Ever since I was a child, Captain Americahas always been my favorite super hero.

    While my male friends gravitated toward Batman or Spider-Man andthe girls tended to like Wonder Woman, I was drawn to the red,white and blue member of the super hero team the Avengers. Cap’sability to chunk his shield to knock out the bad guys was cool andI thought the little wings that stuck out from his mask wereneat.

    A Mego Captain America doll (I don’t think the term “action figure”came along until Star Wars in the mid-’70s) was one of my favoritetoys. And I seem to recall having at least a couple of sets ofCaptain America Underoos (I may be over sharing there when talkingabout undergarment options as a child.).

    Anyway, my following of Captain America and his comic bookadventures waned greatly as I “grew up” into high school, collegeand the work world. I’d catch a nugget of Cap-related informationhere or there or perhaps buy some inexpensive trinket with a shieldlogo or something, but for the most part I was focused on otherthings.

    I came back to Cap in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001. Let me beclear, in no way am I trying to trivialize the tragedy of that dayby connecting it with a comic book character.

    It’s just that, to me, Captain America symbolized the patrioticfervor this country was feeling at the time. And I don’t think Iwas alone in my feelings.

    When comic artists expressed themselves then, Cap was the focalpoint of many of their works. I picked up a few to add to my comicscollection.

    Since my interest in Cap was renewed, I’ve had a comic subscriptionat the bookshop I frequent. In the several series that have bornehis name, Cap has continued to fight the super-powered baddies, butalso foreign and domestic terrorists.

    A few years ago, Captain America was killed in the aftermath of abig comic universe battle among the good guys over whether superheroes should have to register with the government. Cap’s back now(long story, moving on …).

    So against this backdrop of my appreciation for Captain America,you can understand my excitement when I learned that a new movieabout him was being made. My excitement was tempered with greattrepidation because previous film efforts – including one made in1979 and another in 1991 – failed to really qualify as evenB-movies.

    “Captain America – The First Avenger” opened July 22 and a friendand I caught it last Saturday. I must say I really enjoyed theexperience.

    As I’ve told many people since he was cast as the lead, I had somereservations about Chris Evans playing my favorite super hero. Ididn’t see a smooth transition from the Human Torch, which Evansplayed in the Fantastic Four movies, to the all-American hero.

    However, Evans managed to pull off the role well. I thought thecomputer-generated effects to show the difference between scrawnySteve Rogers and when he became Captain America were especiallywell done.

    I’m still not crazy about the movie version of Cap’s costume, but Ididn’t find it as distracting as I thought I would.

    Those little wings on the head that I loved as a child were onlypainted on the side of Cap’s helmet in the movie. It may be just aswell, because previous attempts to incorporate them into a physicalcostume have been – let me charitable here – cheesy to the max.

    I have to give a lot of credit to Tommy Lee Jones, who plays ageneral leading soldiers against the Nazis during World War II inthe movie. Jones’ ability to drop a hilarious one-liner isphenomenal.

    “Captain America – The First Avenger” is the last of the summersuper hero films. I’m going to stop a little short of saying thebest was saved for last this year, but this one is by far the best”Captain America” film I’ve seen.

    That’s all for now.

    Write to Managing Editor Matthew Coleman at P.O. Box 551,Brookhaven MS 39602, or send e-mail tomcoleman@dailyleader.com.

    Oh, by the way, if you go see the Captain, be sure to stay untilafter all the credits roll. It looks like we’re going to beassembling some Avengers next May.