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Every Marvel Release in 1944

Marvel released one title in 1944: Captain America (Serial), about 3h 45m of viewing. Here’s where it fits.

Every release this year came from outside the MCU: Captain America (Serial).

Marvel in 1944

Marvel's screen history begins before the company was even called Marvel. In 1944, while the publisher still operated as Timely Comics, Republic Pictures released a 15-chapter Captain America serial starring Dick Purcell. It is the first theatrical release connected to a Marvel character and the first live-action take on one.

Anyone expecting Steve Rogers will be surprised. The serial makes Cap a district attorney named Grant Gardner, and the famous shield never shows up; he carries a standard gun instead. It was also the last superhero serial Republic ever made, and it went back into theaters in 1953 as Return of Captain America. No Marvel character would reach American theaters again until Howard the Duck in 1986, which leaves this serial standing alone at the start of a history that now runs through more than thirty MCU films.

For anyone working through Marvel's screen history in order, this is the natural first stop, though it's best taken a chapter or two at a time, the way audiences saw it on Saturday afternoons. Each chapter is short and ends on a cliffhanger. The MCU paid its respects in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), where Steve's USO tour comes with a Captain America movie serial of his own. Nothing else from Marvel reached the screen for more than two decades, until The Marvel Super Heroes arrived on TV in 1966.

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