Making MHR Characters ANOHotMU:U #2: Captain America

America. Not "'Murica." America

Oof, this should be an easy one, right? Okay, enough with the sarcasm - Cap.

Oof.

So, he's kind of a big deal, this guy, right? And it's kind of funny that he is, considering that he showed up in comics for a few years, only to disappear. He was the biggest name in the Marvel vein of patriotic comics but, really, he wasn't that big of a deal.

Now? Three movies of his very own, plus two Avengers movies, his own monthly title, plus guest spots, well, just about everywhere. No, we aren't going to talk about the, "Hail, Hydra," thing. That actually sounds like it's turning out to be an interesting plotline where the actual cause of Cap turning Team Hydra was intentionally obvious because the point wasn't to make that a mystery, but to deal with the fallout.

We also aren't going to talk about Sam Wilson (formerly The Falcon) taking up the mantle because, frankly, I've only read one comic with him as Cap and it was pretty darned good.

Do I need to detail Cap's origin story? I bet I don't, but here goes. Steve Rogers started out as a good kid. Skinny, poor, hungry and desperate to get out of Brooklyn and fight for his country, but a good kid. Along comes a secret government program that, with a combination of drugs and radiation, turns him into a super-soldier. Years later, we'd find out that he was pretty much the only guy the program worked on. At various points, it's been that some of them didn't get the "Vita-Rays" or got an imperfect version of the serum, but it's often implied and is occasional absolute canon that the treatments "took" with Steve because he's just that kind of guy.

Nope, not being metaphorical. That's actual Cap, and that's
actually Hitler he's punching. Like a boss.

He fights his way through World War Two, punching Hitler along the way, and running with some pretty nifty heroes, some of whom I'll get the chance to visit late in this book. He also picks up some new enemies. A lot of them . . . have not stood up well to the test of time. A few, like Master Man, were introduced retroactively and proved to be pretty cool, but there's basically two major ones: Red Skull and Baron Zemo.

While deactivating a rocket in mid-flight, Cap ends up taking a dive into the Arctic Ocean, only to be found and thaws out decades later, just in time to join the nascent Avengers.

I'm pretty sure jaws don't look like that.
Pretty sure.

He's gone through a lot of phases, has Cap, and his power level has increased and waned. He's been in the hands of some of Marvel's best writers and artists, and has . . . not. There are definite issues with his rogue's gallery, in terms of the poor representation of minorities*, and some of the plotlines have definitely been more deftly handled than others, but at the end of the day he's an extremely recognizable and enviable character, and justifiably has served as the iconic Marvel character in the past, and no doubt will in the future.

And it's because of this that I'm statting him up as MCU Cap. I love comic book Cap but, dear goodness, is there a lot going on in his history that I'm just not getting into. I did this write-up and compared it to the official one in the Marvel Heroic handbook and found that while I'd put his Strength and Durability higher than in their write-up, we were otherwise much on the same page, and I think it's pretty clear that movie Cap is quite a bit stronger than his comic book counterpart.

* Yes, he picked up Falcon pretty soon on, but fairly shortly after it was established that Falcon was actually a recovering street criminal because of course he was.

Captain America
Solo       1d6
Buddy    1d8
Team      1d10

Distinctions
Battlefield Savvy
The Good (Super)Soldier
Leads From The Front

Super-Soldier Serum
Enhanced Speed          1d8
Enhanced Stamina        1d8
Superhuman Durability 1d10
Superhuman Strength   1d10
SFX: Immunity - Spend 1 PP to ignore stress, trauma or complications from poison, disease and aging.
SFX: "I Could This All Day" - Before you make an action inclusing a Super-Soldier power, you may move your physical stress die to the doom pool and step up the Super Soldier Serum power by +1 for this turn.
SFX: Lean In - Step up or double a Super Soldier Serum power against a single target. Remove the highest rolling die and add 3 dice for your total.
Limit: Loyalty - Take 1 PP and increase stress by +1 when inflicted by an ally or former ally.

The Shield
Weapon                1d8
Godlike Durability 1d12
SFX: Area Attack - Add 1d6 and keep an additional effect die for each target.
Limit: Gear - Shut down The Shield and gain 1 PP. Take an action vs. the doom pool to recover.

Acrobatics Expert   1d8
Combat Master      1d10
Cover Expert         1d8
Menace Expert      1d8
Psych Expert         1d8
Vehicle Expert       1d8