Just who is Steve Rogers? - Part III
By Butch Syyap
When his training had been deemed enough, Captain America’s dry run mission was to stop some Nazi-sympathizers in U.S. soil and in the ensuing scuffle, and even while the U.S. was not fully into the war yet. It was slowly helping Great Britain, thus taking a side – if not yet a stand.
Such missions were aplenty, as he would normally end up busting secret Nazi-sympathizers planning to kidnap or eliminate key military figures, stopping the destruction (sabotage) of the newly constructed Boulder dam (later renamed Hoover Dam), and stopping secret Bundist activities. Cap was focusing on missions that related to relatively petty War crimes, but he did not mind – he was willing to tackle the smaller roles as he was getting used to this new role.
It was in one of these early missions where he starts tossing his shield, in albeit a clumsy way, to stop someone, and though he saw the blow coming, Cap was not fast enough to completely duck a lead pipe from snagging his cowl’s wingtips and nearly gets his stylized mask taken off as a press photographer was readying his camera – this presented itself as a design flaw in the costume, since his identity was supposed to remain secret, and he could not afford getting distracted while fighting.
Though his secret still remained safe, this flaw would be addressed come his next mission. Cap’s cowl would hereon be connected to the rest of the uniform, hence no danger of it getting knocked off anymore. Plus, the added neck chain-mail afforded more protection.As he was still new to the role of Captain America, Steve’s unofficial missions were more counter-offensive and close to home. Perhaps this was because the United States had not yet declared war, though it was already embroiled in helping others with their war efforts by supplying loans for the necessary ordnance to Great Britain. When he was finally deemed ready to go into farther reaching missions, Captain America was officially sent to stop the Red Skull.
This was Cap’s acid test, and though the Skull escaped, Cap was able to prevent what the Skull had been planning.This sole mission proved just how much of opposites, not just in loyalty to sides, but in the very fabric of personality the Skull was to Cap – whereas cap was noble and some would even say naïve, the Skull was cunning and feared. Where Steve cared for and took pains to keep innocents away from harm, Smidt had no such compunctions and even relished in seeing some suffer or use them to his benefit. If ever there was a clear delineation of opposites, it was personified by both Cap and the Skull. This would definitely not be their last encounter.
Captain America was then sent to Africa – specifically Wakanda to possibly broker for an alliance, or at the least, to get a sample of the African nation’s prime and highly unique commodity - Vibranium. It was in this same adventure that he met T’chaka and briefly fought with him – it was T’chaka’s way of sizing up his ‘visitor’ When asked what proof Cap had of his honorable words, Cap thought for a moment and then reached for the shield he had – and offered it as a sign of friendship, trust and honor.
This showed a quick thinking and equally empathic Captain America – apparently, this was not in the U.S. Government’s agenda, and Steve, rather than blinking or balking, made a decision. The Black Panther was apparently amused – he realized that Cap was a person who did not just follow orders blindly, but one who could make decisions, and was likewise serious with his word of honor.
This shield would stay with the Panther and his family until such time that T’chala – T’chaka’s son, would present it back to Cap as a gift much later, in a more modern era.Because of this show of sincerity from Cap – and other apparent intelligence reports available to Wakanda, T’chaka did not entirely trust the Americans, but he trusted the Nazi Germans even less – he resolved not join the war efforts of both sides, preferring to stay out of the conflict – convinced that Wakanda would be better served as a neutral party, and neither did he allow the mining of Vibraniun by anyone.
He believed, and rightly so, that this unique mineral – rumored to be of extra-terrestrial origin, was a strong metal which could favor the war efforts for either side. T’chaka preferred that if Vibranium ever served any side, it should be that of Wakanda. He, however, did allow Captain America to bring back a small sample of said metal for American scientists to study..
After the Wakanda trip, Captain America soon received a summons from President Roosevelt – a man Steve grew up admiring. Upon seeing Captain America, FDR quiped that Cap was already getting more famous than him, and that luckily this was not an election year.
The President then gifts Cap with a new, disk-shaped shield, along with the trivial story about how it was accidentally formed (with the Vibranium Steve brought back – though it is not sure just how much of said metal was used in the new shield), and how this accidentally formed shield seemed to be very strong. Steve accepts the shield and immediately realizes its potential as both a defensive – and offensive weapon.
I can only imagine that for the next few days, Steve would be busy training with his new shield – getting used to its offensive capabilities. Apparently the new shield proves a very capable ranged weapon in the hands of Captain America, and, as some stories hint at – he decides right there and then to discard his sidearm – a gun that he hardly used anyway.
If this were true, it would show the shift of Cap’s ideals – one that any war trained person might quickly question. But to Steve, war was deadly enough as it was, with death happening all around. Any chance he got to lessen the statistics – even by one, was a motive worth pursuing.Aside from this apparent distancing from using a gun, it became apparent to his handlers that Cap’s action of charging bravely with just a shield and his fists, would further put a psychological weakness to his enemies – for some it would make them underestimate a weaponless man facing them, and realize in a normally bleated fashion that the shield more than made up for the lack of any projectile weapon.
For others, it would possibly question their resolve to see a very confident enemy charging them with no weapon at all. Whatever the final reasons, no one in general Philip’s camp argues against the move by Steve and showed – not for the first time, utmost confident in their super soldier’s actions and decisions.
Without realizing it, Steve was starting to get into the mold of a ‘modern’ hero – even if he were operating in easily the darkest of times. It would also be argued that a captured enemy soldier/officer was a better option – intel-wise, than a dead one This also showed a more merciful way of dealing with his enemies, and would seemingly be just one of many ways in which Steve Rogers would raise the standard of what it meant to be Captain America.
Other traits that Cap would show in line of being America’s super soldier, would be the unflinching attitude to overcome any obstacle and fight to win no mater what the odds, the seeming unshakable, ‘never say die’ confidence, and leadership qualities seemed to carry along with how others (specifically General Philips) saw Cap’s goals to be.
Steve was becoming a model for bravery, competence and capability – a role model for freedom loving soldiers fighting in the war. He was an inspiration… and a very powerful morale booster.Amidst all the battles, Captain America drove bravely into the fore of any assault – always leading and rallying Allied soldiers, yet Cap did not charge with wild abandon either – he always thought of the strategic factors and cared for others’ safety,.
He helped anyone when possible, and his streak for compassion was not lost to the men he led and fought beside, nor was his capacity to be fair to the enemies who had surrendered to him been ignored. But most important perhaps, was Cap’s willingness to risk his own life to ensure any mission’s success – normally reserving the riskiest and deadliest part of any plan for himself.Captain America was becoming a household name in the war efforts – not just in the home-front, but in Fortress Europa as well, as his deeds and exploits were spreading, so were the frustrations and grudging admirations of others to this American hero’s capabilities.
Others though, might have thought him to be a glorified gimmick – too good to be true… thus dismissing his stories as wartime propaganda – their version of a fictional Santa Clause Those who had the opportunity to meet Cap, would either see a shining beacon of hope and victory - and would regale their friends and families (children and perhaps, even their grandchildren) with their stories of how they had fought side-by-side with Cap.
Or these people – coming from a more jaded and pragmatic viewpoint probably saw in Cap’s combination naïve, boy scout attitude and take charge style as a ‘bit’ out of place with the war’s obviously darker sides. This seemed apparent when Cap in one early mission, met a Canadian operative named Logan, in an effort to rescuing a young girl of Russian descent – an heiress of the Romanovs family, someone who both Cap and Wolverine would later refer to as the Black Widow.
Meanwhile, Bucky, having gone through the same rigorous training as Cap did, was apparently declared ready to join Cap in missions. But Bucky apparently had another perspective for joining Cap.
Perhaps learning form the mission of Cap with operative Logan, the army decided that they could not have Cap as a symbol of all that is good – while having him carry out morale-touchy missions, hence they likewise trained Bucky to be a more ‘survival-capable’ person. If questioned about this difference in training, the obvious answer would be that Bucky was not a recipient of the same serum in Cap, thus may have had to been given additional survival (translated as possibly ‘more ruthless’ training).
It would be Bucky’s apparent mission to handle the dirtier jobs. In light of this revelation of Bucky’s added mission parameters – one that Bucky most probably kept from Steve as well during their times together, it becomes less likely a surprise that a very young and innocent boy had the capacity to help form the Liberty Legion with hardly any help from Army intelligence.
To further protect the two from anyone seeing Steve and Bucky’s seemingly constant appearances together at Camp Lehigh, Army intel always made it come out that Bucky was much younger than Cap – almost like a junior sidekick. In reality, Bucky could have started in his wartime efforts in his mid teens and by 1945, was possibly close to being in his 20’s, hence the comic books adapting a Bucky who looked like a young boy sidekick may have been a simple, though somewhat effective way to allay any suspicious looks to them both.
To add to this cover, Steve would act out and be a bumbling private, to the chagrin of his sergeant who always wondered why he got the worst recruit in the lot. Sometimes I wonder if Steve got the idea for this double life change and the way he carried himself from certain Action comic character. After all, he was a Fantasy fan, so I’m sure he read comics in his spare time.
Needless to say, a certain Sergeant Duffy would get the sometimes painful brunt of Steve’s act and most probably rush to the medics for some aspirin after dismissing this sorry excuse for a private.
Cap’s adventures would not just be limited with Bucky though, as in the height of the Battle between Germany and Britain, Cap and Bucky would be deployed to the European theatre – there to be joined by the Human Torch, his sidekick Torro, Prince Namor, the Submariner and later still, by the Union jack and Spitfire – two heroes from the United Kingdom. They would be collectively known as Invaders and took the battle all the way to the German front.
Since this promised to be an extended assignment, as opposed to single isolated missions in the homeland, after which Cap would easily return to camp fro debriefing – and since it would be fought, ‘strictly speaking’, near or in enemy territory, the army brass had sleepless nights thinking of worse case scenarios wherein Captain America would be captured by the enemy, and through torture – divulge many of his nation’s secrets.
This led him to be ushered into a laboratory “out of H.G. Wells” as Steve would put it, and in the process – be implanted with a set of false memories.Among these set of implanted memories would be a slightly altered family background – as he would now be Steven “Grant” Rogers – son of Mr. Walter Rogers, a U.S. diplomat living in Maryland.
In reality, Walter had two sons – Mike and Grant, but he lost both in the attack on Pearl Harbor, so he volunteered his family to “adopt” Steve and make it come out that he was actually their son Grant. Hence Steve being renamed Steven ‘Grant’ Rogers. The process was so successful that even up to the present, Cap may not have discovered all his implanted memories – and would not have realized the truth, had it not been for the help of Dum Dum Dugan and Nick Fury decades later after said implants had been placed.
It would be noteworthy to mention how Steve became the leader of Invaders – one would argue that he was not the strongest – as Namor would fit that bill… but prince of Atlantis or not, Namor was not totally trusted by the surface world. On the other hand, Jim Hammond – the Human Torch, was not exactly human, and despite his seemingly fully grown stature, he had less years of experience than even Bucky.
His powers also made him rather intimidating, as people would hardly relate to a being of fire. Steve, on the other hand, seemed human enough, he came highly recommended by the United States, had the best training the free world could supply and a high security clearance, more than many officers in the Allied forces – one, by the way, that his trusted companions could share, and Steve, by then was very confident about his role and abilities, that leadership came natural – thanks to both his training and his numerous successes.
Though awkward at first – as the Torch and Cap both had some skirmishes with Namor in their past, the members of this team quickly learned to trust each other, rely on their teammates’ capabilities and used their collective strength, powers and resources to beat back many of Germany’s invasions – be it conventional weapons or non-conventional altered personalities like Agent Axis, U-man or even Baron Blood.
When not with the Invaders, Cap would help out the soldiers – whether it was to stop certain secret weapons, support the men in the field, and yes… battle the Red Skull, and other equally dangerous agents of the Axis. It was in one of these usual capacities that Cap would link up with and meet Sergeant Fury and his Howling Commandoes, a ragtag band of soldiers who would later form the command hierarchy of the modern day spy organization, S.H.I.E.L.D.Captain America was a very effective counter-propaganda to the Skull, in fact, I would favor a guess that these two really hated what the other represented, so much so that any meeting between these two promised a battle of unresolved rivalry.
On one side we had Captain America’s capabilities, combat strategies and prowess – on the other, the Skull’s stealth, grand plans for destruction and cold hearted capacity to manipulate people or other resources to get the job done. These two would possibly secretly look forward to the day they would finally end the other’s lifework… and would feel some gnawing frustration should they fail to stop the other.
Most of the Skull’s missions would entail kidnappings, disruptions or destruction on a large scale, hence his efforts would sometimes border on the incredible – but I guess that just shows Teutonic brilliance and the capabilities of their scientists.
Giant destructive robots would be the order of the day and being a grand schemer that he was, the Skull did not just have one or two robots created, he had three (at that time) Sleepers and Cap once again risked his life to go after these robots and destroy them before they destroyed half the world and tipped the scales of war to the Axis’ favor.
Luckily for most, Cap had a very high success rate in his mission – be they on his own, with Bucky, or alongside the Invaders. Many of Cap’s missions were secret – normally geared towards infiltration and counter-espionage, thus not disclosed to the public’s sentiment, and records of his countless exploits may have been kept hidden. He was sent against more normal humans like Abrahamic Germans, and Japanese State Shinto Imperialists, but did not preclude the usual German super soldiers, like Master-man, who was injected with a similar serum to that of Steve’s, yet had somehow also gotten the capacity for flight.
Most of the fights involving super-powered soldiers of the Reich, were done while Steve was with the Invaders.One such battle would even be waged against Hitler himself and would have led to capture, had the German leader not somehow convince a certain Teutonic-originated, hammer-wielding thunder god to fight for their dreams of just victory.
Luckily for the Invaders, this was just a temporary alliance, and Thor decided to cut his connections with the Germans. Not all battle so Cap were of the incredible sort, as he was likewise active in more recognizable historical events like the Battle for the Bulge, D-Day and even saved the Manhattan Project – again from the Skull, with the help of the Howling Commandoes.
Captain America even found time to meet certain seemingly eccentric personalities like Nikolai Tesla. Had he stayed around longer, it would not be a surprise to see Cap become a very influential personality after the war – fate, however, had other plans.
Cap’s last official battle in WWII was appropriately against the Skull in the latter’s bunker deep within Axis territory – Steve would then be fighting alongside the Red Guardian, the Patriot and the Spirit of ’76 in a joint U.S.-Soviet effort to capture Nazi criminals and seek out any hiding Nazi Scientist. This happened some time April of 1945… around the same time, the Torches were attacking Hitler’s bunker to try and capture him. After this episode, Cap and Bucky would chase after a desperate Baron Heinrich Zemo’s attempt to use a bomb attached to a drone plane in the hope of delivering a final blow from the all but fallen Reich.
This seeming mop-up operation, unfortunately, would be the last adventure of Steve Rogers, Captain America – and James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes. Like many of Cap’s missions, the free world would not realize what had transpired, as these two would seemingly perish while trying to stop a drone bomb. The United States, knowing that victory efforts against the Japanese was very near, felt that news of Captain America and Bucky’s demise, happening so close to their country’s losing a great president (FDR, into the 2nd year of his fourth term, also died around April, and was replaced by Truman), would embolden the enemy. Hence the Spirit of ’76 was secretly asked by Truman to take the mantle and assume and continue the role of Cap.
Meanwhile, a bomb-blasted body drifts towards cooler climate, and what would normally be apparent death by drowning is instead the start of suspended animation by way of the Super Soldier, serum, the Vita rays and the preserving capabilities of ice. Another body is discovered by a Soviet Submarine, and turned over to Soviet intelligence.
Next: Discovery, Revival and Renewal
By Butch Syyap
When his training had been deemed enough, Captain America’s dry run mission was to stop some Nazi-sympathizers in U.S. soil and in the ensuing scuffle, and even while the U.S. was not fully into the war yet. It was slowly helping Great Britain, thus taking a side – if not yet a stand.
Such missions were aplenty, as he would normally end up busting secret Nazi-sympathizers planning to kidnap or eliminate key military figures, stopping the destruction (sabotage) of the newly constructed Boulder dam (later renamed Hoover Dam), and stopping secret Bundist activities. Cap was focusing on missions that related to relatively petty War crimes, but he did not mind – he was willing to tackle the smaller roles as he was getting used to this new role.
It was in one of these early missions where he starts tossing his shield, in albeit a clumsy way, to stop someone, and though he saw the blow coming, Cap was not fast enough to completely duck a lead pipe from snagging his cowl’s wingtips and nearly gets his stylized mask taken off as a press photographer was readying his camera – this presented itself as a design flaw in the costume, since his identity was supposed to remain secret, and he could not afford getting distracted while fighting.
Though his secret still remained safe, this flaw would be addressed come his next mission. Cap’s cowl would hereon be connected to the rest of the uniform, hence no danger of it getting knocked off anymore. Plus, the added neck chain-mail afforded more protection.As he was still new to the role of Captain America, Steve’s unofficial missions were more counter-offensive and close to home. Perhaps this was because the United States had not yet declared war, though it was already embroiled in helping others with their war efforts by supplying loans for the necessary ordnance to Great Britain. When he was finally deemed ready to go into farther reaching missions, Captain America was officially sent to stop the Red Skull.
This was Cap’s acid test, and though the Skull escaped, Cap was able to prevent what the Skull had been planning.This sole mission proved just how much of opposites, not just in loyalty to sides, but in the very fabric of personality the Skull was to Cap – whereas cap was noble and some would even say naïve, the Skull was cunning and feared. Where Steve cared for and took pains to keep innocents away from harm, Smidt had no such compunctions and even relished in seeing some suffer or use them to his benefit. If ever there was a clear delineation of opposites, it was personified by both Cap and the Skull. This would definitely not be their last encounter.
Captain America was then sent to Africa – specifically Wakanda to possibly broker for an alliance, or at the least, to get a sample of the African nation’s prime and highly unique commodity - Vibranium. It was in this same adventure that he met T’chaka and briefly fought with him – it was T’chaka’s way of sizing up his ‘visitor’ When asked what proof Cap had of his honorable words, Cap thought for a moment and then reached for the shield he had – and offered it as a sign of friendship, trust and honor.
This showed a quick thinking and equally empathic Captain America – apparently, this was not in the U.S. Government’s agenda, and Steve, rather than blinking or balking, made a decision. The Black Panther was apparently amused – he realized that Cap was a person who did not just follow orders blindly, but one who could make decisions, and was likewise serious with his word of honor.
This shield would stay with the Panther and his family until such time that T’chala – T’chaka’s son, would present it back to Cap as a gift much later, in a more modern era.Because of this show of sincerity from Cap – and other apparent intelligence reports available to Wakanda, T’chaka did not entirely trust the Americans, but he trusted the Nazi Germans even less – he resolved not join the war efforts of both sides, preferring to stay out of the conflict – convinced that Wakanda would be better served as a neutral party, and neither did he allow the mining of Vibraniun by anyone.
He believed, and rightly so, that this unique mineral – rumored to be of extra-terrestrial origin, was a strong metal which could favor the war efforts for either side. T’chaka preferred that if Vibranium ever served any side, it should be that of Wakanda. He, however, did allow Captain America to bring back a small sample of said metal for American scientists to study..
After the Wakanda trip, Captain America soon received a summons from President Roosevelt – a man Steve grew up admiring. Upon seeing Captain America, FDR quiped that Cap was already getting more famous than him, and that luckily this was not an election year.
The President then gifts Cap with a new, disk-shaped shield, along with the trivial story about how it was accidentally formed (with the Vibranium Steve brought back – though it is not sure just how much of said metal was used in the new shield), and how this accidentally formed shield seemed to be very strong. Steve accepts the shield and immediately realizes its potential as both a defensive – and offensive weapon.
I can only imagine that for the next few days, Steve would be busy training with his new shield – getting used to its offensive capabilities. Apparently the new shield proves a very capable ranged weapon in the hands of Captain America, and, as some stories hint at – he decides right there and then to discard his sidearm – a gun that he hardly used anyway.
If this were true, it would show the shift of Cap’s ideals – one that any war trained person might quickly question. But to Steve, war was deadly enough as it was, with death happening all around. Any chance he got to lessen the statistics – even by one, was a motive worth pursuing.Aside from this apparent distancing from using a gun, it became apparent to his handlers that Cap’s action of charging bravely with just a shield and his fists, would further put a psychological weakness to his enemies – for some it would make them underestimate a weaponless man facing them, and realize in a normally bleated fashion that the shield more than made up for the lack of any projectile weapon.
For others, it would possibly question their resolve to see a very confident enemy charging them with no weapon at all. Whatever the final reasons, no one in general Philip’s camp argues against the move by Steve and showed – not for the first time, utmost confident in their super soldier’s actions and decisions.
Without realizing it, Steve was starting to get into the mold of a ‘modern’ hero – even if he were operating in easily the darkest of times. It would also be argued that a captured enemy soldier/officer was a better option – intel-wise, than a dead one This also showed a more merciful way of dealing with his enemies, and would seemingly be just one of many ways in which Steve Rogers would raise the standard of what it meant to be Captain America.
Other traits that Cap would show in line of being America’s super soldier, would be the unflinching attitude to overcome any obstacle and fight to win no mater what the odds, the seeming unshakable, ‘never say die’ confidence, and leadership qualities seemed to carry along with how others (specifically General Philips) saw Cap’s goals to be.
Steve was becoming a model for bravery, competence and capability – a role model for freedom loving soldiers fighting in the war. He was an inspiration… and a very powerful morale booster.Amidst all the battles, Captain America drove bravely into the fore of any assault – always leading and rallying Allied soldiers, yet Cap did not charge with wild abandon either – he always thought of the strategic factors and cared for others’ safety,.
He helped anyone when possible, and his streak for compassion was not lost to the men he led and fought beside, nor was his capacity to be fair to the enemies who had surrendered to him been ignored. But most important perhaps, was Cap’s willingness to risk his own life to ensure any mission’s success – normally reserving the riskiest and deadliest part of any plan for himself.Captain America was becoming a household name in the war efforts – not just in the home-front, but in Fortress Europa as well, as his deeds and exploits were spreading, so were the frustrations and grudging admirations of others to this American hero’s capabilities.
Others though, might have thought him to be a glorified gimmick – too good to be true… thus dismissing his stories as wartime propaganda – their version of a fictional Santa Clause Those who had the opportunity to meet Cap, would either see a shining beacon of hope and victory - and would regale their friends and families (children and perhaps, even their grandchildren) with their stories of how they had fought side-by-side with Cap.
Or these people – coming from a more jaded and pragmatic viewpoint probably saw in Cap’s combination naïve, boy scout attitude and take charge style as a ‘bit’ out of place with the war’s obviously darker sides. This seemed apparent when Cap in one early mission, met a Canadian operative named Logan, in an effort to rescuing a young girl of Russian descent – an heiress of the Romanovs family, someone who both Cap and Wolverine would later refer to as the Black Widow.
Meanwhile, Bucky, having gone through the same rigorous training as Cap did, was apparently declared ready to join Cap in missions. But Bucky apparently had another perspective for joining Cap.
Perhaps learning form the mission of Cap with operative Logan, the army decided that they could not have Cap as a symbol of all that is good – while having him carry out morale-touchy missions, hence they likewise trained Bucky to be a more ‘survival-capable’ person. If questioned about this difference in training, the obvious answer would be that Bucky was not a recipient of the same serum in Cap, thus may have had to been given additional survival (translated as possibly ‘more ruthless’ training).
It would be Bucky’s apparent mission to handle the dirtier jobs. In light of this revelation of Bucky’s added mission parameters – one that Bucky most probably kept from Steve as well during their times together, it becomes less likely a surprise that a very young and innocent boy had the capacity to help form the Liberty Legion with hardly any help from Army intelligence.
To further protect the two from anyone seeing Steve and Bucky’s seemingly constant appearances together at Camp Lehigh, Army intel always made it come out that Bucky was much younger than Cap – almost like a junior sidekick. In reality, Bucky could have started in his wartime efforts in his mid teens and by 1945, was possibly close to being in his 20’s, hence the comic books adapting a Bucky who looked like a young boy sidekick may have been a simple, though somewhat effective way to allay any suspicious looks to them both.
To add to this cover, Steve would act out and be a bumbling private, to the chagrin of his sergeant who always wondered why he got the worst recruit in the lot. Sometimes I wonder if Steve got the idea for this double life change and the way he carried himself from certain Action comic character. After all, he was a Fantasy fan, so I’m sure he read comics in his spare time.
Needless to say, a certain Sergeant Duffy would get the sometimes painful brunt of Steve’s act and most probably rush to the medics for some aspirin after dismissing this sorry excuse for a private.
Cap’s adventures would not just be limited with Bucky though, as in the height of the Battle between Germany and Britain, Cap and Bucky would be deployed to the European theatre – there to be joined by the Human Torch, his sidekick Torro, Prince Namor, the Submariner and later still, by the Union jack and Spitfire – two heroes from the United Kingdom. They would be collectively known as Invaders and took the battle all the way to the German front.
Since this promised to be an extended assignment, as opposed to single isolated missions in the homeland, after which Cap would easily return to camp fro debriefing – and since it would be fought, ‘strictly speaking’, near or in enemy territory, the army brass had sleepless nights thinking of worse case scenarios wherein Captain America would be captured by the enemy, and through torture – divulge many of his nation’s secrets.
This led him to be ushered into a laboratory “out of H.G. Wells” as Steve would put it, and in the process – be implanted with a set of false memories.Among these set of implanted memories would be a slightly altered family background – as he would now be Steven “Grant” Rogers – son of Mr. Walter Rogers, a U.S. diplomat living in Maryland.
In reality, Walter had two sons – Mike and Grant, but he lost both in the attack on Pearl Harbor, so he volunteered his family to “adopt” Steve and make it come out that he was actually their son Grant. Hence Steve being renamed Steven ‘Grant’ Rogers. The process was so successful that even up to the present, Cap may not have discovered all his implanted memories – and would not have realized the truth, had it not been for the help of Dum Dum Dugan and Nick Fury decades later after said implants had been placed.
It would be noteworthy to mention how Steve became the leader of Invaders – one would argue that he was not the strongest – as Namor would fit that bill… but prince of Atlantis or not, Namor was not totally trusted by the surface world. On the other hand, Jim Hammond – the Human Torch, was not exactly human, and despite his seemingly fully grown stature, he had less years of experience than even Bucky.
His powers also made him rather intimidating, as people would hardly relate to a being of fire. Steve, on the other hand, seemed human enough, he came highly recommended by the United States, had the best training the free world could supply and a high security clearance, more than many officers in the Allied forces – one, by the way, that his trusted companions could share, and Steve, by then was very confident about his role and abilities, that leadership came natural – thanks to both his training and his numerous successes.
Though awkward at first – as the Torch and Cap both had some skirmishes with Namor in their past, the members of this team quickly learned to trust each other, rely on their teammates’ capabilities and used their collective strength, powers and resources to beat back many of Germany’s invasions – be it conventional weapons or non-conventional altered personalities like Agent Axis, U-man or even Baron Blood.
When not with the Invaders, Cap would help out the soldiers – whether it was to stop certain secret weapons, support the men in the field, and yes… battle the Red Skull, and other equally dangerous agents of the Axis. It was in one of these usual capacities that Cap would link up with and meet Sergeant Fury and his Howling Commandoes, a ragtag band of soldiers who would later form the command hierarchy of the modern day spy organization, S.H.I.E.L.D.Captain America was a very effective counter-propaganda to the Skull, in fact, I would favor a guess that these two really hated what the other represented, so much so that any meeting between these two promised a battle of unresolved rivalry.
On one side we had Captain America’s capabilities, combat strategies and prowess – on the other, the Skull’s stealth, grand plans for destruction and cold hearted capacity to manipulate people or other resources to get the job done. These two would possibly secretly look forward to the day they would finally end the other’s lifework… and would feel some gnawing frustration should they fail to stop the other.
Most of the Skull’s missions would entail kidnappings, disruptions or destruction on a large scale, hence his efforts would sometimes border on the incredible – but I guess that just shows Teutonic brilliance and the capabilities of their scientists.
Giant destructive robots would be the order of the day and being a grand schemer that he was, the Skull did not just have one or two robots created, he had three (at that time) Sleepers and Cap once again risked his life to go after these robots and destroy them before they destroyed half the world and tipped the scales of war to the Axis’ favor.
Luckily for most, Cap had a very high success rate in his mission – be they on his own, with Bucky, or alongside the Invaders. Many of Cap’s missions were secret – normally geared towards infiltration and counter-espionage, thus not disclosed to the public’s sentiment, and records of his countless exploits may have been kept hidden. He was sent against more normal humans like Abrahamic Germans, and Japanese State Shinto Imperialists, but did not preclude the usual German super soldiers, like Master-man, who was injected with a similar serum to that of Steve’s, yet had somehow also gotten the capacity for flight.
Most of the fights involving super-powered soldiers of the Reich, were done while Steve was with the Invaders.One such battle would even be waged against Hitler himself and would have led to capture, had the German leader not somehow convince a certain Teutonic-originated, hammer-wielding thunder god to fight for their dreams of just victory.
Luckily for the Invaders, this was just a temporary alliance, and Thor decided to cut his connections with the Germans. Not all battle so Cap were of the incredible sort, as he was likewise active in more recognizable historical events like the Battle for the Bulge, D-Day and even saved the Manhattan Project – again from the Skull, with the help of the Howling Commandoes.
Captain America even found time to meet certain seemingly eccentric personalities like Nikolai Tesla. Had he stayed around longer, it would not be a surprise to see Cap become a very influential personality after the war – fate, however, had other plans.
Cap’s last official battle in WWII was appropriately against the Skull in the latter’s bunker deep within Axis territory – Steve would then be fighting alongside the Red Guardian, the Patriot and the Spirit of ’76 in a joint U.S.-Soviet effort to capture Nazi criminals and seek out any hiding Nazi Scientist. This happened some time April of 1945… around the same time, the Torches were attacking Hitler’s bunker to try and capture him. After this episode, Cap and Bucky would chase after a desperate Baron Heinrich Zemo’s attempt to use a bomb attached to a drone plane in the hope of delivering a final blow from the all but fallen Reich.
This seeming mop-up operation, unfortunately, would be the last adventure of Steve Rogers, Captain America – and James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes. Like many of Cap’s missions, the free world would not realize what had transpired, as these two would seemingly perish while trying to stop a drone bomb. The United States, knowing that victory efforts against the Japanese was very near, felt that news of Captain America and Bucky’s demise, happening so close to their country’s losing a great president (FDR, into the 2nd year of his fourth term, also died around April, and was replaced by Truman), would embolden the enemy. Hence the Spirit of ’76 was secretly asked by Truman to take the mantle and assume and continue the role of Cap.
Meanwhile, a bomb-blasted body drifts towards cooler climate, and what would normally be apparent death by drowning is instead the start of suspended animation by way of the Super Soldier, serum, the Vita rays and the preserving capabilities of ice. Another body is discovered by a Soviet Submarine, and turned over to Soviet intelligence.
Next: Discovery, Revival and Renewal
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