New 'Captain America' Image Shows Chris Evans Suited Up As Cap

UPDATE: High-res version of the cover added after the break.

Here's a first: a shot of Chris Evans in costume — the real costume — as Captain America. We've seen concept art, we've seen images of the actor in character wearing street clothes, and we've seen shots of a stuntman in the suit. Some Comic Con attendees got to see a brief bit of costume test footage. But for everyone else, here's the first shot that really matters: Evans suited up and looking very much like... Nathan Fillion?

EW, obviously, is the source of this image, and Chris Evans told the magazine about his thought process when he took the job, which he initially turned down three times,

At the time, I remember telling a buddy of mine, 'If the movie bombs, I'm f—-ed. If the movie hits, I'm f—-ed!'... I was just scared. I realized my whole decision making process was fear based, and you never want to make a decision out of fear... I can't believe was almost too chicken to play Captain America.

EW also provides a good synopsis for the film:

The year is 1942, and Steve Rogers is a scrawny lad who desperately wants to fight Nazis for his country but can't because he's been deemed physically unfit. His fate — and his physique — is radically transformed when he signs up for Project: Rebirth, a secret military operation that turns wimps into studs using drugs and assorted sci-fi hoo-ha. There's a love interest (Major Peggy Carter, played Haley Atwell), there's a sidekick (Bucky Barnes, played by Sebastian Stans), and there's the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), Hitler's treacherous head of advanced weaponry, whose own plan for world domination involves a magical object known as The Tesseract (comic fans know it better as The Cosmic Cube)

Captain America: The First Avenger hits theaters July 22, 2011. Click the image below for a larger version.