Captain America was rebooted in 1996, as part of the
Heroes Reborn project. The comic was made by
Rob Liefeld, who created the book and drew it, with
Jeph Loeb scripting it. After six issues, the book was transferred to
Jim Lee's company,
WildStorm, with James Robinson writing and the art being done by Joe Phillips and Joe Bennett.
Heroes Reborn: Captain America provides examples of:
- A Glitch in the Matrix: Steve Rogers should not be aware of his identity as Captain America, but he had dreams about it.
- Adaptation Name Change: Rikki's father is implied to be the HR version of Bucky Barnes—only his first name is Richard instead of James.
- Amnesia Danger: Captain America. Heroes Reborn started with him as an ordinary family man with a loving wife and son — who dreamed of World War II battlefields each night. He eventually learned that SHIELD had mindwiped him to keep him under control, and that his wife and son were Life Model Decoy robots.
- Captain Ersatz: Rikki Barnes took inspiration from Carrie Kelly, the original female Robin from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Rikki would receive her own Captain Ersatz, a teen heroine named S.P.I.C.E., in Rob Liefeld's later Fighting American series. This is due to Liefeld recycling art from his unfinished Captain America run.
- Composite Character: Rikki Barnes is a Gender Flipped combo of Bucky Barnes (who does still appear as her grandfather) and Rick Jones.
- Eyedscreen: We have one at a very dramatic moment: Steve thinks that he should not wake up Peggy.
- Heroic Vow: The comic starts with the Pledge of Allegiance and pin-ups of Cap.
- Fourth Reich: Lame as it sounds, Master Man wants to bring back the old Nazi regime.
- No One Could Survive That!: The Nazis found the building where Captain America's shield was kept, and leveled it to the ground. It does not matter, the shield is Made of Indestructium. Unfortunately for them, so is Steve Rogers.
- Related in the Adaptation: Rikki's grandparents are implied to be the HR versions of Bucky Barnes and Peggy Carter, having married and had children.
- Spared by the Adaptation: At the time, anyway, given that Captain America met Rikki's grandparents towards the end of HR, her grandfather is implied to Bucky Barnes, before Captain America: Winter Soldier retconned that Bucky was indeed still alive as the (albeit brainwashed) eponymous villain.
