| − | In Europe, [[Adolf Hitler]] was over-running the continent, and American soldiers were getting ready for the eventual conflict. One of the young men making repeated attempts to enlist - and repeatedly rejected - was Steven Rogers, a physically-frail fine-arts student and comic book artist who was aware of the atrocities committed by the Nazis and wanted to do something about it. Dr. Josef Reinstein would see the young man's determination and offer him an opportunity as a test subject in a proposed "Super Soldier Project", the idea of which would be to have a unit of specially-enhanced, physically strong soldiers who be potentially dropped behind enemy lines to carry out missions considered too dangerous for lesser men. The effect of the test - a serum combined with "vita-rays" - turns Rogers into a super-soldier, but before it could be replicated Reinstein is killed by a Nazi infiltrator who, it is later discovered, works for the leader of the German terror and espionage apparatus, Johann Schmidt, whose disfigured head gave him the byname "Red Skull". | + | In Europe, [[Adolf Hitler]] was over-running the continent, and American soldiers were getting ready for the eventual conflict. One of the young men making repeated attempts to enlist - and repeatedly rejected - was Steven Rogers, an orphaned, physically-frail fine-arts student and comic book artist who was aware of the atrocities committed by the Nazis and wanted to do something about it. Dr. Josef Reinstein would see the young man's determination and offer him an opportunity as a test subject in a proposed "Super Soldier Project", the idea of which would be to have a unit of specially-enhanced, physically strong soldiers who be potentially dropped behind enemy lines to carry out missions considered too dangerous for lesser men. The effect of the test - a serum combined with "vita-rays" - turns Rogers into a super-soldier, but before it could be replicated Reinstein is killed by a Nazi infiltrator who, it is later discovered, works for the leader of the German terror and espionage apparatus, Johann Schmidt, whose disfigured head gave him the byname "Red Skull". |
| | + | Captain America would be joined by a nucleus of commandos at Camp Lehigh, forming a team called the Invaders, which would go into action around the world thwarting the attempts of the Nazis in general, and the Red Skull in particular. Among the group was the camp's young mascot, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes, who accidentally learned of Cap's identity and used that knowledge to become his sidekick. |