The Winter Soldier
732:Dorling Kindersley
578:2013-05-10 at the
367:All Winners Comics
336:All Winners Comics
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1230:The First Avenger
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1001:Tales of Suspense
785:978-1-4027-4225-5
706:978-0-452-29532-2
646:978-0-7624-2844-1
610:978-0-8109-9447-8
530:978-0-8018-7450-5
486:978-1-887591-35-5
362:All-Winners Squad
354:All Select Comics
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402:#24–28 and
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206:Al Gabriele
198:Connecticut
1398:Categories
1264:soundtrack
1250:soundtrack
1236:soundtrack
1145:Fallen Son
1090:Storylines
958:Sam Wilson
940:Characters
930:Jack Kirby
550:Screenrant
426:References
348:USA Comics
327:pencillers
323:Syd Shores
278:The Shield
243:Golden Age
190:Jack Kirby
183:publisher
139:comic book
53:(pencils).
51:Jack Kirby
1258:Civil War
1131:Civil War
925:Joe Simon
669:Alter Ego
400:Young Men
396:Young Men
319:Al Avison
311:DC Comics
202:Al Avison
168:Joe Simon
153:in 1954.
115:Full list
111:of issues
102:Full list
65:Publisher
47:Joe Simon
1382:Category
806:(1991).
770:(2006).
631:(2007).
595:(2008).
576:Archived
414:See also
298:Stan Lee
162:Creation
80:Schedule
1032:Limited
986:Ongoing
963:Enemies
864:at the
446:at the
1363:Stucky
1211:(1990)
1196:(1979)
1188:(1944)
1152:Reborn
1070:(2004)
1014:vol. 5
843:
818:
782:
738:
703:
643:
607:
527:
483:
331:inking
294:Allies
88:Format
83:Varied
697:Plume
458:1974
282:Bucky
250:#1 –
237:Golem
175:team.
137:is a
841:ISBN
816:ISBN
780:ISBN
736:ISBN
701:ISBN
680:: 4.
641:ISBN
605:ISBN
557:2022
525:ISBN
481:ISBN
321:and
306:Time
204:and
276:'s
274:MLJ
109:No.
1400::
788:.
744:.
715:^
672:.
649:.
627:;
573:#1
548:.
505:^
467:^
434:^
378:.
288:,
1154:"
1150:"
1147:"
1143:"
1140:"
1136:"
1133:"
1129:"
1126:"
1122:"
1119:"
1115:"
1112:"
1108:"
1100:"
1096:"
906:e
899:t
892:v
849:.
824:.
709:.
674:3
613:.
559:.
533:.
489:.
23:.
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