The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (in March 1941) from Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. An intentionally patriotic creation who was often depicted fighting the Axis powers of World War II, Captain America was Timely Comics' most popular character during the wartime period. He was then formally re-introduced in The Avengers #4 (in March 1964), which explained that in the final days of World War II, he had fallen from an experimental drone plane into the North Atlantic ocean and spent decades frozen in a block of ice in a state of suspended animation. He quickly became leader of that super-hero team. Following the success of other Marvel Comics characters introduced during the 1960s, Captain America was recast as a hero « haunted by past memories and trying to adapt to 1960s society ».

After then guest-starring in the feature « Iron Man » in Tales of Suspense #58 (in October 1964), Captain America gained his own solo feature in that « split book », beginning the following issue. Jack Kirby, Captain America's co-creator, was illustrating his hero's solo adventures again for the first time since 1941. He drew all but 2 of the stories in Tales of Suspense, which became « Captain America » with issue #100 (in April 1968) ; Gil Kane and John Romita Sr., each filled in once. The new title Captain America continued to feature artwork by Jack Kirby, as well as a short run by Jim Steranko, and work by many of the industry's top artists and writers. It was called « Captain America and the Falcon » from issues #134-222.