Steve Rogers (Reb Brown) is a contemporary man whose father was a 1940s government agent. The very patriotic attitude of Steve's father earned him the nickname "Captain America." His father was later murdered. Rogers, a former Marine now making a living as an artist and traveling the countryside in a conversion van, is inspired by his father's story to sketch a super-hero. After receiving potentially fatal injuries in an attempt on his life intended to seem like an accident, he is administered an experimental chemical called the FLAG formula; FLAG is an acronym for "Full Latent Ability Gain," a kind of "super-steroid." (Rogers's father had developed the FLAG serum from his own glands.) The formula not only saves his life but enhances his strength and reflexes. These new abilities inspire Dr. Simon Mills (Len Birman), the research biochemist and intelligence official behind FLAG who was once a friend of Steve's father, to recruit Steve and give him a costume based on his drawing.