Talk:Captain America

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Bruxton (talk) 13:33, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

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• Comment or view
• Article history

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• ... that Captain America co-creator Joe Simon chose Adolf Hitler as the character's nemesis because he was the "best villain of them all" and "hated by everyone in the free world"? Source: Dutter, Barry. "Simon Says..."
  • ALT1: ... that Captain America co-creator Joe Simon created the superhero in part as a response to the American non-interventionism movement during World War II? Source: Wright, Bradford W. (2001). Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America.
  • ALT2: ... that circulation numbers for early comic books featuring Captain America remained close to a million copies per month, outstripping news magazines such as Time? Source: Daniels, Les (1991). Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics.
  • ALT3: ... that in the 1950s, Captain America was briefly billed as "Captain America, Commie Smasher" in a commercially unsuccessful comic book series that was cancelled after three issues? Source: Wright, Bradford W. (2001). Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America
  • Reviewed: One Worldwide Plaza
  • Comment: Plenty of material to mine for hooks, as one would imagine.

Improved to Good Article status by Morgan695 (talk). Self-nominated at 03:13, 22 August 2023 (UTC). Post-promotion hook changes for this nom will be logged at Template talk:Did you know nominations/Captain America; consider watching this nomination, if it is successful, until the hook appears on the Main Page.

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: Interesting:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: @Morgan695: This article is very well written. I think the primary hook is not a good choice because it's not really about Captain America. Of all the alternative hooks, in my opinion ALT2 sounds the most interesting. FlairTale (talk) 23:51, 23 August 2023 (UTC)

@FlairTale: QPQ has been completed. Morgan695 (talk) 16:44, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

@Morgan695: Updated, and checking Interesting hook for ALT2. FlairTale (talk) 02:14, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

Superpowers

@Courge Marvel: The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe states pretty clearly that Captain America does not have superpowers. In the Captain America entry in the 1985 edition of the Handbook cited in this article, under Known superhuman powers, the Handbook simply states None. In the most recent 2004 edition of the Handbook (volume 4, issue 3), the entry for Captain America under Superhuman Powers reads Strictly speaking, Captain America possesses no superhuman powers; however, his body has been mutated to the pinnacle of human perfection. This seems pretty unambiguous to me. Morgan695 (talk) 01:39, 7 September 2024 (UTC)

@Courge Marvel:, please provide the sources here that you claim support the information you are adding to this article. As it stands right now, the source you are currently citing (the 1983 edition of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe) states unambiguously that that Captain America does not possess superpowers, per my comment above. Morgan695 (talk) 14:53, 19 September 2024 (UTC)

@Morgan695:, I found the source from Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition #2, and according to that handbook, it said that Captain America possesses superpowers and the main source of his superpowers is the Super-Soldier Serum. It said that he does have the source of superhuman powers.

Is there a screenshot of this source somewhere so that we can all see exactly what it does say? BOZ (talk) 22:57, 19 September 2024 (UTC)

The Captain America character sheet in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition #2 can be seen in this video at the 3:20 mark. The headers Superhuman physical powers and Superhuman mental powers in the Powers and Abilities section clearly state None for each. I assume the confusion here is arising from the final subheader in that section, Source of superhuman powers, which gives an explanation of the Super Soldier Serum. Though the header Source of superhuman powers appears to be standard across all character sheets as the section that explains how a given character received/developed the abilities that they possess, the sheet would nevertheless appear to contradict itself.

In the case of a divided or ambiguous source, I would default to the most recent 2004 edition of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe which, per my comment above, states the following under the section Superhuman Powers:

Strictly speaking, Captain America possesses no superhuman powers; however, his body has been mutated to the pinnacle of human perfection. He possesses strength, agility, endurance, speed, and reflexes superior to any Olympic-level athlete, and his bodily functions have been enhanced to the peak of human efficiency. His body eliminates excessive build-up of fatigue-producing poisons in his muscles, granting him phenomenal endurance.

I'd also point out that the contradictory Master Edition similarly uses language around the character being at the pinnacle of human perfection and not specifically referencing superpowers. I am unable to find a legitimately accessible version of the 2004 edition of the Handbook that a third party editor would be able to independently review; I do not wish to contravene any policies around direct links to pirated material, but if one was to type "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe read online" into a search engine, they may be able to find the document in question to confirm this independently. Morgan695 (talk) 23:01, 19 September 2024 (UTC)

I'm inclined to agree with you, that the article should say he has no superhuman powers, but rather he is a peak human. BOZ (talk) 23:05, 19 September 2024 (UTC)

@Courge Marvel:, why are you continuing to change and revert the article while this discussion is ongoing? The behavior you're displaying here is getting dangerously close to edit warring, and doesn't inspire confidence that you intend to actually engage with other editors to build consensus. Morgan695 (talk) 23:45, 19 September 2024 (UTC)

First of all, I gave you the source that said about Captain America does possess superpowers. My behavior is not getting dangerously close to edit warring. It's you who not wanting to admit the source that I gave you. If you want to see it for yourself on look on this website video https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=a5cc152b3b023cc6&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ADLYWIKdFnM8E5C88a6rgwFhclr3ZzcRwA:1726790089705&q=official+handbook+of+the+marvel+universe+master+edition+%232&tbm=vid&source=lnms&fbs=AEQNm0BglSNKPbDQcL4Et01QEIYvJ5VGsHgUL_tsKqYywhWXkknveTpaLEIQiU02u5i1FK5Aui8Lbcs6UtNG0K_ZRX5_Sfaez_nbio7ZevU-01UapIxO69dMWeVTKP_UKwkGJCgdKokBltMkGPI1FN-y8-Tg0DL-nDDfqlPMZbZOcjRwH-BTvg1y78FPInUgmuWgWT-z71LyJ6bhpdCbxuih61-Pqrv05w&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjT7ZevmtCIAxXk38kDHWsLMvsQ0pQJegQIDxAB&biw=1366&bih=599&dpr=1#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:48882ebc,vid:-O5UNljorVY,st:0

And select time stamp for 14:19 Courge Marvel (talk) 23:56, 19 September 2024 (UTC)

Also, look at the section that officially confirmed that he possesses "source of superhuman powers".

Look at the video and select time stamp for 14:19 and see it for yourself. Courge Marvel (talk) 00:02, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Yes, that is the same character sheet I referenced in my comment above, and which you can see under Superhuman physical powers and Superhuman mental powers states None for each. I'm not really sure how to move forward here; in my view the sources in question explicitly state that Captain America possesses no superhuman powers, yet Courge Marvel is clearly not going to be moved from their position. Morgan695 (talk) 00:06, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Have you looked on Source of superhuman powers? Courge Marvel (talk) 00:11, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Yes, I did. I explicitly referenced it in my comment above. Did you not read it? Morgan695 (talk) 00:14, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

Take a look on this source I found. According to Marvel Avengers Ultimate Character Guide #2, it officially stated that he possesses superhuman powers of endurance, which means he does possesses superhuman powers. You can't tell me that he doesn't have superpowers when I showed you that he does.

Take a look on these website

https://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Avengers-Ultimate-Character-Guide/dp/0744043247

Take a look on Captain America's profile from what the official book says

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91BD+y8HtQS._SL1500_.jpg Courge Marvel (talk) 00:19, 20 September 2024 (UTC)