Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

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Kitsune
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Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

Post by Kitsune »

In a PBEM, I have a character. The character is an archer with verging on super human but not quite abilities.
Idea came from a few different areas - Dark Angel and Captain America for two.

Now, unlike Captain America, the person was genetically engineered before birth to be "super human."
I explain the abilities in part (even though superhero universes are full of "magic") that the person has an incredible metabolism that has to consume far more calories than a normal human

Kind of curious if that is the case with Captain America as well?
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Re: Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

Post by Mr Bean »

Kitsune wrote: Kind of curious if that is the case with Captain America as well?
It's comic books so the answer to that is "yes/no depending on which universe". I've never heard about it but there's over ten different caps running around and it's a common modern super soldiers trope.

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Re: Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

Post by Kitsune »

Unlike some ideas, it does at least make a certain amount of sense
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Re: Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

Post by Ahriman238 »

In the Cap movie he was complaining at one point that his body metabolizes alcohol faster than he can drink it, so he can't get drunk. Presumably he'd been trying for a while. Didn't see him needing huge piles of food, but there you go.
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Re: Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

Post by Ted C »

Ahriman238 wrote:In the Cap movie he was complaining at one point that his body metabolizes alcohol faster than he can drink it, so he can't get drunk. Presumably he'd been trying for a while. Didn't see him needing huge piles of food, but there you go.
Never saw him sit down for a meal, either. With something like four times the metabolic rate of an ordinary person his size, he must go through quite a lot of calories on any given day. I'd bet on him having a huge carb intake.

That's movie Cap, of course. In the comics, it probably depends on who's writing at the time.
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Re: Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

Post by Korto »

If you were looking for an explanation, it could be that he also has a more efficient digestive system, able to extract more calories from what he eats. Although that's not much use in-story, as it means he's not really "paying" anything extra for his extra abilities.
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Re: Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

Post by Purple »

Korto wrote:If you were looking for an explanation, it could be that he also has a more efficient digestive system, able to extract more calories from what he eats. Although that's not much use in-story, as it means he's not really "paying" anything extra for his extra abilities.
It could however offer some interesting plot points. After all with a more efficient digestive system he might well be able to digest stuff normal people can't. Thus leading to some rather awkward situations when he goes too long without a meal and the party is stuck in a situation where most of them can't be sustained by tree bark, lichen and the yellow in yellow snow. :mrgreen:
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Re: Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

Post by Havok »

I've always just assumed he ate a lot and his body was more efficient at metabolizing and storage and all that jazz, but really there is no reason why he needs massive amounts of food. It's not like he is constantly exerting himself. His calorie intake is probably like Micheal Phelps and Usain Bolt or more than likely, a really good NFL running back or linebacker as that is more like how I imagine he exerts himself.
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Re: Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

Post by Kitsune »

He has to work out to keep muscle tone
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Re: Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

Post by Havok »

Really? 'Cause he had to work out to get it?
Even still, training is not the same thing as the game, or in his case, the conflict.
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Re: Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

Post by Freefall »

I'm not an expert on Cap, but I don't recall the food issue specifically coming up. Of course, considering how many issues he's been in, I would be surprised if it had never been addressed at all, I just think that as far as the typical writer is concerned, his diet is a non-factor; the serum made him a physically perfect athletic male, and he eats about what you would expect for an extremely active athletic male.

As far as working out goes, at least back when he was part of the Avengers (mainly recollections from before Heroes Reborn), he would routinely engage in hours long grueling training regimens several times a week, if not daily, to keep himself in top shape. One scene in particular I remember invilved him curling a 500 lb barbell repeatedly. So while he may not ever become "flabby" the way normal people do, it seems like he still needs to exercise, at least if he plans on fighting world threatening menaces like Ultron and crap.

I don't know what his more recent habits are like though. I would guess the director of shield (or whatever he's doing now) doesn't have a lot of free time.
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Re: Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

Post by PainRack »

Freefall wrote:I'm not an expert on Cap, but I don't recall the food issue specifically coming up. Of course, considering how many issues he's been in, I would be surprised if it had never been addressed at all, I just think that as far as the typical writer is concerned, his diet is a non-factor; the serum made him a physically perfect athletic male, and he eats about what you would expect for an extremely active athletic male.

As far as working out goes, at least back when he was part of the Avengers (mainly recollections from before Heroes Reborn), he would routinely engage in hours long grueling training regimens several times a week, if not daily, to keep himself in top shape. One scene in particular I remember invilved him curling a 500 lb barbell repeatedly. So while he may not ever become "flabby" the way normal people do, it seems like he still needs to exercise, at least if he plans on fighting world threatening menaces like Ultron and crap.

I don't know what his more recent habits are like though. I would guess the director of shield (or whatever he's doing now) doesn't have a lot of free time.
I don't know. Nick Fury seems to be quite fit despite his age.
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Re: Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

Post by Havok »

Cap trains more because of who he is than to keep his physique up. However I am pretty positive that I remember something about Cap's food coming up, but it's been a lot of issues.
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Re: Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

Post by Tsyroc »

Marvel did a story line where Cap's powers were equated to steroids. So to be the role model he went through some procedure and a blood transfusion that supposedly flushed the super soldier serum from his system. It diminished him some but he still kept his post treatment physique, but everything came a little bit harder for him. I don't remember how or why but I think at some point he went back to full on super soldier again. There was also bit where he wore some sort of Cap armor because his body was breaking down but I don't recall if that was entirely because the ss serum failed or something else that was done to him.

In general, other than out living his friends and family through an unexpected side effect of his powers I don't think they really come with a cost. I think the Rob Liefeld version of Cap :roll: actually gained what looked like eternal youth from the formula, plus he could give others the serum just by cutting himself and dumping some of the fluid (it didn't look like blood) that came out into the person's mouth, and viola, they were now juiced too. I think that's how the Liefeld version of Sam Wilson became Cap's partner, The Falcon.
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Re: Does Captain America "Pay" for his super abilities

Post by Ted C »

Tsyroc wrote:Marvel did a story line where Cap's powers were equated to steroids. So to be the role model he went through some procedure and a blood transfusion that supposedly flushed the super soldier serum from his system. It diminished him some but he still kept his post treatment physique, but everything came a little bit harder for him. I don't remember how or why but I think at some point he went back to full on super soldier again. There was also bit where he wore some sort of Cap armor because his body was breaking down but I don't recall if that was entirely because the ss serum failed or something else that was done to him.
I remember a story like this from the late 80's / early 90's. Cap was accidentally exposed to some kind of vaporized methamphetamine during a fight in a drug production facility, and it bonded with his super-soldier serum, driving him crazy. A complete transfusion was needed to remove it, removing the super-soldier serum as well. His strength was pretty much the same, but his endurance was reduced, because the super-soldier serum removed fatigue poisons from his muscles at an accelerated rate.

His superhuman endurance eventually came back, as the super-soldier serum was revealed to be something that his altered body could slowly replenish over time. Something else went wrong later that required him to wear some kind of armor supplied by Stark, but I don't know the details of that.
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