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The Jewishness of Captain America
Today, March 10, 2021 is the 80th anniversary of the first appearance of one of America’s most beloved comic book characters: Captain America.
Most non-comics fans know the character from Chris Evans’ amazing portrayal in the MCU. But that also means that they don’t know how the character was created, why and, most importantly, who by.
The Creation of Captain America
World War II is raging across the Atlantic. Rumors of the German treatment of Jews are widespread.
It’s 1940, and comic book writer Joe Simon is drawing a sketch of a new character, “Super American.” Deciding that “Super” was too trite, he rapidly changed the character’s name to Captain America and, along with his partner Jack Kirby, he pitched it to Timely Comics.
The publisher said yes, and the rest is history. Captain America Comics #1 was cover dated March 10 (but actually went on sale in December 1940).
And the cover of that comic shows Steve Rogers, Captain America, punching Hitler.
Captain America was literally an anti-fascist symbol from the moment he hit the shelves. He punched Hitler an issue before he got his iconic shield (the first shield looked too much like somebody else’s character’s symbol, so they were asked to change it).