Steven Rogers (Joint Venture)

Captain America is a World War II-era superhero, and frequent leader of the Avengers. This is the Joint Venture Universe version of the character.

History
Steve Rogers was born in Brooklyn, New York, on July 4, 1920, to Irish Catholic parents Joseph and Sarah Rogers. Frail, stick-thin, and sickly, Steve was not expected to live to see his tenth year. He had a myriad of physical health problems that at the time were considered incurable. Even his younger sister, Sarah Jr, could outperform him in most physical feats, a fact that caused no end of mockery from other boys in school.

However, two of Steve's classmates rose to his defense every time: his best friend James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes and his next-door neighbor, Arnie Roth.

The Great Depression
Despite living a relatively comfortable working-class life, the Rogers family suffered greatly during the depression. Steve's father Joseph, unable to find even a low-wage job, turned to drink, and though he never laid a hand on his wife or son (21st century tabloid rumors to the contrary), his alchoholism eventually killed him when he fell into the Hudson River, leaving Steve's mother Sarah alone to care for her two children.

Steve's sister did her best to help their mother provide for the household and support the sickly Steve. Steve himself even pursued his passion for writing and drawing to make comic strips to sell for a nickel apiece. However, it was just barely enough for them to scrape by, and nowhere near enough when Mrs. Rogers came down with a case of pneumonia.

The death of Mrs. Rogers made one thing crystal clear to young Steve: The world was manifestly unfair, and if no oen protected the small, weak, and helpless, they would be crushed between its gears.

Start of World War II - The Road To Captaincy
In 1939, everything changed for Steve. World War II had begin in Europe and Asia. Horrified by newsreel footage of the atrocities being committed by the Axis Powers, Rogers tried to enlist in the Army, not to kill people, but to protect them from those who would do them harm.

Unfortunately, despite the best of intentions, he was rejected as 4-F -- unfit to serve -- because of his frailty and sickness. Undaunted, he tried again, under a different name, and was rejected again.

Steve's friends Bucky and Arnie tried to console him, to reassure him that he could still serve his country at home. However, their words rang hollow as they themselves were drafted following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America's official involvement in the war. The night before they went to the front, Bucky, Arnie, and Steve had one last night on the town, visiting a World's Fair Expo where genius industrialist Howard Stark was demonstrating "the technology of the future" to rapt audiences. It was there that Steve discovered a love for science that matched his love of art.

After Bucky and Arnie both left for the front, Steve kept applying, again and again. Finally, word of the young man's earnest desire to fight for his country reached the ears of those who could listen, and change Steve's fate forever.

Doctor Abraham Erskine, a contemporary of Albert Einstein's and a refugee from the brutality of Nazism, convinced US Army General Chester Phillips to finally recruit Steve, and offer him the opportunity to take part in a top-secret experiment called Operation Rebirth. Steve eagerly agreed.

"Good Becomes Great, Bad Becomes Worse"
Steve went to boot camp, where he met Peggy Carter, a British secret agent, and liason to the United States who passed intelligence back and forth between the two countries. Though he was shy at first, she offered support and encouragement in a place where he recieved precious little of either, and the two became fast frtiends.

Steve did poorly in boot camp, as everyone expected he would. Physically, he was not up to the challenges posed by basic training. However, where his body failed him, his mind succeeded -- he managed to capture a flag by pulling the pin that held its flagpole upright. More importantly, his strength of heart and courage made an impression -- when a grenade was thrown into the barracks, Steve leapt on it without hesitation and screamed at everyone else to "get back!". It was only after the grenade failed to detonate that Steve realized it had been a test of Phillips and Erskine's, to ensure that he qualified for Operation: Rebirth.

The day after the grenade test, Steve was taken to a secret laboratory in Washington DC, where he was introduced to the concept of the Super-Soldier Serum in full. The serum, Erskine explained, was actually only one part of a great network of procedures and experiments that would transform Steve into "the ultimate expression of himself". That was why he had been put through tests of character as well as tests of physical fortitude -- because while he had failed the latter badly, he'd passed the former with flying colors. Erskine explained that the serum had been tested one time before -- on a Nazi named Johann Schmidt. Schmidt, Erskine explained, had become a monster -- a demonically-featured psychopath called the Red Skull, who swiftly rose to a position of power rivaling the Fuhrer himself. It was that horrific transformation that had caused Erskine's defection, and that was the reason for the character tests. Knowing this, Steve still volunteered for the procedure. If it would help him do his part to keep the world safe, he would endure anything.

Captain America
It is unknown exactly what happened to Steve in that laboratory -- some suggest he was injected with the serum and subjected to exotic forms of radiation, others suggest he simply downed the serum in a single gulp and was then suffused with "Vita-Rays." Some even say there was an arcane component in the procedures he underwent, and that the serum was infused with the DNA of some otherworldly being.

Whatever the details, Steve Rogers walked into that lab the stereotypical "98-pound weakling", and came out with a physicality advanced beyond the capabilities of most mortal men.

The Good Captain
To be disclosed

Last Flight over the Atlantic
To be disclosed

Rebirth
To be disclosed