The Captain in the Rye

I'm going through a bit of a super hero phase at the mo.

I recently talked about the lesser films of DC and Marvel.

Checking some out I was amazed to find that old Captain America has seen several movies attempt to tame his Vanadium shield.

Having been originated in 1941 in comic form, the Cap appeared on-screen for the first time in 1944.

Baby boomers may remember that the Cap then had his own cartoon show on TV back in 1966. Remember?

Captain America went live-action in a TV movie made in 1979. It starred US footballer Reb Brown, Lana Wood aka Plenty O'Toole from Diamonds Are Forever and Heather Menzies-Urich, who played Jessica 6 in Logan's Run. Reb Brown also appeared in the seminal surfing flick Big Wednesday.

Captain America II: Death Too Soon followed in the same year with Reb Brown reprising as the star spangled man once again.

The next movie, Captain America, from 1990, had the title role played by the son of J.D.Salinger no less, one Matt Salinger.

Alas the film was not well received and appears to have added zilch to the Cap's back catalogue on screen.

Matt Salinger's Dad, J.D. Salinger, himself created an enduring hero of modern literature, Holden Caulfield, the Manhattan youth expelled from school, who narrates his own story in Catcher in the Rye published in 1951. It would be interesting to see if Catcher has the longevity of the Captain over say the next 100 years. What do you think?

Further on-screen shield-throwing we all know about now as the Marvel Cinematic Universe has unfolded on the big screen and gave the Captain a new lease of life as the big-budget First Avenger and its sequels.

Where next for the Captain do you think? Do the films do the comics justice?