Question for comic book readers on Capt America and Black Panther

[NewJeffCT]

I grew up reading comics books all throughout the 1970s and into the early to mid 1990s.

My big favorite was Spider-Man in all iterations – Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, Marvel Team-Up, Marvel 2 in 1, etc.

One thing that has bothered me a bit since they started with the MCU movies is that they seemed to have upped the power levels of some of the heroes. I remember growing up thinking that Captain America, Black Panther and a few others (Daredevil, Black Widow, Falcon, to name a few) were more like gold medal winning Olympic athletes in their primes and not nearly as powerful as portrayed in the movies. Oddly, they did not really up the power level of Black Widow, nor Daredevil on Netflix.

Since I have not really read comics in the past 25 or so years, did Marvel reboot characters like Captain America and Black Panther to put them way beyond that peak Olympian level that I had thought them at? Or, am I mis-remembering how strong Cap and Black Panther were even in the 70s?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. From what I recall form comics in the 80s at least. Steve Rogers

had enough strength to go toe to toe with people with super strength. It was part of the super soldier serum. Black Panther is also meant to be super strong. In line with what I've seen in movies.

[Dave Starsky]

4. I remember the 80s Cap, too.

I seem to recall that the super soldier serum gave him physical abilities at the very limit of human potential, so stronger and faster than any Olympic weightlifting or running champion, but not on the order of Spider-Man, etc.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. I have a vague recollection of a mid-70s storyline where Cap's strength was upgraded.

Something about the original super serum effects had faded over the decades (gradually reducing him to the level you described) and he had some procedure done to restore him to his WWII-era enhanced human strength.
I've also seen comparison charts from the silver age showing how the different characters stack up strength-wise but I'm not finding anything from that time in a search right now for some reason.

[Dave Starsky]

5. There was a pretty good Marvel role-playing game in the 80s...

That had a chart with all the characters ranked in terms of abilities, so you could tell at a glance whether Captain America was able to stop the runaway bus, or if this was a job for Spider-Man, provided he was close enough to the action.

[NewJeffCT]

6. Interesting

I respected Captain America more than I liked his comic books growing up, so I didn't follow it that closely. But, that sounds like a possibility.

[lunasun]

3. Just an FYI . Du has this

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1195