Name	Blu-ray Disc
Logo
Type	High-density optical disc
Encoding	MPEG-2H.264/MPEG-4 AVCVC-1
Capacity	25 GB (single-layer)50 GB (dual-layer)100/128 GB (BDXL)
Blocksize	64 kb ECC
Disc diameter	120mm
Disc thickness	1.2mm
Read	405 nm Diode Laser:
Owner	Blu-ray Disc Association
Use	Data storageStereoscopic 3DPlayStation 3 games }}

Blu-ray Disc (official abbreviation BD) is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The disc diameter is 120 mm and disc thickness 1.2 mm plastic optical disc, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB (23.31 GiB) per layer, with dual layer discs (50 GB) being the norm for feature-length video discs. Triple layer discs (100 GB) and quadruple layers (128 GB) are available for BD-XL Blu-ray re-writer drives. Currently movie production companies have not utilized the triple or quadruple layer discs; most consumer owned Blu-ray players will not be able to read the additional layers, while newer Blu-ray players may require a firmware update to play the triple and quadruple sized discs.

The first Blu-ray Disc prototypes were unveiled in October 2000, and the first prototype player was released in April 2003 in Japan. Afterwards, it continued to be developed until its official release in June 2006.

The name ''Blu-ray Disc'' refers to the blue laser used to read the disc, which allows information to be stored at a greater density than is possible with the longer-wavelength red laser used for DVDs.

Blu-ray Disc was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, a group representing makers of consumer electronics, computer hardware, and motion pictures. , more than 1,500 Blu-ray Disc titles were available in Australia and the United Kingdom, with 2,500 in the United States and Canada. In Japan, , more than 3,300 titles have been released.

During the high definition optical disc format war, Blu-ray Disc competed with the HD DVD format. Toshiba, the main company that supported HD DVD, conceded in February 2008, releasing their own Blu-ray Disc player in late 2009.

History

Origins

The information density of the DVD format was limited by the wavelength of the laser diodes used. Following protracted development, blue laser diodes operating around 400 nanometers became available on a production basis. Sony started two projects in collaboration with Philips applying the new diodes: UDO (Ultra Density Optical), and DVR Blue (together with Pioneer), a format of rewritable discs that would eventually become Blu-ray Disc (more specifically, BD-RE). The core technologies of the formats are similar.

The first DVR Blue prototypes were unveiled at the CEATEC exhibition in October 2000 by Sony. A trademark for the "Blue Disc" logo was filed February 9, 2001. On February 19, 2002, the project was officially announced as Blu-ray Disc, and Blu-ray Disc Founders was founded by the nine initial members.

The first consumer device arrived in stores on April 10, 2003: the Sony BDZ-S77, a US$3,800 BD-RE recorder that was made available only in Japan. But there was no standard for prerecorded video, and no movies were released for this player.

Hollywood studios insisted that players be equipped with Digital Rights Management before they would release movies for the new format, and they wanted a new DRM system that would be more secure than the failed Content Scramble System (CSS) used on DVDs.

On October 4, 2004, the name "Blu-ray Disc Founders" was officially changed to the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), and 20th Century Fox joined the BDA's Board of Directors.

The Blu-ray Disc physical specifications were completed in 2004.

In January 2005, TDK announced that they had developed a hard coating polymer for Blu-ray Discs. Cartridges, originally used for scratch protection, were no longer necessary and were scrapped.

The BD-ROM specifications were finalized in early 2006.

AACS LA, a consortium founded in 2004, had been developing the DRM platform that could be used to securely distribute movies to consumers. However, the final AACS standard was delayed, and then delayed again when an important member of the Blu-ray Disc group voiced concerns. At the request of the initial hardware manufacturers, including Toshiba, Pioneer, and Samsung, an interim standard was published that did not include some features, such as managed copy.

Launch and sales developments

The first BD-ROM players (e.g. Sony BDP-S1) were shipped in mid-June 2006, though HD DVD players beat them to market by a few months.

The first Blu-ray Disc titles were released on June 20, 2006: ''50 First Dates'', ''The Fifth Element'', ''Hitch'', ''House of Flying Daggers'', ''Underworld: Evolution'', ''xXx'' (all Sony), and MGM's ''The Terminator''. The earliest releases used MPEG-2 video compression, the same method used on standard DVDs. The first releases using the newer VC-1 and AVC formats were introduced in September 2006. The first movies using 50 GB dual-layer discs were introduced in October 2006. The first audio-only albums were released in May 2008.

The first mass-market Blu-ray Disc rewritable drive for the PC was the BWU-100A, released by Sony on July 18, 2006. It recorded both single and dual-layer BD-Rs as well as BD-REs and had a suggested retail price of US $699.

Competition from HD DVD

The DVD Forum, chaired by Toshiba, was split over whether to develop the more expensive blue laser technology. In March 2002, the forum approved a proposal endorsed by Warner Bros. and other motion picture studios that involved compressing HD content onto dual-layer standard DVD-9 discs. In spite of this decision, however, the DVD Forum's Steering Committee announced in April that it was pursuing its own blue-laser high-definition video solution. In August, Toshiba and NEC announced their competing standard, Advanced Optical Disc. It was finally adopted by the DVD Forum and renamed HD DVD the next year, after being voted down twice by DVD Forum members who were also Blu-ray Disc Association members—a situation that drew preliminary investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice.

HD DVD had a head start in the high-definition video market, as Blu-ray Disc sales were slow to gain market share. The first Blu-ray Disc player was perceived as expensive and buggy, and there were few titles available.

The appearance of the Sony PlayStation 3, which contained a Blu-ray Disc player for primary storage, helped turn the tide. Sony also ran a more thorough and influential marketing campaign for the format. 2006 also saw the launch of AVCHD camcorders, whose recordings can be played back on many Blu-ray Disc players without re-encoding, but not on HD DVD players.

By January 2007, Blu-ray Discs had outsold HD DVDs, and during the first three quarters of 2007, BD outsold HD DVDs by about two to one. At CES 2007, Warner proposed Total Hi Def—a hybrid disc containing Blu-ray on one side and HD DVD on the other, but it was never released.

In a June 28, 2007 press release, Twentieth Century Fox cited Blu-ray Disc's adoption of the BD+ anticopying system as key to their decision to support the Blu-ray Disc format.

In February 2008, Toshiba withdrew its support for the HD DVD format, conceding victory to Blu-ray Disc.

End of the format war and future prospects

On January 4, 2008, a day before CES 2008, Warner Bros. (the only major studio still releasing movies in both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc format) announced that it would release only in Blu-ray Disc after May 2008. This effectively included other studios that came under the Warner umbrella, such as New Line Cinema and HBO—though in Europe, HBO distribution partner, the BBC, announced it would, while keeping an eye on market forces, continue to release product on both formats. This led to a chain reaction in the industry, with major U.S. retailers such as Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Circuit City and Canadian chains such as Future Shop dropping HD DVD in their stores. A then major European retailer, Woolworths, dropped HD DVD from its inventory. Netflix and Blockbuster—major DVD rental companies—said they would no longer carry HD DVDs. Following these new developments, on February 19, 2008, Toshiba announced it would end production of HD DVD devices, allowing Blu-ray Disc to become the industry standard for high-density optical discs. Universal Studios, the sole major movie studio to back HD DVD since its inception, said shortly after Toshiba's announcement, "While Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray Disc." Paramount Studios, which started releasing movies only in HD DVD format during late 2007, also said it would start releasing in Blu-ray Disc. Both studios announced initial Blu-ray lineups in May 2008. With this, all major Hollywood studios now support Blu-ray.

According to Adams Media Research, high-definition software sales in the US were slower in the first two years than DVD software sales. 16.3 million DVD software units were sold in the first two years (1997–98) compared to 8.3 million high-definition software units (2006–07). One reason given for this difference was the smaller marketplace (26.5 million HDTVs in 2007 compared to 100 million SDTVs in 1998). Former HD DVD supporter Microsoft has stated that they are not planning to make a Blu-ray Disc drive for the Xbox 360.

Blu-ray Disc began making serious strides as soon as the format war ended. Nielsen VideoScan sales numbers showed that with some titles, such as 20th Century Fox's ''Hitman'', up to 14% of total disc sales were from Blu-ray, although the average for the first half of the year was around 5%. Shortly after the format war ended, a study by The NPD Group found that awareness of Blu-ray Disc had reached 60% of U.S. households. In December 2008, the Blu-ray Disc of ''The Dark Knight'' sold 600,000 copies on the first day of its launch in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. A week after launch, ''The Dark Knight'' BD had sold over 1.7 million copies worldwide, making it the first Blu-ray Disc title to sell over a million copies in the first week of release.

According to Singulus Technologies AG, Blu-ray is being adopted faster than the DVD format was at a similar period in its development. This conclusion was based on the fact that Singulus Technologies has received orders for 21 Blu-ray dual-layer machines during the first quarter of 2008, while 17 DVD machines of this type were made in the same period in 1997. And the other key equipment supplier for optical disc Anwell Technologies Limited had shipped its Blu-ray Disc production equipment to Frankfurt for the largest trade show in the world — MEDIA-TECH Expo in May 2008 and they received new order for the Blu-ray production line also. According to GfK Retail and Technology, in the first week of November 2008, sales of Blu-ray recorders surpassed DVD recorders in Japan. According to the Digital Entertainment Group, the total number of Blu-ray Disc playback devices (both set-top box and game console) had reached 17.3 millions by the end of 2009. According to Swicker & Associates, Blu-ray Disc software sales in the United States and Canada were 1.2 million in 2006, 19.2 million in 2007, 82.4 million in 2008, and 177.2 million in 2009. Some commentators have suggested that renting Blu-ray will play a vital part in keeping the technology affordable while allowing it to move forward. In an effort to increase sales, studios are releasing movies in combo packs with Blu-ray Discs and DVDs as well as "digital copies" which can be played on computers and iPods. Some are released on "flipper" discs with Blu-ray on one side and DVD on the other. Other strategies are to release movies with the special features only on Blu-ray Discs and none on DVDs.

Blu-ray faces competition from video on demand and from new technologies that allow access to movies on any format or device, such as Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem or Disney's Keychest.

Physical media

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Type	Diameter(cm)	Layers	Capacity
	Byte	Bytes	Gigabyte>GB	Gibibyte>GiB
Standard disc size, single layer	12	|	25,025,314,816	25.0	23.3
Standard disc size, dual layer	12 ||	2	50,050,629,632	50.1	46.6
Mini disc size, single layer	8 ||	1	7,791,181,824	7.8	7.3
Mini disc size, dual layer	8 ||	2	15,582,363,648	15.6	14.5

Laser and optics

While a DVD uses a 650-nanometer red laser, Blu-ray Disc uses a 405 nm "blue" laser. This shorter wavelength allows for over five times more data storage per layer than allowed by a DVD. Note that even though the laser is called "blue", its color is actually in the violet range.

The diodes are GaN (gallium nitride) lasers that produce 405 nm light directly, that is, without frequency doubling or other nonlinear optical mechanisms. Conventional DVDs and CDs use red and near-infrared lasers, at 650 nm and 780 nm, respectively.

The minimum "spot size" on which a laser can be focused is limited by diffraction, and depends on the wavelength of the light and the numerical aperture of the lens used to focus it. By decreasing the wavelength, increasing the numerical aperture from 0.60 to 0.85, and making the cover layer thinner to avoid unwanted optical effects, the laser beam can be focused to a smaller spot, which effectively allows more information to be stored in the same area.

For Blu-ray Disc, the spot size is 580 nm. In addition to the optical improvements, Blu-ray Discs feature improvements in data encoding that further increase the capacity. (See ''Compact Disc'' for information on optical discs' physical structure.)

Hard-coating technology

Since the Blu-ray Disc data layer is closer to the surface of the disc compared to the DVD standard, it was at first more vulnerable to scratches. The first discs were housed in cartridges for protection, resembling Professional Discs introduced by Sony in 2003.

Using a cartridge would increase the price of an already expensive medium, so hard-coating of the pickup surface was chosen instead. TDK was the first company to develop a working scratch-protection coating for Blu-ray Discs. It was named Durabis. In addition, both Sony and Panasonic's replication methods include proprietary hard-coat technologies. Sony's rewritable media are spin-coated, using a scratch-resistant and antistatic coating. Verbatim's recordable and rewritable Blu-ray Discs use their own proprietary hard-coat technology, called ScratchGuard.

The Blu-ray Disc specification requires the testing of resistance to scratches by mechanical abrasion. In contrast, DVD media are not required to be scratch-resistant, but since development of the technology, some companies, such as Verbatim, implemented hard-coating for more expensive lineups of recordable DVDs.

Recording speed

4.5 72 144 216 288 360 432

rowspan="2"	Drive speed	Data rate		Theoretical Write time for Blu-ray Disc (minutes)
!Mbit/s!!MB/s!!Single-Layer!!Dual-Layer
1×	36	|	90	180
2×	|	9	45	90
4×	|	18	22.5	45
6×	|	27	15	30
8×	|	36	11.25	22.5
10×	|	45	9	18
12×		|	54	7.5	15

Variants

Mini Blu-ray Disc

The "Mini Blu-ray Disc" (also, "Mini-BD" and "Mini Blu-ray") is a compact 8 cm (~3 in)-diameter variant of the Blu-ray Disc that can store approximately 7.5 GB of data. It is similar in concept to the MiniDVD and MiniCD. Recordable (BD-R) and rewritable (BD-RE) versions of Mini Blu-ray Disc have been developed specifically for compact camcorders and other compact recording devices.

Blu-ray Disc recordable

"Blu-ray Disc recordable" refers to two optical disc formats that can be recorded with an optical disc recorder. BD-Rs can be written to once, whereas BD-REs can be erased and re-recorded multiple times. The current practical maximum speed for Blu-ray Discs is about 12×. Higher speeds of rotation (10,000+ rpm) cause too much wobble for the discs to be read properly, as with the 20× and 52× maximum speeds, respectively, of standard DVDs and CDs.

Since September 2007, BD-RE is also available in the smaller 8 cm Mini Blu-ray Disc size.

On September 18, 2007, Pioneer and Mitsubishi codeveloped BD-R LTH ("Low to High" in groove recording), which features an organic dye recording layer that can be manufactured by modifying existing CD-R and DVD-R production equipment, significantly reducing manufacturing costs. In February 2008, Taiyo Yuden, Mitsubishi, and Maxell released the first BD-R LTH Discs, and in March 2008, Sony's PlayStation 3 gained official support for BD-R LTH Discs with the 2.20 firmware update. In May 2009 Verbatim/Mitsubishi announced the industry's first 6X BD-R LTH media, which allows recording a 25 GB disc in about 16 minutes.

Unlike the previous releases of 120 mm optical discs (i.e., CDs and standard DVDs), Blu-ray recorders hit the market almost simultaneously with Blu-ray's debut.

BD9 and BD5

The BD9 format was proposed to the Blu-ray Disc Association by Warner Home Video as a cost-effective alternative to the 25/50 GB BD-ROM discs. The format was supposed to use the same codecs and program structure as Blu-ray Disc video, but recorded onto less expensive 8.5 GB dual-layer DVD. This red-laser media could be manufactured on existing DVD production lines with lower costs of production than the 25/50 GB Blu-ray media.

Usage of BD9 for releasing content on "pressed" discs has never caught on. After the end of the format war, major producers ramped up the production of Blu-ray Discs and lowered their prices to the level of DVDs. On the other hand, the idea of using inexpensive DVD media became popular among individual users. A lower-capacity version of this format that uses single-layer 4.7 GB DVDs has been unofficially called BD5. Both formats are being used by individuals for recording high definition content in Blu-ray format onto recordable DVD media.

Despite the fact that the BD9 format has been adopted as part of the BD-ROM basic format, none of the existing Blu-ray player models support it explicitly. As such, the discs recorded in BD9 and BD5 formats are not guaranteed to play on standard Blu-ray Disc players.

AVCHD and AVCREC also use inexpensive media like DVDs, but unlike BD9 and BD5 these formats have limited interactivity, codec types, and data rates.

BDXL

The BDXL format supports 100GB and 128GB write-once discs and 100GB rewritable discs for commercial applications. It was defined in June 2010.

BD-R 3.0 Format Specification (BDXL) defined a multi-layered disc recordable in BDAV format with the speed of 2X and 4X, capable of 100/128GB and usage of UDF2.5/2.6.

BD-RE 4.0 Format Specification (BDXL) defined a multi-layered disc rewritable in BDAV with the speed of 2X and 4X, capable of 100GB and usage of UDF2.5 as file system.

BDXL discs are not compatible with existing BD drives.

IH-BD

The IH-BD (Intra-Hybrid Blu-ray) format includes a 25GB write-once layer (BD-R) and a 25GB read-only layer (BD-ROM), designed to work with existing Blu-ray Discs.

Software standards

Filesystem

Blu-ray Disc specifies the use of Universal Disk Format (UDF) 2.50 as a convergent friendly format for both PC and consumer electronics environments. It is used in latest specifications of BD-ROM, BD-RE and BD-R.

In the first BD-RE specification (defined in 2002), the BDFS (Blu-ray Disc File System) was used. The BD-RE 1.0 specification was defined mainly for the digital recording of High Definition Television (HDTV) broadcast television. The BDFS was replaced by UDF 2.50 in the second BD-RE specification in 2005, in order to enable interoperability among consumer electronics Blu-ray recorders and personal computer systems. These optical disc recording technologies enabled PC recording and playback of BD-RE. BD-R can use UDF 2.50/2.60.

The Blu-ray Disc application (BDAV application) for recording of digital broadcasting has been developed as ''System Description Blu-ray Rewritable Disc Format part 3 Audio Visual Basic Specifications''. The requirements related with computer file system have been specified in ''System Description Blu-ray Rewritable Disc Format part 2 File System Specifications version 1.0'' (BDFS).

Initially, the BD-RE version 1.0 (BDFS) was specifically developed for recording of digital broadcasting using the Blu-ray Disc application (BDAV application). To support UDF, these requirements are superseded by the ''Blu-ray Rewritable Disc File System Specifications version 2.0'' (UDF) (a.k.a. ''RE 2.0'') and ''Blu-ray Recordable Disc File System Specifications version 1.0'' (UDF) (a.k.a. ''R 1.0''). Additionally, a new application format, BDMV (''System Description Blu-ray Disc Prerecorded Format part 3 Audio Visual Basic Specifications'') for High Definition Content Distribution was developed for BD-ROM. The only file system developed for BDMV is the ''System Description Blu-ray Read-Only Disc Format part 2 File System Specifications version 1.0'' (UDF) which defines the requirements for UDF 2.50.

Directory and file structure

All BD-ROM application files are stored under a “BDMV” directory.

BDMV directory: contains the PLAYLIST, CLIPINF, STREAM, AUXDATA and BACKUP directories.

* PLAYLIST directory: contains the Database files for Movie PlayLists.

** xxxxx.mpls files: store information corresponding to Movie PlayLists. One file is created for each Movie PlayList. The filenames of these files are in the form “xxxxx.mpls”, where “xxxxx” is a 5-digit number corresponding to the Movie PlayList.

* CLIPINF directory: contains the Database files for Clips.

** zzzzz.clpi files: store Clip information associated with a Clip AV stream file. The filenames of these files are in the form “zzzzz.clpi”, where “zzzzz” is a 5-digit number corresponding to the Clip.

* STREAM directory: contains AV stream files.

** zzzzz.m2ts file: contains a BDAV MPEG-2 transport stream. The names of these files are in the form “zzzzz.m2ts”, where “zzzzz” is a 5-digit number corresponding to the Clip. The same 5-digit number “zzzzz” is used for an AV stream file and its associated Clip information file.

** SSIF directory: If used, Stereoscopic Interleaved files shall be placed under this directory.

*** zzzzz.ssif file: is a Stereoscopic Interleaved file that is composed from two BDAV MPEG-2 transport streams. Both of the streams include an MPEG-4 MVC view video stream for left eye or right eye respectively. This file is used only when 3D video is played back. The 5-digit number “zzzzz” is the same as the number used for the AV stream file “zzzzz.m2ts” that includes the MPEG-4 MVC Base view video stream.

* AUXDATA directory: contains Sound data files and Font files.

** sound.bdmv file: stores data relating to one or more sounds associated with HDMV Interactive Graphic streams applications. This file may or may not exist under the AUXDATA directory. If it exists, there shall be only one sound.bdmv file.

** aaaaa.otf file: stores the font information associated with Text subtitle applications. The names of these files are in the form “aaaaa.otf”, where “aaaaa” is a 5-digit number corresponding to the Font.

* BACKUP directory: contains copies of the "index.bdmv” file, the “MovieObject.bdmv” file, all the files in the PLAYLIST directory and all files in the CLIPINF directory.

* index.bdmv file: stores information describing the contents of the BDMV directory. There is only one index.bdmv file under the BDMV directory.

* MovieObject.bdmv file: stores information for one or more Movie Objects. There is only one MovieObject.bdmv under the BDMV directory.

Media format

Container format

Audio, video and other streams are multiplexed and stored on Blu-ray Discs in a container format based on the MPEG transport stream. It is also known as BDAV MPEG-2 transport stream and can use filename extension .m2ts. Blu-ray Disc titles authored with menu support are in the BDMV (Blu-ray Disc Movie) format and contain audio, video, and other streams in BDAV container. There is also the BDAV (Blu-ray Disc Audio/Visual) format, the consumer oriented alternative to the BDMV format used for movie releases. The BDAV format is used on BD-REs and BD-Rs for audio/video recording. BDMV format was later defined also for BD-RE and BD-R (in September 2006, in the third revision of BD-RE specification and second revision of BD-R specification). Blu-ray Disc employs the MPEG transport stream recording method. That enables transport streams of digital broadcasts to be recorded as they are without altering the format. It also enables flexible editing of a digital broadcast that is recorded as is and where the data can be edited just by rewriting the playback stream. Although it is quite natural, a function for high-speed and easy-to use retrieval is built in. Blu-ray Disc Video use MPEG transport streams, compared to DVD's MPEG program streams. This allows multiple video programs to be stored in the same file so they can be played back simultaneously (e.g., with "Picture in picture" effect).

Codecs

The BD-ROM specification mandates certain codec compatibilities for both hardware decoders (players) and movie software (content).

Video

High-definition video may be stored on BD-ROMs with up to 1920×1080 pixel resolution at up to 59.94 fields per second, if interlaced. Alternatively, progressive scan can go up to 1920×1080 pixel resolution at 24 frames per second, or up to 1280x720 at up to 59.94 frames per second:

Resolution !! Frame rate !! Aspect ratio
1920×1080	29.97-i	16:9
1920×1080	25-i
1920×1080	24-p
1920×1080	23.976-p
1440×1080
1440×1080	25-i
1440×1080	24-p
1440×1080	23.976-p
1280×720	59.94-p
1280×720	50-p
1280×720	24-p
1280×720	23.976-p
720×480	29.97-i
720×576	25-i

a All frame rates are properly listed in frames per second. Some manufacturers will list field rate for interlaced material, but this is incorrect industry practice. To avoid confusion, only FRAME rates should ever be listed. b MPEG-2 at 1440x1080 was previously not supported in a draft version of the specification from March 2005.

For video, all players are required to support MPEG-2 Part 2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and SMPTE VC-1. MPEG-2 is the compression standard used on regular DVDs, which allows backwards compatibility. MPEG-4 AVC was developed by MPEG, Sony, and VCEG. VC-1 is a compression standard that was mainly developed by Microsoft. BD-ROM titles with video must store video using one of the three mandatory formats; multiple formats on a single title are allowed.

The choice of formats affects the producer's licensing/royalty costs as well as the title's maximum run time, due to differences in compression efficiency. Discs encoded in MPEG-2 video typically limit content producers to around two hours of high-definition content on a single-layer (25 GB) BD-ROM. The more-advanced video formats (VC-1 and MPEG-4 AVC) typically achieve a video run time twice that of MPEG-2, with comparable quality.

MPEG-2 was used by many studios (including Paramount Pictures, which initially used the VC-1 format for HD DVD releases) for the first series of Blu-ray Discs, which were launched throughout 2006. Modern releases are now often encoded in either MPEG-4 AVC or VC-1, allowing film studios to place all content on one disc, reducing costs and improving ease of use. Using these formats also frees a lot of space for storage of bonus content in HD (1080i/p), as opposed to the SD (480i/p) typically used for most titles. Some studios, such as Warner Bros., have released bonus content on discs encoded in a different format than the main feature title. For example, the Blu-ray Disc release of ''Superman Returns'' uses VC-1 for the feature film and MPEG-2 for bonus content. Today, Warner and other studios typically provide bonus content in the video format that matches the feature.

Audio

For audio, BD-ROM players are required to support Dolby Digital (AC-3), DTS, and linear PCM. Players may optionally support Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio as well as lossless formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. BD-ROM titles must use one of the mandatory schemes for the primary soundtrack. A secondary audiotrack, if present, may use any of the mandatory or optional codecs. 640 kbit/s 8 (48 kHz, 96 kHz), 6 (192 kHz) 16, 20, 24 48 kHz, 96 kHz, 192 kHz

colspan="9"	Specification of BD-ROM Primary audio streams:
! !! [[Linear pulse code modulation
Max. Bitrate	27.648 Mbit/s	|	4.736 Mbit/s	18.64 Mbit/s	1.524 Mbit/s	24.5 Mbit/s	1.5 Mbit/s	3.0 Mbit/s
Max. Channel	|	5.1	7.1	8 (48 kHz, 96 kHz), 6 (192 kHz)	5.1	8 (48 kHz, 96 kHz), 6 (192 kHz)	5.1	7.1
Bits/sample	|	16, 24	16, 24	16, 24	16, 20, 24	16, 24	16	16
Sample frequency	|	48 kHz	48 kHz	48 kHz, 96 kHz, 192 kHz	48 kHz	48 kHz, 96 kHz, 192 kHz	48 kHz	48 kHz, 96 kHz

Bit rate

For users recording digital television programming, the recordable Blu-ray Disc standard's initial data rate of 36 Mbit/s is more than adequate to record high-definition broadcasts from any source (IPTV, cable/satellite, or terrestrial). BD Video movies have a maximum data transfer rate of 54 Mbit/s, a maximum AV bitrate of 48 Mbit/s (for both audio and video data), and a maximum video bit rate of 40 Mbit/s. This compares to HD DVD movies, which have a maximum data transfer rate of 36 Mbit/s, a maximum AV bitrate of 30.24 Mbit/s, and a maximum video bitrate of 29.4 Mbit/s.

Application format

BDAV or BD-AV (Blu-ray Disc Audio/Visual) – a consumer-oriented Blu-ray video format used for audio/video recording (defined in 2002) BDMV or BD-MV (Blu-ray Disc Movie) – a Blu-ray video format with menu support commonly used for movie releases

BDMV Recording specification – (defined in September 2006 for BD-RE and BD-R).

*RREF – (Realtime Recording and Editing Format) – a subset of BDMV designed for realtime recording and editing applications

Java software support

At the 2005 JavaOne trade show, it was announced that Sun Microsystems' Java cross-platform software environment would be included in all Blu-ray Disc players as a mandatory part of the standard. Java is used to implement interactive menus on Blu-ray Discs, as opposed to the method used on DVD-video discs. DVDs use pre-rendered MPEG segments and selectable subtitle pictures, which are considerably more primitive and rarely seamless. At the conference, Java creator James Gosling suggested that the inclusion of a Java Virtual Machine, as well as network connectivity in some BD devices, will allow updates to Blu-ray Discs via the Internet, adding content such as additional subtitle languages and promotional features not included on the disc at pressing time. This Java Version is called BD-J and is a subset of the Globally Executable MHP (GEM) standard; GEM is the worldwide version of the Multimedia Home Platform standard.

Player profiles

The BD-ROM specification defines four Blu-ray Disc player profiles, including an audio-only player profile (BD-Audio) that does not require video decoding or BD-J. All three of the video-based player profiles (BD-Video) are required to have a full implementation of BD-J, with varying levels of hardware support.

Feature	BD-Audio	BD-Video
		Profile 1.0	Profile 1.1	Profile 2.0	Profile 5.0
Built-in persistent memory	No	64 KB	64 KB	64 KB	64 KB?
Local storage capability	No	Optional	256 MB	1 GB	1 GB
	No	Optional	Mandatory	Mandatory	Mandatory
Secondary audio decoder	No	Optional	Mandatory	Mandatory	Mandatory
Virtual file system	No	Optional	Mandatory	Mandatory	Mandatory
Internet connection capability	No	No	No	Mandatory	Mandatory

a This is used for storing audio/video and title updates. It can either be built-in memory or removable media, such as a memory card or USB flash memory. b A secondary audio decoder is typically used for interactive audio and commentary. c Profile 3.0 is a separate audio-only player profile. The first Blu-ray Disc album to be released was ''Divertimenti'', by record label Lindberg Lyd, and it has been confirmed to work on the PS3.d Also known as Initial Standard profile. e Also known as Final Standard profile.

On November 2, 2007, the Grace Period Profile was superseded by Bonus View as the minimum profile for new BD-Video players released to the market. When Blu-ray Disc software not authored with interactive features dependent on Bonus View or BD-Live hardware capabilities is played on Profile 1.0 players, it is able to play the main feature of the disc, but some extra features may not be available or will have limited capability.

BD-Live

The biggest difference between Bonus View and BD-Live is that BD-Live requires the Blu-ray Disc player to have an Internet connection to access Internet-based content. BD-Live features have included Internet chats, scheduled chats with the director, Internet games, downloadable featurettes, downloadable quizzes, and downloadable movie trailers. Note that while some Bonus View players may have an Ethernet port, these are used for firmware updates and are not used for Internet-based content. In addition, Profile 2.0 also requires more local storage in order to handle this content.

With the exception of the latest players and the PlayStation 3, Profile 1.0 players cannot be upgraded to be Bonus View or BD-Live compliant.

Region codes

[[File:Blu-ray regions with key.png|thumb|400px|right|Regions for the Blu-ray standard: ]] As with the implementation of region codes for DVDs, Blu-ray Disc players sold in a specific geographical region are designed to play only discs authorized by the content provider for that region. This is intended to permit content providers (motion picture studios, etc.) the ability to support product differences in content, price, release date, etc., by region. According to the Blu-ray Disc Association, "all Blu-ray Disc players...(and) Blu-ray Disc-equipped computer systems are required to support regional coding." However, "Use of region playback codes is optional for content providers..." Some current estimates suggest 70% of available [movie] Blu-ray Discs from the major studios are region-code-free and can therefore be played on any Blu-ray Disc player, in any region.

Movie studios have different region coding policies. Among major U.S. studios, Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios have released all of their titles region-free. Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. have released most of their titles region-free. Lionsgate and Walt Disney Pictures have released a mix of region-free and region-coded titles. 20th Century Fox and MGM have released most of their titles region-coded.

The Blu-ray Disc region coding scheme divides the world into 3 regions, labeled A, B, and C.

Region A includes most North, Central and South American and Southeast Asian countries plus the Republic of China (Taiwan), Japan, Hong Kong, Macau and Korea.

Region B includes most European, African and southwest Asian countries plus Australia and New Zealand.

Region C contains the remaining central and south Asian countries, as well as the People's Republic of China and Russia.

In circumvention of region coding restrictions, stand-alone Blu-ray Disc players are sometimes modified by third parties to allow for playback of Blu-ray Discs (and DVDs) with ''any'' region code. Instructions ('hacks') describing how to reset the Blu-ray region counter of computer player applications to make them multi-region indefinitely are also regularly posted to video enthusiast websites and forums. Unlike DVD region codes, Blu-ray region codes are verified only by the player software, not by the optical drive's firmware.

Digital rights management

The Blu-ray Disc format employs several layers of digital rights management (DRM). This has led to extensive criticism of the format by organizations opposed to DRM, such as the Free Software Foundation.

High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection

Blu-ray equipment is encouraged to implement High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP). Given certain flags in the media streams, a Blu-ray Disc can enforce its reproduction in a lower resolution whenever a full HDCP-compliant link is not established all the way from the Blu-ray drive to the rendering devices (i.e. display and speakers).

Advanced Access Content System

The Advanced Access Content System (AACS) is a standard for content distribution and digital rights management. It was developed by AS Licensing Administrator, LLC (AACS LA), a consortium that includes Disney, Intel, Microsoft, Panasonic, Warner Bros., IBM, Toshiba, and Sony.

Since appearing in devices in 2006, several successful attacks have been made on the format. The first known attack relied on the trusted client problem. In addition, decryption keys have been extracted from a weakly protected player (WinDVD). Since keys can be revoked in newer releases, this is only a temporary attack, and new keys must continually be discovered in order to decrypt the latest discs. This cat-and-mouse game has gone through several cycles.

BD+

BD+ was developed by Cryptography Research Inc. and is based on their concept of Self-Protecting Digital Content. BD+, effectively a small virtual machine embedded in authorized players, allows content providers to include executable programs on Blu-ray Discs. Such programs can:

examine the host environment to see if the player has been tampered with. Every licensed playback device manufacturer must provide the BD+ licensing authority with memory footprints that identify their devices.

verify that the player's keys have not been changed.

execute native code, possibly to patch an otherwise insecure system.

transform the audio and video output. Parts of the content will not be viewable without letting the BD+ program unscramble it.

If a playback device manufacturer finds that its devices have been hacked, it can potentially release BD+ code that detects and circumvents the vulnerability. These programs can then be included in all new content releases.

The specifications of the BD+ virtual machine are available only to licensed device manufacturers. A list of licensed commercial adopters is available from the BD+ website.

The first titles using BD+ were released in October 2007. Since November 2007, versions of BD+ protection have been circumvented by various versions of the AnyDVD HD program. Other programs known to be capable of circumventing BD+ protection are DumpHD (versions 0.6 and above, along with some supporting software), MakeMKV, and two applications from DVDFab (Passkey and HD Decrypter).

BD-ROM Mark

BD-ROM Mark is a small amount of cryptographic data that is stored separately from normal Blu-ray Disc data. Bit-by-bit copies that do not replicate the BD-ROM Mark have no known decoding method. A specially licensed piece of hardware is required to insert the ROM-mark into the media during replication.

Backward compatibility

Though not compulsory, the Blu-ray Disc Association recommends that Blu-ray Disc drives be capable of reading standard DVDs and CDs, for backward compatibility. A few early Blu-ray Disc players released in 2006 could play DVDs but not CDs.

Ongoing development

Although the Blu-ray Disc specification has been finalized, engineers continue to work on advancing the technology. Quad-layer (100 GB) discs have been demonstrated on a drive with modified optics and standard unaltered optics. Hitachi stated that such a disc could be used to store 7 hours of 32 Mbit/s video (HDTV) or 3 hours and 30 minutes of 64 Mbit/s video (Cinema 4K). In August 2006, TDK announced that they have created a working experimental Blu-ray Disc capable of holding 200 GB of data on a single side, using six 33 GB data layers.

Also, behind closed doors at CES 2007, Ritek revealed that they had successfully developed a High Definition optical disc process that extends the disc capacity to ten layers, which increases the capacity of the discs to 250 GB. However, they noted that the major obstacle is that current read/write technology does not support the additional layers.

JVC has developed a three-layer technology that allows putting both standard-definition DVD data and HD data on a BD/(standard) DVD combination. If successfully commercialized, this would enable the consumer to purchase a disc that can be played on current DVD players and can also reveal its HD version when played on a BD player. Japanese optical disc manufacturer Infinity announced the first "hybrid" Blu-ray Disc/(standard) DVD combo, to be released February 18, 2009. "Code Blue" will feature four hybrid discs containing a single Blu-ray Disc layer (25 GB) and two DVD layers (9 GB) on the same side of the disc.

In January 2007, Hitachi showcased a 100 GB Blu-ray Disc, consisting of four layers containing 25 GB each. Unlike TDK and Panasonic's 100 GB discs, they claim this disc is readable on standard Blu-ray Disc drives that are currently in circulation, and it is believed that a firmware update is the only requirement to make it readable to current players and drives.

In December 2008, Pioneer Corporation unveiled a 400 GB Blu-ray Disc (containing 16 data layers, 25 GB each) that will be compatible with current players after a firmware update. Its planned launch is in the 2009–10 time frame for ROM and 2010–13 for rewritable discs. Ongoing development is under way to create a 1 TB Blu-ray Disc as soon as 2013.

At CES 2009, Panasonic unveiled the DMP-B15, the first portable Blu-ray Disc player, and Sharp introduced the LC-BD60U and LC-BD80U series, the first LCD HDTVs with integrated Blu-ray Disc players. Sharp has also announced that they will sell HDTVs with integrated Blu-ray Disc recorders in the United States by the end of 2009. Set-top box recorders are not being sold in the U.S. due to fears of piracy. However, personal computers with Blu-ray recorder drives are available.

, a joint licensing agreement for Blu-ray Disc has not yet been finalized. A joint licensing agreement would make it easier for companies to get a license for Blu-ray Disc without having to go to each individual company that owns a Blu-ray Disc patent. For this reason, a joint licensing agreement was eventually made for DVD by the DVD6C Licensing Agency.

On January 1, 2010, Sony, in association with Panasonic, announced plans to increase the storage capacity on their Blu-ray Discs from 25GB to 33.4 GB via a technology called i-MLSE (Maximum likelihood Sequence Estimation). The higher-capacity discs, according to Sony, will be readable on current Blu-ray Disc players with a firmware upgrade. No date has been set to include the increased space, but according to Blu-ray.com "it will likely happen sometime later this year."

On July 20, 2010, the research team of Sony and Japanese Tohoku University announced the joint development of a blue-violet laser, which will help in creating Blu-ray discs with a capacity of 1 TB (dual layer).

Blu-ray 3D

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) created a task force made up of executives from the film industry and the consumer electronics and IT sectors to help define standards for putting 3-D film and 3-D television content on a Blu-ray Disc. On Dec. 17, 2009 the BDA officially announced 3D specs for Blu-ray Disc, allowing backward compatibility with current 2D Blu-ray players. The BDA has said, "The Blu-ray 3D specification calls for encoding 3D video using the "Stereo High" profile defined by Multiview Video Coding (MVC), an extension to the ITU-T H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) codec currently supported by all Blu-ray Disc players. MPEG4-MVC compresses both left and right eye views with a typical 50% overhead compared to equivalent 2D content, and can provide full 1080p resolution backward compatibility with current 2D Blu-ray Disc players." This means the MVC (3D) stream is backward compatible with H.264/AVC (2D) stream, allowing older 2D devices and software to decode stereoscopic video streams, ignoring additional information for the second view.

Sony has released a firmware upgrade for PlayStation 3 consoles that enables 3D Blu-ray Disc playback. However, when playing in 3D mode, the PlayStation 3 will downgrade high-def audio (such as Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD) to standard Dolby Digital or DTS, as HDMI 1.3 does not provide enough bandwidth for both 3D video and high-def audio. They previously released support for 3D gaming on April 21, 2010 (followed by the availability of 3D movies). However, with the new 3.70 software update in August 9, 2011, the PlayStation 3 can now support DTS-HD and DTS-HD HR while playing 3D Blu-Ray.

Variations

AVCHD

AVCHD was originally developed as a high definition format for consumer tapeless camcorders. Derived from the Blu-ray Disc specification, AVCHD shares a similar random access directory structure, but is restricted to lower audio and video bitrates, simpler interactivity, and the use of AVC-video and Dolby AC-3 (or linear PCM) audio.

Being primarily an acquisition format, AVCHD playback is not universally supported by all devices that support Blu-Ray Disc playback. Nevertheless, many such devices are capable of playing AVCHD recordings from removable media, such as DVDs, SD/SDHC memory cards, "Memory Stick" cards, and hard disk drives.

AVCREC

AVCREC uses a BDAV container to record high definition content on conventional DVDs. Presently AVCREC is tightly integrated with the Japanese ISDB broadcast standard and is not marketed outside of Japan. AVCREC is used primarily in set-top digital video recorders and in this regard is comparable to HD REC.

See also

Blu-ray Disc authoring

Blu-ray Disc recordable

Comparison of high definition optical disc formats

Disk drive performance characteristics

HD DVD

HDTV

Digital 3D and 3D television

List of Blu-ray 3D releases

List of Blu-ray manufacturers

S-VHS

References

External links

Blu-ray Disc Association

Blu-ray Disc Association's Technical White Papers

Blu-ray Disc License Office

AACS LA

Category:Computer storage media Category:Video storage Category:Audio storage Category:Consumer electronics Category:DVD Category:High-definition television Category:High-end audio Category:2006 introductions Category:Java platform Category:Television terminology

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name	James Bond
author	Ian Fleming
country	United Kingdom
language	English
subject	Spy fiction
genre	Action/Suspense
publisher	Jonathan Cape
pub date	1953–present
followed by	}}

James Bond 007 is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. The fictional British Secret Service agent has also been used in the longest running and most financially successful English-language film franchise to date, starting in 1962 with ''Dr. No''.

After Fleming's death in 1964, subsequent James Bond novels were written by Kingsley Amis, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Sebastian Faulks and Jeffery Deaver. Moreover, Christopher Wood novelised two screenplays, Charlie Higson wrote a series on a young James Bond, John Pearson wrote an authorised biography, while other writers have authored unofficial versions of the character.

There have been 22 films in the Eon Productions series to date, the most recent of which, ''Quantum of Solace'', was released on 31 October 2008 (UK). In addition there has been an American television adaptation and two independent feature productions. Apart from films and television, James Bond has also been adapted for many other media, including radio plays, comic strips and video games.

The Eon Productions films are generally termed as "official", by fans of the series, originating with the purchase of the James Bond film rights by producer Harry Saltzman in the early 1960s.

Creation and inspiration

Commander James Bond, (CMG, RNVR) is an intelligence officer of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS; commonly known as MI6). He was created in January 1952 by British journalist Ian Fleming while on holiday at his Jamaican estate, Goldeneye. The hero was named after the American ornithologist James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide book ''Birds of the West Indies.'' Fleming, a keen birdwatcher, had a copy of Bond's field guide at Goldeneye. Of the name, Fleming once said in a ''Reader's Digest'' interview, "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, 'James Bond' was much better than something more interesting, like 'Peregrine Carruthers.' Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure — an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department."

Nevertheless, news sources speculated about real spies or other covert agents after whom James Bond might have been modelled or named, such as Sidney Reilly or William Stephenson, best-known by his wartime intelligence codename of Intrepid. Although they are similar to Bond, Fleming confirmed none as the source figure, nor did Ian Fleming Publications nor any of Fleming's biographers, such as John Pearson or Andrew Lycett. Historian Keith Jeffery speculates in his authorised history of MI6, that Bond may be modelled on Fleming's close friend, Bill "Biffy" Dunderdale, a MI6 agent whose sophisticated persona and penchant for pretty women and fast cars closely matches that of Bond.

James Bond's parents are Andrew Bond, from village of Glencoe (Argyll, Scotland), and Monique Delacroix, from Yverdon (Vaud, Switzerland). Their nationalities were established in ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service.'' Fleming emphasised Bond's Scottish heritage in admiration of Sean Connery's cinematic portrayal, whereas Bond's mother is named after a Swiss fiancée of Fleming's. A planned, but unwritten, novel would have portrayed Bond's mother as a Scot. Ian Fleming was a member of a prominent Scottish banking family. Although John Pearson's fictional biography of Bond gives him a birth date on 11 November (Armistice Day) 1920, the books themselves are inconsistent on the matter. In ''Casino Royale'', he is said to have bought a car in 1933 and to have been an experienced gambler before World War II. Two books later, in ''Moonraker'', he is said to be in his mid-thirties; the setting of this book can be no earlier than 1954 as it refers to the South Goodwin Lightship, which was lost in that year. There is a further reference to Bond's age in ''You Only Live Twice'', when Tanaka tells him he was born in the Year of the Rat (1924/25 or 1912/13). The books were written over a 12-year period during which Bond's age, when mentioned, thus varies, but is usually around 40. In the novel ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service,'' Bond's family motto is found to be ''Orbis non sufficit'' ("The world is not enough"). The novel also states that the family that used this motto may not necessarily be the same Bond family from which James Bond came.

After completing the manuscript for ''Casino Royale'', Fleming allowed his friend (and later editor) William Plomer to read it. Plomer liked it and submitted it to Jonathan Cape, who did not like it as much. Cape finally published it in 1953 on the recommendation of Fleming's older brother Peter, an established travel writer.

Most researchers agree that James Bond is a romanticised version of Ian Fleming, himself a jet-setting womaniser. Both Fleming and Bond attended the same schools, preferred the same foods (scrambled eggs and coffee), maintained the same habits (drinking, smoking, wearing short-sleeve shirts), shared the same notions of the perfect woman in looks and style, and had similar naval career paths (both rising to the rank of naval Commander). They also shared similar height, hairstyle, and eye colour. Some suggest that Bond's suave and sophisticated persona is based on that of a young Hoagy Carmichael. In ''Casino Royale'', Vesper Lynd remarks, "Bond reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but there is something cold and ruthless." Likewise, in ''Moonraker'', Special Branch Officer Gala Brand thinks that Bond is "certainly good-looking . . . Rather like Hoagy Carmichael in a way. That black hair falling down over the right eyebrow. Much the same bones. But there was something a bit cruel in the mouth, and the eyes were cold."

Fleming did admit to being partly inspired by a story recounted to him which took place during his service in the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty. The incident is depicted in ''Casino Royale,'' when Ralph Izzard finds himself involved in a card game, playing poker against covert Nazi intelligence agents at a casino in Pernambuco, Brazil.

Novels and related works

Ian Fleming novels

In February 1952, Ian Fleming began writing his first James Bond novel. At the time, Fleming was the foreign manager for Kemsley Newspapers, owners of ''The Daily Express'' in London. Upon accepting the job, Fleming asked for two months' yearly vacation in his contract—time spent writing in Jamaica. Between 1953 and his death in 1964, Fleming published twelve novels and one short-story collection (a second collection was published posthumously).

Fleming had long planned to become an author and whilst serving in the Naval Intelligence Division during World War II he had told a friend, "I am going to write the spy story to end all spy stories." Fleming used his experiences of his espionage career and all other aspects of his life as inspiration when writing.

Casino Royale (novel)>Casino Royale''

Live and Let Die (novel)>Live and Let Die''

Moonraker (novel)>Moonraker''

Diamonds Are Forever (novel)>Diamonds Are Forever''

From Russia, with Love (novel)>From Russia, with Love''

Dr. No (novel)>Dr. No''

Goldfinger (novel)>Goldfinger''

For Your Eyes Only (short story collection)>For Your Eyes Only'' – short stories

Thunderball (novel)>Thunderball''

The Spy Who Loved Me (novel)>The Spy Who Loved Me''

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (novel)>On Her Majesty's Secret Service''

You Only Live Twice (novel)>You Only Live Twice''

The Man with the Golden Gun (novel)>The Man with the Golden Gun''

*1966 ''Octopussy and The Living Daylights'' – short stories

Post-Fleming novels

After Fleming's death a continuation novel, Colonel Sun, was written by Kingsley Amis (as Robert Markham) and published in 1968. Although a novelisations of two of the films appeared in print - ''James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me'' and ''James Bond and Moonraker'', both written by screenwriter Christopher Wood - the series of novels did not continue until the 1980s.

In 1981 John Gardner, picked up the series with ''Licence Renewed'', publishing 16 books in total. Gardner moved the series into the 1980s, although retained the ages of the characters as they were when Fleming had left them. In 1996, Gardner retired from writing James Bond books due to ill health and he was replaced by Raymond Benson, who was the first American author of James Bond. Benson wrote six James Bond novels, three novelisations, and three short stories.

In July 2007, it was announced that Sebastian Faulks had been commissioned to write a new Bond novel to commemorate Fleming's 100th Birthday. The book — titled ''Devil May Care'' – was published on 27 May 2008. Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. the commissioned best-selling thriller writer Jeffery Deaver who wrote ''Carte Blanche'', which was published on May 26, 2011.

Young Bond

The ''Young Bond'' series of novels was begun in 2005, by Charlie Higson. Between 2005 and 2008 5 books were published, with the first Young Bond novel, ''SilverFin'' being released as a graphic novel on October 2, 2008 by Puffin Books.

Adaptations

Films

The Eon films

In the late 1950s, Eon Productions guaranteed the film adaptation rights for every 007 novel except for ''Casino Royale'' (those rights were recovered in 1999). In 1962, the first adaptation ''Dr. No'' was made, which featured Sean Connery as 007. Connery starred in six more films after his initial portrayal (including 1983's ''Never Say Never Again'', which was not part of the Eon series). George Lazenby replaced Connery (for one film) before the latter's last Eon film Diamonds Are Forever, after which the part was played by Roger Moore (for seven films), Timothy Dalton (for two films), Pierce Brosnan (for four films) and Daniel Craig (two films to 2008). As of 2008, there have been 22 films in the Eon series. The 21st film, ''Casino Royale'', with Daniel Craig as James Bond, premiered on 14 November 2006, with the film going on general release in Asia and the Middle East the following day. Notably, it is the first Bond film to have been released in China. The second James Bond film to feature Craig is ''Quantum of Solace'', which gets its title from a short story of the same name by Ian Fleming (''For Your Eyes Only'', 1960), but shares no similarities with the plot.

In April 2010, Eon Productions suspended development of ''Bond 23'' indefinitely due to MGM's crippling debt and uncertain future. Prior to this suspension, Craig was expected to return to the franchise for a third time. On 11 January 2011, MGM sent out a press releasing announcing the 23rd Bond film, starring Daniel Craig, will be released on 9 November 2012. The press release reveals that "Sam Mendes [is] directing [the] screenplay written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan."

The film series has grossed over $4 billion (£2 billion) (nearly $11 billion when adjusted for inflation) worldwide, making it the highest grossing film series ever. The 22nd and newest movie in the series, ''Quantum of Solace'', was released in the UK on 31 October 2008. As of 9 November 2008, global box office totals for ''Quantum of Solace'' were almost $161 million (£103 million), placing the Bond series ahead of the ''Harry Potter'' film series even when not adjusting for inflation.

Franchise Count	Title	!Year	Actor	Director	!Total Box Office *	!Budget *	!Inflation Adjusted Total Box Office *†
		1962		rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"
		1963
		1964
		1965	style="text-align:center;"
			1967
		1969
		1971
		1973
		1974
		1977
		1979
		1981	rowspan="5" style="text-align:center;"
	''Octopussy''	1983
		''A View to a Kill''	1985
	''The Living Daylights''	1987
	''Licence to Kill''	1989
	''GoldenEye''	1995
	''Tomorrow Never Dies''	1997
	''The World Is Not Enough''	1999
	''Die Another Day''	2002
		2006
	''Quantum of Solace''	2008
	''Bond 23''	2012
Totals	''Films 1–22''

* ''All figures are in US Dollars'' † ''Figures are inflated to 2008 dollars as of 24 March 2008 figures based on the Consumer Price Index.''

Non-Eon films

In 1967, ''Casino Royale'' was adapted into a spoof Bond film starring David Niven as Sir James Bond 007 and Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd. David Niven, had, in fact, been Ian Fleming's preference for the part of James Bond. Eon Productions, however, chose Sean Connery. David Niven is the only James Bond actor who is mentioned by name in the text of two of Fleming's James Bond novels. In ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'', Bond visits an exclusive ski resort and is told that David Niven is a frequent visitor and in ''You Only Live Twice'' Kissy Suzuki mentions him as the only man who had been kind to her in her brief foray to Hollywood. Ursula Andress is also mentioned in the text of ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' as being present at the ski resort.

A legal loophole allowed Kevin McClory to release a remake of ''Thunderball'' titled ''Never Say Never Again'' in 1983. The film, featuring Sean Connery as Bond, is not part of the Eon James Bond series of films because it is not part of the Bond film franchise from Eon Productions and United Artists, although it is currently owned by United Artists parent MGM. Its original theatrical release in October 1983 actually created a situation in which two Bond movies were playing in cinemas at the same time, as the Eon Bond film, ''Octopussy'' was still playing in cinemas. Since then, MGM has bought the name "James Bond", preventing a repeat of this episode.

Title	Year	Actor	Director	!Total Box Office *	!Budget *	!Inflation Adjusted Total Box Office *†
	1967	David Niven
''Never Say Never Again''	1983	Sean Connery	Irvin Kershner
Totals

* ''All figures are in US Dollars'' † ''Figures are inflated to 2008 dollars as of 24 March 2008 figures based on the Consumer Price Index.''

Television programmes

In 1954, CBS paid Ian Fleming for the rights to adapt ''Casino Royale'' into a one hour television adventure as part of their ''Climax!'' series. However, Barry Nelson played a CIA agent named Jimmy Bond, Clarence Leiter was a British agent played by Michael Pate and Peter Lorre was Le Chiffre.

According to Andrew Pixley's notes to ''Danger Man'' Original soundtrack, Ian Fleming collaborated with Ralph Smart to bring James Bond to television, but dropped out taking his creation with him. Ralph Smart went on to develop ''Danger Man'' with Patrick McGoohan who would later turn down the opportunity to play James Bond.

The 1973 BBC documentary ''Omnibus: The British Hero'' featured Christopher Cazenove playing a number of such title characters (e.g. Richard Hannay and Bulldog Drummond), including James Bond in dramatised scenes from ''Goldfinger'' – notably featuring the hero being threatened with the novel's circular saw, rather than the film's laser beam — and ''Diamonds Are Forever''.

A TV cartoon series James Bond Jr. was produced in 1991 with Corey Burton in the role of the young James Bond.

Radio programmes

In 1956, Bob Holness starred in a South African radio adaptation of ''Moonraker'', making him the second actor to portray James Bond.

In 1990, a radio adaptation of ''You Only Live Twice'' was produced starring Michael Jayston.

Radio adaptations featuring Toby Stephens have been produced, with ''Dr. No'' in 2008 and ''Goldfinger'' in 2010.

Actors

Cultural impact

James Bond has long been a household name and remains a huge influence within the genre. The ''Austin Powers'' series by writer, producer and comedian Mike Myers, and other parodies such as ''Johnny English'' (2003), ''Bons baisers de Hong Kong'', ''OK Connery'', the "Flint" series starring James Coburn as Derek Flint, the "Matt Helm" movies starring Dean Martin, and ''Casino Royale'' (1967) are testaments to Bond's prominence in popular culture.

The Bond series also received many homages and parodies in popular media. The 1960s TV imitations of James Bond such as ''I Spy'', ''Get Smart'', ''Charles Vine'', ''Matt Helm'' and ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' went on to become popular successes in their own right, the last having enjoyed contributions by Fleming towards its creation: the show's lead character, "Napoleon Solo", was named after a character in Fleming's novel ''Goldfinger''; Fleming also suggested the character name April Dancer, which was later used in the spin-off series ''The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.'' A reunion television movie, ''The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' (1983), is notable for featuring a cameo by George Lazenby as James Bond in tribute to Fleming (for legal reasons, the character was credited as "JB").

George Lucas has said on various occasions that Sean Connery's portrayal of Bond was one of the primary inspirations for the Indiana Jones character, a reason Connery was chosen for the role of Indiana's father in the third film of that series.

His association with Aston Martin sports cars has helped further boost the brand's already strong image and popularity since Bond (then played by Sean Connery) first drove an Aston Martin in Goldfinger in 1964. A poll by Lloyds TSB in September 2010 revealed that Aston Martin was the most desired brand of "dream" car in Britain.

Music

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The "James Bond Theme" was written by Monty Norman and was first orchestrated by the John Barry Orchestra for 1962's ''Dr. No'', although the actual authorship of the music has been a matter of controversy for many years. In 2001, Norman won £30,000 in libel damages from the British paper ''The Sunday Times'', which suggested that Barry was entirely responsible for the composition.

Barry did go on to compose the scores for eleven Bond films in addition to his uncredited contribution to ''Dr. No'', and is credited with the creation of "007", used as an alternate Bond theme in several films, as well as the popular orchestrated theme "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." Both the "James Bond Theme" and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" have been remixed a number of times by popular artists, including Art of Noise, Moby, Paul Oakenfold, and the Propellerheads. The Beatles used a portion of the "Bond theme" in the introduction of their song "Help" as released on the American version of the "Help" LP. The British/Australian string quartet also named bond (purposely in lower case) recorded their own version of the theme, entitled "Bond on Bond."

Barry's legacy was followed by David Arnold, in addition to other well-known composers such as Chris Minear and Corbin Ott and record producers such as George Martin, Bill Conti, Michael Kamen, Marvin Hamlisch and Éric Serra. Arnold is the series' current composer of choice and composed the score for the 22nd Bond film, ''Quantum of Solace''.

A Bond film staple are the theme songs heard during their title sequences sung by well-known popular singers (which have included Tina Turner, Paul McCartney and Wings, Sheryl Crow and Tom Jones, among many others). Shirley Bassey performed three themes in total. After ''Doctor No'', ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' is the only Bond film with a solely instrumental theme, though Louis Armstrong's ballad "We Have All the Time in the World", which serves as Bond and his wife Tracy's love song and whose title is Bond's last line in the film, is considered the unofficial theme. Likewise, although the credit sequence to ''From Russia with Love'' features an instrumental version of the film's theme, another version, with lyrics sung by Matt Monro, can be partially heard within the film itself, and is featured on the film's soundtrack album.

The themes usually share their names with their film. "Nobody Does It Better", the theme for ''The Spy Who Loved Me'', was the first Bond theme not to share its title with that of the movie, although the words "the spy who loved me" do appear in the lyrics. The song is featured in both credit sequences of the film, and in orchestral form throughout. "Nobody Does It Better" was nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Original Song" of 1977, but lost to the theme song to ''You Light Up My Life''. Hamlisch's score for the film was also nominated for an Oscar, but lost to John Williams' score for ''Star Wars''.

The only other Bond themes to be nominated for an Academy Award for best song are "Live and Let Die", written by Paul and Linda McCartney and performed by their band Wings, and "For Your Eyes Only", written by Bill Conti and Michael Leeson and performed by Sheena Easton, though a few of John Barry's scores have been nominated.

The only Bond theme to reach number one on the pop charts in the U.S. was Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill".

The only singer, to date, to appear within a title sequence is Sheena Easton during ''For Your Eyes Only''. The only singer of a title song to appear as a character within the film itself, to date, is Madonna, who appeared (uncredited) as fencing instructor Verity, as well as contributing the theme for ''Die Another Day''. The title sequence in ''Die Another Day'' is notable, however, for being the only one in which the visuals actually serve to further the plot of the film itself, as opposed to being merely a montage or collage of abstract images related to the film or to the larger James Bond mythos.

The theme song from ''Quantum of Solace'' is Alicia Keys and Jack White's "Another Way to Die", which is the first James Bond theme song to be a duet. It is also the fourth theme song not to reference the name of the movie in its lyrics.

In 1998, Barry's music from ''You Only Live Twice'' was adapted into the hit song "Millennium" by producer and composer Guy Chambers for British recording artist Robbie Williams. The music video features Williams parodying James Bond, and references other Bond films such as ''Thunderball'' and ''From Russia with Love''. It should also be noted that the video was filmed at Pinewood Studios, where most of the Bond films have been made.

In 2004 the Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps won the Drum Corps International World Championship with "007," using the music of James Bond as composed by David Arnold. The Cavaliers performed selections from ''GoldenEye'', ''Die Another Day'' ("Hovercraft Theme" and "Welcome to Cuba"), and ''Tomorrow Never Dies''.

Burt Bacharach's score for 1967's ''Casino Royale'' included "The Look Of Love", nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song, has become a standard for its era, with the biggest-selling version recorded by Sérgio Mendes and Brasil '66 (#4 on the Billboard pop charts in 1968). It was heard again in ''Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery'', which was to a degree inspired by ''Casino Royale''.

Video games

In 1983, the first Bond video game, developed and published by Parker Brothers, was released for the Atari 2600, the Atari 5200, the Atari 800, the Commodore 64, and the ColecoVision. Since then, there have been numerous video games either based on the films or using original storylines.

Bond video games, however, did not reach their popular stride until 1997's revolutionary ''GoldenEye 007'' by Rare for the Nintendo 64. Subsequently, virtually every Bond video game has attempted to copy the accomplishments and features of ''GoldenEye 007'' to varying degrees of success; even going so far as to have a game entitled ''GoldenEye: Rogue Agent'' that had little to do with either the video game ''GoldenEye 007'' or the film of the same name. Bond himself plays only a minor role in which he is "killed" in the beginning during a 'virtual reality' mission, which served as the first level of the game.

Since acquiring the licence in 1999, Electronic Arts has released eight games, five of which have original stories, including the popular ''Everything or Nothing'', which broke away from the first-person shooter trend that started with ''GoldenEye 007'' (including the games "Agent Under Fire" and "Nightfire") and instead featured a third-person perspective. It also featured well known actors including Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, John Cleese and Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, although several previous games have used Brosnan's likeness as Bond. In 2005, Electronic Arts released a video game adaptation of ''From Russia with Love'', another game in the same vein as ''Everything or Nothing''. This was the second game based on a Connery Bond film (the first was a 1980s text adventure adaptation of ''Goldfinger'') and the first to allow the player to play as Bond with the likeness of Sean Connery. Connery himself recorded new voice-overs for the game, the first time the actor had played Bond in twenty-two years.

In 2006, Activision secured the licence to make Bond-related games, briefly sharing but effectively taking over the licence from EA. The deal became exclusive to Activision in September 2007. Activision studio Treyarch has released the new James Bond game "Quantum of Solace" a movie tie in of "Casino Royale" and "Quantum of Solace" it (not unlike "Goldeneye 007") is a first person shooter and it does include a new 'dashing to cover' and 'cover fire' third person game play.

In relation to the twenty-first film in the series Sony Ericsson released a Casino Royale edition of their K800i mobile phone. In this edition, a Java ME game loosely based on the movie was included. Vodafone has also published a game for the same platform called ''007: Hoverchase'' and developed by IOMO.

Activision released a reimagining of the N64 ''GoldenEye 007'', which was released for the Wii and DS in 2010. A number of changes are present in the game, most notable being Daniel Craig playing Bond, rather than Pierce Brosnan, who was Bond in the original game, and the film.

Comic strips and comic books

In 1957 the ''Daily Express'', a newspaper owned by Lord Beaverbrook, approached Ian Fleming to adapt his stories into comic strips. After initial reluctance by Fleming who felt the strips would lack the quality of his writing, agreed and the first strip ''Casino Royale'' was published in 1958. Since then many illustrated adventures of James Bond have been published, including every Ian Fleming novel as well as Kingsley Amis's ''Colonel Sun'', and most of Fleming's short stories. Later, the comic strip produced original stories, continuing until 1983.

Titan Books is presently reprinting these comic strips in an ongoing series of graphic novel-style collections; by the end of 2005 it had completed reprinting all Fleming-based adaptations as well as ''Colonel Sun'' and had moved on to reprinting original stories.

Several comic book adaptations of the James Bond films have been published through the years, as well as numerous original stories.

Most recently, a thinly veiled version of Bond (called only "Jimmy" to avoid copyright issues) appeared in ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier''. In this story, Bond is the villain; he chases the heroic duo of Mina Murray and Allan Quatermain across London, aided by disguised versions of Bulldog Drummond ("Hugo Drummond") and Emma Peel ("Miss Night"). Jimmy is portrayed as an unpleasant incompetent servant of the US who only pretends to work with Britain.

Characters

The James Bond series of novels and films have a plethora of allies and villains. Bond's superiors and other officers of the British Secret Service are known by letters, such as M and Q. In the novels, Bond has employed two secretaries, Loelia Ponsonby and Mary Goodnight, who in the films typically have their roles and lines transferred to M's secretary, Miss Moneypenny. Occasionally Bond is assigned to work a case with his good friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter.

Throughout both the novels and the films there have only been a handful of recurring characters. Some of the more memorable ones include Bill Tanner, Rene Mathis, Jack Wade, Jaws and recently Charles Robinson. J.W. Pepper is also a recurring character.

Vehicles and gadgets

Exotic espionage equipment and vehicles are very popular elements of James Bond's literary and cinematic missions. These items often prove critically important to Bond in successfully completing his missions.

Fleming's novels and early screen adaptations presented minimal equipment such as the booby-trapped attaché case in ''From Russia with Love''. In ''Dr. No'', Bond's sole gadgets were a Geiger counter and a wristwatch with a luminous (and radioactive) face. The gadgets, however, assumed a higher profile in the 1964 film ''Goldfinger''. The film's success encouraged further espionage equipment from Q Branch to be supplied to Bond. In the opinion of critics, some Bond films have included too many gadgets and vehicles, such as 1979's science fiction-oriented ''Moonraker'' and 2002's ''Die Another Day''.

James Bond's cars have included the Aston Martin DB5, V8 Vantage (80s), V12 Vanquish and DBS (00s); the Lotus Esprit; the BMW Z3, BMW 750iL and the BMW Z8. Bond's most famous car is the silver grey Aston Martin DB5, first seen in ''Goldfinger''; it later features in ''Thunderball'', ''GoldenEye'', ''Tomorrow Never Dies'', and ''Casino Royale''. The films have used a number of different Aston Martin DB5s for filming and publicity, one of which was sold in January 2006 at an auction in Arizona for $2,090,000 to an unnamed European collector. That specific car was originally sold for £5,000 in 1970.

In Fleming's books, Bond had a penchant for "battleship grey" Bentleys, while Gardner awarded the agent a modified Saab 900 Turbo (nicknamed the Silver Beast) and later a Bentley Mulsanne Turbo.

In the James Bond film adaptations, Bond has been associated with several well-known watches, usually outfitted with high-tech features not found on production models. The Rolex Submariner, one of the few recurring models, was worn by Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, and Timothy Dalton's versions of James Bond. Roger Moore also sported a number of digital watches by Pulsar and Seiko. Pierce Brosnan's and Daniel Craig's James Bonds were both devotees of the Omega Seamaster. The selection of James Bond's watch has been a matter of both style and finance, as product placement agreements with the watch manufacturers have frequently been arranged.

Bond's weapon of choice in the beginning of ''Dr. No'' is an Italian-made Beretta 418 .25 calibre, later replaced by the German-made Walther PPK, chambered in 7.65 mm (a peculiar choice, as Valentin Zukovsky remarks in ''GoldenEye'': the PPK as found in the U.S. and Western Europe is most commonly chambered in .380 ACP). The PPK was used in every subsequent film and became his signature weapon until the ending of ''Tomorrow Never Dies'', when Bond upgraded to the Walther P99. He has subsequently used the P99 pistol in ''Tomorrow Never Dies'', ''The World Is Not Enough'', ''Die Another Day'', and ''Casino Royale''. Strangely, Bond resumed use of the PPK in ''Quantum of Solace'', the direct sequel of ''Casino Royale''.

See also

Shaken, not stirred

Sir Fitzroy MacLean, 1st Baronet

The Battle for Bond

9007 James Bond Asteroid named after the character

References

External links

; Official sites:

James Bond Official Website

Ian Fleming Publications Official Website

Young Bond Official Website

Pinewood Studios – home of Bond

Pinewood Studios Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage Official Website

Ian Fleming's 'Red Indians' – 30AU – Literary James Bond's Wartime unit

;Unofficial sites:

007James – The Site's Bond, James Bond

MI6 – The Home of James Bond

Licensed to Kill – The fan compendium

Category:Characters in British novels of the 20th century Category:Fictional Scottish people Category:Fictional secret agents and spies Category:Media franchises Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1953

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Character name	Captain America
Converted	y
Alter ego	Steven "Steve" Rogers
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Debut	''Captain America Comics'' #1 (March 1941)
Creators	Joe SimonJack Kirby
Alliances	Illuminati"Secret Avengers" (Civil War)AvengersInvadersAll-Winners SquadSecret DefendersS.H.I.E.L.D.Project: RebirthU.S. ArmyRedeemersNew AvengersSecret Avengers
Aliases	Nomad, The Captain, Brett Hendrick, Roger Stevens, Weapon I
Partners	Bucky (James Barnes)FalconNomad (Monroe)Bucky (Rick Jones)Free SpiritJack FlagBucky (Rikki)Demolition ManSharon Carter
Supports
Powers	Physical attributes enhanced to peak of human potentialExpert martial artist and hand-to-hand combatantAll-terrain acrobaticsMaster tactician and field commanderVibranium-steel alloy shield
Cat	super
Subcat	Marvel Comics
Hero	y
Sortkey	Captain America }}

Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in ''Captain America Comics'' #1 (March 1941), from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Over the years, an estimated 210 million copies of "Captain America" comic books have been sold in a total of 75 countries. For nearly all of the character's publication history, Captain America was the alter ego of Steve Rogers, a frail young man who was enhanced to the peak of human perfection by an experimental serum in order to aid the United States war effort. Captain America wears a costume that bears an American flag motif, and is armed with an indestructible shield that can be thrown as a weapon.

An intentionally patriotic creation who was often depicted fighting the Axis powers of World War II, Captain America was Timely Comics' most popular character during the wartime period. After the war ended, the character's popularity waned and he disappeared by the 1950s aside from an ill-fated revival in 1953. Captain America was reintroduced during the Silver Age of comics when he was revived from suspended animation by the superhero team the Avengers in ''The Avengers'' #4 (March 1964). Since then, Captain America has often led the team, as well as starring in his own series.

Steve Rogers was purportedly assassinated in ''Captain America'' vol. 5, #25 (March 2007), although he was later revealed to be alive. The comic-book series ''Captain America'' continued to be published, with Rogers' former sidekick, James "Bucky" Barnes, having taken up the mantle, and keeping it at the insistence of Rogers, who upon his return began operating as an intelligence agent in the ''Secret Avengers'' title, and in the limited series ''Steve Rogers: Super Soldier''.

Captain America was the first Marvel Comics character adapted into another medium with the release of the 1944 movie serial ''Captain America.'' Since then, the character has been featured in several other films and television series, including ''Captain America: The First Avenger,'' released on July 22, 2011. Captain America was ranked 6th on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes in 2011.

Publication history

In 1940, writer Joe Simon conceived the idea for Captain America and made a sketch of the character in costume . "I wrote the name 'Super American' at the bottom of the page," Simon said in his autobiography. "No, it didn't work. There were too many 'Supers' around. 'Captain America' had a good sound to it. There weren't a lot of captains in comics. It was as easy as that. The boy companion was simply named Bucky, after my friend Bucky Pierson, a star on our high school basketball team."

Simon recalled in his autobiography that Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman gave him the go-ahead from and directed that a Captain America solo comic book series be published as soon as possible. Needing to fill a full comic with primarily one character's stories, Simon did not believe that his regular creative partner, artist Jack Kirby, could handle the workload alone:

Al Liederman would ink that first issue, which was lettered by Simon and Kirby's regular letterer, Howard Ferguson.

Simon said Captain America was a consciously political creation; he and Kirby were morally repulsed by the actions of Nazi Germany in the years leading up to the United States' involvement in World War II and felt war was inevitable: "The opponents to the war were all quite well organized. We wanted to have our say too."

''Captain America Comics'' #1 — cover-dated March 1941 and on sale in December 1940, a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, but a full year into World War II — showed the protagonist punching Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the jaw — sold nearly one million copies. While most readers responded favorably to the comic, some took objection. Simon noted, "When the first issue came out we got a lot of... threatening letters and hate mail. Some people really opposed what Cap stood for." Though preceded as a "patriotically themed superhero" by MLJ's The Shield, Captain America immediately became the most prominent and enduring of that wave of superheroes introduced in American comic books prior to and during World War II. With his sidekick Bucky, Captain America faced Nazis, Japanese, and other threats to wartime America and the Allies. Stanley Lieber, now better known by his pen name Stan Lee, contributed to the character in issue #3 in the filler text story "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge," which introduced the character's use of his shield as a returning throwing weapon. Captain America soon became Timely's most popular character and even had a fan-club called the "Sentinels of Liberty."

Circulation figures remained close to a million copies per month after the debut issue, which outstripped even the circulation of news magazines like ''Time'' during the period. After the Simon and Kirby team moved to DC in late 1941, having produced ''Captain America Comics'' through issue #10 (January 1942), Al Avison and Syd Shores became regular pencillers of the celebrated title, with one generally inking over the other. The character was also featured in ''All Winners Comics'' #1-19 (Summer 1941 – Fall 1946), ''Marvel Mystery Comics'' #80-84 and #86-92, ''USA Comics'' #6-17 (Dec. 1942 – Fall 1945), and ''All Select Comics'' #1-10 (Fall 1943 – Summer 1946).

In the post-war era, with the popularity of superheroes fading, Captain America led Timely's first superhero team, the All-Winners Squad, in its two published adventures, in ''All Winners Comics'' #19 and #21 (Fall–Winter 1946; there was no issue #20). After Bucky was shot and wounded in a 1948 ''Captain America'' story, he was succeeded by Captain America's girlfriend, Betsy Ross, who became the superheroine Golden Girl. ''Captain America Comics'' ended with issue #75 (Feb. 1950), by which time the series had been titled ''Captain America's Weird Tales'' for two issues, with the finale being a horror/suspense anthology issue with no superheroes.

Atlas Comics attempted to revive its superhero titles when it reintroduced Captain America, along with the original Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, in ''Young Men'' #24 (Dec. 1953). Billed as "Captain America, Commie Smasher!" Captain America appeared during the next year in ''Young Men'' #24-28 and ''Men's Adventures'' #27-28, as well as in issues #76-78 of an eponymous title. Atlas' attempted superhero revival was a commercial failure, and the character's title was canceled with ''Captain America'' #78 (Sept. 1954).

Silver Age revival

In the Human Torch story titled "Captain America" in Marvel Comics' ''Strange Tales'' #114 (Nov. 1963), writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Jack Kirby depicted the brash young Fantastic Four member Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, in an exhibition performance with Captain America, described as a legendary World War II and 1950s superhero who has returned after many years of apparent retirement. The 18-page story ends with this Captain America revealed as an impostor: it was actually the villain the Acrobat, a former circus performer the Torch had defeated in ''Strange Tales'' #106, who broke two thieves out of jail, hoping to draw the police away while trying to rob the local bank. Afterward, Storm digs out an old comic book in which Captain America is shown to be Steve Rogers. A caption in the final panel says this story was a test to see if readers would like Captain America to return.

Captain America was then formally reintroduced in ''The Avengers'' #4 (March 1964), which explained that in the final days of WWII, he had fallen from an experimental drone plane into the North Atlantic Ocean and spent decades frozen in a block of ice in a state of suspended animation. He quickly became leader of that superhero team. Following the success of other Marvel characters introduced during the 1960s, Captain America was recast as a hero "haunted by past memories, and trying to adapt to 1960s society."

After then guest-starring in the feature "Iron Man" in ''Tales of Suspense'' #58 (Oct. 1964), Captain America gained his own solo feature in that "split book," beginning the following issue. Kirby, Captain America's co-creator, was illustrating his hero's solo adventures again for the first time since 1941. Issue #63 (March 1965), which retold Captain America's origin, through issue #71 (Nov. 1965) was a period feature set during World War II and co-starred Captain America's Golden Age sidekick, Bucky.

In the 1970s, the post-war versions of Captain America were retconned into separate, successive characters who briefly took up the mantle of Captain America after Steve Rogers went into suspended animation near the end of World War II. The hero found a new generation of readers as leader of the all-star superhero team the Avengers, and in a new solo feature beginning in ''Tales of Suspense'' #59 (Nov. 1964), a "split book" shared with the feature "Iron Man". Kirby drew all but two of the stories in ''Tales of Suspense,'' which became ''Captain America'' with #100 (April 1968); Gil Kane and John Romita, Sr., each filled in once. Several stories were finished by penciller-inker George Tuska over Kirby layouts, with one finished by Romita Sr. and another by penciller Dick Ayers and inker John Tartaglione. Kirby's regular inkers on the series were Frank Giacoia (as "Frank Ray") and Joe Sinnott, though Don Heck and Golden Age Captain America artist Syd Shores inked one story each. The new title ''Captain America'' continued to feature artwork by Kirby, as well as a short run by Jim Steranko, and work by many of the industry's top artists and writers. It was called ''Captain America and the Falcon'' from #134-222 (although the Falcon's name was not on the cover for issues #193, 200, and 216).

This series — considered ''Captain America'' volume one by comics researchers and historians, following the 1940s ''Captain America Comics'' and its 1950s numbering continuation — ended with #454 (Aug. 1996).

After the Silver Age

This series was almost immediately followed by the 13-issue ''Captain America'' vol. 2 (Nov. 1996 – Nov. 1997), the 50-issue ''Captain America'' vol. 3 (Jan. 1998 – Feb. 2002), the 32-issue ''Captain America'' vol. 4 (June 2002 – Dec. 2004), and ''Captain America'' vol. 5 (Jan. 2005 – July 2009). Beginning with the 600th overall issue counting these series, ''Captain America'' resumed its original numbering with issue #600, as if the series numbering had continued uninterrupted after #454.

As part of the aftermath of Marvel Comics' company-crossover storyline "Civil War", Steve Rogers was ostensibly killed in ''Captain America'' vol. 5, #25 (March 2007). Series writer Ed Brubaker remarked, "What I found is that all the really hard-core left-wing fans want Cap to be standing out on and giving speeches on the street corner against the George W. Bush administration, and all the really right-wing fans all want him to be over in the streets of Baghdad, punching out Saddam Hussein." The character's co-creator, Joe Simon, remarked, "It's a hell of a time for him to go. We really need him now." Artist Alex Ross designed a slightly revised Captain America costume that former sidekick Bucky Barnes began to wear as the new Captain America in vol. 5, #34 (March 2008)

The storyline of Rogers' return began in issue #600. Rogers, who was not dead but caroming through time, returned to the present day in the six-issue miniseries ''Captain America: Reborn'' (Sept. 2009 – March 2010).

After Rogers' return, Barnes, at Rogers' insistence, continued as Captain America, beginning in the one-shot comic ''Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield?'' (Feb. 2010). While Bucky Barnes continued adventuring in the pages of ''Captain America'', Steve Rogers received his own miniseries (''Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier'') as well as taking on the leadership position in a new ''Secret Avengers'' ongoing series.

Spinoff series included ''Captain America Sentinel of Liberty'' (Sept. 1998 – Aug. 1999) and ''Captain America and the Falcon'' (May 2004 – June 2005). The 1940s Captain America appeared alongside the 1940s Human Torch and Sub-Mariner in the 12-issue miniseries ''Avengers/Invaders''. The 2007 mini-series ''Captain America: The Chosen'', written by David Morrell and penciled by Mitchell Breitweiser, depicts a dying Steve Rogers' final minutes, at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, as his spirit guides James Newman, a young American marine fighting in Afghanistan. ''The Chosen'' is not part of the main Marvel Universe continuity.

Fictional character biography

1940s

Steve Rogers was born July 4, 1917, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, to Irish immigrants Sarah and Joseph Rogers. Joseph Rogers died when Steve was only a child and his mother, Sarah, died of pneumonia while Steve was a teen. By early 1940, before America's entry into World War II, Rogers is a tall but scrawny fine arts student specializing in illustration. Disturbed by the rise of the Third Reich, Rogers attempts to enlist, only to be rejected due to being in poor shape. U.S. Army General Chester Phillips, looking for test subjects, offers Rogers the chance to serve his country by taking part in a top-secret defense project — Operation: Rebirth, which seeks to develop a means of creating physically superior soldiers. Rogers volunteers for the research and, after a rigorous selection process, is chosen as the first human test subject for the Super-Soldier serum developed by the scientist "Dr. Josef Reinstein", later retroactively changed to a code name for the scientist Abraham Erskine.

That night, Operation: Rebirth is implemented and Rogers receives injections and oral doses of the Super-Soldier Serum. He is then exposed to a controlled burst of "Vita-Rays" that activate and stabilize the chemicals in his system. Although the process is arduous physically, it successfully alters his physiology almost instantly from its relatively frail form to the maximum of human efficiency, greatly enhancing his musculature, reflexes, agility, stamina and intelligence. Erskine declares Rogers to be the first of a new breed of man, a "nearly perfect human being."

The process he underwent has varied from account to account. In the original 1941 story, he was injected with the formula. When the origin was retold in ''Tales of Suspense'' #63, the Comics Code Authority and its prohibitions on demonstrations of drug use were in force, and the injection was replaced with drinking a formula. In ''Captain America'' #109, the Vita-Rays were first introduced, although a dialogue comment preserved continuity by mentioning that he had also drunk the formula beforehand. The retelling of the story in ''Captain America'' #255, however, stated that all three were used in combination. In addition, the limited series, ''The Adventures of Captain America'' reveals that Rogers also underwent rigorous physical training in combat prior to his enhancement.

After the physical transformation, Nazi spy Heinz Kruger reveals himself and shoots Erskine. Because the scientist had committed crucial portions of the Super-Soldier formula to memory, duplicating it perfectly would be unlikely. The spy dies, killed either while running away to escape Rogers or because Rogers threw him into live machinery. In the 1941 origin story and the ''Tales of Suspense'' #63 version, he dies when running into the machinery but is not killed by Rogers; in the ''Captain America'' #109 and #255 revision, however, Rogers causes the spy's death by punching him into the machinery.

The United States government, making the most of its one super-soldier and to hide all information about Operation: Rebirth and its failure, re-imagines him as a superhero who serves as both a counter-intelligence agent and a propaganda symbol to counter Nazi Germany's head of terrorist operations, the Red Skull. To that end, Rogers is given a uniform modeled after the American flag (based on Rogers' own sketches) a bulletproof shield, a personal side arm, and the codename Captain America. He is also given a cover identity as a clumsy infantry private at Camp Lehigh in Virginia. Barely out of his teens himself, Rogers makes friends with the camp's teenage mascot, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes.

Barnes accidentally learns of Rogers' dual identity and offers to keep the secret if he can become Captain America's sidekick. Rogers agrees and trains Barnes. Rogers meets President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who presents him with a new shield, forged from an alloy of steel and vibranium, fused by an unknown catalyst. The alloy is indestructible, yet the shield is light enough to use as a discus-like weapon that can be angled to return to him. It proves so effective that Captain America forgoes the sidearm. Throughout World War II, Captain America and Bucky fight the Nazi menace both on their own and as members of the superhero team the Invaders (as seen in the 1970s comic of the same name). Captain America also battles a number of criminal menaces on American soil, including a wide variety of costumed villains: the Wax Man, the Hangman, the Fang, and the White Death, the superhero team the Avengers discovers Steve Rogers' body in the North Atlantic, the Captain's uniform under his soldier's fatigues and still carrying his shield. After he revives, they piece together that Rogers had been preserved in a block of ice since 1945, surviving in such a state only because of his enhancements from Operation: Rebirth. The block had begun to melt after the Sub-Mariner, enraged that an Arctic Inuit tribe is worshiping the frozen figure, throws it into the ocean. Rogers accepts membership in the Avengers, and although long out of his time, his considerable combat experience makes him a valuable asset to the team. He quickly assumes leadership, and has typically returned to that position throughout the team's history.

Captain America is plagued by guilt for having been unable to prevent Bucky's death—a feeling that does not ease for some time. Although he takes the young Rick Jones (who closely resembles Bucky) under his tutelage, he refuses for some time to allow Jones to take up the Bucky identity, not wishing to be responsible for another youth's death. Insisting that his hero finally move on from that loss, Jones eventually convinces Rogers to let him don the Bucky costume, but this partnership lasts only a short time; a disguised Red Skull, impersonating Rogers with the help of the Cosmic Cube, drives Jones away.

Rogers also reunites with his old war comrade Nick Fury, who is similarly well-preserved due to the "Infinity Formula." As a result, Rogers regularly undertakes missions for the security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. for which Fury is public director. Through Fury, Rogers befriends Sharon Carter, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, with whom he eventually begins a romantic relationship.

Rogers later meets and trains Sam Wilson, who becomes the superhero the Falcon, the first African-American superhero in mainstream comic books. The characters established an enduring friendship and adventuring partnership, sharing the series title for some time as ''Captain America and the Falcon''. The two later encounter the revived but still insane 1950s Captain America. Although Rogers and the Falcon defeat the faux Rogers and Jack Monroe, Rogers becomes deeply disturbed that he could have suffered his counterpart's fate.

The series also dealt with the Marvel Universe's version of the Watergate scandal, making Rogers so uncertain about his role that he abandons his Captain America identity in favor of one called Nomad, emphasizing the word's meaning as "man without a country". During this time, several men unsuccessfully assume the Captain America identity. Rogers eventually re-assumes it after coming to consider that the identity could be a symbol of American ideals and not its government; it's a personal conviction epitomized when he later confronted a corrupt Army officer attempting to manipulate him by appealing to his loyalty, "I'm loyal to nothing, General... except the [American] Dream." Jack Monroe, cured of his mental instability, later takes up the Nomad alias. During this period, Rogers also temporarily gains super strength. Immediately after witnessing Number One's suicide, he is summoned to the future to participate in the Destiny War between Kang the Conqueror and Immortus (it is revealed over the course of the story that Rogers was selected from this time frame as, had he been taken from any other time period, his strong personality- shaken at this point by the events he had just witnessed- would have dominated the team and deprived them of the flexibility required to succeed in their mission, although his presence alone still brought cohesion to the group). He also learns of the apparent death of Sharon Carter.

1980s to 1990s

The early 1980s included runs from such creators as Roger Stern, John Byrne, and J. M. DeMatteis. Stern had Steve Rogers considers a run for President of the United States in ''Captain America'' #250 (June 1980), and and introduced a new love interest, law student Bernie Rosenthal, in ''Captain America'' #248 (Aug. 1980). Stern also revisited and expanded Captain America's origin story.

DeMatteis revealed the true face and full origin of the Red Skull in ''Captain America'' #298-300, and had Captain America take on Jack Monroe, Nomad, as a partner for a time. It is also around this time that the heroes gathered by the Beyonder elect Rogers as leader during their stay on Battleworld in the 1984 miniseries ''Secret Wars''

Also during the 1980s, Mark Gruenwald wrote 137 issues of the book for 10 consecutive years from 1985 to 1995, the most issues by any single author in the character's history. Gruenwald created several new foes, including Crossbones and the Serpent Society. Other Gruenwald characters included new love interest Diamondback., Super Patriot (who would go on to become a replacement Captain America in a two-year story arc and became USAgent at that arc's conclusion), and some short-lived new partners that included Demolition Man.

Gruenwald explores numerous political and social themes as well, such as extreme idealism when Captain America fights the anti-nationalist terrorist Flag-Smasher; and vigilantism when he hunts the murderous Scourge of the Underworld. Homophobia was also dealt with as Steve Rogers runs into a childhood friend named Arnold Roth who is gay.

Rogers receives a large back-pay reimbursement dating back to his disappearance at the end of World War II, and a government commission orders him to work directly for the U.S. government. Already troubled by the corruption he had encountered with the Nuke incident in New York City, Rogers chooses instead to resign his identity, and then takes the alias of "the Captain". A replacement Captain America, John Walker, struggles to emulate Rogers' ideals until pressure from hidden enemies helps to drive Walker insane. Rogers returns to the Captain America identity while a recovered Walker becomes the U.S. Agent.

Sometime afterward, Rogers avoids the explosion of a methamphetamine lab, but the drug triggers a chemical reaction in the Super-Soldier serum in his system. To combat the reaction, Rogers has the serum removed from his body, and trains constantly to maintain his physical condition.

A retcon later establishes that the serum was not a drug per se, which would have metabolized out of his system, but in fact a virus-like organism that effected a biochemical and genetic change. This additionally explained how arch-nemesis Red Skull, who at the time inhabited a body cloned from Rogers' cells, also has the formula in his body.

Because of his altered biochemistry, Rogers' body begins to deteriorate, and for a time he must wear a powered exoskeleton and is eventually placed again in suspended animation. During this time, he is given a transfusion of blood from the Red Skull, which cures his condition and stabilizes the Super-Soldier virus in his system. Captain America returns both to crime fighting and the Avengers.

Following Gruenwald's departure on the book, Mark Waid took over and resurrected Sharon Carter as Cap's love interest. The book was then relaunched under Rob Liefeld as Cap became part of the Heroes Reborn universe for 13 issues before another relaunch restored Waid to the title in an arc that saw Cap lose his shield for a time using an energy based shield as a temporary replacement. Following Waid's run, Dan Jurgens took over and introduced new foe Protocide, a failed recipient of the Super Soldier serum prior to the experiment that successfully created Rogers.

2000s

Rogers reveals his identity to the world, and establishes a residence in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

Following the events of ''Avengers Disassembled'', again under the employ of S.H.I.E.L.D., Rogers discovers that Bucky is alive, having been saved and deployed by Soviet espionage interests as the Winter Soldier. Rogers also resumes his on-again, off-again relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter, who, after his death, believes she is pregnant with Steve Rogers' child.

In the 2006-2007 "Civil War" crossover, Captain America opposes mandatory federal registration of all super-powered beings, which he sees as an erosion of civil liberties for the superhero community, and leads the Anti-Registration faction and resistance movement. He becomes a fugitive and opposes the heroes of the Pro-Registration group, including his former friend Iron Man. He adopts the alias "Brett Hendrick", a mall security guard, to avoid government detection. As the War continues, Cap enlists the assistance of several figures with whom he would not choose to ally himself under normal circumstances, such as the Punisher and the Kingpin.

Captain America battles Iron Man during the climactic battle and has victory within his grasp when a group of civilians attempt to restrain him. Rogers realizes that he is endangering the very people he has sworn to protect. He then surrenders to the authorities and orders the Anti-Registration forces to stand down. As Rogers is led away in handcuffs, the Punisher retrieves Captain America's discarded mask.

''The Death of Captain America'' story arc follows his surrender. Steve Rogers is indicted on multiple criminal charges; as he is brought to a federal courthouse, a sniper shoots him in the back. In the chaos that ensues, he is wounded three more times in the stomach and chest by Sharon Carter. Rogers is taken to a hospital, where by all evidence he dies. The assassination, orchestrated by the Red Skull, involves Crossbones as the sniper and Dr. Faustus posing as a S.H.I.E.L.D. psychiatrist, who gives Carter a hypnotic suggestion to shoot Rogers at a crucial moment.

The superhero community is shaken by the assassination. The Punisher temporarily adopts a costume similar to that of Captain America, while Winter Soldier and Wolverine seek to avenge Rogers' death. The Winter Soldier steals Captain America's shield, and the Punisher provides him with the mask from Steve Rogers' uniform. Captain America is publicly laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, under a monument built in his honor. The body in Arlington is a fake: Tony Stark, accompanied by Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, returns Rogers' body to the Arctic where Rogers had been found years before. Namor attends the small private ceremony and vows no one will disturb the site.

Stark receives a letter containing Rogers' final requests: Stark should "save" Bucky, and that, despite his demise, the world still needs Captain America. Bucky accepts Stark's offer to take on the mantle of Captain America in exchange for a promise of autonomy from Stark. Bucky kept Rogers' trademark shield, but donned a new costume and began carrying a pistol and a knife.

''Captain America: Reborn'' #1 revealed that Rogers did not die; instead, the villainous Red Skull had Sharon Carter use a gun that transported him to a fixed position in space and time. Since then, Captain America had been phasing in and out of space and time, appearing at events in his lifetime and fighting battles. The Red Skull brings Rogers back to the present, where he takes control of Rogers' mind and body. Rogers eventually regains control, and with help from his allies, defeats the Red Skull.

In the one-shot comic ''Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield?'', taking place after the conclusion to ''Reborn'', Rogers formally hands Bucky his Captain America shield and asks his former sidekick to continue as Captain America. Later, the American President grants Rogers a full pardon for his actions in ''Civil War''.

2010s

Following the company-wide "Dark Reign" and "Siege" story arcs, the Steve Rogers character became part of the "Heroic Age" arc. The U.S. president appoints Rogers, in his civilian identity, as head of the nation's security, replacing Norman Osborn. The Superhuman Registration Act is repealed and Rogers reestablishes the superhero team the Avengers. In the miniseries ''Steve Rogers: Super Soldier'', he encounters Jacob Erskine, the grandson of Professor Abraham Erskine and the son of Tyler Paxton, one of Rogers' fellow volunteers in the Super-Soldier program, the serum in his body being briefly deactivated before Rogers manages to force his enemies to restore it thanks to his combat training allowing him to hold his own despite his weakened physique. Rogers also becomes the leader of the Secret Avengers, a black-ops team that operates under a veil of secrecy.

Marvel stated in May 2011 that Rogers, following the death of Bucky Barnes in the ''Fear Itself'' miniseries, would resume his Captain America identity in a sixth volume of ''Captain America'', by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Steve McNiven.

Powers and abilities

Captain America has no superhuman powers, although as a result of the Super-Soldier Serum and "Vita-Ray" treatment, he is transformed from a frail young man into a "perfect" specimen of human development and conditioning. Captain America's strength, endurance, agility, speed, reflexes, durability, and healing are at the zenith of natural human potential. Rogers' body regularly replenishes the super-soldier serum; it does not wear off.

The formula enhances all of his metabolic functions and prevents the build-up of fatigue poisons in his muscles, giving him endurance far in excess of an ordinary human being. This accounts for many of his extraordinary feats, including bench pressing 1200 pounds (545 kg) and running a mile (1.6 km) in approximately 73 seconds. Furthermore, his enhancements are the reason why he was able to survive being frozen in suspended animation for decades. Rogers cannot become intoxicated by alcohol, drugs, or impurities in the air and is immune to terrestrial diseases. He is also highly resistant to hypnosis or gases that could limit his focus. The secrets of creating a super-soldier were lost with the death of its creator, Dr. Abraham Erskine. However, in the ensuing decades there have been numerous secret attempts to recreate Erskine's treatment, only to have predominantly all end in failure. Even worse, the attempts have instead often created psychopathic supervillains of which Captain America's 1950s imitator and Nuke are the most notorious examples.

Rogers' battle experience and training make him an expert tactician and an excellent field commander, with his teammates frequently deferring to his orders in battle. Rogers' reflexes and senses are also extraordinarily keen. He has blended judo, western boxing, kickboxing, and gymnastics into his own unique fighting style and is a master of multiple martial arts. Years of practice with his indestructible shield make him able to aim and throw it with almost unerring accuracy. His skill with his shield is such that he can attack multiple targets in succession with a single throw or even cause a boomerang-like return from a throw to attack an enemy from behind. In canon, he is regarded by other skilled fighters as one of the best hand-to-hand combatants in the Marvel Universe. Although the super-soldier serum is an important part of his strength, Rogers has shown himself still sufficiently capable against stronger opponents, even when the serum has been deactivated reverting him to his pre-Captain America physique.

Rogers has vast U.S. military knowledge and is often shown to be familiar with ongoing, classified Defense Department operations. He is an expert in combat strategy, survival, acrobatics, military strategy, piloting, and demolitions. Despite his high profile as one of the world's most popular and recognizable superheroes, Rogers also has a broad understanding of the espionage community, largely through his ongoing relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. He occasionally makes forays into relatively mundane career fields, including commercial arts, comic book artistry, education (high school history), and law enforcement.

Weapons and equipment

Captain America uses several shields throughout his history, the most prevalent of which is a nigh-indestructible disc-shaped shield made from an experimental alloy of steel and the fictional vibranium. The shield was cast by American metallurgist Dr. Myron MacLain, who was contracted by the U.S. government, from orders of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to create an impenetrable substance to use for tanks during World War II. This alloy was created by accident and never duplicated, although efforts to reverse-engineer it resulted in the discovery of adamantium.

Captain America often uses his shield as an offensive throwing weapon. The first instance of Captain America's trademark ricocheting shield-toss occurs in Stan Lee's first comics writing, the two-page text story "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge" in ''Captain America Comics'' #3 (May 1941).

The legacy of the shield among other comics characters includes the time-traveling mutant superhero Cable telling Captain America that his shield still exists in one of the possible futures; Cable carries it into battle and brandishes it as a symbol.

When without his trademark shield, Captain America sometimes uses other shields made from less durable metals such as steel, or even a photonic energy shield designed to mimic a vibranium matrix. Rogers, having relinquished his regular shield to Barnes, carried a variant of the energy shield which can be used with either arm, and used to either block attacks or as an improvised offensive weapon able to cut through metal with relative ease. Much like his vibranium shield, the energy shield can also be thrown, including ricocheting off multiple surfaces and returning to his hand.

Captain America's uniform is made of a fire-retardant material, and he wears a lightweight, bulletproof "duralumin" scale armor beneath his uniform for added protection. Originally, Rogers' mask was a separate piece of material, but an early engagement had it dislodged, thus almost exposing his identity. To prevent a recurrence of the situation, Rogers modified the mask with connecting material to his uniform, an added benefit of which was extending his armor to cover his previously exposed neck. As a member of the Avengers, Rogers has an Avengers priority card, which serves as a communications device.

Captain America has also used a custom specialized motorcycle, modified by the S.H.I.E.L.D. weapons laboratory, as well as a custom-built battle van, constructed by the Wakanda Design Group with the ability to change its color for disguise purposes (red, white and blue), and fitted to store and conceal the custom motorcycle in its rear section with a frame that allows Rogers to launch from the vehicle riding it.

Enemies

Captain America has faced numerous foes in over 60 years of published adventures. Many of his recurring foes embody ideals contrary to the American values Captain America is shown to strive for and believe. Some examples of these opposing values are Nazism (Red Skull, Baron Zemo), Neo-Nazism (Crossbones, Doctor Faustus), technocratic fascism (AIM, Arnim Zola), Communism (Aleksander Lukin), anarchism (Flag Smasher and Viper), and international and domestic terrorism (HYDRA).

Other versions

In other media

Collected editions

The contents of ''Captain America Comics'' #1-10 were previously published as ''Captain America: The Classic Years'' two hardcover slipcase set in 1990. These were later re-issued as trade paperbacks in the late 1990s once again under the title ''Captain America: The Classic Years'' featuring new cover art by Kevin Maguire re-creating classic covers. Previous editions of ''War and Remembrance'', ''The Bloodstone Hunt'', ''Operation Rebirth'', ''Man Without a Country'', and ''To Serve and Protect'' were released prior to 2010 editions leading up to the Captain America: The First Avenger feature film.

! Title !! Material collected !! ISBN
''Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Captain America Comics, Vol. 1''	''Captain America Comics'' #1-4
''Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Captain America Comics, Vol. 2''	''Captain America Comics'' #5-8
''Marvel Masterworks Golden Age Captain America Comics, Vol. 3''	''Captain America Comics'' #9-12
''Marvel Masterworks Atlas Era Heroes, Vol. 1''	Includes Captain America stories from ''Astonishing'' #3-6, ''Young Men'' #24-28
''Marvel Masterworks Atlas Era Heroes, Vol. 2''	Includes Captain America stories from ''Men's Adventures'' #27-28, ''Captain America Comics'' #76-78
''Essential Captain America, Vol. 1''	''Tales of Suspense'' #59-99; ''Captain America'' #100-102
''Essential Captain America, Vol. 2''	''Captain America'' #103-126
''Essential Captain America, Vol. 3''	''Captain America'' #127-156
''Essential Captain America, Vol. 4''	''Captain America'' #157-186
''Essential Captain America, Vol. 5''	''Captain America'' #187-205, ''Annual'' #3, ''Marvel Treasury Special: Captain America's Bicentennial Battles''
''Essential Captain America, Vol. 6''	''Captain America'' #206-230, ''Annual'' #4; ''Incredible Hulk'' #232
''Captain America and the Falcon: Secret Empire''	''Captain America'' #169-176
''Captain America and the Falcon: Nomad''	''Captain America'' #177-186
''Captain America and the Falcon: Madbomb''	''Captain America'' #193-200
''Captain America: Bicentennial Battles''	''Captain America'' #201-205; ''Bicentennial Battles'' #1
''Captain America and the Falcon: The Swine''	''Captain America'' #206-214, ''Annual'' #3-4
''Captain America: War and Remembrance''	''Captain America'' #247-255
''Captain America: Deathlok Lives''	''Captain America'' #286-288
''Captain America: Scourge of the Underworld''	''Captain America'' #318-320, back-up stories from #358-362; ''USAgent'' #1-4;
''Captain America: The Captain''	''Captain America'' #332-350; ''Iron Man'' #228
''Captain America: The Bloodstone Hunt''	''Captain America'' #357-364
''Captain America: Streets of Poison''	''Captain America'' #372-378
''Avengers: Galactic Storm, Book 1''	''Captain America'' #398-399, ''Avengers West Coast'' #80-81, ''Quasar'' #32-33, ''Wonder Man'' #7-8, ''Avengers'' #345-346, ''Iron Man'' #278 and ''Thor'' #445
''Avengers: Galactic Storm, Book 2''	''Iron Man'' #279, ''Thor'' #446, ''Captain America'' #400-401, ''Avengers West Coast'' #82, ''Quasar'' #34-35, ''Wonder Man'' #9, ''Avengers'' #347, ''What If?'' #55-56
''Captain America: Man and Wolf''	''Captain America'' #402-408
''Captain America: Fighting Chance: Denial''	''Captain America'' #425-430
''Captain America: Fighting Chance: Acceptance''	''Captain America'' #431-437
''Captain America: Operation Rebirth''	''Captain America'' #444-448
''Captain America: Man Without a Country''	''Captain America'' #450-453
''Heroes Reborn: Captain America''	''Captain America'' vol. 2, #1-12
''Captain America: To Serve and Protect''	''Captain America'' vol. 3, #1-7
''Captain America: American Nightmare''	''Captain America'' vol. 3, #8-13, ''Annual 1998''
''Captain America: Red Glare''	''Captain America'' vol. 3, #14-19, ''Captain America Spotlight''
''Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty''	''Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty'' #1-12
''Captain America: The New Deal''	''Captain America'' vol. 4, #1-6
''Captain America: The Extremists''	''Captain America'' vol. 4, #7-11
''Captain America: Ice''	''Captain America'' vol. 4, #12-16
''Captain America: Cap Lives''	''Captain America'' vol. 4, #17-20; ''Tales of Suspense'' #66
''Captain America: Homeland''	''Captain America'' vol. 4, #21-28
''Captain America and the Falcon: Two Americas''	''Captain America and the Falcon'' #1-4
''Avengers Disassembled: Captain America''	''Captain America'' vol. 4, #29-32; ''Captain America and the Falcon'' #5-7
''Captain America and the Falcon: Brothers and Keepers''	''Captain America and the Falcon'' #8-14
''Captain America: Winter Soldier, Book One''	''Captain America'' vol. 5, #1-7
''Captain America: Winter Soldier, Book Two''	''Captain America'' vol. 5, #8-9, #11-14
''Captain America: Red Menace, Book One''	''Captain America'' vol. 5, #15-17; ''Captain America 65th Anniversary Special''
''Captain America: Red Menace, Book Two''	''Captain America'' vol. 5, #18-21
''Captain America: Civil War''	''Captain America'' vol. 5, #22-24; ''Winter Soldier: Winter Kills''
''The Death of Captain America, Vol. 1: The Death of the Dream''	''Captain America'' vol. 5, #25-30
''The Death of Captain America, Vol. 2: The Burden of Dreams''	''Captain America'' vol. 5, #31-36
''The Death of Captain America, Vol. 3: The Man Who Bought America''	''Captain America'' vol. 5, #37-42
''Captain America: The Man with No Face''	''Captain America'' vol. 5, #43-48
''Captain America: Road to Reborn'' (HC)	''Captain America'' #600-601; vol. 5, #49-50
''Captain America: Reborn'' (HC)	''Captain America: Reborn'' #1-6
''Captain America: Two Americas''	''Captain America'' #602-605; ''Who Will Wield the Shield?''
''Captain America: No Escape''	''Captain America'' #606-610
''Steve Rogers: Super Soldier''	''Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier'' #1-4
''Captain America: The Trial of Captain America	''Captain America'' #611-615 and #615.1, and material from CAPTAIN AMERICA 70TH ANNIVERSARY MAGAZINE
''Captain America: Prisoner of War	''Captain America'' #616-619
Miscellaneous
''Captain America: The Legacy of Captain America''	''Captain America Comics'' (1941) #1; ''What If?'' (1977) #4; ''Captain America'' #155, #333; ''Captain America'' vol. 5, #34; material from ''Captain America'' (1968) #178-183	SC:
''Captain America Vs. The Red Skull''	''Captain America Comics'' (1941) #1; ''Tales Of Suspense'' #79-81; and ''Captain America'' #143, #226-227, #261-263 and #370; and material from ''Captain America Annual'' #13 and ''Captain America: Red, White & Blue'' #1''	SC:

References

Further reading

External links

Captain America Library

Captain America: The First Avenger (July 2011)

"Captain America: An all-American hero goes back to his roots" - Aug 2011 review by Sasha Simic

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