Captain America
fictional character in Marvel Comics
Captain America is a fictional superhero, created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who first appeared in Timely Comics' Captain America Comics #1 (December 1940). He is typically an icon of liberty and patriotism, but favors freedom over blind loyalty.
Captain America is the alter ego of Steve Rogers, a frail young artist enhanced to the peak of human perfection by an experimental "super-soldier serum" after joining the military to aid the United States government's efforts in World War II. Near the end of the war, he was trapped in ice and survived in suspended animation until he was revived in modern times.
- Keep flying, son. And watch that potty mouth!
- Crashing on top of a flying F-15, after the pilot exclaims "Jeezus!" in Civil War # 1, Mark Millar, May 2006.
- Weapons down or I will not be responsible for what comes next.
- Facing S.H.I.E.L.D. Cape-Killers in Civil War #1, Mark Millar, May, 2006.
- Ninety percent of the casualties of World War I were soldiers, fraulein. But half the people who died in World War II were civilians... Half of sixty-one million. I know why I'm fighting, fraulein. I don't want to see World War III.
- To a German student, Captain America vol. 4 #5, John Ney Rieber, October, 2002.
- A soldier with a voice that could command a god... and does.
- Ben Urich, about Captain America, Daredevil #233, Frank Miller, August 1986.
- I'm loyal to nothing, General.. except the Dream.
- After an army general confronts him about his loyalty, Daredevil #233, Frank Miller, August 1986.
- I fought your kind every day of that war, Zemo! You mocked democracy and said that free men were weak! Well feel this grip, Zemo — it's the grip of a man who loves liberty! Look into the eyes of your foe, and know that he will die for his freedom! The world must never again mistake compassion for weakness! And while I live — it had better not!
- Avengers assemble!
- Various comics where he appears with the Avengers
- Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — "No, you move."
- J. Michael Straczynski, Amazing Spider-Man #537, January 2007.
- Do you actually think the fact that you know how to program a computer makes you more of a human being than me? That I'm out of touch because I don't know what you know? I know what freedom is. I know what it feels like to fight for it and I know what it costs to have it. You know compromise.
- To Tony Stark, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. , Civil War: The Confession, Brian Michael Bendis, May, 2007.
- Captain America is not here to lead the country. I'm here to serve it. If I'm a captain, then I'm a soldier. Not of any military branch, but of the American people. Years ago, in simpler times, this suit and this shield were created as a symbol to help make America the land it's supposed to be... to help it realize its destiny. Ricocheting from super-villain duel to super-villain duel doesn't always serve that purpose. There's a difference between fighting against evil and fighting for the common good. I'm not always able to choose my battles... but effective immediately, I'm going to make an effort to choose the battles that matter. Battles against injustice, against cynicism, against intolerance. I will still serve with the Avengers. I will continue to defend this nation from any and all threats it may face. But as of today, I am not a "super hero." Now and forevermore, I am a man of the people. Together, you and I will identify and confront America's problems. Together, we will figure out what we are and what we can be. Together, we will define the American Dream and make it an American reality.
- John Ney Rieber, Captain America, Vol. 4, #7, February 2003.
- Listen to me -- all of you out there! You were told by this man -- your hero -- that America is the greatest country in the world!
- He told you that Americans were the greatest people -- that America could be refined like silver, could have the impurities hammered out of it, and shine more brightly!
- He went on about how precious America was -- how you needed to make sure it remained great!
- And he told you anything was justified to preserve that great treasure, that pearl of great price that is America!
- Well, I say America is nothing!! Without its ideals -- its commitment to the freedom of all men, America is a piece of trash!
- A nation is nothing! A flag is a piece of cloth!
- I fought Adolf Hitler not because America was great, but because it was fragile! I knew that liberty could be snuffed out here as in Nazi Germany! As a people, we were no different than them!
- When I returned, I saw that you nearly did turn America into nothing!
- And the only reason you're not less then nothing --
- -- is that it's still possible for you to bring freedom back to America!
- What If?, #44
- Courage, Honor, Loyalty, Sacrifice. You're braver than you think.
- Captain America: The Chosen
- These are dark and desperate times. I know that some of you are afraid. It's alright. It's perfectly natural. But I want you to know that I am not. I am not afraid to die this day because what we do here is necessary. It may seem impossible, our enemies may appear to be endless, but that doesn't matter. Because there is no one else. Look at me. I believe in an idea, an idea that a single individual who has the right heart and the right mind that is consumed with a single purpose, that one man can win a war. Give that one man a group of soldiers with the same conviction, and you can change the world.
- Speech to Nick Fury's Howling Commandos, Dark Reign: New Nation
- ...so we worked our way up from the south and met with leaders from the Maquis to help plan the attack. I've seen a lot of combat...and I'd seen a lot before I got to France...but the savagery inflicted on these people. I never saw anything like it until we got to Buchenwald. That's why it galls me when I hear my own people dismissing the French as cowards. We're talking about a people who never gave up fighting the Nazi occupation. Their country may have surrendered, but they didn't...
- Captain America 3, March 2005
- Surrender??!! You think this letter on my head stands for France?
- Fighting against extraterrestrial Nazi Herr Kleiser in Ultimates Vol.2, Mark Millar, (February 2005 - February 2007)
- Yeah, I'm gonna fight you. You know why? Because I fought besides Russians during World War 2. They were good and decent men, and they made terrible painful sacrifices to save their country. And to their country then turn around and put monsters in prisons with nuclear landmines... to see people like you, proudly complicit in this nightmare... Yeah, I'll fight you. You've waited forty years for me in this hellhole, I feel it'd be impolite not to kick your head in.
- To a Soviet supervillain, Ultimate Nightmare #4, Warren Ellis, (November 2004).
- What are you ladies waiting for, Christmas?!
- Leading a battalion of US army troops in WW2 in Ultimates #1, Mark MillarMarch 2002 – April 2004
Television Shows
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Then the red and the white and the blue will come through...
- When Captain America throws his mighty shield,
All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield!
If he's led to a fight and a duel is due,
Then the red and the white and the blue will come through,
When Captain America throws his mighty shield!"- Jack Urbont, "The Marvel Superheroes", (1966).
Capcom Fighting games
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- Freedom Prevails!
- Thumbs up, Soldier!
- Good Work, Soldier!
- For Truth, Justice, and the American way!
- Believe in your country, but believe in yourself!
- Stars and Stripes!!! (when performing his "Stars and Stripes" special attack)
- Charging Star!!! (when performing his "Charging Star" special attack)
- Final Justice! (when performing his "Final Justice" super move)
- Your kind's got no shot--not while I'm around.
- The day I fall to the likes of you is the day I hang up my shield. (After defeating M.O.D.O.K. in Marvel vs. Capcom 3)
- We Avengers will always fight the good fight! (When winning with the Avengers team in Marvel vs. Capcom 3)
- You think I'm going down to some pampered punk like you? (when up against Iron Man in Marvel vs. Capcom 3)
- Your name's Zero? Hope you don't fight like one. (when up against Zero in Marvel vs. Capcom 3)
Repeated quotes
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- Captain America: Avengers assemble!
Quotes about Captain America
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- On Olympus, we measure Wisdom against Athena, Speed against Hermes, Power against Zeus. But we measure Courage ... against Captain America.
- Hercules, in Captain America #444
- In a story from the early 1980s, Captain America uses his amazing powers to destroy a renegade American intelligence agency that is plotting an attack on the Soviet Union in order to make the United States the last remaining superpower. Confronting the plotters, the comic-book hero makes one of many declarations of faith that resound throughout his more than 70-year-long career as a fighter against evil: “I represent the American dream! A dream that has precious little to do with borders, boundaries, and the kind of blind hatred your ilk espouses!”
- When he first appeared in March 1941, Captain America was the alter ego of Steve Rogers, a skinny art student from New York who had been transformed into a super-soldier by the U.S. army. Trying to enlist, but rejected because of his scrawny physique, Rogers agrees to be used as a subject in a secret project. Injected with a special serum and exposed to a course of radiation with “Vita-Rays,” the scrawny young man acquires astonishing strength, resourcefulness and courage. Captain America isn’t a superman; he is an average human being whose powers have been enhanced to the nth degree. It may be the fact that he is so recognizably human that makes him the most modern of the comic superheroes.
- Appearing in the run-up to U.S. entry into a world-shaking conflict, the Captain has always embodied the good in human beings. In his new book, Virtues of Captain America: Modern-Day Lessons on Character from a World War II Superhero, Mark D. White argues that there can be no better model of ethical behavior today: “Cap’s ‘old-fashioned’ moral code is exactly what we need to restore civility and respect in the 21st century in both our personal lives and our political debates. He is what ancient philosophers—yes, more ancient than Cap—called a moral exemplar.”
- For White, who teaches philosophy at City University of New York and who has published widely on ethics as well as written about other comic-book heroes, the Captain is loyal to “timeless principles of freedom, equality and justice.” These principles are distinctively American, White believes, but he is keen to dispel “any illusion that Captain America is a jingoist flag-waver ... Instead he embodies an inclusive patriotism that balances idealism with clear-eyed pragmatism.” His principles are universal: as White puts it, he believes “American ideals apply to everyone—not just all Americans, but all people around the world.”
- John Gray, "The Moral Philosophy of Captain America", The New Republic, (April 2, 2014).
- Captain America was a product of the way I felt at the time. I come from New York City and – especially on the block where I lived – there was plenty of action. There were fights and people would come from the next block and we would fight and either win or lose. That would be the routine. I grew up with that type of activity and I accepted it in my professional work.
I believe it was also the times in general. Hitler was in power. The world was immersed in a general atmosphere of war. The war was coming and so there was a lot of turbulence. It was a very turbulent period and people reacted in a turbulent fashion. When I met partner Joe Simon, we immediately got our heads together and came up with Captain America who was typical of times. He was a patriot. He was a fighter. We were Americans and, in our plu cial[sic] minds, we were winners. Captain America was a winner. And sales were phenomenal.- Jack Kirby, “1993: Jack Kirby: The Hardest Working Man in Comics by Steve Pastis”, Happening Magazine, (1993) by Steve Pastin; as quoted by Rand Hoppe, The Kirby Effect The Journal of the Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center, (28 April 2018).
- I didn't have a lot of objections to putting a crew on the first issue ... There were two young artists from Connecticut that had made a strong impression on me. Al Avison and Al Gabriele often worked together and were quite successful in adapting their individual styles to each other. Actually, their work was not too far from [that of] 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 eager to join in on the new Captain America 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 [all] myself and make the deadline." I hadn't expected this kind of reaction ... but I acceded 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 Captain America 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 pepping up the action as only he could. Then he tightened up the penciled drawings, adding detailed backgrounds, faces and figures."- Joe Simon in Simon, Joe; Simon, Jim (1990). The Comic Book Makers. Crestwood/II. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-887591-35-5. Reissued by Vanguard Productions in 2003.
- I was always thinking about heroes and villains, with all sorts of ideas swimming around in my head…I had a hot fudge sundae sitting in front of me, with the vanilla ice cream, and the hot fudge is running down the side. It was intriguing. The hot fudge looked like limbs—legs, feet, and hands—and I’m thinking to myself. Gee, this’d make an interesting villain, I mused. We’ll call him Hot Fudge … Just put a face on him, and have him ooze all over the place. But I looked again at the sundae, and I saw the big cherry on top. The cherry looked like a skull. “Wow,” I said to myself. “Red Skull … that sounds good.”
- We knew what was going on over in Europe. World events gave us the perfect comic-book villain, Adolf Hitler, with his ranting, goose-stepping and ridiculous moustache. So we decided to create the perfect hero who would be his foil. I did that first sketch of Captain America, and Jack and I did the entire first issue before showing it to (publisher) Martin Goodman at Timely Comics. He loved it immediately.
- But when Captain America came out, America wasn't yet in the war, so the American Nazis weren't happy with what we did to their beloved Fuhrer. ... We had a couple of personal encounters with the Bund (an American Nazi group). But that didn't stop us. If anything, it added fuel to the fire.
- Joe Simon, "Joe Simon interview: Captain America was a response to Hitler's rise", Mark Voger, Star Ledger, December 15, 2011.
