Editing Captain America (section)

==Cultural influence and legacy==
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 |quote  = "Over the years, Captain America's story has accurately reflected U.S. attitudes, as our country moved from the self-confidence of the early Cold War to the guilt-ridden angst of the 1970s to the revival of national pride that characterized the Reagan 1980s."
 |author = – Jacob Heilbrun, ''[[The Los Angeles Times]]''<ref name="LATEulogy"/>
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Captain America is one of the most popular and widely recognized Marvel Comics characters, and has been described as an icon of [[American popular culture]].{{sfn|Hayton|Albright|2009|p=20}}{{sfn|Weiner|2013|p=101}} He is the most well-known and enduring of the [[List of United States-themed superheroes|United States-themed superheroes]] to emerge from the Second World War{{sfn|Weiner|2013|p=108}}{{sfn|Steranko|1970|p=52}} and inspired a proliferation of patriotic-themed superheroes in American comic books during the 1940s.{{sfn|Weiner|2013|p=108}} This included the [[American Crusader]], the [[Spirit of '76 (Harvey Comics)|Spirit of '76]], [[Yank & Doodle]], [[Captain Flag]], and [[Captain Courageous (comics)|Captain Courageous]], among numerous others.{{sfn|Steranko|1970|p=52}} Though none would achieve Captain America's commercial success, the volume of Captain America imitators was such that three months after the character's debut, Timely published a statement indicating that "there is only one Captain America" and warning that they would take legal action against publishers that infringed on the character.{{sfn|Steranko|1970|p=52}} After being dismissed from Timely, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby would themselves create a new patriotic superhero, the [[Fighting American]], for [[Crestwood Publications|Prize Comics]] in 1954;{{sfn|Harvey|1996|pp=37–38}} the character became the subject of a lawsuit from Marvel in the 1990s after Rob Liefeld attempted to revive the character following his own departure from Marvel.<ref name="LiefeldInterview"/>

When the character was killed in 2007, he was eulogized in numerous mainstream media outlets, including ''[[The New York Times]]''<ref name="NYTEulogy"/> and ''[[The Los Angeles Times]]'',<ref name="LATEulogy"/> with the former describing him as a "national hero".<ref name="NYTEulogy"/> In 2011, Captain America placed sixth on [[IGN]]'s "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time",<ref name="IGN100"/> and second in their 2012 list of "The Top 50 Avengers".<ref name="IGN50"/> ''[[Gizmodo]]'' and ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' respectively ranked Captain America first and second in their 2015 rankings of Avengers characters.<ref name="Gizmodo"/><ref name="EWRank"/> ''[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]'' ranked Captain America as the 21st greatest comic book character of all time.<ref name="EmpireRank"/>