This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. It relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Tagged since August 2009. Its plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Tagged since November 2008.

The Wasp (Janet van Dyne) is a fictional character, a superheroine in the Marvel Comics universe and founding member of the Avengers. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Tales to Astonish #44 (June 1963).

After the character's 2008 death, Henry Pym became Marvel Comics' new Wasp briefly.

Both versions are depicted as having the ability to shrink to a height of perhaps several centimeters, grow to giant size, fly by means of insectoid wings (which appear only at small size), and fire energy blasts.

In May 2011, the Wasp placed 99th on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time. The character was ranked 94th in Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.^[1]

Publication history[link]

Janet van Dyne debuted as Henry "Hank" Pym's partner in Tales to Astonish #44 (written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby), originally only serving as his partner to avenge the death of her father, scientist Vernon van Dyne. Later in the same issue, she decided to stay with Hank only because she was in love with him, wanting him to realize that he loved her back. They both realized their feelings for each other in Tales to Astonish #56, although it wasn't until later in the series that they acted on them.

During her run in Astonish, van Dyne also joined Avengers in its first issue, along with her partner, Hank Pym. It is on this team that Janet became most well known, at first the weak link of the team, but later on one of the smartest and craftiest members. She was the first one to propose to leave the team, after announcing how tired she was and how she wanted to return to a normal life.^[2] However, she missed being a superhero, and she (along with Hank) returned to the team in issue #28. After marrying Hank in issue #60, Janet and Hank both later decided to leave the team in issue #75.

Hank became the main character of the series Marvel Feature, starting with issue #4, and Janet appeared as a second main character starting with issue #6. Both characters left the book after issue #10, making sporadic guest appearances in various other books at the time, presumably living a happily married life.

Janet missed being a superhero once again, and rejoined the Avengers in issue #137, getting injured right away. After being rescued by her husband and hospitalized, Janet recovered and joined the team along with Hank in issue #151. Here she began her longest run as a member of the Avengers. After being brutally slapped in the face by her husband, she divorced him, and in turn became the new Chairman of the Avengers, starting with issue #217.

Janet later resigned as Chairman, and joined the West Coast Avengers in issue #32, at first only to help stabilize the team after Tony Stark left, later becoming a full time member starting with issue #42. Later in the run, she rekindled her old romance with Hank, and fully rejoined the Avengers.

Design[link]

In his 1970s run on The Avengers, artist George Pérez revamped the character's costume a number of times, having a significant impact on the character's development—

Fictional character biography[link]

Origin[link]

Janet Van Dyne was born in Cresskill, New Jersey. She was initially a shallow, self-centered, flighty heiress and debutante, daughter of wealthy scientist Vernon Van Dyne. During an experiment, however, an alien monster was unleashed from an alternate dimension and Dr. Van Dyne was killed. Her father's associate, Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym, had created a substance called "Pym particles", which allowed the user to grow or shrink in size, and had become the superhero Ant-Man. When Janet's father died, she convinced Pym to help her.^[4] He gave her a supply of "Pym particles" and subjected her to a biochemical procedure which granted her the ability, upon shrinking, to grow wings and fire blasts of energy, which she called her "wasp's stings". As Ant-Man and The Wasp, they defeated the monster, sent it to its own dimension, and had several more adventures together.^[4] Janet became Pym's partner and fell in love with him before their first adventure, but Pym rejected her at first, afraid of what would happen if he were to lose her as he had lost his first wife, who was killed.^[4] Janet would openly muse about her apparently unrequited feelings, often in front of him.^[5] Pym rejected his feelings for her; however he later accepted them^[6] and tried acting on them.^[7] They both soon realized their feelings for each other, and began dating.^[8]

Avenger[link]

Soon afterward, the superhero team, which Janet herself dubbed the Avengers, formed. Hank and Janet were among its founding members.^[9] Still shallow, Janet frequently commented on the attractiveness of her male colleagues, especially Thor, in order to provoke jealousy from Pym. Never lacking confidence or bravery and by nature an outgoing personality, Janet was always in the thick of battles with villains, who included Norse gods and aliens. Early on in her Avengers career, she was wounded in battle against Count Nefaria.^[10] Although she and Hank took occasional leaves of absence,^[2][11] the two have almost always remained members, staying on reserve when not on active duty. After their first leave of absence, she and Pym, as the first Goliath, rejoined the Avengers and battled the Collector.^[12] During the course of their many adventures as Avengers, Janet grew as a person, becoming a resourceful and seasoned hero. Several years later, she would be elected leader of the team.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Marrying Hank Pym[link]

The relationship between Janet and Pym had always been one of loving squabbling, but her wealth and his research had always stopped him from proposing.^[13] One day, a cocky new costumed crime-fighter called Yellowjacket broke into Avengers HQ. He claimed to have disposed of Pym and even kidnapped Janet.^[14] To the outrage of her colleagues, Janet then married Yellowjacket.^[15] A tension-filled wedding was made even more edgy by an attack by the Circus of Crime. During the fight it was discovered that Yellowjacket was Pym. He had an accident with some chemicals causing a severe case of dissociative identity disorder. Janet had realized this from very early on and had taken advantage of it to tie the knot with Hank.^[15]

With Yellowjacket, Janet later left the Avengers.^[16] With Pym, again as Ant-Man, she became temporarily trapped at insect size, and battled Whirlwind, Para-Man, and Dr. Nemesis.^[17] With Yellowjacket, she eventually rejoined the Avengers.^[18] With Spider-Man and Yellowjacket, she battled Equinox; her powers were augmented by Yellowjacket.^[19]

Rocky times[link]

Janet's relationship with Pym became rocky, as he suffered a further series of mental problems, exacerbated by the stress on his body of his frequent size changes and exposure to chemicals. This even led to him being easily brainwashed by Ultron, in which he kidnapped Janet^[20] and used her brain patterns to create a wife for Ultron, Jocasta.^[21] Janet later rejoined the Avengers without Pym.^[22] Many years later, Pym had a complete breakdown, and became completely paranoid.^[23] During the course of this breakdown, he became overbearing and verbally abusive.^[23] At the nadir of his degeneration, he struck Janet, and then proceeded to concoct a plan to make himself look good in front of his teammates by staging an attack upon them which only he could stop.^[24] This plan backfired and Pym was exposed, disgraced, and expelled from the Avengers, and the couple separated.^[25] Janet divorced Pym soon after, and then became Avengers chairman; with the Avengers, she arrested Yellowjacket.^[26] She eventually surrendered her Avengers chairmanship to the Vision.^[27] She remained with the team despite these hardships, and even began dating other men, including Tony Stark^{[volume & issue needed]} and Paladin.^{[volume & issue needed]} With Paladin, she battled Baron Brimstone,^[28] and shortly thereafter she resumed her Avengers chairmanship.^[29] Janet eventually stepped down as chairman again, and left the Avengers.^[30] Pym later on joined the West Coast Avengers, with Janet soon following.^[31] Jan battled the threat of Red Ronin alone.^[32] Pym's mental state returned to normal, and the two became friends again and later resumed their romantic relationship.^[33] Jan was elected as a regular member of the Avengers West, but chose to become a reserve member.^[34] Some few years later, the two returned to the regular Avengers.^{[volume & issue needed]} On a trip to Las Vegas, however, she turned down Pym's proposal, saying she wouldn't marry him again.^[35] She had a brief fling with fellow team member Hawkeye, but returned to Hank.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Avengers Disassembled[link]

While discussing her fling with Hawkeye to the Scarlet Witch, a slightly tipsy Wasp confessed to a pregnancy scare and inadvertently mentioned Wanda's own children,^[36] whose unnatural existence Agatha Harkness had kindly erased from the Witch's memory. The Wasp's slip of the tongue, combined with the Scarlet Witch's increasingly unstable and growing powers, caused Wanda to suffer a mental breakdown which led to the events of Avengers Disassembled. Janet was knocked into a coma by a rampaging She-Hulk during an attack on Avengers Mansion by the Scarlet Witch. Hank watched over her as she lay in the hospital, and when she recovered, they reconciled. The two retired from the Avengers in order to pursue a new life together in Oxford.^[37]

Beyond![link]

The Wasp reappeared with Pym in the miniseries Beyond!. He was at that point still her ex-husband, and over the course of the events chronicled in this series it was revealed that they had called off their most recent attempt at a romantic relationship, although they remained on good terms.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Civil War[link]

With the onset of the superhuman Civil War, Hank helped spearhead the pro-registration movement. Janet was also pro-registration, although she was very upset about the murder of her friend Bill Foster, and became the host of a pro-registration reality show called America's Newest Superhero.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Mighty Avengers[link]

When selecting the roster for the latest incarnation of the Avengers team, this time as part of the Fifty State Initiative, Tony Stark selected Janet as a founding member of the Mighty Avengers.^[38] When alien symbiotes attacked New York, Janet used a refined growth formula given to her by Hank Pym which allowed her to shift to giant-size without side effects. During the beginning of the fight, she was briefly turned into a symbiote monster before a cure was created by Stark.^[39]

At this point, Hank had been replaced by a Skrull, and the growth formula was part of a grander plan.

Secret Invasion[link]

Janet was among the Mighty Avengers who were fighting heroes from the Skrull ship. She was later seen with the rest of the Avengers heading to New York to confront the Skrulls. While fighting the Skrulls, the true purpose of the serum that the Skrull Hank Pym gave her was revealed. After Queen Veranke was thought to be dead, Skrull Pym pressed a button that made Jan increase in size rapidly. She realized the "new" particles Pym gave her were turning her into a bio-bomb. Jan was seen growing to huge size, emitting black-purple energy, and about to explode. Janet tried to flee the battlefield trying to take as many Skrulls with her as possible. To save the humans, Thor killed her to put her out of her misery, vowing to avenge her.^[40] After her death, Hank Pym resolved to take up his fallen wife's mantle and became the Wasp.^[41]

When Hercules ventured into the underworld, he encountered Janet's spirit in Erebus, the place in between life and death where those who feel they still have business in the mortal world linger and gamble for their resurrection. Janet was seen stubbornly working a slot machine in search of a win.^[42]

In the Siege crossover, using dimensional technology Hank Pym established a headquarters known as the Infinite Avengers Mansion in a realm called "Underspace". He soon deduced that this was the dimension to which Thor sent the dying Janet Van Dyne. He believes that Janet was transformed into a massive celestial entity, with the Mansion seemingly residing within her eye.^[43] It is from here that Pym planned on bringing back Janet, but concludes that he is currently unable to do so without causing any type of damage.^[44] However, Veil presses the button soon after, but in reality the entity was not Janet, but Carina Walters. Carina's return brings Korvac to the Academy.^[45]

Powers and abilities[link]

Making use of the cellular implantation of sub-atomic Pym particles, the Wasp possessed the power to alter her physical size, causing her body's mass to be shunted to or gained from an alternate dimension known as Kosmos. She was able to shrink to a minimum of several centimeters or grow to a maximum of several hundred feet. Smaller or larger sizes were possible but the exertion began to put a strain on her body. Initially, these abilities stemmed from use of a Pym particle gas released from special capsules, and later biochemical augmentation by Henry Pym. Over time, however, her body absorbed enough particles to cause cellular mutation due to repeated exposure to Pym particles to allow her to alter her size at will.

At miniature size, her strength level increased as her body's mass was compacted. At giant size, her strength and endurance increased geometrically with her height, reaching superhuman levels. Despite the advantages of giant size, Janet usually preferred to remain the diminutive Wasp, calling on her growth power only in times of extreme emergency.

At miniature size, the Wasp grew a pair of translucent insect wings from her back, a result of genetic modifications provided by Hank Pym. These granted her the power of flight, at speeds up to 40 mph (64 km/h).

The Wasp was able to harness and augment her body's natural bio-electric energy, releasing it from her hands in powerful electrical force bursts, which she called her "stinger blasts", "stingers", or "wasp's stings". Originally, she required special wrist devices to produce these but again, Pym particle absorption allowed her to create the ability unaided.

The Wasp's genetic modifications also granted her the ability to sprout small prehensile antennae from her temples which allowed her to telepathically communicate with and control insects. However, this was an ability she rarely used.

Van Dyne displayed several non-superhuman abilities that garnered her special fame and attention, foremost of which was her fashion sense; in nearly all of her early appearances, she sported a new costume, presumably designed and manufactured on her own as she was a gifted fashion designer. She was also a skilled amateur screenwriter. The Wasp was trained in unarmed combat by Captain America and in combat utilizing her special powers by Henry Pym. In addition, the Wasp was one of the most intuitive, if not deductive, members of the Avengers, and was an experienced leader and strategist. She effectively deduced that a chemical accident created a schizophrenic break in Henry Pym,^[46] the relationship between the Scarlet Witch and the Vision was the result of the infused personality of Wonder Man,^{[volume & issue needed]} and guessed the identity of Iron Man at a time when Tony Stark faked his own death.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Reception and legacy[link]

IGN ranked Wasp as the 99th greatest comic book hero of all time, stating that she remained one of the core Avengers members for much of the franchise's history, and her extensive wardrobe rivals even the likes of Wolverine's.^[47]

Other versions[link]

MC2[link]

In the alternate future of the "MC2" universe, Hank and Janet would end up giving birth to two children: Hope Pym/Red Queen and Henry Pym, Jr./Big Man. Giant-Man would later perish on the last mission of the original Avengers, with the Wasp dying of a broken heart. Their parents' deaths motivated Red Queen to form the Revengers. Big Man, a one-time member, however, joined a government reform team.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Marvel Adventures[link]

The Marvel Adventures: The Avengers series (set in its own continuity) features Janet Van Dyne as Giant-Girl, showcasing her ability to grow rather than shrink, which she uses in combat. She is younger than her main universe counterpart and she cracks jokes along with her teammate Spider-Man. Issue 13 of the series reveals her origin as a wealthy socialite given access to size-changing Pym particles by scientist Henry Pym (here an employee of Janet's father, rather than a superhero). Her maximum size is unknown, but she has grown tall enough to catch a school. Instead of having her powers naturally, Janet requires a suit powered by Pym particles to change her size. Like her Earth-616 counterpart, Janet seems to change her costume regularly. The first costume was purple and black with a mask adorned with antennae that looks remarkably similar to the Giant-Man costume worn by Hank Pym in the mainstream universe. This costume allowed her to grow while having the added effect of letting her control insects (though she never uses this power). This costume is later destroyed, and Janet wears a second costume that allows her to grow that does not include a mask, as her secret identity had been revealed. Finally, Janet gained a third suit that allows her to both grow and shrink, with the suit changing in appearance depending on her size. While using this suit to shrink, she calls herself Wasp and has powers similar to her mainstream counterpart, such as flight, proportionally superhuman strength, and the ability to project bio-electrical stings. A recent preview of Marvel Adventures the Avengers 19 has shown her wearing a costume which is primarily blue but has gold-yellow accents. Whether this costume increases her maximum size is yet to be seen. She has also mentioned that she has at least two brothers, although they have never been seen or given any names (see Marvel Adventures the Avengers #3).

Marvel Zombies[link]

The Marvel Zombies series features an alternate Wasp as one of the main characters. She is now a zombie, another victim of the virus that has infected nearly all her world's superhumans. After Earth's human population is almost entirely devoured, Wasp is one of the zombies who finally kills (and consumes) Magneto.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Around this time Wasp is part of a sub-team that makes its way to the Marvel Apes universe. A collection of heroes manages to reverse the dimensional tear and send them back, but not before Wasp secretly infects the local version of Iron Man, Iron Mandrill.^[48]

The Wasp then discovers that Hank Pym has kept a secret food supply—a sedated and maimed Black Panther, held prisoner in Hank's lab. She confronts Hank, but he decapitates her by increasing in size and biting her head off in the struggle that follows. When the Black Panther later escapes the lab, he also takes the Wasp's head—still 'alive', but helpless. He eventually reaches safety, encountering Magneto's surviving Acolytes. The Acolytes announce that they will study the Wasp, seeking a cure for the virus.^[49]

An epilogue, five years later, shows the Wasp exploring the deserted Earth alongside the Acolytes. Her severed head is now sealed within a liquid-filled helmet, controlling a robotic body.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Forty years later in "Marvel Zombies 2", her head is fixed on a more advanced machine with her head exposed to the air. She also develops romantic feelings toward one of the Acolyte survivors, a scientist named Reynolds. As she indicates, forty years with the Acolytes is far longer than the time she has spent with Hank. At one point, the two share a kiss.^[49]

A long period without feeding seems to have cured her completely of the hunger. Now Black Panther's adviser and friend, she is forced to infect him when an Acolyte assassin attempts to kill him. This incident is orchestrated by Malcolm Cortez, the son of Fabian Cortez, who wants to take leadership from Black Panther. When the hunger resurfaces, she nearly eats Panther's wife before being stopped by him. Instead, they eat the assassin and they state they will go into isolation in order to control their hunger. This is a success. Multiple powered zombies soon threaten the colony. Wasp fights alongside Panther, Hawkeye (who had also been decapitated and inhabits Janet's own former cybernetic body), Forge, and a reformed Luke Cage and Spider-Man to save the people of New Wakanda from Firelord, Giant Man, Wolverine, Gladiator, Hulk, Jean Grey, and Iron Man, who are seeking to finish off humanity and retain the inter-dimensional portal so they can enter a new universe. Eventually the zombies discover, as Janet did, that the hunger fades with time, and they stop their rampage only to have their numbers halved by the Hulk. Janet, along with the other remaining zombies (the new Colonel America, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Giant Man, Wolverine, and Black Panther), end up teleported to another universe by Malcolm Cortez.^[50]

The Wasp ends in the dimension of 'Earth Z'. She leads an alien invasion of the zombie-infected Earth in an effort to quash the flesh-eating threat. She fails at this and is destroyed.^[51]

JLA/Avengers[link]

Janet is shown as a member of the Avengers and aids them during the battle with Starro. She also gives Iron Man the idea to create a dimensional alarm and rallies other Avengers to defend the artifacts. After the final battle in the Savage Land against the Justice League, Janet ends up as an Avenger in the new merged world that the villain Krona created and is unaware of the changes. In this world she and Hank are good friends with Elongated Man and his wife Sue Dibny. When the two teams decide to team up against Krona, the Wasp fights alongside the Avengers until the battle is over.^[52]

Ultimate Wasp[link]

In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Janet Pym is a 26-year-old ^[53] mutant^[54] and a member of the Ultimates. She holds two Ph.D.s (one known to be in molecular biology^[55]) and is portrayed as being of Asian descent.^[56][57] She is moderately fluent in German.

Her mutant status remains hidden from the public but is known by Hank Pym and S.H.I.E.L.D. She can generate a glittering wasp-like sting which she discharges through her hands.^[54][58][59] Her bio-electric blast, when applied from within the ear to the brain, reverted the Hulk to Banner during his New York massacre.^[58] Side-effects of her insectoid genetics include the occasional consumption of bugs, forming her own larval nests, and laying egg-like constructs.^[54]

During her college years, she shared a room with Betty Ross and started seeing Henry Pym. He was abusive to her early in their relationship and during college is known to have hit her at least twice, putting her head through a door on one occasion and splitting the roof of her mouth on another. Betty Ross can also recall instances where Janet was missing chunks of hair. Jan also suffered from severe bulimia prior to joining the Ultimates.^[60]

Hank's attempts at change through medication and enlistment in the Ultimates did not improve his behavior. As a result of his humiliating loss against the Hulk and simmering jealousy against Jan's friendship with Captain America, Henry and Jan fought viciously until Janet resorted to stinging him and Hank commanding an army of ants against her. Janet was found in a state of anaphylactic shock, caused by receiving multiple ant stings she received while at wasp-size. Captain America, upon learning of Hank's violence, tracked him down and beat him unconscious. Captain America's visits to Jan after the fight left her exasperated and angry, stemming more from embarrassment of her personal life becoming public.^[61]

After stopping the Chitauri invasion, Captain America and the Wasp reconciled as friends and slowly started dating, despite Hank Pym's attempts at making amends. On one of their secret meetings, Jan later confessed to Hank, now classified as a security risk by S.H.I.E.L.D., that the generation gap between Captain America and herself, along with the elderly status of his friends, put a large strain on their relationship. She recently walked out on Steve and met up with Hank in a bar.^[62]

The invasion of America by the Liberators failed to take Janet into account. They discounted the possibility that someone whose only ability is to make herself "smaller and weaker" could be a threat. By the time they found her, Janet had made her way to the cells in the Triskelion where Captain America was being held under suspicion of murdering Hawkeye's entire family. Soldiers working for the Liberators entered his cell and found two metahuman signatures. At first, Janet was easily subdued, but they failed to realize that she had already liberated her boyfriend. Captain America easily beat the Schizoid Man, but stopped fighting when several super soldiers threatened to tear Jan apart. However, Jan surprised them all by using her stinging powers at her normal size for the first time, killing or incapacitating all the super soldiers at once.^[63]

At some point, Hank gave the Wasp a dose of the Giant-Man Serum, giving her the power to grow to gigantic proportions. Larger in size, Janet helped turn the tide in favor of American forces and crushed Swarm with one stomp of her foot. It is yet to be seen whether Janet can grow at will or whether this was a one-off experience.^[64]

She is the new leader/co-leader with Captain America of the team in The Ultimates 3 miniseries, and now sports a crimson-and-gold outfit and a mask, similar to her 616-Wasp counterpart, and she begins to reconcile with Hank (who begins a new identity as "YellowJacket"), and later with the Ultimates and Wolverine stop the plans of Hank's android, Ultron.^[65] She and Hawkeye frequently clash thanks to his almost suicidal nature after his family is killed.^[66] After the flood from the Ultimatum Wave, she is missing. Both Hank Pym and Hawkeye search for her. Hawkeye finds her being eaten by the Blob, who is later killed by Hank, but is killed by a army of mutant suicide bombers, the Multiple Men. The comic came out one month after her mainstream Marvel Universe counterpart's death.^[67]

Before his death, Pym tells Hawkeye, and Iron-Man to take Janet's body to his lab and activate "the Jocasta project".^[68]

In the Ultimate Comics: Avengers a new Wasp appears (called Red Wasp). She is revealed to be a former Liberator soldier previously known as the Insect Queen, now reformed with an obedience chip and serves as a member of the Avengers.^[69] In Ultimate Comics: Avengers #5, a flashback reveals that she was Petra Laskov, the wife of a Georgian activist. One day the Red Skull kidnapped them, held the couple's child at gunpoint, and forced her to kill her husband to save her child. She does so, only for the Red Skull to throw her infant out a window, and then order his men to rape her.^[70] Along with the rest of the Avengers, she fights the Red Skull only to be overpowered until he was fatally injured by Captain America. A short while later when the Red Skull was in the hospital, Petra, dressed like a doctor, walked into his room and shot him in the head, killing him.^[71]

She appears to have the same powers as her predecessor.

In other media[link]

Television[link]

• The Wasp appears in The Marvel Super Heroes, voiced by Peg Dixon.
• The Wasp makes a cameo in the Fantastic Four episode "To Battle the Living Planet".
• The Wasp appeared on The Avengers: United They Stand, voiced by Linda Ballantyne. Her look was radically redesigned to include insect-like armor.
• Wasp appeared in The Super Hero Squad Show voiced by Jennifer Morrison as one of the regular heroes.^[72]
• Wasp appears in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey as one of the regular heroes. In this incarnation, she has a different hairstyle and her outfit consists of a black and yellow dress over leggings, with yellow gloves and boots, along with antenna-like headgear. She also tends to be the comic relief in some episodes.^[73] She is very much in love with Hank Pym (also known as Ant-Man and Giant Man) and becomes frustrated when he does not appear to reciprocate her feelings (although he secretly does).
• The Wasp is set to appear in Ultimate Spider-Man.^{[citation needed]}

Film[link]

• In the animated movies Ultimate Avengers and Ultimate Avengers 2, the Wasp is portrayed by Grey DeLisle. This version is adapted primarily from the Ultimate Universe continuity.
• Janet and Hank's son, Henry Pym, Jr., is in the film Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow.

Video games[link]

• The Wasp appears as an NPC in the video game Captain America and the Avengers, briefly helping the player attack enemies.
• The Wasp is a playable hero in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online, voiced by Grey DeLisle.

Toys[link]

• Wasp is the 137th figurine in The Classic Marvel Figurine Collection.
• Wasp first appeared in wave 2 of the Marvel Super Hero Squad line, packaged with Hulk. The same figure has since been re-released in the Avengers Face-Off! 5-pack, packaged with Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man and Thor.
• A figure of Wasp was released in wave 15 of Toy Biz's 6" Marvel Legends line. There were four costume variations. A 1" version of the character was also released with the Goliath figure from wave 4.
• A figure of Wasp was released in the Avengers boxset of the Marvel Minimates line.
• A 1" figure of Wasp was released with the two-pack with Doctor Doom and Absorbing Man in the fourth wave of Secret Wars figures from Hasbro's 3.75" Marvel Universe line.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Wasp at the Marvel Universe wiki
• Earth's Mightiest Heroines, a fansite for the Women of the Avengers

v t e Avengers Creators Stan Lee Jack Kirby Comic book titles Current The Avengers Avengers Academy New Avengers Secret Avengers Previous Avengers: The Initiative Dark Avengers Force Works The Mighty Avengers Solo Avengers West Coast Avengers Young Avengers Limited Avengers: Celestial Quest Avengers Forever Avengers Infinity Avengers vs. X-Men G.L.A. JLA/Avengers Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers Other continuities A-Next The Last Avengers Story Marvel Adventures: The Avengers The Ultimates Initial characters Ant-Man Captain America Hulk Iron Man Thor Wasp Members lists Avengers members A-Next members Great Lakes Avengers members New Avengers members Ultimates members West Coast Avengers members Enemies Baron Zemo Collector Count Nefaria Egghead Grandmaster Graviton Grim Reaper Immortus Kang Korvac Legion of the Unliving Lethal Legion Loki Master Pandemonium Masters of Evil Morgan le Fay Nebula Revengers Space Phantom Super-Adaptoid Supreme Intelligence Squadron Sinister Taskmaster Thanos Ultron Zodiac Headquarters Avengers Mansion Avengers Island Avengers Tower Storylines "Kree-Skrull War" "Acts of Vengeance" "Operation: Galactic Storm" "Bloodties" "Kang Dynasty" "Avengers Disassembled" In other media Television The Avengers: United They Stand The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes Film Ultimate Avengers Ultimate Avengers 2 Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow The Avengers (soundtrack) Video games Captain America and The Avengers Avengers in Galactic Storm Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth Alternative versions Agents of Atlas A-Next Ultimates Book:The Avengers

Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (cover-dated March 1941), from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics,^[1] and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. As of 2007, an estimated 210 million copies of "Captain America" comic books had been sold in 75 countries.^[2] 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.^[3]

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,^[4] 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, before resuming the identity after Bucky was killed in the line of duty.

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 Chris Evans' portrayal in Captain America: The First Avenger, released on July 22, 2011, and The Avengers, released on May 4, 2012. Captain America was ranked sixth on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes in 2011.

Publication history[link]

In 1940, writer Joe Simon conceived the idea for Captain America and made a sketch of the character in costume.^[5] "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."^[6]

Simon recalled in his autobiography that Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman gave him the go-ahead 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:

I didn't have a lot of objections to putting a crew on the first issue.... There were two young artists from Connecticut that had made a strong impression on me. Al Avison and Al Gabriele often worked together and were quite successful in adapting their individual styles to each other. Actually, their work was not too far from [that of] Kirby's. If they worked on it, and if one inker tied the three styles together, I believed the final product would emerge as quite uniform. The two Als were eager to join in on the new Captain America book, but Jack Kirby was visibly upset. 'You're still number one, Jack,' I assured him. 'It's just a matter of a quick deadline for the first issue.'

'I'll make the deadline,' Jack promised. 'I'll pencil it [all] myself and make the deadline.' I hadn't expected this kind of reaction ... but I acceded to Kirby's wishes and, it turned out, was lucky that I did. There might have been two Als, but there was only one Jack Kirby.

I wrote the first Captain America book with penciled lettering right on the drawing boards, with very rough sketches for figures and backgrounds. Kirby did his thing, building the muscular anatomy, adding ideas and pepping up the action as only he could. Then he tightened up the penciled drawings, adding detailed backgrounds, faces and figures.^[6]

Al Liederman would ink that first issue, which was lettered by Simon and Kirby's regular letterer, Howard Ferguson.^[7]

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."^[8]

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; it sold nearly one million copies.^[9] 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."^[8] The threats, which included menacing groups of people loitering out on the street outside of the offices, proved so serious that police protection was posted with Mayor Fiorello La Guardia personally contacting Simon and Kirby to give his support.^[10]

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,^{[citation needed]} as evidenced by the unusual move at the time of premiering the character in his own title instead of an anthology title first. This popularity drew the attention and a complaint from MLJ that the character's triangular shield too closely resembled the chest symbol of their Shield character. In response, Goodman had Simon and Kirby create a distinctive round shield for issue 2, which went on to become an iconic element of the character.^[11] 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.^[12] Captain America soon became Timely's most popular character and even had a fan-club called the "Sentinels of Liberty."^[8]

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.^[13] 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,^[14] and the character's title was canceled with Captain America #78 (Sept. 1954).

Silver Age revival[link]

In the Human Torch story titled "Captain America" in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales #114 (Nov. 1963),^[15] 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. The hero found a new generation of readers as 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."^[16]

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. 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. 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,^[17] following the 1940s Captain America Comics and its 1950s numbering continuation — ended with #454 (Aug. 1996).

After the Silver Age[link]

This series was almost immediately followed by the 13-issue Captain America vol. 2 (Nov. 1996 – Nov. 1997, part of the "Heroes Reborn" crossover),^[18] the 50-issue Captain America vol. 3 (Jan. 1998 – Feb. 2002),^[19] the 32-issue Captain America vol. 4 (June 2002 – Dec. 2004),^[20] and Captain America vol. 5 (Jan. 2005 – July 2009).^[21] Beginning with the 600th overall issue counting these series, Captain America resumed its original numbering, 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."^[22] The character's co-creator, Joe Simon, remarked, "It's a hell of a time for him to go. We really need him now."^[22] 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)^[23]

The storyline of Rogers' return began in issue #600.^[24][25] 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).^[26]

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.^[27][28] 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.^[29][30]

Marvel stated in May 2011 that Rogers, following the public 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.^[31]

Fictional character biography[link]

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (March 2011)

1940s[link]

Steve Rogers was born July 4, 1920, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, to Irish immigrants Sarah and Joseph Rogers.^[32] 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, and a comic book writer and artist, a career he willingly set aside upon his transformation into Captain America. Despite some forays into graphics, Steve Rogers never created another character^[33]

Disturbed by the rise of the Third Reich, Rogers attempts to enlist, only to be rejected due to his physically frail body. His resolution however allows him to be noticed by U.S. Army General Chester Phillips and "Project: Rebirth." Rogers is used as a test subject for the Super-Soldier project, receiving a special serum made by "Dr. Josef Reinstein",^[34][35] later retroactively changed to a code name for the scientist Abraham Erskine.^[36]

The serum, coupled with the stabilizing "Vita-Rays," is a success, and transforms the frail Steve Rogers into a perfect specimen--a nearly perfect human being with peak strength, agility, stamina, and intelligence. The success of the program leaves Erskine wondering about replicating the experiment on other human beings.^[35] The process itself however has been inconsistently detailed: while in the original material Steve Rogers is shown receiving injections of the Super-Serum, when the origin was retold in the sixities, the Comic Code Authority had already put a veto over graphic description of drug intake and abuse, and thus the Super-Serum was retconned into an oral formula.^[37] Later accounts hints at a combination of oral and intravenous treatments, culminating in the Vita-Ray exposure and a strenuous training regimen.

Erskine refused to write down every crucial element of the treatment, leaving behind a flawed, imperfect knowledge of the needed steps. Thus, when the Nazi spy Heinz Kruger killed him, Erskine's method of creating new Super-Soldiers died as well. Captain America, in his first act after his tranfsormation, avenges Erskine. In the 1941 origin story and in Tales of Suspense #63, Kruger dies when running into 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 machinery.^[35]

Unable to create new Super-Soldiers, and willing to hide the Project Rebirth fiasco, the U.S.A. Government casts the now-powerful Rogers as a patriotic superhero, able to counter the menace of the Red Skull as a counter-intelligence agent. As such, he's supplied with a patriotic uniform (designed by Rogers himself) ^[32]) a bulletproof shield, a personal side arm, and the codename Captain America, while Steve Rogers himself poses as a clumsy infantry private at Camp Lehigh in Virginia. He forms a friendship with the camp's teenage mascot, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes.^[34]

Eventually Barnes learns of Rogers' dual identity and offers to keep the secret if he can become Captain America's sidekick, being trained himself to act as the perfect partner. During their adventures, Franklin D. Roosevelt presents Captain America with a new shield, forged from an alloy of steel and vibranium, fused by an unknown catalyst, so effective that it replaces his own firearm.^[36] 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).^[38] Captain America also battles a number of criminal menaces on American soil, including a wide variety of costumed villains: the Wax Man,^[39] the Hangman,^[40] the Fang,^[40] the Black Talon,^[41] and the White Death,^[41] among others.

In late April 1945, during the closing days of World War II, Captain America and Bucky try to stop the villainous Baron Zemo from destroying an experimental drone plane. Zemo launches the plane with an armed explosive on it, Rogers and Barnes in hot pursuit. The pair reach the plane just before take off. When Bucky tries to defuse the bomb, it explodes in mid-air. The young man is believed killed. Rogers is hurled into the freezing waters of the North Atlantic. Neither is found, and both are presumed dead. It is later revealed that neither character actually died.^[42]

Late 1940s to 1950s[link]

Captain America continued to appear in comics for the next few years changing from World War II-era hero fighting against the Nazis to trying to defeat the United States' newest enemy, Communism. The revival of the character in the mid-1950s is short-lived, and events during that time period are later retconned to show that multiple people operated using the code name in order to explain the changes in the character. These Post World War II successors are listed as William Naslund and Jeffrey Mace.

The last of these other official Captains, William Burnside,^[43] was a history graduate enamored with the Captain America's mythos, going so far to have his appearance surgically altered to resemble Rogers and legally change his name into "Steve Rogers", becoming the new "1950s Captain America".^[44] Furthermore, he self-administered to himself and his pupil James "Jack" Monroe a flawed, incomplete copy of the Super-Serum, which made no mention about the necessary Vita-Ray portion of the treatment. As a result, while Burnside (now known as Steve Rogers) and Monroe became the new Captain America and Bucky, they also became violently paranoid, often raving about innocent people being communist sympathizers during the height of the Red Scare of the 1950s. Their insanity forced the US Government to place both of them in indefinite cryogenic storage by the US Government until they could be cured of their mental illness.^[45] The 1950s Bucky would be cured ^[46] and go on to be the original Steve Rogers' Captain America partner for a time under the Nomad identity.

1960s to 1970s[link]

Years later,^[42] 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,^[47] 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,^[48] 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.^[49] Through Fury, Rogers befriends Sharon Carter, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent,^[50] with whom he eventually begins a romantic relationship.

Rogers later meets and trains Sam Wilson, who becomes the superhero the Falcon,^[51] the first African-American superhero in mainstream comic books.^[52] The characters established an enduring friendship and adventuring partnership, sharing the series title for some time as Captain America and the Falcon.^[53] The two later encounter the revived but still insane 1950s Captain America.^[54] 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.^[55] 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.^[56] During this period, Rogers also temporarily gains super strength.^[57] 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).^[58] He also learns of the apparent death of Sharon Carter.^[59]

1980s to 1990s[link]

The early 1980s included runs from such creators as Roger Stern, John Byrne, and J. M. DeMatteis. Stern had Steve Rogers consider a run for President of the United States in Captain America #250 (June 1980), 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.^[56] 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.,^[60] Super Patriot (who would go on to become a replacement Captain America in a two-year story arc ^[61] and became USAgent at that arc's conclusion), and some short-lived new partners that included Demolition Man.^[62]

Gruenwald explores numerous political and social themes as well, such as extreme idealism when Captain America fights the anti-nationalist terrorist Flag-Smasher;^[63] and vigilantism when he hunts the murderous Scourge of the Underworld.^[64] Homophobia was also dealt with as Steve Rogers runs into a childhood friend named Arnold Roth who is gay.^[65][66]

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,^[67] Rogers chooses instead to resign his identity,^[68] and then takes the alias of "the Captain".^[69] 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^[70] while a recovered Walker becomes the U.S. Agent.^[71]

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.^[72]

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.^[73]

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[link]

In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Rogers reveals his identity to the world and establishes a residence in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, as seen in Captain America vol. 4, #1-7 (June 2002 – Feb. 2003). Following the disbandment of the Avengers in the "Avengers Disassembled" story arc, Rogers, now employed by S.H.I.E.L.D., discovers Bucky is alive, having been saved and deployed by the Soviets as the Winter Soldier. Rogers also resumes his on-again, off-again relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter.

In the 2006-2007 company-wide story arc "Civil War", and its anchoring, seven-issue miniseries, Civil War (July 2006 - Jan. 2007), Rogers opposes the new mandatory federal registration of super-powered beings, and leads the underground anti-registration movement. He adopts the alias "Brett Hendrick", a mall security guard. After significant rancor and danger to the public as the two sides clash, Captain America voluntarily surrenders and orders the Anti-Registration forces to stand down.

In the story arc "The Death of Captain America", Rogers is indicted on criminal charges for his anti-registration efforts, and in Captain America vol. 5, #25 (April 2007) is shot outside a federal courthouse; taken to a hospital, he is pronounced dead. The assassination, orchestrated by the Red Skull, involves Crossbones as a sniper and Dr. Faustus, who poses as a S.H.I.E.L.D. psychiatrist and gives Carter a hypnotic suggestion to surreptitiously shoot Rogers at close range during the chaos surrounding the sniper shot.

The miniseries Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #1-5 (June–Aug. 2007) follows the stunned superhero community after the apparent assassination. Captain America is purportedly laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, but Tony Stark (Iron Man) and others have actually returned Rogers' body to the Arctic where Rogers had been found years before.

In vol. 5, #30 (Sept. 2007), Stark receives a letter containing Rogers' request that Bucky become the next Captain America, which Bucky agrees to do four issues later. Adopting the original shield, he dons a new costume incorporating a pistol and a knife. The Norse god superhero Thor communicates with what appears to be Rogers' spirit on the first anniversary of Rogers' death, in Thor vol. 3, #11 (Oct. 2008).

Captain America: Reborn #1 (Aug. 2009) reveals that Rogers did not die, and that the gun Sharon Carter had been hypnotized to use had actually caused Rogers to phase in and out of space and time, appearing at events in his lifetime and fighting battles. The Skull returns Rogers to the present, where he takes control of Rogers' mind and body. Rogers eventually regains control, and with help from his allies, defeats the Skull in the fourth and final issues of this miniseries. In the subsequent one-shot comic Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield?, Rogers formally grants Bucky his Captain America shield and asks his former sidekick to continue as Captain America. The American President grants Rogers a full pardon for his anti-registration actions.

2010s[link]

Following the company-wide "Dark Reign" and "Siege" story arcs, the Steve Rogers character became part of the "Heroic Age" arc.^[74] 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. Shortly afterward, Rogers becomes leader of the Secret Avengers, a black-ops superhero team.

During the Fear Itself storyline, Steve Rogers is present when the threat of the Serpent is known.^[75] Following the apparent death of Bucky at the hands of Sin (in the form of Skadi), Steve Rogers ends up changing into his Captain America outfit.^[76] When the Avengers and the New Avengers are fighting Skadi, the Serpent ends up joining the battle and breaks Captain America's shield with his bare hands.^[77] Captain America and the Avengers teams end up forming a militia for a last stand against the forces of the Serpent.^[78] When it comes to the final battle, Captain America uses Thor's hammer to fight Skadi until Thor manages to kill the Serpent. In the aftermath of the battle, Iron Man presents Captain with his reforged shield now stronger for its uru-infused enhancements despite the scar it bears.^[79] It is then revealed that Captain America, Nick Fury, and Black Widow are the only ones who know that Bucky actually survived the fight with Skadi as Bucky resumes his identity as Winter Soldier.^[80]

Powers and abilities[link]

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.^[81] 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.^[82]

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 73 seconds (49 mph/78 kph).^[83] 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.^{[citation needed]} He is also highly resistant to hypnosis or gases that could limit his focus.^[84] The secrets of creating a super-soldier were lost with the death of its creator, Dr. Abraham Erskine.^[85] However, in the ensuing decades there have been numerous secret attempts to recreate Erskine's treatment, only to have them 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. Thor so highly regards Rogers' courage, leadership, and combat abilities that he has stated that Rogers is one of the very few humans he will take orders from and follow "through the gates of Hades".^[86] 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, limited only by his human physique.^[87][88] 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.^[89]

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.

Although he lacks superhuman strength, Captain America is one of the few mortal beings who has been deemed worthy enough to wield Thor's hammer.^[90]

Weapons and equipment[link]

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.^[91] 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.^{[citation needed]} This alloy was created by accident and never duplicated, although efforts to reverse-engineer it resulted in the discovery of adamantium.^{[citation needed]}

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).^[92]

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.^[93]

When without his trademark shield, Captain America sometimes uses other shields made from less durable metals such as steel,^{[volume & issue needed]} or even a photonic energy shield designed to mimic a vibranium matrix.^{[volume & issue needed]} 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.^[94] Much like his vibranium shield, the energy shield can also be thrown, including ricocheting off multiple surfaces and returning to his hand.^[95]

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.^[36] 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[link]

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[link]

In other media[link]

Collected editions[link]

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 new 2010 editions leading up to the Captain America: The First Avenger feature film.