To many, Steve Rogers (aka Captain America) is one of the world's greatest living heroes. He is a righteous and brave man who always wants to see the good in people, and has always devoted himself to the protection of the weak and the defense of freedom and justice.
In spite of his virtues, however, "Cap" is plagued by his status as a man out of time. Remembering his days as a soldier in World War II, he's worried that his idealism might be considered outdated in the modern world. Furthermore, seeing how idealized his legacy has become throughout the years, he sometimes believes that it might be impossible to fulfill the image the world has of him. Regardless, he tries his best to live up to those expectations, because even if he can't, the attempt will be symbol enough.
Personality
Steve Rogers is an optimistic man of action and conviction, but also a truly even-handed man of compassion and honor. He's always ready to lead and rarely willing to back down unless doing so is the only means of saving a life, and Steve is the kind of man who wants to save every life. He's set a high--almost impossible--standard of integrity and righteousness for himself, and while he encourages others to do their best to reach that potential, he is respectful of their differences of strength, mindful of their differences in cause, and sympathetic to their various flaws and weakness. He is, at his core, a good man, virtuous and true, which can at times make him seem overserious, burdened, and quietly melancholic as he selflessly sacrifices of himself so that there may be liberty and justice for all.
Background
A long time ago, Steve Rogers was an orphan. It was the 1930s, and the stirrings of World War II had already begun to make waves across Europe and the far East. An art student at the time, Steve finally decided to put away his pencil in order to enlist in the early 1940s. Unable to pass the physical requirements of enlistment, he instead volunteered to be a subject in a special project intended to enhance US soldiers to the height of physical perfection. The operation was a success, but the primary scientist on the project was assassinated shortly thereafter, rendering Steve a unique, but important asset in the war effort.
For several years, Steve-now-Captain-America served as both a counter-intelligence agent as well as a symbolic US war hero to counter Nazi Germany's own nationalistic propaganda. Across his many campaigns, Captain America recruited and befriended many allies who assisted him in pushing back the Axis forces until the twilight days of the war in early 1945. After a series of dramatic events that ultimately spiralled out of his control, Captain America plummeted from an exploding plane into the freezing waters of the north Atlantic, where he entered a kind of suspended animation and eventually froze in a chunk of ice. The Allied forces mourned and presumed him dead.
In the near-present, and scores of years later, Captain America's body was rediscovered, and he was revived. Re-integration into modern society took some time, as once-again-Steve-Rogers had to come to terms with all that he had lost, and how everything had changed. While still an important and revered American icon, the persona of Captain America meant something different in the modern era than the time of the Great Generation, and Steve is still coming to terms with what, exactly, that means, and how he can best continue to do now what he used to do then. To that end, he joined with the Avengers to find purpose in once again being a symbol of hope.
SKILLS
ART - Competent: Steve is a talented sketch artist and illustrator even if he hasn't made any great art by modern critical standards.
ATHLETICS - Expert: On a level above even olympic gymnasts, Steve is a master acrobat and athlete, capable of the most impressive of human bodily feats.
COMBAT - Expert: Steve is lauded as a master combatant above most others, which includes everything from martial arts to marksmanship to shield fighting.
DRIVING - Competent: Steve can drive most any vehicle from cars to jets to helicopters to boats and so on. He's not a trick-driver, but he can lean on his enhanced abilities when necessary to perform those sorts of vehicular feats.
MILITARY OPERATIVE - Expert: Steve is especially well-versed in all forms of military engagement and operations, which includes such things as leadership, espionage and counter-intelligence, cryptography, cartography, interrogation, demolitions, military electronics and communications, survival, and so on.
MULTILINGUAL - Expert: Steve knows a variety of languages not limited to Russian, German, Spanish, and Japanese.
TACTICS - Expert: Steve is a master tactician and strategist. He is able to formulate complex battle strategies and his brilliant tactical sense allows him to alter any strategy to fit the changing need of the situation.
WILLPOWER - Expert: An exceptionally strong-willed and focused person, Steve can overcome most forms of temptation and resist the effects of extreme pain, drugs, and toxins to a great extent. He is also capable of resisting nearly all forms of mind control; only the strongest willed individuals have a chance of enslaving him.
POWERS
AGILITY - Enhanced: Peak human agility, dexterity, balance, flexibility, reflexes, and speed. Steve's been known to dodge bullets and run minute miles.
DURABILITY - Enhanced: Peak human endurance and toughness such that falling over several thousand feet results in no damage, metal bats break when used against him, etc.
HEALING - Enhanced: Peak human healing ability so that most wounds heal in a factor of hours to days rather than weeks to months or longer. Also a powerful metabolism that provides effective immunity to fatigue and most toxins, an efficient immune system that protects against most diseases, infections, and disorders, and suspended aging.
MENTAL ACUITY - Enhanced: Peak human clarity of mind that manifests in the form of lightning-fast wits, processing, and calculatory speed and capacity, enhanced reasoning, and perfect memory.
SENSES - Enhanced: Peak human hearing, sight, and so on. Steve claims he can see faster than bullets move.
STRENGTH - Enhanced: Peak human strength, on the order of snapping handcuffs and chains with ease, easily kicking out steel doors, and leaping over ten feet in the air.
ADVANTAGES
ARMOR Steve's uniform is fire- and force-resistant as well as bulletproof, covering him in a lightweight, protective shell. It comes equipped with a wireless communicator and military utility belt.
SHIELD Steve's unique and iconic vibranium alloy shield that is both aerodynamic and nearly indestructible.
VETERAN Steve has a long and storied history with the US military such that he enjoys great national fame and the benefits of being one of the most revered of military veterans. Not only has this earned him a lot of respect and soft capital he can cash in for favors, but the US government provides him with essentially everything he needs to live comfortably.
WORTHINESS Steve is possessed of a moral directive and clarity that magical and supernatural powers alike clearly recognize as indescribably benevolent and "good."
WEAKNESSES
FOREVER LOYAL Really the only time Steve is willing to set aside his general righteousness is for a more specific kind of righteousness in the form of his individual loyalties to friends or ideals. While not all of his loyalties are necessarily equal (the people of America-at-large, in a broad sense, usually trump the others), he will go above and beyond the requirements of duty for all of them.
MAN OUT OF TIME While Steve has largely caught up to modern technology, he's in his heart an idealistic man of an earlier America, which catches up to him from time to time when he just fails to understand modern mores or pop culture, and provides him with a deep sense of melancholy at all that he's lost. More importantly, however, it means he's a man of many lost connections, so what connections remain are incredibly meaningful to him.
SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE In some way or another, Steve rarely lives for himself, and puts himself out there as a public servant. In the past, he did this through the army. In the present, he does this through whatever government-sponsored group of heroes is most appropriate at the time. While many might see this as a strength, it can leave Steve feeling somewhat separated from all those things he truly wants to protect, and lonely.
THE BEST OF MEN In many ways, Steve has created a mythic figure in Captain America that's supposed to live up to a number of exacting expectations he's not sure even he can manage sometimes. But he does try. This ultimately makes him predictable insomuch that he will always err on the side of individual liberty, freedom, and protection of the weak, even if it means not really living his own life in order to protect others, even if it means letting the bad guy go to save lives, even if it means his own death. He is, to a fault, the kindest, most selfless, and bravest of men.
