Like Father, Not Like Son

"WHO IS STEVE ROGERS?"

That question began a 10-issue arc in Captain America following writer/artist Jack Kirby's departure from the title, set in motion by Cap's realization that the years of his youth before he volunteered for the super-soldier experiment were suddenly years he no longer recalled. Roy Thomas began things by having Cap take himself back to his origin in that experiment. Then, following clues that led him to Newfoundland, Cap discovered a former Nazi enemy who partially restored his memory of the day he lost his partner, Bucky, while battling Zemo--a day he now knows didn't end with the fatal explosion of the drone plane and his plunge into the English Channel.

And now, after dealing with the android copy of himself known as the Ameridroid, Cap resumes the search for his identity. By now we're beginning to wonder if Cap's hearing has been affected as well as his memory, since his readers have probably been screaming "Check your army records, you dope! Your army records!" all this time. It takes seven issues for the light bulb to glow over his head, but Cap finally visits the Pentagon and takes a look at his files. What he finds, though, are more questions to add to the mystery:

But after another three issues pass, this arc at last reaches its end, as Cap makes use of the scientific knowledge of Mason Harding (yes, that Mason Harding) to probe his memories more deeply and find the answers he seeks--under the watchful eye of Nick Fury, who isn't feeling too trustworthy toward the man who invented the "Madbomb."

And so Cap's "full speed ahead" resolve begins the story of Steve Rogers, seen in Marvel history for the first time.

Cap is understandably apprehensive about his past, though we should keep in mind that Cap did have these memories at one time and still went on to become the one and only Captain America--so what we're about to see here isn't likely to be overly traumatic, at least to the degree that he was unable to deal with it or that his childhood affected his adulthood detrimentally. So we can perhaps simply look at this story as the "origin of Steve Rogers." For any other kid growing up in the late 1930s, we might regard these scenes as mundane; but the fact that we're watching the future Captain America gives them a, dare I say it, historical context.

For instance, we might expect the young Steve Rogers to have been a real go-getter, the apple of his father's eye. But we know from Steve's physical build that he might not have had the easiest childhood--and the person who more accurately fits the characteristics of the person we think of as Cap is actually his brother, Mike, who's very different from Steve in both temperament and ambition. Differences evident to a most discriminating father:

Thus, Walter Rogers distances himself from the son he regards as a disappointment--and, in turn, Steve develops a growing bitterness toward his father.

Things only grow worse in the years before World War II. Steve is preparing to attend State U., while Steve's brother, Mike, is attending a military academy. Mike's choice makes the patriotic Walter beyond proud, but only highlights the differences he sees between Mike and Steve:

Unsurprisingly, Steve benefits from the time away from home, immersing himself in the many different voices and diverse people found in a college setting. But in late 1941, his life would change forever--as tragedy strikes home, and his pacifism takes a sharp turn.

Which brings us, of course, to Steve's fateful decision, ironically brought about by the admission policies of the armed forces that Walter Rogers chided Steve for turning away from. And the moment finally comes when Captain America is able to bring all of his memories home:

Yet in a fascinating twist to this story, the effect that the experience has had on Cap has returned Steve Rogers to the world more fully than anyone could have expected. Nor is it likely to improve Harding's credibility with Fury:

For all intents and purposes, Cap's search for his identity has come to an end. (Er, much like Cap himself!) The "origin" of Steve Rogers is really nothing out of the ordinary, except of course for the extraordinary development that occurs in his life as part of "Project: Rebirth"; and his early life is equally unremarkable in a later, updated version of his origin told in 1991, where there are discrepancies. There, he grows up in the lower east side of Manhattan instead of an upper-middle-class home in Maryland; his parents are poor immigrants, Sarah and Joseph, who both died fairly early in Steve's life. Thomas, perhaps for the sake of the arc (and maybe due to the fact that he was only present to drop the first seed of the plot before exiting the book), made it seem as if this identity search was going to yield something far more ominous from his past, which doesn't seem to be the case.

As for how Cap's memories of his childhood vanished in the first place--well, with so many chefs in this kitchen, it seems that no one ever got around to making that clear. We're left to assume that the loss of these memories was due to exposure from Lyle Dekker's nerve gas in that plane explosion over Newfoundland in 1944--the same gas that placed him in suspended animation and caused him to forget the events that took place immediately after Bucky's death. But if that's the case, that would mean that in all the years since Cap's revival, he's never once let his thoughts drift back to his childhood only to realize that those memories weren't there.

At any rate, rest assured that Cap's regression was only temporary, wearing off in a moment of crisis where he embraces his past along with his present:

Uh, Cap--you're talking to a robot, which couldn't care less. But welcome back.

Captain America #225 Script: Steve Gerber Layouts: Sal Buscema Finishers: Mike Esposito and John Tartaglione Letterer: Irv Watanabe