Captain America (Ultimate Marvel character)
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| "Ultimate" Captain America | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Ultimates #1 |
| Created by | Mark Millar (story) & Bryan Hitch (art), based on a character created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Steve Rogers |
| Team affiliations | Ultimates, United States Armed Forces |
| Abilities | Super-Soldier serum grants him peak human strength, agility, and durability. Cunning tactical planner and natural leader. |
The Ultimate Marvel Universe version of Captain America is more extreme than his counterpart, prone to violence, likely because he was frozen during the height of World War II and only recently awoke.
Character history
Steve Rogers was once a scrawny kid who would receive regular beatings from neighbourhood kids, requiring the help of Bucky Barnes to fight them off. Steve volunteered to receive six months of experimental chemical and surgery treatments that gave him peak human abilities, and the US government put him to work, dressing him in military fatigues with the stars and stripes and calling him "Captain America," a symbol for the home front to rally behind during the war.
His last mission sent him deep into Nazi Germany to stop a prototype hydrogen bomb. He caused the rocket carrying the bomb to explode, but fell into the freezing cold Arctic Ocean; rather than die from hypothermia, Steve Rogers fell into suspended animation until a fishing trawler pulled him out of the water 57 years later.
He awoke in a S.H.I.E.L.D. medical facility, attended by armed guards and Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, who introduced him to Tony Stark and General Nicholas Fury. He believed it was a Nazi trap, because from his point of view, the highest-ranking black soldier was a captain he knew, so he fought back with strength Dr. Banner didn't think he would have, and would have escaped if Hank Pym hadn't stopped him.
Steve became one of the first members of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s unit to battle posthuman terrorism, called the Ultimates, and was called in when the Hulk appeared in downtown Manhattan; during the fight, Captain America dropped a tank on the Hulk, and then fought him hand-to-hand, but barely slowed him down. Fortunately, the Hulk was stopped, and Steve knocked Bruce Banner out to make sure he wouldn't revert.
Since then, he has begun adjusting to life in the 21st century, although he longs for the days of yore: he spends much time with his old friends Bucky and Gayle (now elderly senior citizens) as well as going to WWII veteran reunions. Still, while he sometimes complains about modern social attitudes, he didn't seem to have a problem in dating the Wasp, a married woman.