Captain America #109
The Hero That Was!
World War II
Captain America and Bucky have stormed a Nazi stronghold to take down the defenses in advance of the D-Day invasion. Trapped by automated defenses, Captain America shuts it down with a short-circuiting device. Entering the main control room, the pair then blow up a massive whirling Nazi control panel….
Now
… Steve Rogers is telling this story to Nick Fury, who can hardly believe it. Steve assures him that everything is true and when asked how he became such an efficient fighter, Steve explains that he became Captain America thanks to the dedication of allied scientists during the war. He then tells Nick that it all began in the early days before America entered the war…
Then
Back then, Steve Rogers was a frail young man who wanted to enlist with the military to do his part against the Nazis. Unfortunately, he was too weak and rejected by military doctors. However, a senior officer overhears Steve’s impassioned plea to participate in the war effort and invites Rogers to participate in a new project. He is then introduced to Professor Reinstein who is working on a project that will change the face of the war. Meanwhile, a Nazi submarine manages slip into the waters outside of New York where their operative, Heinz Kruger is sent to infiltrate the military’s secret project and prevent it from succeeding. Getting to shore, Kruger meets up with spies already in the country who fill him in on his mission.
Later, Steve Rogers is brought to a curio shop by Professor Reinstein. This turns out to be a front for their secret project and the old woman who appears to run the shop turns out to be a female operative in disguise. Unaware that there is a spy observing the experiment, Reinstein injects Steve Rogers with his experimental serum and then bombards him with vita rays. This process causes Steve Rogers’ body to transform into the peak of human perfection.
That’s when Heinz Kruger tries to kill Steve, but Professor Reinstein steps in the way of the bullet. Dying, Reinstein tells Steve that he will be the only super-soldier as he did not commit his formula to paper. Steve Rogers then attacks the assassin, throwing Krueger into a machine that explodes killing the Nazi. Not long after this, Steve Rogers was given a costume and a shield and Captain America was born.
Rogers was placed at Camp Leigh and his identity was kept a secret. Under the command of Sgt. Mike Duffy, Rogers acted like a bumbling private as a cover. There he befriended Bucky Barnes, the camp mascot. When Bucky discovered Steve’s double identity, Rogers agreed to take him on as his sidekick…..
Now
… As Steve Rogers concludes his story, he recalls how Bucky died before the end of the war. Fury can empathize because he also lost friends during the war.[2] Nick thanks Steve for the story but he has to go back to running SHIELD. As he departs, he tells Steve that he needs to go out and get some laughs. After Nick is gone, Steve wonders if after all these years he has forgotten how.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Nick Fury, (in flashback) Bucky, Chester Phillips, Abraham Erksine, Cynthia Glass, Murray Anderson, Homer Simms, Mike Duffy, Nazis (Heinz Kruger)
Continuity Notes
Over the years, the origin of Captain America has been expanded upon in various other stories. The origin story above is adapted from the one presented in Captain America Comics #1. In the greater scheme of all of the origin stories this version tells the story from Steve Roger’s perspective but does omit a number of details. These missing are probably because Captain America suffered memory issues upon his revival in the Modern Age due to false memory implants. See Avengers #4 and Captain America #247 and 253 for all the details:
A number of characters are unidentified in this story, their names are revealed in other stories. These characters are:
The lead General of Project Rebirth is unidentified in this story. His last name was revealed as Phillips in Captain America #255. He is identified as Chester Phillips in Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #2. He is called Richard Phillips in Captain America Annual 2000. A profile for the character in Captain America: America’s Avenger #1 clarifies that his full name is Chester Richard Phillips.
Doctor Anderson’s first name is revealed as Murray in Captain America #255.
The female agent who is disguised as an old woman is revealed to be Cynthia Glass in Adventures of Captain America #1. This is verified in Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier #1-2. Captain America: The 1940s Newspaper Strip #1 states that this woman was Betsy Ross, but this is not correct as the pair would not meet until the 2nd story in Captain America Comics #1, which takes place after the creation of Captain America.
Doctor Erksein’s first name is revealed as Abraham in Captain America #255. He has previously been identified as Doctor Reinstein in Captain America Comics #1 and in this issue. Both Giant-Size Invaders #1 and Captain America #255 reveal that “Doctor Reinstein” was a codename given to Erksein to keep his true identity a secret.
This version of Captain America’s origins also states that Steve Rogers received an injection behind the scenes of the serum before being bombarded with vita-rays. This is contradicted by Captain America Comics #1, which shows Erksine giving Rogers an injection and Tales of Suspense #63 which shows Captain America drinking a formula. Captain America #255 clarifies that all three of these processes were used to turn Rogers into Captain America.
This story states that Steve Rogers is the only person to get the Super-Soldier Serum because the Erksine committed it to memory and did not write it down. This is not an accurate statement.
Prior to defecting to the United States, Erksine worked on Project Nietzche, which examined an American soldier named John Steele’s enhanced physiology (see Marvels Project #1-8). A professor named Eric Schmitt gave an early version of this formula to both Kevin Marlow and Brian Falsworth when they were imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. See Invaders #18 and Marvels Project #7.
Truth: Red, White and Black #1-7 reveals that the military tried to recreate the formula and tested it on black soldiers and Isiah Bradley was on of the surviving members of that project.
Doctor Murray Anderson, a scientist that was part of Project: Rebirth, was forced to use his knowledge to create a derivative of the Super Soldier Formula. This was used to create Captain America’s Nazi equivalent, Master Man.
Private Biljo White — a long-time friend of Anderson — also apparently had knowledge of the serum and that information was used to create Warrior Woman in Invaders #16-17.
William Burnside, who became the Captain America of the 1950s, created a flawed version of Erksine’s formula from old notebooks he found. See Captain America #155.
In Avengers 1959 #1-5, Nick Fury formed a group called the Avengers Initiative to prevent an organization called ICON (made up of Nazi war criminals) from profiting off a formula that combined the properties of the Super-Soldier Serum with the Infinity Formula.
The Black Widow Ops Program was a Russian program that also created its own version of the formula, the first recipient of it being Natasha Romanoff. See Black Widow (vol. 3) #5.
Project: Sentry was yet another attempt to recreate the formula. It instead created the Sentry. See Sentry (vol. 2) #8.
As explained in Marvels Project #5, a relative of Noah Burstein was involved in Project Rebirth. In the modern age, Noah attempted to recreate this work, giving powers to both Luke Cage and Warhawk. See Luke Cage: Hero for Hire #1, and Powerman and Iron Fist #83.
Also in the modern age, the Navy attempted to create their own version of the serum. Their test subject became the mentally unhinged Anti-Cap. See Captain America and the Falcon #1.
Jacob Erskine, a descendant of Abraham later attempted to recreate the Super Soldier serum as a cure for cancer. However, this ended when he was murdered. See Steve Rogers: Super Soldier #1.
Most recently, another Super Soldier Serum derivative turned Todd Ziller into American Kaiju. See New Avengers (vol. 4) #9.
This story depicts Captain America as always having his trademark round shield. This is not the case. In Captain America Comics #1, Cap first used a triangular shield and started using a round one in the following issue. It is revealed in Captain America #255 that Cap was given the round shield by President Roosevelt shortly after he became Captain America.
Bucky’s real name is James Buchanan Barnes as revealed in Captain America #255. This story presents the idea that Bucky blackmailed Cap into letting him be his partner. Captain America (vol. 5) #12 and Marvels Project #7 reveals that Bucky was trained to be Cap’s partner with the secret purpose of carrying out covert operations that would tarnish Captain America’s image. Bucky’s discovery here is later revealed to be a scene of a propaganda film made by the military in an effort to use Bucky as a counter to the Hitler Youth.
Bucky is referred to as an orphan whose father was a soldier at Camp Lehigh before his death. Per Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #12, Bucky’s father died by accident during a parachute exercise.
For more on Captain America’s origins see Captain America Comics #1, Tales of Suspense #63, Captain America #176, 215, 218, 255, 270, 303, 423, (vol. 3) #3, (vol.4) #26, (vol. 5) #2, 12, 14, 25, Adventures of Captain America #1, Captain America and Bucky #620, Captain America Annual #10, 2000, Captain America Corps #1-5, Captain America: Reborn #2, Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #1, 3, 7, 12, Marvel Super-Heroes (vol. 3) #3, Marvels Project #1-7, New Warriors #4, Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier #1-2, Tales of Suspense (vol. 2) #1, and Winter Soldier: Bitter March #2.
As far as Steve knows, Bucky died in 1945, as seen in Avengers #4. However, years later he will discover that Bucky survived and was transformed into the Russian assassin called the Winter Soldier. See Captain America (vol. 5) #11.
Topical References
It is stated that World War II ended 25 years prior to this story. This should be considered a topical reference. This is because the Sliding Timescale keeps pushing the Modern Age forward so the length of time between the end of the war and the present gets longer. For the math on all that, go here.
