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Captain America

Captain America: The First Avenger

Steve in Classic Garb
Case File
Podcast Release
Sep 10, 2026
Media Release
July 19, 2011
In-Universe
June 22, 1943 Confident
Reality
Era
Captain America Nexus
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1:56:02
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Deep Dive
17:29
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Synopsis

Set against the harrowing backdrop of the second global conflict of the twentieth century. In a Norwegian church, Johann Schmidt tears a glowing cube from the heart of a carving of Yggdrasill. In New York, Steve Rogers lies on enlistment forms in city after city, desperate to follow Bucky Barnes overseas. He is rejected every time until Abraham Erskine overhears him say he does not want to kill anyone, he simply hates bullies. That answer earns Rogers an opportunity for a place in Project Rebirth. He wins it. Not by out-running the soldiers around him but by throwing himself on a grenade nobody else would touch, with the exception, perhaps, of Peggy Carter.

The Super Soldier Serum works. Steve has gone from a frail Brooklyn kid to the peak of human perfection. Sadly, Erskine dies moments later at the hands of an assassin hiding behind a State Department title. The only super soldier Erskine will ever give the world is handed a shield and a chorus line instead of a rifle. Rogers tours in tights selling bonds until he learns Barnes' regiment has been captured. At the urging of Carter, with whom he has become fond of, he storms enemy territory alone and comes back with four hundred men behind him. With this one act, Steve became the Captain America the world needed. Sabotage after sabotage, he and his Howling Commandos wage a personal war against Hydra, and, more pointedly, The Red Skull. Bucky is lost in the midst of one of their many missions. Steve is devastated.. and determined. The final chase ends over the Atlantic with a bomber aimed at New York, a choice that cannot be undone, and a radio call between Rogers and Carter arranging a dance that neither will make. He wakes seventy years later in a room built of lies. He breaks out only to find a world that finished the war and moved on without him. He is then greeted by the one and only Nick Fury with a new destiny for him.

Reality Designation

This story takes place in the main continuity: 199999

Did You Know?

Reality numbers are Marvel's official designations.

Where a universe has no official number we follow the Marvel Database and use its Temporary Reality Number (TRN-1092). Where there is neither — official or temporary — at the time we watch it, we assign a Snark Industries number of our own (SI-001).

Characters in the Episode

Steve Rogers
Steve Rogers Mantle: Captain America Played by: Chris Evans

Nexus event: Steve Rogers Gets the Super Soldier Serum

Rejected enlistee turned super soldier; defeats The Red Skull, downs the Valkyrie, and is frozen for seventy years

James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes
James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes Mantle: The Winter Soldier Played by: Sebastian Stan

Milestone: Appears to Fall to His Death

Rogers' oldest friend. Part of the 107th Infantry. Appears to perish as he falls from a train during a mission

Johann Schmidt
Johann Schmidt Mantle: The Red Skull Played by: Hugo Weaving

Kills in this episode: 2

Head of Hydra; steals the Tesseract and pursues godhood

Dr. Abraham Erskine
Dr. Abraham Erskine Played by: Stanley Tucci

Milestone: Killed by Heinz Kruger

Creator of the super-soldier serum. Chooses Rogers and is assassinated before truly seeing what he gave the world

Agent R
Agent R Played by: Amanda Walker

Milestone: Killed by Heinz Kruger as he attempts to flee

Agent that watches over the curio shop atop Project Rebirth

Bonnie
Bonnie Played by: Sophie Colquhoun

Steve's 'date' at the Stark Expo

Senator Brandt
Senator Brandt Mantle: Senator Played by: Michael Brandon

Turns Rogers into a war-bond stage act

Connie
Connie Played by: Jenna Coleman

Bucky's date at the Stark Expo

Jacques Dernier
Jacques Dernier Played by: Bruno Ricci

Milestone: Becomes a founding member of The Howling Commandos

One of Steve's Howling Commandos; Demolitions

Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan
Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan Played by: Neal McDonough

Milestone: Becomes a founding member of The Howling Commandos

One of Steve's Howling Commandos. The leader, if one might be so bold

James Montgomery Falsworth
James Montgomery Falsworth Mantle: Union Jack Played by: JJ Feild

Milestone: Becomes a founding member of The Howling Commandos

One of Steve's Howling Commandos; Weapons Expert (Comic driven)

Director Nick Fury
Director Nick Fury Mantle: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Played by: Samuel L. Jackson

Milestone: Recruits Captain America to The Avengers

Meets Rogers in present-day Times Square

Gabe Jones
Gabe Jones Played by: Derek Luke

Milestone: Becomes a founding member of The Howling Commandos

One of Steve's Howling Commandos; Translator

Heinz Kruger
Heinz Kruger Played by: Richard Armitage

Milestone: Died

Kills in this episode: 2

Hydra assassin posing as State Department official Fred Clemson. Kills Erskine

Private Lorraine
Private Lorraine Played by: Natalie Dormer

Milestone: Kisses Steve Rogers

Phillips' secretary; kisses Rogers in front of Carter

Jim Morita
Jim Morita Played by: Kenneth Choi

Milestone: Becomes a founding member of The Howling Commandos

One of Steve's Howling Commandos; Hand to Hand Specialty (Comic driven)

Colonel Chester Phillips
Colonel Chester Phillips Mantle: Colonel of the United States Military Played by: Tommy Lee Jones

Commands the SSR unit that Rogers was a part of. Is skeptical of Rogers, and misuses his most valuable asset

Howard Stark
Howard Stark Played by: Dominic Cooper

Engineer and pilot; builds the vibranium shield and helps Rogers when he's able

Dr. Arnim Zola
Dr. Arnim Zola Played by: Toby Jones

Hydra's chief scientist. Captured from the train and interrogated

Comic Roots

Where the episode's people and places come from on the page.

The Origin is Close to the Page

Captain America and Bucky Barnes both debut in Captain America Comics #1 (cover-dated March 1941) by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the issue that also introduces the Super-Soldier Serum and puts Cap on the cover punching Hitler months before American entry into the war. The film keeps the essential shape of that origin: a frail volunteer, a scientist who selects him for character rather than physique, a single successful treatment, and an assassin who kills the scientist so the process can never be repeated. The screen version renames the process Project Rebirth and pairs the injections with "vita-rays," terminology drawn from later comics retellings rather than the 1941 original.

Heinz Kruger

The assassin who kills Erskine goes unnamed in Captain America Comics #1 and was not given the name Heinz Kruger until Captain America #109 (January 1969), in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's later retelling. The film adapts him faithfully in a specific way: he is credited on screen as Heinz Kruger, but in dialogue he operates entirely under the cover identity Fred Clemson of the State Department and is never addressed by his real name. Richard Armitage confirmed the infiltration setup in press interviews. The result is that a viewer who does not read the credits learns him only as Clemson.

The Red Skull's Tangled Lineage Simplified

The film gives Johann Schmidt as the Red Skull from the start, which is cleaner than the comics. In print, the Red Skull who appears in Captain America Comics #1 (1941) is revealed as George Maxon, an aircraft manufacturer, later retroactively established as a decoy; the definitive Johann Schmidt Skull debuts in Captain America Comics #7 (October 1941) and receives his full Silver Age origin in Tales of Suspense #66 (1965). The film also folds in Hydra, a much later creation first appearing in Strange Tales #135 (1965), and the Cosmic Cube, which debuts in Tales of Suspense #79 (1966), renamed the Tesseract for the screen. None of those three elements existed in the 1941 material the origin comes from.

The Snark File

Easter eggs, callbacks and technical tidbits.

The Original Human Torch is in The Stark Expo Crowd

The 1939 android Human Torch appears in a display case at the World Exposition of Tomorrow, a nod to Marvel's earliest character and to Timely Comics' founding lineup.

The Indiana Jones Jab

Schmidt dismisses Hitler as chasing "trinkets in the desert," a direct wink at Raiders of the Lost Ark. Director Joe Johnston did effects work on Raiders. A fun little connection.

Skinny Steve is a Composite

Chris Evans' pre-serum body is Leander Deeny's, with Evans' face and performance digitally mapped on. What a role to have had..

Vibranium Arrives Well Before Wakanda

Stark describes the shield as vibranium, "the rarest metal on earth," and says what Rogers is holding is all they have, planting a thread the films do not pick up properly until Black Panther.

Paramount, Not Disney

Despite being a Marvel Studios production, the film was distributed theatrically by Paramount Pictures, a distribution arrangement that predates Disney's consolidation of the MCU.