From his days of punching dictators in the face to his time leading The Avengers, Captain America continues to be the Sentinel Of Liberty for Marvel Comics, but how old was America’s ass when it was frozen in ice?
First appearing in Captain America Comics #1 and created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, Captain America has been enthralling comic book fans since the early days of World War II. As fans know, Steve Rogers was chosen to be part of an experiment to create Super Soldiers. He was given a serum and transformed from a scrawny slight-framed student to a superhero with incredible strength, speed, and intelligence. Throughout the 1940s and 50s, Cap battled against the Axis forces across Europe with his sidekick Bucky Barnes and occasionally as part of the Invaders - a Superhero team comprised of a rotating line up of classic Timely Comics-Era Marvel characters like The Human Torch and Namor The Sub-Mariner. Towards the end of the war, Captain America and Bucky Barnes were in pursuit of the villain Baron Zemo when the explosive device they were attempting to disarm went off, hurling Captain America deep into the ocean where he would survive frozen in a block of ice until his discovery by The Avengers in The Avengers #4. After being unthawed, Cap utilizes his battlefield experience to quickly ascend to a leadership position with the team, a role he would return to on and off throughout Marvel Comics history.
The timeline of Steve Rogers' life can be a bit confusing, however, it has been determined that Captain America was 26 years old when he fell into the Atlantic and was frozen. Canonically, Steve Rogers was born on July 4th, 1918 in a Lower East Side Manhattan hospital to his parents Sarah and Joseph Rogers. At the time of his transformation and enlistment in 1941, Rogers would have been around 22 which places him at 26 when he went into the ice in 1945. When he is discovered by The Avengers, the team is quickly able to determine that the Super Soldier serum he was given had helped to preserve Cap’s body while frozen.
In the MCU, Captain America is discovered on ice in 2011 and is promptly revived by S.H.I.E.L.D., throwing the Man Out of Time into the modern world. At this time, Captain America would have technically been 92 years old, but due to the effects of the serum, his appearance was still that of the young man he was in the 1940s. By the time of the events of Avengers: Endgame occur, Captain America would have been physically 39 years old while technically being a 105-year-old man. At the conclusion of the film, when Steve gives his shield to Sam Wilson effectively passing the baton onto the next Captain America, it can be assumed that Steve Rogers is quietly retiring at the ripe age of 114 years old.
Steve Rogers’ story is one of triumph and tragedy, full of astonishing highs and crushing lows. As he learned to adapt to the modern age he was thrown into, Captain America often brings a unique insight to many of the situations he finds himself or The Avengers in. A man of conviction, with an intense determination to do what he feels is right, Captain America is a character that fans have long felt a connection with. His age at the time of being frozen is potentially a determining factor in Captain America’s ability to transcend generations, as his relatively young age makes him accessible to younger readers and fans. Whether it is his age or his heroism, Captain America continues to help find new fans who identify with a kid from Brooklyn trying to do what’s best in the world.