It’s been roughly one month since Captain America: Brave New World debuted in theatres following a year of post-production “tinkering.” This is the fourth Marvel Cinematic Universe feature to spotlight Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s patriotic superhero, and the first since Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) passed his shield on to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. The film, however, opened to less-than-impressive reviews and to date has yet to make back its production costs.
The purpose of this article is not to go into a deep dive on why Brave New World seems to not be connecting with audiences, and what this might mean for the character’s immediate future. Indeed, if you look at the Sentinel of Liberty’s 80-year history of live-action movie and TV iterations, you’ll find that the first three MCU efforts were a rare high note. After all, who can forget the rubber-eared facemask worn by Matt Salinger as he fought an Italian (!) Red Skull in Cannon Films’ 1990 Captain America? Before that, there were two 1979 made-for-TV films starring Reb Brown as Steve Rogers, Jr. The son of the original Cap, Brown zipped around the countryside in his van and custom motorcycle battling criminal masterminds and flinging his clear Plexiglass shield.
Even earlier than these less-than-star-spangled efforts, however, was what should be considered the very first “Marvel Comics movie” (sorry, Howard the Duck). In fact, it even predates the phrase “Marvel Comics,” as the publisher back then was known as Timely Comics. Our subject today is the 1944 Republic Pictures serial Captain America.
Now, this may have been Old Winghead’s big-screen debut, but any resemblance to his comic book incarnation was purely coincidental. Instead of scrawny Army reject-turned-super soldier Steve Rogers, Captain America’s secret identity here is the non-powered, crusading district attorney Grant Gardner (Dick Purcell). This Cap’s uniform was indeed sans the trademark “ear wings” on the cowl, along with other minor changes. And what’s more, he didn’t even have a shield, but instead carried a gun that he didn’t hesitate to train on the bad guys (Gardner obviously was a strong Second Amendment proponent). In a final change–one that the movie Cap probably considered a plus–in lieu of teen sidekick “Bucky” Barnes, Gardner had a pretty secretary/assistant named Gail Richards (Lorna Gray) who knew his dual persona.
Gardner and his gal Friday must track down the mysterious Scarab, a villain who is eliminating the members of an archaeological expedition so he can get his hands on a map indicating where an ancient Mayan treasure was hidden. Along with a deadly poison dubbed “The Purple Death,” the Scarab’s other weapons of choice include a powerful new invention, a “thermodynamic vibrator” (insert your own joke here). I don’t want to give too much away as to the bad guy’s identity, but those familiar with the genre and 1940s movie villains won’t have too much trouble deducing who’s the Scarab from the opening credits.
Republic’s Captain America is a fairly well-done chapterplay, packed with plenty of the cliffhanger action that the company was known for (it was, in fact, the highest budgeted Republic serial at the time). Youngsters going to see this Cap at their local Saturday matinee, however, must have been a little disappointed that the hero up on the screen didn’t have a shield with which to knock out German and Japanese soldiers (was Republic afraid the war was going to end first?).
As to the discrepancies between the comic-book Cap and Purcell’s gun-toting D.A., genre buffs have speculated that the script was originally intended to utilize Republic’s own Copperhead, hero of 1940’s Mysterious Doctor Satan. Another theory is that–since the studio had worked with Fawcett Comics on 1941’s Adventures of Captain Marvel and the following year’s Spy Smasher—the serial was going to feature the publisher’s non-powered hero Mr. Scarlet, who in civilian life happened to be a (you guessed it!) crusading D.A.
On a sad side note, veteran actor Purcell died of a heart attack just two months after the serial’s debut, at the age of 35.