Didja Know... Captain America Almost Ran for President

Didja Know digs into the fun facts, strange stories, and divine details that helped build the hallowed halls of the House of Ideas!

By this time in the hallowed history of ol’ Marvel you gotta know that the life of Captain America creates its own chaos—right? Just take the all-new CAPTAIN AMERICA #17…we mean, our hero’s on the lam from the law!

Well, like we said, such is the life, and Cap’s a big boy with plenty of experience in chasing down crazy. Which reminds us of some of our very favorite tasking tales of the shining Sentinel of Liberty’s most monstrous moments…so lower your shields, True Believers, and we’ll begin!

Didja Know… one of Cap’s greatest enemies was the President of the United States?

It all began with a frantic frame-up, one that pigeon-holed Captain America not only as a murderer, but also as a traitor to his country! The arranged death of the Tumbler in CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) #169 set our hero on a run across this great big land of ours, and into the arms of such scintillating superstars as the X-Men and the high-flying Falcon—and boy did he need their help!

It all came to a boisterous boiling point in CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) #174 as Cap and Falc infiltrated the so-called Secret Empire in their larcenous lair to uncover a plot so positively pandemonius it nearly made the ish too hot to handle. It revolved around the kidnapping of a clutch of merry mutants, but it didn’t end there, oh no; it really wrapped up on the lawn of the most famous domicile in the U.S.—the White House.

See, Cap had tracked down the leader of the Secret Empire, a masked marauder known as Number One, and chased him right up into the White House in CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) #175. Once cornered, the creepy cretin took his own life rather than be captured, and the star-spangled hero was left only with the knowledge of the criminal’s true identity…that of the man who held the highest office in the land.

Didja Know… Cap once became a completely new super hero?

The events of CAPTAIN AMERICA #175 sent Steve Rogers into a downward spiral of confusion and questions that ultimately resulted in his dispensing of his heroic guise and role. Alas, crime didn’t stop just because Captain America was no more, nosiree! In fact, it might’ve even increased, setting Steve’s mind to spin some new cloth and continue his costumed career.

Didja know Steve Rogers is also an artist? In CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) #180 he designed new duds for himself, and whipped up a pulse-pounding persona to accompany ‘em: Nomad. The name means “man without a country,” see, and that fit the former Cap perfectly for how he felt at that tumultuous time. Soon he was running across rooftops like always, but with the twist of a new identity and a new lease on life. It was good for a day or three, but as these things transpire, it didn’t last. See, the new Captain America got himself killed and Steve took all the guilt for it on his own shapely shoulders.

Wait, new Cap? Yeah, a young dude name Roscoe wore the outfit and hefted the shield as of CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) #181, but just two issues later he ended up dead and Steve knew there and then his destiny designated him as the one and only Cap, and he lifted up the shield once more. As for Nomad, that mantle would fall upon Jack Monroe, a former Bucky, in CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) #282, but that’s a nuther story, Sam.

Didja Know… Cap almost ran for president?

Speaking of the office of the prez, there was that time Steve considered another crazy career—in politics! Yep, strange but true, Marvelites, and CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) #250 is the arena in which the idea took root and bloomed into a bountiful blossom of…well, hmm, a close brush with a frantic four years for our boy.

Cap saved a representative from something called the New Populist Party and before you could shout “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too!” he was being invited to be their candidate for president. Cap mulled it over, incredibly enough, but as he was burning brain cells over it the Donkey and Elephant both threw caution to the wind and blew some hot air in Steve’s smiling face… In short, they both wanted him to be their candidates!

Such attention would turn the handsome head of any normal man, but Captain America took it in stride, gritted his teeth, and politely declined all calls for him to box up the ballot. Seems he saw a significant stretch between the American Dream he upheld and the stark realities of Washington D.C. And good for him—can you imagine if he’d won? The Marvel mind boggles stunning stupefaction!

Peruse these eye-poppin' publications with Marvel Unlimited right now! Then visit your local comic shop to read CAPTAIN AMERICA #17 tomorrow, December 11!