John Steele is a

fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, ...

, a superhuman

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

appearing in

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States, on average 32 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of ''Action Comics'' ...

s published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

Publication history

The character first appeared in ''

Daring Mystery Comics ''Daring Mystery Comics'' is an American comic-book series published by Timely Comics, a predecessor of Marvel Comics, during the 1930-1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Primarily a superhero anthology, it ran eigh ...

'' #1 and was created by

Larry Antonette Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment *Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

(under the pseudonym Dean Carr). The character received a modern revamp in

Ed Brubaker Ed Brubaker (; born November 17, 1966) is an American comic book writer, cartoonist and screenwriter who works primarily in the crime fiction genre. He began his career with the semi-autobiographical series '' Lowlife'' and a number of serials i ...

and

Steve Epting Stephen "Steve" Epting is an American comics artist. He is best known for his work on '' The Avengers'' and '' Captain America'' for Marvel Comics. Early life Epting's influences include Alex Raymond, Stan Drake, Jim Holdaway, Joe Kubert, Joh ...

's '' The Marvels Project'' and has made a reappearance as an antagonist in Brubaker's ''

Secret Avengers ''Secret Avengers'' is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics featuring a fictional black ops superhero team of the same name. The series started with Ed Brubaker on writing duties, depicting a black-ops sect of Marvel's premie ...

'' where, as he's introduced, in the caption it reads "America's real first Super-Soldier" supposedly meaning that Steele was the predecessor of

Captain America Captain America is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character First appearance, first appeared in ''#Golden Age, Captain America Comics'' #1 (cover ...

Fictional character biography

John Steele was an American soldier serving during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

and in the trenches in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Through unrevealed means, he possessed super-human strength and durability. He aided French spy Marie Antoinette in delivering plans to General Joseph Carr. Sometime during the end of World War I, John Steele was captured by the Germans and held in suspended animation for study. Over the years many scientists tried to study his body to discover the source of his abilities. Among the many scientists to do so was

Abraham Erskine Earth Lord Earth Sentry Earth Sentry (John Foster) was created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz, and first appeared in '' A-Next'' #2 (1999) in the MC2 universe. When John and his father Bill were investigating a UFO crash site, they discovered ...

, creator of the Super-Soldier Formula. Steele was freed from captivity by an Allied bombing. Despite having been in stasis for 20 years, Steele went right back to fighting Germans, this time in secret behind enemy lines. He eventually ran into a secret Allied military unit composed of

Nick Fury Colonel Nicholas Joseph "Nick" Fury Sr. is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer/artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee, he first appeared in ''Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos ...

, Red Hargrove, and the Sky Devils. Steele stayed with Fury and the men until they were called back to the States. Steele decided to remain behind for two reasons; first because he didn't want to return home to be a guinea pig, and second because he wanted to track down the

Red Skull The Red Skull is an alias used by several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics and its predecessor Timely Comics. The first version, George Maxon, appeared in ''Captain America Comics'' #1 and #4. The main ...

. He discovered the Red Skull's allegiance with the Japanese and the renegade

Atlantean As an adjective, Atlantean (or Atlantian) means "of or pertaining to Atlas or Atlantis". Atlantean may also refer to: * Atlantean figures, a type of ancient artifacts * ''Atlantean'' (documentary series), a trilogy of TV films discussing the ori ...

U-Man U-Man (Meranno) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Publication history U-Man first appears in ''Invaders'' #3 (Nov. 1975) and was created by Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins. Fictional character bi ...

and how all three parties were planning the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

and an assassination attempt on

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

. Steele continued to battle the Nazis behind enemy lines until he disappeared shortly after the

Invasion of Normandy Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...

. The character later appeared working for the

Shadow Council The comic book stories published by Marvel Comics since the 1940s have featured several fictional teams and organizations and this page lists them. 0–9 198 A A-Force A-Next A.I. Army Because of his revelation that he is now a simulated A ...

in ''

''. Steve Rogers and his Secret Avengers squad capture Steele and Rogers has Beast use a machine to access Steele's memories to find out why he joined the Shadow Council. It is revealed that Steele was captured by the Shadow Council while teaming with Rogers on a mission in 1943. Steele gets his mind back and Rogers offers him a chance to get back at the Council. Max Fury and the

Masters of Evil The Masters of Evil is a supervillain team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first version of the team appeared in '' The Avengers'' #6 (July 1964), with the lineup continually changing over the years. Publication ...

capture John Steele after he attempts to escape

Bagalia The comic book stories published by Marvel Comics since the 1940s have featured several noteworthy concepts besides its fictional characters, such as unique places and artifacts. There follows a list of those features. Places Certain places fe ...

with the Serpent Crown and the Crown of Thorns. John Steele ends up killed by Max Fury.''Secret Avengers'' #29

Powers and abilities

John Steele has superhuman strength, speed, durability and stamina. The extent of these abilities is unknown, but he is strong enough to easily bend steel, fast enough to out-fight

and bulletproof. John possesses a healing factor and is an expert in hand-to-hand combat.

References

External links

International Hero.co.uk John Steele
at International Hero * {{DEFAULTSORT:Steele, John Comics characters introduced in 1940 Fictional American Civil War veterans Fictional World War I veterans Fictional World War II veterans Timely Comics characters Marvel Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds Marvel Comics characters with accelerated healing Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength Marvel Comics military personnel Marvel Comics mutates