CAPTAIN AMERICA COMIC IS FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1940

Today, The Grandma has been reading one of her favourite comics, Captain America, whose first issue was published on a day like today in 1940.

 

Captain America is a superhero created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby who appears in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. 

 

The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1, published on December 20, 1940, by Timely Comics, a corporate predecessor to Marvel.

Captain America's civilian identity is Steven "Steve" Rogers, a frail man enhanced to the peak of human physical perfection by an experimental super-soldier serum after joining the United States Army to aid the country's efforts in World War II. Equipped with an American flag–inspired costume and a virtually indestructible shield, Captain America and his sidekick Bucky Barnes clashed frequently with the villainous Red Skull and other members of the Axis powers.

In the final days of the war, an accident left Captain America frozen in a state of suspended animation until he was revived in modern times. He resumes his exploits as a costumed hero and becomes leader of the superhero team the Avengers, but frequently struggles as a man out of time to adjust to the new era.

The character quickly emerged as Timely's most popular and commercially successful wartime creation upon his original publication, though the popularity of superheroes declined in the post-war period and Captain America Comics was discontinued in 1950. The character saw a short-lived revival in 1953 before returning to comics in 1964, and has since remained in continuous publication.

Captain America's creation as an explicitly anti-Nazi figure was a deliberately political undertaking: Simon and Kirby were stridently opposed to the actions of Nazi Germany and supporters of U.S. intervention in World War II, with Simon conceiving of the character specifically in response to the American non-interventionism movement. Political messages have subsequently remained a defining feature of Captain America stories, with writers regularly using the character to comment on the state of American society and government.

Having appeared in more than ten thousand stories in more than five thousand media formats, Captain America is one of the most popular and recognized Marvel Comics characters, and has been described as an icon of American popular culture. Though Captain America was not the first United States -themed superhero, he would become the most popular and enduring of the many patriotic American superheroes created during World War II. 

Captain America was the first Marvel character to appear in a medium outside of comic books, in the 1944 serial film Captain America; the character has subsequently appeared in a variety of films and other media, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where he was portrayed by actor Chris Evans from the character's first appearance in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) to his final appearance in Avengers: Endgame (2019).

In 1940, Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman responded to the growing popularity of superhero comics -particularly Superman at rival publisher National Comics Publications, the corporate predecessor to DC Comics -by hiring freelancer Joe Simon to create a new superhero for the company. Simon began to develop the character by determining who their nemesis could be, noting that the most successful superheroes were defined by their relationship with a compelling villain, and eventually settled on Adolf Hitler. He rationalized that Hitler was the best villain of them all as he was hated by everyone in the free world, and that it would be a unique approach for a superhero to face a real-life adversary rather than a fictional one.

Captain America Comics #1 was published on December 20, 1940, with a cover date of March 1941.

Simon wrote the first two issues of Captain America Comics before becoming the editor for the series; they were the only Captain America stories he would ever directly write.

Captain America made his ostensible return in the anthology Strange Tales #114 (November 1963), published by Atlas' corporate successor Marvel Comics. In an 18-page story written by Lee and illustrated by Kirby, Captain America reemerges following years of apparent retirement, though he is revealed as an impostor who is defeated by Human Torch of the Fantastic Four.

Captain America is one of the most popular and widely recognized Marvel Comics characters, and has been described as an icon of American popular culture. He is the most well-known and enduring of the United States-themed superheroes to emerge from the Second World War and inspired a proliferation of patriotic-themed superheroes in American comic books during the 1940s. This included the American Crusader, the Spirit of '76, Yank & Doodle, Captain Flag, and Captain Courageous, among numerous others.

Though none would achieve Captain America's commercial success, the volume of Captain America imitators was such that three months after the character's debut, Timely published a statement indicating that there is only one Captain America and warning that they would take legal action against publishers that infringed on the character.

After being dismissed from Timely, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby would themselves create a new patriotic superhero, the Fighting American, for Prize Comics in 1954; the character became the subject of a lawsuit from Marvel in the 1990s after Rob Liefeld attempted to revive the character following his own departure from Marvel.

More information: Get Comics

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