"Creating a patriotic hero was a natural thing to do," Joe Simon told
MARVEL when asked about the creation at Captain America during the height of WWII in 1941.
"And the villain came first. Hitler was the perfect bad guy - better than any we could have invented. Captain America was created to be his ultimate foil. Even then, he wasn’t meant to be a one-trick-pony, with nothing but patriotic stories. Many of his early adventures were mysteries and horror stories, putting him up against mobsters and monsters. We even had zombies before they became as popular as they are today."
"Jack Kirby and I both knew we had a great comic book character, but I don’t think we thought comic books were going to last this long, much less any one hero," he added.
"Back then we had the Nazis coming after us for what we did to their Fuhrer, but the world is an even more dangerous place today, with the weapons out there and the threat of terrorism. So Cap is more important than ever, and the readers need him more than ever. They need a hero they can count on to do the right thing."
And what of upcoming movie adaptation,
Captain America: The First Avenger? Well, sounds like he's just as excited to see it come July 22nd as the rest of us!
"I’ve seen the trailers and the posters, and everything looks great. Stephen Broussard, the co-producer of the movie, has been keeping me up to date, and I really appreciate everything he’s done. It’s a real thrill to see the character looking so good on screen."
"Jack actually came back to the character years later, first with Stan Lee and then on his own, so I think he would have been especially thrilled, and so happy to see that they’re crediting us with what we did in creating the character and producing his origin."
With an all star cast which includes Chris Evans as Captain America, Sebastian Stan as Bucky, Hugo Weaving as Red Skull, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Tommy Lee Jones as Col. Chester Phillips, Stanley Tucci as Abraham Erskine and Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark,
Captain America: The First Avenger will be released in 3D on July 22, later this year!