The Religious Affiliation of
Captain America
Steve Rogers

BELOW: After the Chitauri bomb the Ultimates' headquarters, Captain America thinks about how much he hates the Chitauri alien invaders. He also thinks about God and prophecy.

Resentment was so thick in the back of his throat that he could practically spit it out. God, he hated them. Hated them worse than he'd ever hated the Nazis or the Japs. He would have killed them all himself, shot them in the back as they fled. If God Himself came down and gave Steve Rogers the gift of prophecy, and he knew that the Chitauri would leave tomorrow and never come back, he would still have killed them as they fled onto their ships.

Source: The Ultimates: Against All Enemies (2007), pg. 72. Written by Alex Irvine. See also: God; hate; prophecy; Captain America (Steve Rogers); Nazis

BELOW: Captain America thinks of Thor as a "norse God"... maybe:

Thor actually did a double take. Steve thought that as long as he might live, he would never see anything quite so strange as a Norse god doing a double take . . . if, that is, he was going along with the proposition that Thor was a Norse god.

Source: The Ultimates: Against All Enemies (2007), pg. 241. Written by Alex Irvine. See also: gods; Norse/Teutonic paganism; Captain America (Steve Rogers); Thor (Donald Blake)

BELOW: Thor ponders Captain America's belief system:

What would he have told Rogers? That Loki had taken a special interest in him? Rogers believed in flag and country, nothing else. His was a pure belief, not ignorant of nuance but dismissive of it, deeply invested in a black-and-white view of the world. There was an innocence about it that gave Rogers much of his strength, but that innocence was also part of what made him a useful tool for those who operated by deceit. Strength of belief, Thor thought, was admirable, but it was a lever that when used against you always tipped you long before you knew it was being used.

And so, Thor thought. I have come looking for him to call him a naif and tell him that my half brother, another god he doesn't believe in, has a plan for him. Hardly an errand with good prospects of success.

To know, and not be believed. This was the lot of the gods. All the same, Thor was glad he wasn't a mortal. Fate would do what Fate did, to Steve Rogers and to them all.

Source: The Ultimates: Against All Enemies (2007), pg. 45. Written by Alex Irvine. See also: belief; gods; knowledge; fate; disbelief; patriotism; Norse/Teutonic paganism; Captain America (Steve Rogers); Thor (Donald Blake); Loki

BELOW: Thor ponders the fate of gods and the goodness of Captain America:

...At times like these, Thor thought, I would just as soon fly, and to hell with this pretense for mortals and their small fears. He felt the absence of Mjolnir in his hands... Being immortal had its privileges . . . and its drawbacks, Thor thought, remembering the dark and shining malice on the face of his half brother.

Steve Rogers is my favorite, Loki had said. That much Thor had told Fury. What he had not mentioned was Loki had said something else. Rogers I love, Loki had said, because he will squeeze so hard with his fists of order that chaos will inevitably squirt out. And laughed, Loki had, long and loud.

Thor picked up the pace, spurred on by a sense he couldn't shake that something was about to happen, some trick about to be played on a man whose goodness would be the lever that evil would use against him. To be a god was to know things; the joke of fate was that too often, what even the gods knew was not quite enough.

Source: The Ultimates: Against All Enemies (2007), pg. 44-45. Written by Alex Irvine. See also: gods; evil; order; knowledge; fate; Norse/Teutonic paganism; Captain America (Steve Rogers); Thor (Donald Blake); Loki

BELOW: Captain America doesn't believe Thor is a god; he thinks Thor is a crazy Communist ("pinko"):

What Steve couldn't figure out was why Thor was along .He couldn't imagine that General Fury had decided to trust an obviously crazy pinko with something as serious as the details of a new Chitauri incursion. Regardless of what Thor had done with the Chitauri bomb in Arizona, Steve didn't for a minute believe in a thunder god. Either the bomb hadn't done what the Chitauri said it would, or the tech in Thor's hammer had some secret functions that he hadn't told any of them about. Whichever it was, Thor was a loose cannon and a security risk. If it was up to Steve, Thor wouldn't have been let within a mile of the Triskelion.

Source: The Ultimates: Against All Enemies (2007), pg. 112. Written by Alex Irvine. See also: gods; disbelief; Norse/Teutonic paganism; Communist; Captain America (Steve Rogers); Thor (Donald Blake); Chitauri

BELOW: Captain America and Iron Man exchange banter, with Cap calling Stark a "libertine"; Captain America is unimpressed by Tony's penchant for alcohol:

"And where can a guy get a drink around here?" Tony added.

"Can't help you there," the tech said.

"Barbarians," Tony said. "Steve, I'm surrounded by barbarians. Including you."

"Sometimes it's tough being a libertine," Steve said.

"Tony's eyebrows shot up. "A joke from Captain Flag, so close to our final confrontation with the alien menace? A joke including the word libertine? Good Lord. I'm starting to think I'm having an influence on you."

Steve ignored this, not even wanting to contemplate the question of how he might influence Tony, and how any possible channel of influence might run both ways. "Instead of a drink, you ought to have something to eat..."

Source: The Ultimates: Against All Enemies (2007), pg. 291. Written by Alex Irvine. See also: libertine; alcoholism; Hedonist; Captain America (Steve Rogers); Iron Man (Tony Stark)

BELOW: Captain America believes in the American people; he accuses Tony Stark of believing only in his "bank balance":

"...Who are 'the people,' anyway?"

"They're the ones I rode a Nazi rocket for," Steve said, moving even closer to Tony [Stark]. "They're the ones I got shot up with experimental chemicals for. They're the ones I pledge my life to, and if you're about to say that they don't know who I am and don't care what I've done, I'm here to tell you that doesn't matter. I believe in them. You don't believe in a damn thing except your bank balance."

"The people, huh?" Tony said. "Shouldn't you say der Volk?"

Faster than Fury could see, Steve leveled Tony with a pile-driver right hand...

Source: The Ultimates: Against All Enemies (2007), pg. 84. Written by Alex Irvine. See also: belief; greed; patriotism; Captain America (Steve Rogers); Iron Man (Tony Stark); Nazis

BELOW: In a bit of self-effacing reflection, Tony Stark thinks about his own lack of "moral fiber or ethical beliefs":

He pivoted in midair, reaching down. Thor would save himself, and Clint was a soldier . . . but he had to save Steve [Captain America]. Too many people needed Steve, and Tony Stark might have been a vain, alcoholic, dying playboy with no evident moral fiber or ethical beliefs, but he would have given his life in that moment to save Steve Rogers.

Source: The Ultimates: Against All Enemies (2007), pg. 331. Written by Alex Irvine. See also: belief; alcoholism; sacrifice; amoral; ethical; Non-Religious; Captain America (Steve Rogers); Iron Man (Tony Stark)

BELOW: Captain America considers Iron Man an "amoral boozehound":

A guy like that, Steve thought, everything done for him, everyone else bends over backward for him, and what is he? An amoral boozehound with a brain tumor. That's not the kind of person we need running things around here.

Source: The Ultimates: Against All Enemies (2007), pg. 115. Written by Alex Irvine. See also: alcoholism; amoral; Captain America (Steve Rogers); Iron Man (Tony Stark)

BELOW: Captain America faces a moral quandry, asked to to violate his ideals in order to safeguard those same ideals:

Garza looked him in the eye. "Noted. Now can you get Tony's toy to the person I am about to tell you to get it to?"

In other words, Steve thought, are you willing to commit industrial espionage against an American company for the benefit of Americans? Is this what it's come to? Once he'd had an argument with Thor about the point at which it became necessary to contravene your ideals so that other people could believe that those same ideals same existed. In other words, at what point do you grant yourself the privilege of knowing better than other people what's best for them?

Now, I guess, Steve thought. I guess that time is now.

"Yes, sir," he said. "I can"

Source: The Ultimates: Against All Enemies (2007), pg. 55. Written by Alex Irvine. See also: ideals; Captain America (Steve Rogers)

BELOW: Wasp thinks about Captain America's morally conservative views about women's clothing:

Something had been on his mind, distracting him in the middle of sentences. He hadn't even commented on her dress, which she'd chosen specifically to provoke him because he was still such a fuddy-duddy about women's clothing.

Source: The Ultimates: Against All Enemies (2007), pg. 122. Written by Alex Irvine. See also: modesty in apparel; Captain America (Steve Rogers); The Wasp (Janet van Dyne)

BELOW: Thor compares himself to Captain America:

Perhaps I understand Steve Rogers a little better than most, because he is lost in time as well. But he is also a creature of duty and obedience, and I understand only the first of those. In obedience I have not the slightest interest.

Source: The Ultimates: Against All Enemies (2007), pg. 38. Written by Alex Irvine. See also: duty; obedience; Captain America (Steve Rogers); Thor (Donald Blake)

BELOW: Tony Stark (Iron Man) contemplates the dark "secrets" of his fellow Ultimates:

Then again it wasn't like Banner was the only one whose character could be considered . . . murky. They all had secrets... Steve, Captain America, you brought your proto-fascist politics with you out of the iceberg, even though they have thus far stayed hidden behind those blue eyes and that charming naivete.

Source: The Ultimates: Against All Enemies (2007), pg. 7. Written by Alex Irvine. See also: fascism; Captain America (Steve Rogers)

BELOW: Captain America recalls President Roosevelt's famous quote about fear:

He felt like he was in dangerous territory. You're coming close to going off the reservation, son, he told himself.But if what General Fury was telling him was true, America had fallen a long way since Roosevelt had told the country that the only thing it had to fear was fear itself.

Source: The Ultimates: Against All Enemies (2007), pg. 31. Written by Alex Irvine. See also: fear; Captain America (Steve Rogers); Franklin D. Roosevelt