Meet Captain America; the red, white and blue Avenger

12evans.jpgChris Evans pl;ays Captain America in the Avengers movie.
12CAP.jpgCaptain America

Captain America is as much a symbol as a person.

Steve Rogers loved America. In the early days of World War II, he was a skinny U.S. Army reject. When he was asked to volunteer to be a guinea pig for an experiment to create a "Super Soldier," he jumped at the chance.

The process was flawed and failed on other candidates, but worked on Rogers.

To inspire the troops, he was given a flag-inspired costume and the name, Captain America.

Through a twist of fate, he was frozen at the end of the war and reanimated decades later to join the Avengers and inspire new generations.

 Actor Chris Evans will play Cap in his own movie, "Captain America: The First Avenger," which opens July 22. The movie is a set-up for the "The Avengers" movie that will film this summer in Cleveland and open in the summer of 2012. Evans will reprise his role as Captain America.

Evans played the Human Torch in two "Fantastic Four" movies.

12cap111.jpgCaptain America

The history of Captain America in the comics is fascinating. His adventures were first recorded in a series that began in 1941, as Cap entered the war long before America. His famous first issue shows him doing what many Americans wanted to do: punch Hitler in the face.

After he disappeared at the end of World War II, another superhero named "The Spirit of 76" was asked to impersonate him to spare war-weary Americans the loss of their hero. Months later, that hero was killed and another costumed hero, The Patriot, put on the costume.

He retired in the late 1940s and there was no Captain America until 1954 when another man underwent the "Super Soldier" treatment and became the latest Cap. But the treatment did not work on him and he went insane, fighting Communist threats that existed in his own mind.

The government captured him and put him in suspended animation.

Then, in 1964, the body of the real Captain America was found frozen in a block of ice by The Avengers. Despite being frozen, he was kept alive by the chemicals from the "Super Solider" experiment and was revived.

He had a crisis of conscience during the Nixon administration and abandoned his role as the symbol of America and became Nomad, the man without a country. Eventually, he put on the uniform again, deciding that America needed a symbol of freedom.

He and fellow Avenger Iron Man had a severe falling out in 2006 when the government insisted all superheroes unmask and register. Captain America led the group of Avengers that resisted and went underground. Iron Man led the fight to force the heroes to register or be jailed.

The registration was later reversed and Captain America and Iron Man have forged a truce, though their relationship is strained.