Directions: Examine the previous picture, and read the following article. Questions will be assigned separately.

Captain America, who debuted in 1941, is a superhuman American soldier who was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics. The character was a patriotic symbol during World War II, and his popularity has continued to the present.

Origin Story and World War II

Though Captain America's origin story has been slightly altered over the decades, his general origin story has remained the same. In the early days of World War II, physically weak Steve Rogers, unable to pass the physical for the U.S. Army, volunteered for a secret government experiment, allowing himself to be injected with a "super soldier serum" which promised to enhance his physical abilities. Though Rogers intended to be the first of an army of such super-soldiers, the primary scientist on the project was killed, and all remaining vials of the experimental serum were destroyed by a Nazi spy. As the sole super-soldier, Rogers donned the red-white-and-blue costume becoming "Captain America" in Captain America Comics, No. 1 (1941).

Captain America was the first comic book superhero to debut in his own, self-titled comic book. On the cover of that first issue, Captain America is shown delivering a powerful right-hook to real-life German dictator Adolf Hitler. The message of this image is clear: by 1941, a growing number of Americans, particularly Jewish Americans, were becoming increasingly aware of the threat posed by the Nazi regime overseas.

During the war, Cap and his friend Bucky fought enemy Axis agents, including Cap's arch-nemesis, the Red Skull. After the war, Rogers became a public school geography teacher, with Bucky as one of his students, at the Lee School.

By the end of the 1940s, superhero comics were no longer trending, and Captain America Comics was canceled. The hero briefly returned in late 1953, first in the pages of Young Men and later in Captain America: Commie Smasher! The stories in these issues turned Cap's anti-Fascism approach and directed it toward the perceived growing threat of international communism. Once the book was canceled yet again, Captain America would disappear until the advent of the "Marvel Age" of comics in the 1960s.

Source: Captain America. (2019). In History Hub. Retrieved from http://historyhub.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/2190989