- July 4th, the time of year when I ask my friends
if they're free tonight, to which they respond,
they are free every night because this is America.
Then we go back and forth trading pictures of presidents
being as American as they possibly can be.
So how could I not talk about Captain America today?
He's got America in his name!
That's where I live.
While you might know the story
of how Cap was brought back in the comics,
you might not know the story of why he was brought back.
Why did Marvel decide to take a chance
on a hero that died out after World War II,
and bring him into the present day?
(rock music)
Welcome to a Tie-In video, I'm Scott,
and by now, I'm sure we all know
how Steve Rogers was given super-soldier serum,
fought in World War II, was frozen in ice for a while,
and then thawed out in the present day
to join the Avengers.
Even thought the movie says he's the first Avenger,
he wasn't added to the team until the fourth issue.
He's not even the first Avenger in terms of
who chronologically existed first,
as a character like Namor debuted a few years before Cap,
and also became an Avenger at some point.
So the movie really should have been called Captain America,
He's Some Kind of Avenger, Isn't He?
But that's not really important for this video.
Why did Marvel decide to bring back
the Sentinel of Liberty in the first place?
Stan Lee writes in his introduction
to the Avengers Masterworks, Vol. 1,
about how they were assembling the characters
for the Avengers roster.
He said that he felt someone was missing,
and that someone wore a spangly outfit.
But Cap hadn't been a popular character
in comics for many years
so they needed to test the waters first
to see if people would still like him.
In Strange Tales #114,
which was released just a few months
before Cap's official triumphant return in The Avengers #4,
Stan wrote a story called
The Human Torch Meets Captain America.
Does this mean that Captain America
made his Silver Age comeback
before he was thawed out in Avengers?
Ehh, not exactly, but I'd wager it definitely factors in.
In this story, Johnny Storm, AKA, The Human Torch,
gets wind that Captain America,
who was a personal hero of his,
is somehow back from the dead.
When Johnny actually meets him, Cap is shown to be
kind of a jerk, and they actually end up fighting a bit.
Long story short, it's revealed
that Cap was really an impostor,
an old enemy of The Human Torch named,
The Acrobat, who was dressing up as Captain America
and going around stealing from banks for some reason,
but the really interesting part
is at the very last panel of the story,
when Johnny is wondering
whatever did become of the real Captain America.
Will he ever return?
Well, it says plainly that this entire story
was really a test to see if the readers would
also want Captain America to return.
Presumably, the answer was a resounding yes,
and Cap was officially brought back a few months later
in that iconic Avengers comic.
In my mind, this decision probably went one of two ways.
Number one, Marvel genuinely wanted to gauge the reaction
of the fans to see whether or not
they should bring Cap back,
or number two, Stan Lee was going to do it anyway,
and he was simply looking for validation
on his brilliant idea.
Strange Tales #14 was published in November of 1963,
and Avengers #4 was published in March of 1964,
so theoretically, they would've had plenty of time
to see how the fans responded to the idea of Cap coming back
before they made their decision to really bring him back,
especially if they were going by the Marvel method
and pumping out comics at a breakneck speed.
Still, though, it could have totally
been already set in motion
and Stan Lee was simply giving the readers
a little bit of a teaser
for what was inevitably on the horizon.
It's interesting to think about is that
there's this possibility
that the fans played some kind of role
in bringing Captain America back.
Makes you wonder what things would be like
if it went differently and he didn't return.
Captain America, the Almost Avenger.
What do you guys think?
Did the fans play a part in bringing back Captain America
or was it set in stone anyway?
What are some other appropriate subtitles
for the Captain America movie?
Let's talk about it all in the comments below.
And if you're interested in learning
who took over as Captain America
while Steve Rogers was frozen,
I made a video a few months back
explaining that very subject.
I'll link it up in the description below,
if you want to check it out,
or if you want to watch it again,
and that you've already seen it.
And if this is your first time hanging out
with us here at NerdSync,
we make new videos every week because we believe
that asking questions and examining comics
beyond the surface can actually enhance
your comic book reading experience and make comics
just a little bit more awesome,
so make sure you hit that big sexy Subscribe button,
so you don't miss out on anything.
Once again, I'm Scott, you can find me
on Twitter and Instagram and I'll see you on Monday
for another episode of the NerdSync podcast,
available on iTunes and SoundCloud.
See ya!
Subtitles by the Amara.org community