Cap's power level. He's repeatedly called the pinnacle of human potential, which is alright. It's preferable, even. Then they go and say he's just above it. Being slightly above human potential makes you superhuman. End of story.
Then there's the fact that by human potential, most writers often mean he's as fast as an olympic runner, as strong as an Olympic weight lifter, etc. Even if he stuck to human attainable levels in those fields, or slightly below them that still makes his superhuman as excellence in athletic field require significantly different body types.
Basically. He's as strong, fast, agile, and tough as a human can possibly be. Any given person can (with good genes and a hell of a lot of training) be as strong as him, as fast as him, as agile as him. What any given person can't be is all of those things at once, which Cap is.
Therefore, he exceeds the limits of what a human can do, therefore he's got super-powers.
Even then, Cap can't exactly fly or lift cars above his head and smash them on bad guys. He may be "super-human", but not to the extent of others like Superman or the Hulk. (Though, the Ultimate Universe's Cap is another story...)
If it's about exceeding the limits of what a human can do in real life, then sure. But if it's about exceeding the limits of what a human can do in the Marvel Universe, then one particular human character throws a wrench in that idea. Say hello to "MVP" the very human character who attained Captain America-level physical abilities through a specific training regimen and diet alone.
So he's superhuman. So what? Why is this even an issue?
I forget who said it, but he described it as thus: You know that adrenaline surge that lets somebody lift a car off of a crying child, or temporarily run faster than an Olympic sprinter for a few seconds? In the case of Steve Rogers, that "surge" is active ALL THE TIME.
Then you get instances where he doesn't age (in some continuities), can hold his breath longer, can recover from deadly injury much faster than normal, and not get drunk.
He's able to survive being frozen for decades without injury, definitely a super-power even if it's a limited use power. But some people hate the suggestion that he's a superhuman because he's supposed to be 'the best human' physically and mentally but given the nature of what a superhuman is he's still a superhuman and so you get the conflict.
Cap's on that hazy, almost arbitrary line that separates "human" and "super-human" in the verse. He could be said to be either the absolute best of the Badass Normal crew, or the bare minimum for the super-powered set. It's actually part of his appeal since it means that he can fit into stories that characters more firmly set in one place or another cannot.
The designation of Captain America as the most experienced hero in the marvel universe...doesn't make any sense. He was active for maybe a couple of years during work war 2, was frozen, and was unfrozen decades later. While said unfreezing happened in the sixties, by Comic-Book Time he was unfrozen what...fifteen years before whenever a given story is taking place? Which would technically given him two more years experience than most other heroes, and that's not taking into account people who aren't as affected by comic book time such as, and I hate myself for using him as an example, Wolverine, or Namor, who've been actively doing this heroing thing since the ealy 1900s.
Namor may not count as an example since he's not what many people would consider "heroic". I'll grant you that it seems a bit ridiculous to call Cap more experienced than Wolverine, who is canonically more than a century old at this point, but remember that for a long time Wolverine had no memory of his past. Can you really call someone "experienced" if they don't remember their experiences? And maybe it's just me but I don't think I've ever seen or heard anyone refer to Cap as "the most experienced hero in the Marvel universe". Still, I can imagine why people would see him that way even if it isn't technically true. After all, he served in World War II, one of the bloodiest wars in human history. How many Marvel heroes active today can say that?
Also adding to that, Wolverine didn't really fight supervillains much he joined the X-Men. For the most part, he flipped between a soldier and a wild man, so it'd give him a very different kind of experience, and thus, Steve is the 'most experienced' at fighting supervillains and saving lives.
Namor and Wolverine may be more experienced, but neither of them has actual leadership experience. Namor is a king, but that is different from leading a team. Wolverine is...well, Wolverine. In sheer combat, both has greater experience than Cap. But Cap's role is more that of a leader and strategist than a straight on fighter. Yeah, he can fight and fight well, but his true value and power is related to leadership. Where he clearly has an edge over other long lived heroes, given his history in the war and later.
Cap's experience comes from the time Korvac kidnapped him and took him to the future. He let Cap go, and gave him a fair chance to formulate a rebellion against Korvac's rulership. When Korvac defeated him, he would send Cap back to the point in time he first arrived to try again, but he would remember everything from his previous attempts. This kept on for over 100 years in Cap's personal timeframe, though he did not age. In addition to his pre- and post-freezing experience, he has an additional full century of trying again and again to oust Korvac from power. So, he's been an active superhero for around 120 years.
Why not try to recreate the formula by using Captain America's blood?
Because that's just not how science works.
Oh it isn't well how does it work and why would people in comic book land care about how science works?
Not the original troper to answer but anyway. Basically IIRC a lot of times people have asked the same thing as the original question did, they usually get an answer to the effect that it quite simply can't and doesn't work to try to make others with the same powers without them having some serious defectives or being completely insane (Omega Red can be seen as a prime example)indeed it is implied or otherwise outright stated in the past that it wasn't the serum that made Captain America, it was Steve Rogers. As such it was his determination and desire to fight for the ideals of freedom that enabled him to stop being either crazy or defective. This can be the answer to the question as people who are getting paid just aren't going to have the same drive for something as they don't genuinely desire it and by forcing criminals in, who knows what the scientists are expecting.
Couldn't the government still find a couple of people like Steve Rogers anyways?
(I'm the troper who answered the long paragraph) No they can't, because Steve Rogers is just known for having the determination to fight on really, that's his whole schtik. Plus the citizens in the Marvel Universe are generally known as idiots. And the last thing is that due to making so many of the aforementioned crazy/defective versions the governments might just have given up. It's like creating one sentinent nucleur weapon, then when you try to create another it either explodes as soon as it activates or tries to kill everything in it's path, you'd just say lets leave it be and explore other things.
That or, ya know, he's just got some really rare gene which is necessary to make the serum work properly.
Steve Rogers is so determined to fight that every cell in his body fights against the laws of physics in order to make the serum work.
It's actually less crazy than everyone is making it out to be. The problem isn't with the Super Soldier Serum itself. Ironically, the government was able to successfully replicate the Super Soldier Serum fairly easily, they just think they've failed. The Super Soldier Serum causes mental instability (as seen with 1950s Cap) and other problems unless it is stabilized with Doctor Erskine's "Vita Rays." Everyone was so focused on the chemical side of the project they missed, essentially, the part necessary to stabilize the serum in the body.
According to the villains of the mini Steve Rogers: Super Soldier it's a combination of factors: you have to choose a subject with a personal story like Steve Rogers', use the exact Erskine formula and stabilize it with the vita rays, and omitting one passage otherwise will result in the subject either dieing (incomplete formula) or go mad (incomplete or defective formula, lack of vita rays, not being like Steve Rogers). We still have to see if they're right, but the same mini had goons who had been supersoldiered getting an heart attack right after being defeated by the original.
In the Ultimate Avengers animated movie, Bruce Banner(who's working on recreating the formula) speculates that part of what made it work with Cap was that the specific serum used on Rogers was, either by coincidence or design, perfectly compatible with Steve's specific body chemistry. Expanding on this hypothesis, he uses a different formula for each of his own test subjects. Granted he doesn't have much in the way of success, but the theory does hold some water.
On top of this, even Steve's not been completely without issue. How many times has he suffered something that caused the serum to 'break down' or become 'unstable' or something that left him Brought Down to Normal, or even dying? Part of the problem is that, even with Steve Rogers, its not a perfect formula. Steve is alive because he has a strong and loyal support network including multiple super geniuses who will do all they can to save him.
What would the Super Soldier formula do to a mutant?
It would probably do pretty much the same thing that it does to everybody who isn't Cap: they'd either die or go crazy.
Has Cap ever fought The Punisher?
Dozens of times, though he recently beat up on Punisher during Civil War upon learning that Punisher murdered some villains supporting the Anti-Registration resistance forces.
It's not really "upon learning" when Frank murdered the villains right in front of Captain America.
Is Cap an actual Captain (US Army rank O-3)?
I believe so, yes.
I can't speak for the comics cannon, but the movie handles this with genius: Steve was first actually made a Captain for propaganda purposes. Then when he actually goes and leads the operation to save the prisoners in the film's second act, he earns the rank and keeps it.
When he served as the Commander of S.H.I.E.L.D., wasn't he a Captain?
A case of Depending on the Writer, he's often depicted as a buck private, or a Corporal in Brubaker stories, but Robert Morales had Cap referred to as Captain Rogers in his run on the title, as does Brian Michael Bendis.
In the US armed forces, personnel who are "missing in action" (which Cap's legal status would have been during his frozen period) still have their cases submitted to promotion boards when they have sufficient time-in-grade to be eligible. In practice, promotion for personnel who are MIA or POW is essentially automatic. So if real-world US Army regs are actually applied to his case then he has to be a minimum of a colonel (the rank at which time-in-grade stops being a factor for promotion eligibility), and might possibly be anything up to a major general (the last rank to which promotion is possible by US army promotion boards; 3 stars and up requires the consent of Congress). As an aside, they'd also owe him 60+ years of back pay and allowances.
In addition, if we're getting into US army regs there is also that Cap is apparently still on active duty, despite being well past mandatory retirement age. There is only one category of people for whom that regulation is waived; flag officers. Which would strongly imply he's at minimum a brigadier general.
Him being 'Captain' America is likely The Artifact, both in and out of universe he was highly successful and publicized during WWII as a 'Captain' so that when they finally defrosted him and cleared up his MIA status he was promoted but the Army could have bent the rules so he still keeps the title of 'Captain' because that's what he was famous as. The only people he's ever shown regularly taking orders from is Nick Fury (head of SHIELD and often shown as Cap's direct superior) or the President (Commander-in-Chief and automatically above Cap no matter what) basically making him a rank unto himself.
What, exactly, are the properties of Cap's shield? If it absorbs all kinetic energy, then how can anyone pick it up? Wouldn't the force put into lifting it just be absorbed? If it only absorbs the energy of high-speed impacts, then how can it ricochet?
If the shield absorbs energy, then putting some non-energy-absorbing metal framing on the rims should allow it to ricochet without disrupting those unique energy dampening qualities.
It doesn't absorb all kinetic energy, obviously, but rather, absorbs enough so that it wouldn't be effected negatively by it; when something hits it, it absorbs any potential damage from the impact with no worry, but can still be moved and knocked back. Similarly, when its thrown at something, it doesn't lose momentum because it keeps the energy, but since it can't move forward because of what it hit, it ricochets in order to channel this momentum. Physics are my weakest science, but I think that would adequetly handwave it.
Has Cap and Magneto ever had an heart-to-heart regarding WWII? Cause I kind of think they should have one.
Cap has been show time and time again to be one of the greatest hand-to-hand combatants in the Marvel Universe. The problem is that they never really show you where he learned all that. He just takes the formula then, boom, he can suddenly go one-on-one with Batman, who spent 20 years training around the world.
He had all of WWII and the modern years to learn martial arts. It's not like martial arts is a new thing. Even Western martial arts (like boxing and wrestling), often shown in media to be inferior, can make a man extremely deadly. And to be fair, Captain America is physically stronger and faster than Batman. Batman is the best you can 'realistically' make a human male, but Cap is overall better because he is powered up through the Serum. Cap is shown to be the fastest sprinter, the strongest fighter, the best shot, and whatnot all in one, which Batman couldn't possibly achieve because they involve training different muscles for different specialties.
Actually, they did a montage of his training in the issue that showed his creation; the government brought in all the best experts available to teach him hand to hand combat (specifically boxing and judo), strategy, tactics,etc.
How is Cap still alive? He has peak human abilities, a bouncing, indestructible shield, and is one of the best martial artists in the universe, but that doesn't explain how he can take down a dozen armed soldiers. Even Batman needs stealth, psychological tactics, and cleverly placed gadgets but Cap can do it without breaking a sweat. The man isn't bulletproof.
That's why he has the shield and is an expert at using it.
He is also wearing body armour that, we can assume, is far greater than anything a normal man could comfortably wear. He's fast and agile enough to dodge bullets regardless of that so he's just very difficult to hit in a fight, and he can recover from injuries much quicker so even if he takes a few bullets he can survive and recover from the damage. Meanwhile, Cap is also a highly trained tactician and strategist, and he's shown using stealth when he's needed to himself. And, while his appearance doesn't strike the same reaction from Batman, it is still highly recognisable so people know who he is when they see it, and that in itself causes its own psychological reaction that can adequately distract people (if you think you're a patriot, seeing him is awe-inspiring, and if you're a fascist who know how he feels about them, he's probably scarier than Batman).
If Cap really has been working for Hydra all along how could he lift Thor's hammer?
It is a new story arc, we don't know how it is going to play out yet. Until we've seen how follow up issues develop it, it is too soon to say.
It's been revealed that Cap being 'Hydra all along' was a result of Kobik changing Cap's history at the prompting of the Red Skuil.
Why did removing the Super Soldier serum's effects cause Steve to quickly age into a 90 year old man? The serum had nothing to do with him not aging during his "hibernation"; him getting frozen in ice and put in a suspended animation state was the cause. Further, previous stories have specifically stated this wouldn't work, because his body had been mutated at the cellular level and no longer required the serum. There's also the fact that he already had the serum and its effects removed from his body in the past, and no, it didn't cause him to age all of a sudden.
Prior to writing that story, Rick Remender had Steve get lost in another dimension where he spent several decades more-or-less raising a child and fighting Arnim Zola. He appeared to not age during this time outside of growing a beard and hair, but it's likely that draining the formula from him caused these years to catch up to him. Alternatively, 'aging' is ultimately just the process of accumulative cell damage as the body's ability to repair itself weakens, so the process of removing the Super Soldier formula and its effects from his body weakened and damaged his cells, causing him to appear old and somewhat frail.
The whole concept of Captain America: let's fight the Nazis, and everything they stand for, by taking a blonde-haired, blue-eyed guy and making him into a supersoldier! Wouldn't it be more appropriate to choose a Jewish soldier for the program?
According to most origin stories, Steve Rogers was one of the many test subjects - he just turned out to be the only one that survived. So in-verse, it was probably just chance that the Anti Nazi hero looked like the Aryan ideal.
Perhaps the Jewish creators of Captain America realized the unfortunate aspect of a "revenge" subtext of that. They probably made it a blonde-haired blue-eyed guy because they wanted to say "Hey, your 'master race' isn't even on board with the program."
That would likely be even more awesome considering most of the top level Nazis were far from matching the 'master race' look. Getting a blond, blue eyed badass who straight up admits he is nothing special to deal with the bigots...
At the time Captain America was made, I don't think it was widely known just how far the Holocaust had gone. They knew Hitler was antisemitic, yes, but not that they were being rounded up and exterminated—and at that point in history, "antisemitic" really wasn't something that was unpopular, even in the US. "Blond, blue-eyed supermen" was the physical ideal for the US at the time too. But all the same, the irony was probably on purpose in a, "I've got your master race right here," sort of way.
Red Skull
Given he often has no lips, how does he even say his arch nemesis' name?
Is that a mask or was his skin removed and skull dyed?
Originally, it was a mask, but after the Skull originally died of old age, he moved to a clone body of Steve Rogers, which was disfigured by his Red Dust poison which caused his skin to shrivel up and turn red. He has skin, strictly speaking, it's just dried up and withered on his skull like a mummy.
About the Red Skull: why Red? Here in Europe the colour red is associated with Socialism and Communism (and, in Italy, with Garibaldi's volunteers, who wore Red Shirts but kicked everyone else's asses). And to make it worse, he wears a black uniform: black and red are the colours of Anarchism. You'd expect Hitler and his protege to know all this...
Because his skull is red. Not exactly something he has control over.
That's the problem: in the comics it was originally just an ugly mask given to him by Hitler himself.
You want to know why a comic book written in America doesn't conform to color interpretations in Europe. Gee, I can't imagine why.
Plus, Captain America's characters were largely established during WWII—well before "red communism" really became a thing, as I understand it.
But more basically? Red is the color of blood and black is the color of death. Simple as that.
So it's just carelessness... Johann Schmidt is German, Hitler is Austrian, they would have known what those colours meant.
Actually, nevermind what I just said. Have a quick look at the Nazi flag. Yup, no way would Hitler ever want to use the colors red and black.
Got it: like Cap uses the colors of the US flag, Red Skull uses the colors of the Nazi one.
If the Red Skull is so evil and such a Bad Boss, how does he keep getting henchmen and money? Wouldn't his jerkass habits scare away any potential henchmen if they didn't have a problem with how evil he is?
It would be a similar explanation people use for The Joker - no one in their right mind would choose to work for him, so it's limited to those not with all their screws in place. A lot of his henchmen are fanatics, either to him or Skull's Facist outlook. Other than that...street cred? ie. "Hey, I once worked for Red Skull..."
In one of the Chaos Engine novels, and in the comics, it is explained that Red Skull recruits heavily from young white supremacist groups, skin-heads and the like. Being a former top Nazi himself, Red Skull would find it easy to manipulate such people into becoming his minions. "You are the Master Race, and it is your destiny to rule the world with me!" and the like. He probably pays them well too. In the case of one henchmen in the Chaos engine novel, he becomes horrified at what the Red Skull wants to do the world.
Back when Red Skull was running around in a clone body of Steve Rogers and before his face got dusted, how did everybody he ever interacted with fail to notice that "mr. Smith" looked a hell of a lot like Captain America??
(1) Not many people know exactly what Captain America looks like under the mask other than he's white and blond, (2) Mr. Smith had Red Skull's perpetual Slasher Smile, something that would instantly distinguish him from the actual Steve Rodgers, and (3) William Burnside, the fourth Captain America, got plastic surgery to look (and sound) exactly like Steve Rodgers in the 1950s so it's not unlikely that anyone would just assume the Mr. Smith is a Steve Rodger's impersonator, and not the actual article.
Yup, no way would Hitler ever want to use the colors red and black.