History ComicBook / CaptainAmerica

* AuthorityGrantsAsskicking: Not for nothing is Cap considered the leader of the Marvel Superhero community. When he speaks, [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Gods]] [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules listen]].

'''''{{T|ropeCodifier}}he''''' CaptainPatriotic.

** During the Scourge of the Underworld's rampage, Cap finds himself fighting Iron Man baddie Backlash. When the man is beaten, Cap questions the oddity of his apparent MotiveDecay, trying to rob a bank. Backlash explains that he was doing it to provide [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMommas for his mother]] in case the Scourge killed him.

Captain America threw his mighty shield for decades, proving remarkably more adaptive for the changing times than his creators could have guessed. For instance, when American ideals were shaken by the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar and [[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon Watergate]], Rogers reflected that disillusionment in the 1970s when he abandoned his Cap persona to become Nomad, a man without a country, until he realized he could champion America's higher ideals as Cap instead. In the cynical 1980s, Rogers would be forced out of his Cap persona and replaced by an AntiHeroSubstitute, John Walker, only to serve as The Captain to show his ideals still had power in the UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks, loyal to nothing but UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream. Eventually, Cap learned that this was all arranged by the Red Skull to sully his name and took back his old motif, with Walker getting Rogers' Captain costume to be U.S. Agent. Rogers even took up armed resistance to the American crackdown on the superhero community in ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'', until he surrendered and was assassinated. Even though WordOfGod stated that he was KilledOffForReal, [[DeathIsCheap nobody believed it]].

[[index]]
[[folder: Captian America comic book series and storylines]]
* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmericaCorps'' (a CrisisCrossover about various Captains America)
* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmericaWinterSoldier''
* ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfCaptainAmerica''
* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmericaForeverAllies''
* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmericaSamWilson''
* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmericaSteveRogers''
* ''ComicBook/TheUnitedStatesOfCaptainAmerica''
* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmericaSentinelOfLiberty''
* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmericaSymbolOfTruth''
* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmericaColdWar''
* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica2023''
* ''ComicBook/HeroesRebornCaptainAmerica''
* ''ComicBook/UltimateCaptainAmerica''
* ''ComicBook/BatmanAndCaptainAmerica''
[[/folder]]
[[/index]]
----
!!Captain America also provides examples of:

* ArmedWithCanon: The first Captain America run of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks lasted during all of World War II, and even into the 50 (when he started fighting DirtyCommunists instead). Then it was closed, alongside most superhero comics of the era. Creator/JackKirby, who created the character back then, brought him back in ''Avengers'' #4, in 1963, and made up the famous scene of Zemo's rocket where Cap fall into the ocean and got frozen, and Bucky seems to die. In the initial version, this event did not take place in the last days of World War II: it took place "more than twenty years ago". That would be at least 1942... the year when Kirby ended his initial run. Meaning: all the post Kirby golden age adventures of Captain America were rendered non-canon.

** ''Every'' incarnation of Cap uses this trope to some capacity, as the whole point to the character post-[[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] is that he's a FishOutOfTemporalWater. DependingOnTheWriter, the modern day can be anywhere between a pure nightmare or a place he no longer belongs to, but fights to defend anyway. That said, he's also the first person to admit that his era was far from perfect.

* GreaterScopeVillain: UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler during the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]]. Red Skull can also take on this role from time to time. [[spoiler: And then there's Weapon Plus, the true masterminds behind Project Rebirth...]]

* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Very much averted with the character's transition to UsefulNotes/TheBronzeAgeOfComicBooks, where Cap came to accept that while his country did not always live up to its ideals, those ideals themselves are worth fighting for, especially when his own government violated them.

* SuperheroPackingHeat: Cap's original incarnation used guns in addition to his nigh-invulnerable shield, in keeping with his status as a SuperSoldier fighting Nazis in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. It wasn't until UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks that Cap ditched the guns and just stuck to just using his shield. Modern depictions have it that he sometimes carries a piece but prefers not to use it. Bucky plays this straight.

[[ComicBook/TheAvengers The First Avenger]]. [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger The Star-Spangled Man with a Plan]]. [[FishOutOfTemporalWater The Man Out of Time]]. [[AmericaSavesTheDay The Sentinel of Liberty]]. [[Film/AvengersEndgame America's]] [[Main/TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers ass.]] The BigGood of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse.

** There are also times when even his BigGood status can come off as an InformedAbility with plenty of other superheroes singing his praises but Cap sometimes acting the opposite of what an ideal superhero leader should be with a "punch first, ask questions later" attitude that [[DependingOnTheWriter sometimes manifests]] with other heroes in certain stories, like when he straight up assaults Wolverine over a disagreement during the ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'' crossover or when he throws his shield into Deadpool's head during ''Despicable Deadpool'', fights Deadpool, and expects Deadpool to happily come with him quietly when Deadpool was already in a pretty bad mental and emotional place over being fooled by Hydra Cap.

* There are also times when even his BigGood status can come off as an InformedAbility with plenty of other superheroes singing his praises but Cap sometimes acting the opposite of what an ideal superhero leader should be with a "punch first, ask questions later" attitude that [[DependingOnTheWriter sometimes manifests]] with other heroes in certain stories, like when he straight up assaults Wolverine over a disagreement during the ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'' crossover or when he throws his shield into Deadpool's head during ''Despicable Deadpool'', fights Deadpool, and expects Deadpool to happily come with him quietly when Deadpool was already in a pretty bad mental and emotional place over being fooled by Hydra Cap.

* CharacterShilling: He is supposed to be TheParagon, but in some cases writers take his leadership ability a tad too far. An example is {{ComicBook/Infinity}}, where he alone is the reason the intergalactic armies prevail against the Builders, despite the presence of people like Gladiator or Ronan who have far more experience in intergalactic warfare. He also is often put against people in a fight who are normally way out of his league, like Wolverine, Spider-Man or even serious powerhouses like the Hulk.

[[ComicBook/TheAvengers The First Avenger]]. [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger The Star-Spangled Man with a Plan]]. [[FishOutOfTemporalWater The Man Out of Time]]. [[AmericaSavesTheDay The Sentinel of Liberty]]. The BigGood of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse.

* HandsLookingWrong: After Chihiro has been in the spirit world too long, she starts to vanish, noticing that her hands are becoming translucent. Naturally, she starts to panic about this before Haku arrives and gives her some spirit food to insure that she won't disappear.

** [[https://tv.yahoo.com/blogs/tv-news/marvel-comes-to--the-colbert-report--to-announce-a-new-captain-america-sam-wilson-071950016.html Steve was]] replaced as Captain America by Sam Wilson, better known as the Falcon. He still operates as a hero in ''Comicbook/UncannyAvengers'', but without the Captain America name.

** In fact, it's not just the Marvel Universe. A crossover with the Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}} had him lead [[ComicBook/JLAAvengers the combined teams]] during the final assault upon the BigBad.
---> '''Franchise/{{Superman}}:''' [...]But we need a commander... Someone who can lead both teams, fuse us into one. I believe that should be you, Captain America.\\

'''Franchise/{{Batman}}:''' I concur.

* BigGood: Steve, mainly for ComicBook/TheAvengers, but also the Marvel Universe as a whole. Any superhero worthy of the title in the Marvel U will defer to Cap, no exceptions. He's SO MUCH a BigGood that he's actually been able to '' lift [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Thor's hammer]].'' During the JLA/Avegers crossover, ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' himself deferred to Cap.

** Happened to Cap himself in one unfortunate instance, courtesy of Dr. Faustus and the Grand Director. He even wielded a swastika-adorned version of his shield.[[note]]Luckily, Comicbook/{{Daredevil}} saved the day and helped Cap return back to his star-spangled self.[[/note]]

%%* TheCape: He's like Franchise/{{Superman}} without the ability to fly.

* CharacterShilling: He is supposed to be TheParagon, but in some cases writers take his leadership ability a tad too far. An example is {{Comicbook/Infinity}}, where he alone is the reason the intergalactic armies prevail against the Builders, despite the presence of people like Gladiator or Ronan who have far more experience in intergalactic warfare. He also is often put against people in a fight who are normally way out of his league, like Wolverine, Spider-Man or even serious powerhouses like the Hulk.

* TheHero: He's TheLeader of ''Franchise/TheAvengers'' and the BigGood of the Marvel Universe.

* IdealHero: Captain America is Marvel Comics' moral equivalent to ''Franchise/{{Superman}}''.

* InspectorJavert: Steve turns into this in ''X-23: Target X''. He feels personally responsible for all the killings ComicBook/{{X 23}} has carried out because she slipped his grasp after her field test by masquerading as a wounded survivor. He reveals he's been tracking her down ever since (approximately ''six years'') and is obsessed with bringing her to justice. He's driven to the point where he completely ignores [[Comicbook/{{Daredevil}} Matt Murdock's]] attempts to warn him that S.H.I.E.L.D. won't care really about justice, but instead will use her as a weapon the same way she was used by the Facility. Before he can actually turn her over, however, he recognizes the truth of this and that Laura was as much a victim as the people she killed, and lets her go.

* TheLancer: Bucky was his during the war. Sam Wilson is another when not Avenging, [[Comicbook/IronMan Tony Stark]] is another when he is.

** He spent as much as eight years ''personally'' hunting Comicbook/{{X 23}} down after her first assassination, because he mistakenly let her go [[WoundedGazelleGambit when she disguised herself as a survivor of her own rampage]]. He subsequently blamed himself for all of her subsequent killings (of which there were ''lots''). It pushes him into full-blown InspectorJavert territory.

* NinetiesAntiHero: When he was resurrected, Bucky's new look embodied this, right down to his [[Comicbook/{{Cable}} Cable-esque]] cyborg arm. Bucky actually averts it, however, since he actively tries to be a better hero, especially since he became Captain America.

* TheParagon: It's pretty much a given that in all of comic books, regardless of companies, the only characters who are bigger paragons than Captain America are Franchise/{{Superman}} and DC's Captain Marvel. See the page quotes. They're his promise to himself that he'll use his abilities only in pursuit of a future better than the present.

** And again in ''Comicbook/{{Nextwave}}'' by Elsa Bloodstone, who is English; for one issue, she wore a European Union t-shirt with the € symbol encircled by stars, and at one point, when described as "my victim" by a villain, (a villain wearing a costume that was apparently stolen from Cap's wardrobe, no less) shouted "Victim? ''Victim?!'' Do you think this letter on my chest stands for ''America''?!" (Cue title box: "You have been getting insulted by NEXTWAVE.")

* {{Unobtainium}}: Cap's shield is a unique alloy of steel and vibranium, rendering it not only invulnerable to anything less than the Beyonder or the Infinity Gauntlet, but also capable of absorbing impacts up to "pissed-off Hulk" levels and beyond. It's also impossible to reproduce. During his stint as "The Captain", Steve had two replacement shields; a mirror-finish adamantium shield from [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] (which he returned after their falling-out over the Armor Wars), and a black-red-white pure vibranium shield from [[Comicbook/BlackPanther T'Challa]], which went to [=USAgent=] after Steve got his job (and old shield) back. Neither had quite the same action as Cap's regular shield. In the late 2010's, his shield gets broken but repaired and upgraded by Odin. So yeah, it currently stands among the pinnacle of technological and magical advances. And it says something that compared to things like the Cosmic Cube, it's a 'simple' shield - something explicitly designed to protect.

* DependingOnTheWriter: Exactly how strong and tough Steve is compared to regular guys depends on the writing. He's never depicted as being strong enough to throw cars around or anything like that (even agility-based Spider-Man is stronger than him), but if the writer is generous, with great effort he can bend weak steel, heal from injuries in days that would have most guys laid up for months (and heal in months what would take most guys years, or never) and run at the speed of a sprinter for the duration of a marathon runner...but again, the extent of this depends on the writer. Many claim "it's not superpowers, really," but isn't having the body of an omni-athlete without needing to train excessively a power of its own?

While Cap's adventures were written and published throughout the [[TheForties 1940s]] and early [[TheFifties 1950s]], Creator/StanLee and a returning Jack Kirby {{retcon}}ned his history in 1964: the post-War Caps who fought Communism were impostors (first other superheroes and then an AscendedFanboy who went insane with a flawed imitation of the Super Serum), and the "original" Cap was killed in action, but they NeverFoundTheBody. Naturally, he came back from [[HumanPopsicle suspended animation]] to join ComicBook/TheAvengers, bringing his old-style patriotism and battle tactics to the table, eventually ascending to leadership. However, Cap also had to deal with being a man out of his time, with everyone he knew being long gone, while also being plagued with [[MyGreatestFailure his greatest failure]] -- not being able to save his sidekick's life in their final fight against Baron Zemo -- until Rick Jones finally told him to [[QuitYourWhining quit his whining]] and move on. Cap took that advice, and while the Red Skull drove Rick away when impersonating Cap, Rogers got a new partner, the Falcon, who was with him for years.

* ArcWelding: Mark Gruenwald revealed, when he resurrected the Red Skull in Captain America #350, that every bad guy or bad guy group that had appeared in roughly the last four years (save for the Serpent Society) worked for Red Skull as part of his newly formed cabal of evil groups under his control. Mind you, the groups themselves didn't know this; the Red Skull infiltrated them with a few sleeper agents to secretly bend the groups' activities to work toward his goals. When Flag-Smasher, the leader of one of the groups, found this out, he fled the group and warned Captain America.

** Issue 314 has Nighthawk of ''ComicBook/SquadronSupreme'' traveling to Earth-616 to find allies against his former teammates, finding Cap and then some of his own enemies who'd already fled their reality. Both titles were being written by Mark Gruenwald.

* HeroWithBadPublicity: Yes, even Steve himself is not immune to this one. During Gruenwald's run, Steve is forced to shoot an ULTIMATUM goon to save some hostages. It doesn't quite work, and the survivors tell the news, which spreads like wildfire. Steve has to deal with a public split between people think he's now a crazy gun-nut who shoots everyone he fights, and people cheering him on.

* TechnicalPacifist: Some writers have gone out of their way to say that Captain America has never taken a life, even during World War II. This would ultimately be debunked by Mark Gruenwald, who had Captain America kill an agent of ULTIMATIUM in order to stop the goon from killing innocent hostages. It has also been stated that he had killed during [=WW2=]. That said, Steve prefers not to and would like to avoid it if possible.

-->-- '''Steve Rogers''', ''ComicBook/DaredevilBornAgain'', written by Creator/FrankMiller.

[[foldercontrol]]

!!Major storylines

* ''[[ComicBook/CaptainAmericaSentinelOfLiberty Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty]]''
* ''[[ComicBook/CaptainAmericaSymbolOfTruth Captain America: Symbol of Truth]]''

* ''CaptainAmericaJMichaelStraczynski''