Steve Rogers was born July 4, 1917, to poor Irish immigrant parents, and grew up a frail youth during the Great Depression. His father died when he was a child, and his mother died later when he was in his late teens. Horrified by newsreel footage of the Nazis in Europe, Rogers was inspired to enlist in the Army. However, because of his frailty and sickness, he was rejected. Overhearing the boy's earnest plea to be accepted, General Chester Phillips of the US Army offered Rogers the opportunity to take part in a top-secret experiment called Operation Rebirth, as the military was trying to create an army of super men to use in WW2. Rogers agreed and was taken to a secret laboratory in Washington, DC, where he was introduced to Doctor Abraham Erskine (code named Professor Reinstein), the creator of the Super-Soldier Serum.
After weeks of tests, Rogers was at last administered the Super-Soldier Serum. Given part of the compound intravenously and another part orally, Rogers was then bombarded by "vita-rays," a special combination of exotic (in 1941) wavelengths of radiation designed to accelerate and stabilize the serum's effect on his body. Steve Rogers emerged from the vita-ray chamber with a body as perfect as a body can be and still be human. A Nazi spy who observed the experiment murdered Erskine mere minutes after its conclusion. Erskine died without fully committing the Super-Soldier formula to paper, leaving Steve Rogers the sole beneficiary of his genius.
Rogers was then put through an intensive physical and tactical training program, teaching him gymnastics, hand-to-hand combat, and military strategy. Three months later, he was given his first assignment, to stop the Nazi agent called the Red Skull. To help him become a symbolic counterpart to the Red Skull, Rogers was given the red, white, and blue costume of Captain America. He was given the cover identity of a clumsy infantry private at Camp Lehigh.
Rogers was originally issued a traditionally-shaped "kite" shield made of mundane steel, as well as a sidearm. His mask was separate from the rest of his costume, and in one early outing it was nearly knocked from his face, revealing his identity. Adding a hood to his costume solved this problem and afforded Rogers more protection in this previously exposed area. President Roosevelt presented him with his now-legendary disc-shaped shield. Discovering that its excellent aerodynamic properties made it an effective offensive weapon, Rogers abandoned his sidearm.
During the war, "Cap" served as both a symbol of freedom and America's most effective special operative. In addition to working with his young sidekick Bucky, he sometimes fought alongside other Allied heroes such as Namor the Sub-Mariner and the android Human Torch, and sometimes as part of a superteam known as the Invaders. He sometimes came into contact with a Canadian paratrooper named Jim Howlett, the man who would come to be known as Wolverine.
As part of the war effort, the US government commissioned a documentary about Captain America. Rogers (secretly) played himself, after the stunt man was shot by a Nazi spy posing as the prop master. In the serial, Cap used conventional firearms rather than his shield, and the Super-Soldier Serum and Bucky were omitted. His identity was given as Grant Gardner, a distrct attorney.
Unstintingly, Rogers faced fascist Germans and imperialist Japanese. Among his foes and adventures: battles with the John Maxon imposter Red Skull, the White Death, the Legion of Unholy Beggars, the Dragon of Death, the Reaper, the Black Toad, the Black Talon, the Mikado, Stryker, Doctor Crime, Mock Mikado, Master Man and the Super-Axis, Togaro, Prophet of Hate, Agent Axis, the Shark, the Hyena, N2 and Mister Sinister, Togu, Doctor Destiny, Snapper, Jack The Ripper and Terdu, Dormammu, HYDRA, the Hand, the Grandmaster, the Ringmaster, Baron Zemo, Colonel Von Wagner, Fang (who later died in Hiroshima and thus became one with the Everwraith), and the Butterfly; preventing the murder of President Roosevelt by a group called the Defenders, the Battle of the Bulge, D-Day, stopping saboteurs (early March 1941), meeting Wakandans, saving President Roosevelt from a deranged Namor, meeting Nikola Tesla, saving a Manhattan Project scientist from Red Skull with the help of the Howling Commandos, stopping (with Howling Commando support) the Red Skull's plot to deploy a centuries-old automaton designed by a time-travelling Doctor Doom, facing the Red Skull in a hover device, scuffling with fellow Allies the Crusaders, fighting alongside the French Resistance and Peggy Carter, almost accidentally slaying a war orphan, saving Michael Kramer from the Red Skull. In April 1945 he stormed the Red Skull's bunker with Red Guardian, Patriot, and Spirit of '76, in his last WWII battle with Red Skull. For a time, Bucky fought alongside a time-displaced modern-era Captain America until the Avengers recovered their colleague.
Then, during the final days of the war, on or before April 18, 1945, he was trying to stop a bomb-loaded drone-plane launched by Baron Heinrich Zemo when the plane exploded, apparently killing his partner Bucky and throwing Rogers unhurt into icy Arctic waters. The Super-Soldier Formula prevented crystallization of Captain America's bodily fluid, allowing him to enter a state of suspended animation.
While Cap and Bucky were seemingly killed, the war still raged on. Not wanting morale to suffer, President Truman asked William Naslund (the Spirit of '76) and a boy named Fred Davis to secretly replace and impersonate the two, respectively. Though Davis was several years younger than Barnes had been, nobody seemed to notice the difference in the last days of the war. With the Invaders, the two finished the fight against the Nazis and then against the Japanese. After the war they were part of the All-Winners Squad.
Naslund was killed in 1946 while protecting a young man running for Senate, John F. Kennedy. An android called Adam II and his robots intended to kill Kennedy and take his place, and Naslund held them off long enough to summon the rest of the All-Winners. The adventurer Patriot (Jeffrey Mace) (who had saved Rogers once during WWII) found Naslund as he died, and was the next man to take on the Captain America identity. Mace adventured for a time with the All-Winners, Davis, and Golden Girl before marrying her and retiring in 1950. Years later he died of cancer, with Rogers at his side.
The Grand Director (who had his name legally changed to "Steve Rogers") and Jack Monroe were the next "Captain America" and "Bucky." "Rogers" suggested to the US government that the military needed a Captain America for the Korean War. Using a version of the Super-Soldier Formula on themselves in 1953, they were unaware of the entire process, and without the essential vita-ray treatment, the serum had significant mental side effects. By the time they were ready for action, the Korean War was winding down, and the two, by mid-1954, were irrationally attacking anyone they perceived to be Communists. They were placed in suspended animation by the FBI, and would have later encounters with the man they modeled themselves upon.
Decades later, Rogers's wartime comrade the Sub-Mariner stumbled across Rogers's still-frozen form, which was being worshipped by a far-flung Inuit tribe. Enraged, the Sub-Mariner threw the ice block into the ocean. While opposing Namor, the newly-formed Avengers happened upon Rogers's thawing body. They soon revived the legendary hero. Needing to adjust to the world he found himself in, Rogers joined their ranks as the first recruit since their formation, and was given retroactive "founding member" status in place of the Hulk. Despite his lack of superhuman abilities, his extensive training and combat experience, combined with his impressive physique, confidence, and will, made him an excellent addition to the team. As a born leader, Rogers would come to be seen as the heart and soul of the team, and his commands while in the field were often looked to, regardless of who might have been chairman at the time. Rogers would teach teamwork, tactics, and hand-to-hand combat to many later Avengers.
Seeing that Avengers associate Rick Jones bore a resemblance to Bucky, Cap took him into tutelage, trying to recover from the great trauma of losing his wartime partner. After a time, Jones even convinced Rogers to let him wear Bucky's old costume and initiate a partnership. The early adventures Cap had with Earth's Mightiest Heroes included a run-in with his wartime foe Baron Heinrich Zemo. Zemo organized the first incarnation of the Masters of Evil, a group of supervillains who each bore a grudge against a particular Avenger. After several skirmishes between the two groups, Zemo kidnapped Rick Jones. Zemo was accidentally killed in a rockslide caused by his own weaponry as he battled Cap.
Following a battle with Kang the Conqueror, the remaining founding Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man and The Wasp) decided to take a leave of absence from the stress of super-crimefighting. Captain America was thus left to lead a new team comprised of Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. "Cap's Kooky Quartet" was at first regarded as less able than the previous lineup, but soon proved their worth by overcoming several threats including a resurgent Kang as well as Doctor Doom. While the hot-headed Quicksilver and Hawkeye were at first headstrong loose cannons, Rogers' leadership was able to mold them into valuable team members.
When Cap took his first leave of absence from the team, it was the Black Panther who stepped in to take his place on the roster. When Cap discovered that one of T'Challa's motives was to "spy" on the Avengers (part of his actions as King of Wakanda to observe foreigners), relations between the two were strained for some time. Eventually they restored the bonds of alliance and friendship.
Meanwhile, Cap's old nemesis the Red Skull was brought out of suspended animation by the subversive organization THEM. The Skull feigned cooperation with THEM (actually the ruling council of HYDRA led by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker) long enough to steal the Cosmic Cube from subsidiary organization AIM. This led to the first postwar clash between the two great symbols of World War II. Later the Skull, wielding the Cosmic Cube, impersonated Rogers and drove Rick Jones away.
Rogers often crossed paths with another World War II veteran as well, this one an ally: Sergeant Fury of the Howling Commandos was now Colonel Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Captain America teamed with Fury many times after emerging from suspended animation. Rogers and Fury's relationship has warmed and cooled over the years, depending on various circumstances, but they often work together and towards the same ends, and the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. maintained a close working relationship, even sharing a common computer database. Rogers worked with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Agent 13, Sharon Carter, a sister to Peggy Carter (an American who had joined the French Resistance in WWII, and who had fallen in love with Captain America) with whom he would come to share a romantic relationship.
Another plot by the Skull involved attacking Rogers with a Cosmic Cube-empowed man named Sam Wilson. Rogers was able to break Wilson out of control by the Skull, and the two teamed together to defeat Cap's archenemy. Wilson became the costumed adventurer called The Falcon, and the two shared a partnership for a long time. One of their many battles together pitted them against the Grand Director and Jack Monroe, the "Captain America" and "Bucky" of the 1950s. Rogers is shaken at the fact that he could have shared the Director's fate.
Changing Identities and Avengers Troubles
In reaction to the Marvel Universe's version of the Watergate Scandal, Rogers abandons his Captain America identity and takes up the alias "Nomad." Several men try in vain to assume the "Captain America" title in the meantime. Considering that he could be a symbol of American ideals rather than the government, Rogers re-assumed his classic name. A rehabilitated Jack Monroe joined Cap in a partnership, himself assuming the Nomad costume. Following a battle with Viper, Rogers' Super-Soldier Serum reacted with the venom in her whip, temporarily granting him superhuman strength.
Captain America's sterling leadership abilities were showcased when he became leader of the heroes who were summoned to Battleworld during the so-called Secret Wars by the godlike Beyonder. Clashing with Doctor Doom's forces repeatedly, Cap was faced with leadership challenges ranging from dealing with the outcast X-Men, keeping the Hulk from attacking Doom's forces by himself after She-Hulk's defeat and The Wasp's apparent death, and keeping morale up in the face of battling Galactus. Rogers' leadership qualities would be deferred to time and time again during large gatherings of heroes, such as when Adam Warlock sent a band of heroes to oppose the Infinity Gauntlet-wielding Thanos, and also when he assumed joint command of the Avengers and the Justice League of America.
When Avengers Mansion was attacked and conquered by the Masters of Evil under the leadership of Baron Helmut Zemo, Captain America was specifically targeted by Zemo to avenge his father's death. Rogers was captured during an attempt to retake the mansion, and was forced to watch as Mister Hyde tortured helpless butler Edwin Jarvis. The Masters proceeded to destroy a treasure trove of Rogers' memorabilia, including a picture with Bucky taken just before he was killed, Rogers' only picture of his mother, a baseball signed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and Cap's original triangular shield. In the final battle, Cap defeated The Wrecker with the aid of The Wasp, and defeated Baron Zemo in a rooftop duel. As Zemo fell, Cap tried to grab his hand, and though he did survive the fall, refused such charity.
Captain America continued to come into conflict with many foes, including the extreme anti-nationalist Flag-Smasher and the vigilante called The Scourge of the Underworld. Rogers was informed by the Commission on Superhuman Activities that he had never been officially discharged from the U.S. Army. For this, he recieved a large back-pay, dating to the end of World War II, which he used to establish a nation-wide hotline service to help him keep abreast of criminal activities. However, the Commission demanded that Rogers, as an "active" member of the armed forces, resume service as a government-directed operative. Rogers again resigned the Captain America identity, even surrendering his legendary shield to the new Captain America, John Walker, who had previously clashed with Rogers as the "Super-Patriot." During this time, Rogers used an adamantium shield and, adopting a new costume, continued adventuring as "The Captain."
Not long afterwards, the Avengers' East Coast branch was temporarily disbanded due to a lack of active members. As The Captain, Rogers led a new lineup of the Avengers consisting of Thor, Gilgamesh and temporary recruits Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four. Richards himself was accustomed to leading, however, and there were some conflicts of leadership between the two.
The Captain also led an unnamed, unofficial team during the same period that accompanied him on several missions. Along with The Falcon and Nomad, the group at times included Demolition-Man, who had assisted Rogers against Power Broker, Inc., and Vagabond, a tagalong of Nomad's.
It would later be discovered that Red Skull was manipulating the Commission. The Captain and Nomad clashed with "Captain America" and his "Bucky", and then Rogers and Walker confronted the Skull. Following these events and deeds that Walker had done while Captain America, Walker was stripped of the role and it, along with the shield, was returned to Steve Rogers.
At one point, Cap avoided the explosion of a meth lab only to have the chemical effects of the blast react dangerously with his Super-Soldier Serum. To remove the problem, he removed the serum, and must train constantly to keep in peak condition. He discovered that the serum was not a drug per se, which would have metabolized out of his system, but in fact a virus that effected a biochemical and genetic change. This additionally explained how archnemesis Red Skull, who at the time inhabited a body cloned from Rogers's cells, also had the formula in his body. Because of his altered biochemistry, Rogers' body began to deteriorate, and for a time he wore a powered exoskeleton designed by Iron Man and Hank Pym, but was eventually placed again in suspended animation. During this time, he was given a transfusion of blood from the Red Skull, which cured his condition and stabilized the Super-Soldier virus in his system. Captain America returned both to crimefighting and the Avengers.
Captain America was reunited with his WWII-era flame, the now-aged American Maquis fighter Peggy Carter. Freeing her and others from the grip of the criminal Doctor Faustus, Rogers had her hired on as communications expert at Avengers Mansion as part of the expanded domestic staff called the Avengers Ground Crew. Their romantic feelings diminished, but the two remained good friends. Another person taken on by Steve during this time was John Jameson, who acted as his pilot.
When the Avengers learned of the Kree-Shi'ar War and the danger the war efforts posed to Earth's sun, they proposed to send diplomatic envoys to each superpower in an attempt to avert catastrophe known as Operation Galactic Storm. Captain America led the team bound for the Kree Empire. He had several conflicts of leadership with Iron Man, which culminated when the latter, against orders, led a team of Avengers to execute the Kree Supreme Intelligence for war crimes. His confidence in his leadership shaken, Cap offered to resign as chief executive and commanding officer of the two Avengers branches, but this was not the route the other Avengers wanted to take. Cap's old friend Hawkeye helped reinforce Cap's leadership confidence, as did the rescue by USAgent (John Walker) and The Falcon of Demolition-Man from ULTIMATUM, Flag-Smasher's terrorist organization.
After returning to Earth, Cap rescued Diamondback (Rachel Leighton) from Red Skull's henchman Crossbones. Diamondback had previously, as a member of the Serpent Society, had a chance to kill Rogers in battle that she did not take. This was because she was smitten with him; the two began an on-and-off semi-romantic partnership afterwards.
Cap was part of the force raised to battle the psychic entity called Onslaught, and was one of the Avengers who seemingly gave their lives to absorb Onslaught's energy. In reality, they (the senior Avengers and the Fantastic Four) had been shunted to an alternate dimension created by Franklin Richards. After several months in this world, the heroes realized it was a construct and escaped.
During a rebuilding period with the Avengers, Captain America and the rest of the team (past and present) were duped by Morgan Le Fay into acting as her elite guard, the Queen's Vengeance. Rogers' alias in this alter-ego was "Yeoman America." He was the first Avenger to break out of Morgan's trance, and formed a resistance group that foiled the ancient sorceress' plans.
Captain America, both in his solo career and as an Avenger, went on to participate in a variety of other missions.
On a day that would become the darkest in Avengers history, the Scarlet Witch suffered a breakdown that, combined with her powers, had catastrophic consequences. Cap had recently had a strange encounter with Wanda, as well as the beginnings of romance, and was struck hard by the devastation of the team, which disbanded shortly thereafter.
Meanwhile, Captain America and the Falcon had had to deal with the Anti-Cap. Red Skull tried to capitalize on his enemy's misfortunes by using a Life-Model Decoy of Diamondback to lure him into a trap.
Cap moved into the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, revealed his identity to the world (although he lived in a SHIELD safe house), and resumed his off-and-on relationship with Sharon Carter.
Cap was among those heroes present at the Raft when Electro instigated a jailbreak. The next day, he spoke with Tony Stark, and convinced him to help form the New Avengers. Most of those present during the jailbreak were founding members of the team. The new SHIELD Director, Maria Hill, was opposed to their incorporation, but Rogers reminded her that he had Full Champion License—that is, he was authorized by SHIELD to assemble any team he deemed necessary for any mission he deemed necessary, and therefore did not need her permission. The New Avengers embarked on several missions under his leadership.
Meanwhile, Cap had also been dealing with more personal matters. Having been made a special SHIELD operative, Rogers, Sharon Carter, and Nick Fury began an investigation into Aleksander Lukin and his powerful Kronas Corporation. After the apparent assassination of the Red Skull, Lukin was in possession of the Cosmic Cube, but he also had a more personal weapon: the Winter Soldier (a revived Bucky Barnes). A KGB assassin who had been occasionally let out of suspended animation to perform only the most difficult missions, the Winter Soldier encountered Sharon Carter, who believed that he was the real Bucky. Cap at first refused to believe it, but Fury presented him with solid evidence.
Winter Soldier killed Jack Monroe and caused major devastation in Philadelphia before Cap, the Falcon, and Agent Carter stormed a hidden underground base operated by Lukin. Cap and Winter Soldier dueled, and the latter showed no sign of memory. Cap used the Cosmic Cube to restore his memory; Bucky then used it himself to teleport to Camp Lehigh, where he began to cope with his past.
Months later, Cap and Sharon tracked Bucky to a small midwestern town that was actually controlled by AIM. Distracted by storming the AIM compound and battling Crossbones and Sin (Synthia Schmidt), they were unable to catch up with him.
When SHIELD suggested the Superhuman Registration Act, Special Agent Hill ordered Rogers and the Avengers to help enforce it. When he refused, Hill had her trained "Superhuman Response Unit" attack him. During the scuffle Rogers avoided being tranquilized and managed to escape by lodging his shield in an aircraft and forcing the pilot to fly him to safety. Soon after, at the Baxter Building, the Watcher told the heroes who had gathered there about Cap's escape. He would become the leader of the resistance to the act.
He adopted the alias "Brett Hendrick", a mall security guard, to avoid government detection. As the Civil War continued, Rogers became more and more extreme in his desire to win, including allowing The Punisher to join his "Secret Avengers," (though he did not condone the man's willingness to kill) and working (albeit reluctantly) with the Kingpin. Since his old friend Iron Man was leading the Pro-Registration Superhero Unit, the rivalry was especially bitter. The two attempted to meet twice during the conflict, but each time it devolved into combat. They even refused to attend the wedding of Black Panther and Storm together. Cap was nearly captured by Paladin but escaped with the aid of the Heroes for Hire. Rogers's old teammate the Vision disabled Iron Man's armor, evening the odds for Cap and allowing him to take down the unarmored Stark during the climactic battle in Times Square. Soon, however, a crowd of civilians approached in support of Stark. Realizing that his fight against the registration act was endangering the people that he was trying to protect, he took off his mask, leaving it on the ground as he surrendered to Iron Man. He then gave his followers the order to stand down. The Punisher was seen picking up Captain America's discarded mask after the battle.
Following his surrender, Steve Rogers was indicted on several criminal charges. Orchestrated by the resurgent Red Skull, the assassination involved Crossbones deployed as a sniper. He fired the first shot, hitting Captain America in the back as he entered the federal courthouse. In addition, Doctor Faustus, posing as a SHIELD psychiatrist, had manipulated Sharon Carter and implanted in her mind a hypnotic suggestion that she believed caused her to shoot Rogers, three times in the stomach and chest, in the chaos that ensued. Rogers was taken to a hospital, where he succumbed to his wounds. It was noted SHIELD had restrained Steve with strength dampeners, while he was in custody.
Captain America was given a state funeral, but the body in his memorial at Arlington was a fake. Immediately after his death, Rogers's body was taken to SHIELD HQ as the only perfect super-soldier specimen in the world. Standing before Rogers's frail and withered looking body, Tony Stark (new director of SHIELD) informed Sharon Carter that:
Our best guess ... is that the super-soldier serum reversed its effect when he died. It's unexpected though, so we're running comprehensive tests.
Tony Stark, accompanied by Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, returned Steve Rogers's real body to the Arctic where he was found all those years ago, frozen in ice. Namor attended the small private ceremony and swore that as long as he ruled the seas, no one would disturb Captain America's rest.
The reformed Winter Soldier and Wolverine swore to avenge his death.
Some time later, an attorney gave Stark a package containing a photo of Captain America and Bucky in World War II, and Steve Rogers's final requests: that Stark "save" Bucky, and that the mantle of Captain America should continue.
At some point in his past, Cap was held prisoner of the Red Skull and an army of Neo-Nazi's, during this encounter the Red Skull claimed that Dr. Abraham Erskine was secretly a member of the Nazi party. The Red Skull went on to explain that Hitler had funded scientists to work for the Allies, so that their discoveries would aid the Axis powers. That the secret plan of the Nazi's for the super-soldier project was to create a perfect Aryan race, and as such was why the picked Steve Rogers, a scrawny young man with blond hair and blue eyes. Red Skull also went on to explain that the assassin that killed Erskine was originally meant to kill Rogers after his birth, and that Erskine's death was not the intended.
If the Red Skulls claims have not been substantiated, and could have possibly been used as mental torture.
Since then the Red Skull and his followers began worshiping Captain America as Hitler's "one true son", and the Skull himself began attacking people in Cap's personal life whom the Skull deemed "impure" or "unworthy" of Cap.
At some point either prior to, or after the death of the Red Skull, Cap came into the possession of the Cosmic Cube once more. Knowing that he would be too tempted to use it, he turned it over to the only person he knew would not be tempted to use it, nor give it up to Cap no matter how much he begged for it: The Black Panther.
At some point during the world wide mutation of humanity due to the release of Terrigen Mists into Earth's atmosphere, the Red Skull had tracked down and murdered Bernie Rosenthal, who was once the girlfriend of Captain America due to her brief association with Cap, and the Red Skull's belief that Captain America had to live up to Hitler's dream. The battle between Cap and the Red Skull following Bernie's death ended with Captain America decapitating the Red Skull with his shield. Following the Skull's death, Cap had vowed never to kill again. Soon after the Skull's death, Cap quit the Avengers because he felt that since he had killed the Red Skull out revenge that his continued membership would taint their ranks. Not long after, all the Avengers (except the Vision) were murdered by the Absorbing Man in Washington D.C.
As the world's population began to rapidly mutate and anarchy spread across the world, Cap joined up with S.H.I.E.L.D. around the time that world meat shortages began. Soon after his joining of S.H.I.E.L.D., members of it's organization were succumbing to the alien Hydra (including the Falcon, Dum Dum Dugan, Sharon Carter, and She-Hulk among others)
When Norman Osborn bought his way into the White House, Captain America refused to serve under him or fight along with the Iron Avengers, a group of robots created by Tony Stark for Osborne to act as guardians of the United States and fight off the invasion of the alien Hydra.
Soon the S.H.I.E.L.D. helecarrier was taken down by the Hydra's and S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury died in the crash. When Cap investigated the crashed helecarrier he found a video on it's main computer from Nick Fury warning that Osborne was behind the creation of the Hydra's and that S.H.I.E.L.D. and Cap's friends were all targeted because Cap refused to work for Osborne.
Eventually, Cap returned to New York City and partnered up with Red Wing (Wyatt Wingfoot) and the Iron Avengers, finally working for Osborne, but plotting to take him down, this however never came to pass.
Instead, during one of the Iron Avenger's routine sweeps through New York City to eliminate the Hydra hordes, Cap almost submitted to the members of Hydra's (all of whom were former friends of Cap) pleas to join the Hydra. When one of the Hydra's approached with what appeared to be a cloth bearing the Punisher's old insignia but in red, Cap quickly rejected the Hydra's offer to join. After the Iron Avenger's seemingly eliminated the Hydra. Cap assumed that the symbol on the cloth was indication that the Red Skull had somehow returned.
Soon, Cap and Red Wing traveled to the fallen S.H.I.E.L.D. helecarrier to see if it's computers could locate any other sign of this red skull insignia and found a large concentration of the image on the west coast. Cap and Red Wing then traveled to the west in one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s flying cars.
In California they found a large group of people (one of whom was Cap's old ally Marshall Maldoon) working under the banner, collecting fish from the ocean as a food source. This pillaging of the sea caught the attention of Namor who attacked this group and he soon clashed with Iron Maiden. During the battle he suddenly stopped and bowed down to their leader, who, to Cap's amazement was a teenage boy who went under the name of the Skull. It appeared that the Skull was able to make anyone in his vicinity his slave (it was later revealed that the Skull was in no way related to the Red Skull, but was really Benny Beckley, son of Comet Man. His powers were one of the many fail safes that was implemented into human DNA by the Celestials when they originally manipulated the human race, so at at time when all humans had mutated, one of their number could control them all and they could better defend the planet from invaders.)
Outraged by this form of slavery, Captain America and Red Wing confronted the Skull and demanded that he release the people that he controlled. The Skull found that Captain America was a laughing stock and took possession of Red Wing and had his masses attack Cap and drive him out of the vicinity. The Skull wanted Cap to be the only person free of his control, to mock the humbled hero.
Cap, without a cause decided to remain on the west coast until he was approached by the Daredevil (not Matthew Murdock, but a freak show performer) who wanted to join Cap's cause because he figured it was a surefire way to die (Daredevil's mutation made it impossible for him to die) While Cap and Daredevil followed the Skull's progression across the United States, Cap had sent ahead Daredevil's circus companions to New York City to find Scott Summers (formally the X-Man, Cyclops) to train them to be the next X-Men.
Upon arriving in New York City, Cap and Daredevil located the Thing asking him to aid in rallying a counter army to stop the Skull from taking over the world. Using the tuning fork once belonging to the Inhuman royal pet named Lockjaw, Cap first approached Tony Stark to assist in battling the Skull. Stark insisted that his Iron Avengers would stop the army. However the Iron Avengers were destroyed and as a result President Osborne was assassinated by the Skull.
Cap travelled the world recruiting super humans from around the globe to assist in battling the Skull. From Japan he recruited Lord Sunfire and his Red Ronin army; Ka-Zar and Shanna the She-Devil from the Savage Land; From Russia he recruited Czar Colossus, the Black Widow, the Crymson Dynamo and an army of Red Guardians; From Britain, Captain Britain, the Black Knight (secretly the son of Black Bolt), Dragon Man, and an army of Union Jacks; And finally Guardian and Sasquatch from Canada.
When Cap and his army traveled to Wakanda seeking aid from the Black Panther, Cap also asked to be given the Cosmic Cube for use against the Skull. The Black Panther refused the aid Cap in anyway and stated that should the Skull's army make their way to Wakanda he would deal with the invaders on his own.
With his army, Cap returned to New York city and made an attack on the Skull and his army, and even with the added power of the Hulk and Bruce Banner, the Skull gained the upper hand by taking control of most of Cap's warriors. Even after his defeat, the Skull refused to possess Cap and had his troops beat Cap. Cap made one final desperate lunge at the Skull and just before he was killed by Marshall Maldoon, he was rescued by Spider-Man, who had finally decided to get involved in heroics once more in order to save his daughter, Venom, who was one of the Skull's slaves.
The two heroes returned to the Thing's loft where they regrouped with the Thing, and the X-Men, and they formulated a plan. After their first battle with the Skull, Cap had noticed that the Skull was unable to take control of the Hulk, and could only control the beast once he took control of Bruce Banner. Cap also realized that the Skull destroyed the Iron Avengers as opposed to taking control of them and realized that the Skull had no control over the mindless, and so employed the use of the Marvels (life sized clay sculptures of many of Earth's heroes in their prime that were created and given life by Alicia Masters, the wife of the Thing)
With this new plan in place, Cap staged another attack against the Skull, as planned the Skull was unable to take possession of the Marvels, which threw off his ability to counter attack. During the battle, Cap (covered in clay shaped like his former self) was able to sneak up behind the Skull. As the Skull believed that Cap was just another lifeless sculpture he didn't think he was capable of stopping it until it was to late, and Cap was close enough to break the boys neck.
With the death of the Skull, all those possessed by him were free, at that moment the Celestials arrived on Earth to place their final judgment on the human race. While the Celestials first battled Tony Stark (who attacked in a giant robot built out of his factory, and was soon killed by the Celestials) and later Galactus (who was secretly Franklin Richards in his third tier of mutation, who believed himself to be Galatcus) Cap left the battle in order to bury and provide a eulogy for the Skull, whom he dubbed "James" (after James Barnes, his first partner, Bucky) as he had not known the boys name.
Sometime after the Celestial's defeat in New York harbor, Reed Richards had reconfigured most of the worlds Vibradium beacons into "Human Torches" to burn the Terrigen Mists out of the Earth's atmosphere as the first step in attempting to reverse the worlds mutation. Cap was selected to light the first of these torches in New York City.
Over the course of the next three years the world goes into chaos. The destruction of the Celestial Embryo in the center of the Earth causes the worlds poles to shift causing great ecological disasters, mutanity blames the torches and is jealous of those who seek to take away their power. The artificial beings, Him and Her give birth to the reincarnation of Mar-Vel, and while Her is kidnapped, Reed Richards manages to get away with the young Mar-Vel and he is put under the care of Namor and Agatha Harkness.
Three years later, Mar-Vel (who also exists in the land of the living as well as in the land of the dead, his incarnation in the land of the dead is empowered by the Enigma Force) summons to be retrieved and he enlists the aid of Captain America in his quest to collect items of power. Mar-Vel plans to take these objects to take away potentially take away weapons of mass destruction from the masses. Additionally, these items will assist Mar-Vel in building a paradise for everyone to live in, defeat Death, and reconstruct the Cosmic Consciousness he once possessed.
Cap and Marv first locate Tandi Bowen (formally known as Dagger) and relieve her of the cloak she possessed (that once belonged to her partner named Cloak) Marv uses this cloak to assist the two heroes in traveling to the different locations they need to go to find the items that Mar-Vel seeks.
They next travel to Dr. Strange's former Sanctum Sanctorum, searching for the Orb of Agomotto, and the books of Darkhold and Vishanti. There they find it has been over run by Mindless Ones. They also find Loki, who is in the process of redefining himself after learning that he is not really a god but an alien manipulated by the Celestials who is in the third tier of mutation. Loki informs them that they will find the books within the Siege Perilous in Britain and will learn the location of the Orb once they get there.
Arriving in Britain, they are aided by Captain Britain, Medusa and the new Black Bolt (the originals son) in entering the Siege Perilous. There they meet Psylock, Roma and Merlin, who give Mar-Vel the Books of Vishanti and Darkhold. Merlin also gives Mar-Vel a piece of the Cosmic Consciousness. Merlin also informs them that the Orb of Agomotto is in Japan. Once outside of the Siege, the group notices an angelic like being, that Cap claims has been following them from New York City. Captain Britain, having seen it twice in his life before identifies the being as Death.
Cap and Marv then travel to the Savage Land to collect Anti-Metal, where they are accompanied by Ka-Zar. The group of heroes go to Sentinal City and ask it's ruler, Toad (Who's only subject is Magneto who he has reduced into a slave since the shifting of the Earth's poles somehow made the two of them trade powers) to grant them access to the portal to Limbo. The three heroes travel through the portal into Limbo where they are attacked by an army of Dire Wraths. During the battle they are aided by Rom the Space-Knight, who for reasons unknown has traveled to Limbo to battle his long time foes the Wraths.
During the battle the Wrath's back off as Mephesto appears, and the group notices that Belasco (the supposed ruler of Limbo) is once again trapped in ice. Mephesto offers Captain America a deal, a glowing orb that would allow Cap to access Limbo and travel to any point in history or as a means of getting past Death. Cap refuses the offer and swats the glowing globe out of Mephesto's hand, it strikes the frozen Belasco and sends him back in time. With his apparent goal achieved, Mephesto leaves their presence, Marv and Cap collect the Anti-Metal they need. Before they leave, Rom offers Cap his blaster, which will transport any enemies they face into Limbo.
The heroes next stop is in Japan where they arrive just as the hero group Xen (led by Lord Sunfire) have fought off an army sent by the Tong of Creel. However, this is not before they murdered John Blaze and stolen a piece of Creel. Cap told that the Tong is after the pieces of the Absorbing Man, the being responsible for murdering the Avengers. When Xen contacts Reed Richards to inform them of this development, Reed finally tells Cap the story of the Avengers death. After the story is told, Cap is given the Orb of Agomotto by Wong, who is in Japan looking after the comatose body of Dr. Strange (Who's astral form has been trapped in the realm of the dead since he was betrayed by Clea.)
Next Cap and Marv travel to the base of the Hydra where they are looking for Marv's old Nega-Bands. Rick Jones, the last person to have possessed them is a member of the Hydra, however when they arrive they notice that Rick Jones only possesses one arm and that the Nega-Band's no longer contain any of their former power. When Cap can't understand how the Hydra's below could have survived when he saw them killed by the Skull's army, Marv explains that all members of Hydra were dead the moment they let the parasite take control of their bodies. In a fit of rage, Cap attacks the Hydra with Rom's blaster banishing them all to Limbo. When Death appears, Cap tries to banish it to Limbo as well, but all he succeeds in doing is causing the blaster to disintegrate.
Escaping death, the two heroes travel to Washington D.C., Cap is beginning to be effected by the cloak and begins having visions of his past whenever he travels into it. Marv is searching for Mason Harding to find the location of his dimension doorway. Finding Harding in D.C., he informs them that it can be found near Mount Rushmore.
Traveling there, they find a village at the top which is home to a number of inmates which were subjected to Harding's madbomb and believe themselves to be colonial Americans. Cap had aided these people in the past and helped them battle creatures that traveled out of the dimensional doorway that the inmates dubbed "The Night People." Cap and Marv find that the people are still plagued by these creatures and have taken to impaling them and putting them on display in the town proper.
The group of inmates find Cap and Marv and threaten them, and accuse Cap of not being there to guarantee their pursuit of freedom and to be provided for. When the group wont accept Cap's response that they were responsible for their own success they attacked, forcing Marv to teleport him and Cap to safety.
They locate the Dimensional Doorway but are captured when they are in the process of collecting it and the two are shackled. Cap himself is shackled to cuffs that have razors in them. Cap frees himself even at the risk of cutting his wrists open and attacks his captors. He and Marv seek refuge in an old school house where they plan their next course of action. Marv uses an emergency beacon given to him by Reed Richards to summon help, but the help would not arrive in time. Cap suggests they make a run for it, but before he can Marv asks Cap to look into his eyes. Through Marv's eyes, Cap is revealed the "truth" and so he runs out with a decoy shield and doll that resembled Marv, while Marv remained behind in the school yard sheilding himself.
Cap leads the mob away from the town long enough for reinforcements to arrive, however he is shot to death in the process. His dieing words were that he was glad that Death was actually after him, and not Mar-Vel. After Cap's death, he joined the other heroes in the Realm of the Dead, and in all appearances he appeared to be like all the others in that realm, believing that he was really alive and that everyone else who was alive was really dead, and would continue to exist through eternity reliving a life of constant battle.
In the after math of his death, Cap's body was buried in New York City, Mar-Vel took to wearing Cap's shield, and he continued his quest with the aid of Venom, the X-Men, the Hulk, Bruce Banner, and Thor.
Sometime in later in the Land of the Dead, while Mar-Vel's army of heroes were fighting against Death's armies, the entire group were convinced by Death that they were once more alive. This was instrumental to Mephesto and Death's victory over Mar-Vel as with one last item require (The Silver Surfer's power cosmic, which Mar-Vel was unable to collect as his counterpart in the land of the living was intangible at that moment) Captain America rallied all the heroes and villains in the realm of the dead in one final attack against Death and her armies to buy Mar-Vel more time.
As it turns out, before his death, Cap was given the knowledge he needed to remember that he was dead in the realm of the dead, and he was Mar-Vel's ace in the hole should anything go wrong. Cap's final attack gave Mar-Vel enough time to merge with the Power Cosmic, which revived him in the land of the dead. He then used the Cosmic Consciousness to reveal to Thanos that he was being manipulated to Death all this time and convinced him to use the Ultimate Nullifyer to kill Death.
With the Death destroyed, Mar-Vel began constructing his Paradise for all those in the Realm of the Dead who would admit the fact that they are dead and give them a Paradise world to live out their dreams in. Paradise was located in the heart of the Negative Zone's Anti-Matter sun.
Cap was among many of the dead who were transmuted into one of the Avenging Host, a league of "angels" selected by Mar-Vel to bring new souls to the realm of Paradise. Among many of the deceased that Cap was charged with bringing to Paradise were his own family (including a brother he never knew he had who passed away before he was even born), as well as Frank Castle (formally the Punisher) and his family.
Cap couldn't find a way to try and explain to his parents that they were already dead and that Paradise awaits them and so he focused more of his time on convincing Frank Castle. However, when Jigsaw and the Jackal decided to return to the Realm of the Dead they decided that they would spend their time torturing Frank Castle for killing them in the land of the living.
This caused Frank to realize that he was dead and so he went on a shooting spree to try and prove to people (and his family whom he frightened off from his lethal force used on Jigsaw and Jackal) Cap eventually intervened and took the two villains away.
Although the Avenging Host began to doubt Mar-Vel's omniscience and his goals Cap was still determined to find a way to convince the people in the realm of the dead that they were all dead. He suddenly decided to use Benny Buckley (formally the Skull) to do so, this got him into a conflict with Thanos who opposed Mar-Vel's plan. The two battled until 4-D Man (Kyle Richmond) appeared and showed the group that each person admitted to Paradise was given their own private fantasy world to live in.
Cap decided that it was best to fight Mar-Vel, and began freeing all those trapped in their own private worlds. Mar-Vel ordered his Kree army to take over Paradise as the next Kree colony, starting a war between the residents of Paradise and the Kree. During this battle, the Avenging Host located Mar-Vel within the sun that orbited over Paradise.
Inside they were all judged as impure by Mar-Vel and were all killed. However, with the arrival of Reed Richards, who eventually was given the Cosmic Consciousness by Mar-Vel and peace was once more restored to Paradise, Cap and the rest of the Avenging Host were restored to life.
Cap decided his ideal paradise with his family was already in the Realm of the Dead and returned there to live out the rest of eternity with them in happiness. Cap's place in the Avenging Host was then filled by Hawkeye.
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