Almost foreshadowing his future, Steven Rogers was born on July 4th, 1920, from a poor Irish immigrants family. Joseph Rogers, his father, died when frail and skinny Steve was still a kid, and Sarah, the mother, was killed by a pneumonia soon after. Steve found a job as a delivery boy and moved to a rooming house, trying his best to earn a living as an orphaned teenager. The only evasions he allowed himself were his art (he was a skilled drawer) and cinema, which he loved. Once, in 1940, he watched a documentary about the horrors of Nazism, and decided he would have done his part to protect America and the world from the German tyranny. He volunteered to enter the Army, but he was discharged because of his frail constitution. Steve’s determination was unique, and he came back, time after time, office after office, trying to enlist. His spirit attracted the attention of General Chester Phillips, an old, idealistic officer who offered him a chance to prove himself: Operation Rebirth, a secret project created by German scientist Abraham Erskine whose aim was to create a Super Soldier to fight Nazis. Steve gladly accepted, and started testing for the experiment. After some delays (caused by a Nazi spy, Cynthia Glass), Steve finally underwent the treatment. On the experiment’s day, yet another Nazi agent infiltrated the project, Heinz Krueger, who killed Erskine and tried to do the same with Steve, only to be subdued by the Super Soldier’s incredible abilities. Unfortunately, the formula died with Erskine, and Rogers was the one and only Super Soldier at USA’s disposal. In 1941, Steve Rogers, code-named Captain America and equipped with a unique costume and an indestructible shield built with Vibranium retrieved from Wakanda, was sent in mission for the first time. As an opposite to Hitler Youth, Captain America was paired with Bucky Barnes, a kid who served as a mascot in a military camp Cap had visited. Along with Bucky, Cap accomplished a mission after the other, becoming the Axis‘s main enemy.
During his war time, Captain America fought many Nazi criminals, such as his opposite Red Skull, Baron von Strucker, Baron Zemo, the Hangman, mad scientist Arnim Zola and many others; he also gained the trust of powerful allies, such as the Invaders (the original Human Torch, Toro, Namor the Sub-Mariner), Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos, Canadian agent James “Wolverine” Howlett, Frankenstein’s Monster and others. A living legend, Cap faced any kind of threat the Nazis had up their sleeve, from armies to supernatural threats, until he eventually managed to put an end to the menace of both Adolf Hitler and the Red Skull. During the final days of the war, Steve and Bucky were assigned with the surveillance of a secret drone plane, but Baron Zemo attacked their convoy, arming the drone and pointing it to American soil. In the following battle, the two heroes managed to divert the plane to the Atlantic Ocean, but they seemingly died in the effort. Cap, in reality, was brought North by the streams, and his body was frozen solid in the Arctic Sea; the Super Soldier Serum in his veins kept him alive, and he stayed in suspended animation for years. Decades later, Namor found his old wartime ally, who had become the idol of an Inuit tribe while still in the ice; the Sub-Mariner took Rogers away from this “iceman cult”, and, when he faced the newly-formed Avengers, he gave the body to them. The heroes recognized the legendary costume, and, once they realized he was still alive, they proceeded to defrost him and to revive him. Captain America woke up to meet his saviors: Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man, the Wasp and Hulk, the founding Avengers, who asked him to join their ranks. Rogers accepted, always eager to fight for the right cause, even if he still had to face some traumas, first of all being suddenly projected in a world that, in his time, was considered a distant future. He also tried to replace Bucky for a while with Rick Jones, who also arrived to don his same costume, but at last (after a traumatizing battle with a hard-to-kill Baron Zemo) he decided to let his friend go, giving up of trying to resurrect the past. A natural born leader, Captain America became a reference figure for his teammates, until he was officially appointed as the leader of the Avengers in most of their formations. In modern times like in old ones, the Sentinel of Liberty was on the battlefield to defend the values he swore to protect.