A poor orphan from the wrong side of the tracks in the days leading up to World War II, goodhearted Steve Rogers enlisted in the army to fight the Axis Powers, but met with rejection due to his small size and underdeveloped physique. Professor Abraham Erskine, a pioneer in the development of a Super-Soldier for the United States, saw potential in Rogers and whisked him into Project Rebirth, the professor’s bold experiment in enhancing the human body to its peak powers.

Rogers found himself subjected to Erskine’s treatments— a specialized serum and exposure to a unique form of radiation—and realized the professor’s dream, becoming the world’s first, fully developed Super-Soldier. Now muscular and tall, as well as possessed of amazing strength and agility, the former ninety-eight-pound weakling watched in horror as a Nazi spy shot and killed Erskine, and thereby ensured Rogers would be the last of his kind.

Many of Captain America’s friends and allies during World War II were lost to him due to the ravages of time during his suspended animation, and in the present day his closest companions are few in number.

James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes survived the explosion of Baron Zemo’s plane to be snatched up by Russian operatives and brainwashed into an instrument of death, the Winter Soldier. Bucky eventually broke the deep conditioning to reaffirm a friendship with Steve Rogers that stretched back to the earliest days of the war, and today the two men think of themselves as brothers.

Captain America’s adventures in modern times kicked off with several missions with the Avengers that culminated in him taking over the leadership role when the founding members stepped back to address their individual lives and careers. Cap reorganized the team as a small fighting band consisting of outlaws Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, which the press dubbed “Cap’s Kooky Quartet.” He made it work somehow until the original members came back to once again fill the ranks.

S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury, whom Cap knew during World War II, approached the hero with an offer to join the spy organization, and through several missions for them Cap faced various menaces and met Agent 13, Sharon Carter. The Red Skull returned, having secured a Cosmic Cube, a device granting its user near-unlimited power, but Cap smashed the villain’s plans.