Captain America GAF Non Kodachrome 3D H43
worn cover H43
| Writer Joe Simon
conceived the idea for Captain America, which was refined by his
partner, artist Jack Kirby, in 1941. Captain America was a
consciously political creation. Simon and Kirby were morally
repulsed by the actions of Nazi Germany in the years leading up to
the United States' involvement in World War II and felt war was
inevitable. Simon later said, "The opponents to the war were all
quite well organized. We wanted to have our say too."[5] Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941) — on sale in December 1940, a year before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and already showing the protagonist punching Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the jaw — sold nearly one million copies. [6] While most readers responded favorably to the comic, some isolationists and Nazi sympathizers took objection. Simon noted, "When the first issue came out we got a lot of . . . threatening letters and hate mail. Some people really opposed what Cap stood for."[5] Though preceded as a "patriotically themed superhero" by MLJ's The Shield, Captain America immediately became the most prominent and enduring of that wave of superheroes introduced in American comic books prior to and during World War II. With his sidekick Bucky, Captain America faced Nazis, Japanese and other threats to wartime America and the Allies. Captain America soon became Timely's most popular character and even had a fan-club called the "Sentinels of Liberty."[5] Circulation figures remained close to a million copies per month after the debut issue, which outstripped even the circulation of news magazines like Time during the period.[7] |