[1] The character received a modern revamp in Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's The Marvels Project and has made a reappearance as an antagonist in Brubaker's Secret Avengers where, as he's introduced, in the caption it reads "America's real first Super-Soldier" supposedly meaning that Steele was the predecessor of Captain America.
Sometime during the end of World War I, John Steele was captured by the Germans and held in suspended animation for study.
He eventually ran into a secret Allied military unit composed of Nick Fury, Red Hargrove, and the Sky Devils.
He discovered the Red Skull's allegiance with the Japanese and the renegade Atlantean U-Man and how all three parties were planning the attack on Pearl Harbor and an assassination attempt on Winston Churchill.
The extent of these abilities is unknown, but he is strong enough to easily bend steel, fast enough to out-fight Captain America and bulletproof.