I’ve spent the last several weeks reading along to the Falcon & Winter Soldier TV series, another excellent show to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the show finished last week, I’d like to share the comics the show inspired me to revisit: the adventures of Falcon and Winter Soldier, John Walker, the Power Broker, Flag Smasher, Batroc, Zemo, etcetera.
I also found myself very interested in the idea of the mantle of Captain America, and what happens when the shield passes to the hands of another. It turns out that happens all the time in the comics. We’ll read through at least 10 different times when somebody else has wielded the shield.
Let’s read some comics.
This post is broken into 4 pages.
- Page 1: 1941-1979. Meet Captain America, Bucky, Zemo, Batroc, Sharon Carter, Falcon, and Contessa Valentina Allegro de Fontaine.
- Page 2: 1972-1988. Meet 4 other heroes to assume the identity of Captain America. Visit Madripoor; learn about the Power Broker.
- Page 3: 1985-1992. Meet the Flag Smasher. See John Walker become Captain America, with Battle Star as his partner.
- Page 4: 2003-2020. Meet Isaiah Bradley, the true Captain America of the 1940s. Then see Bucky Barnes assume the mantle of Captain America. Then see Sam Wilson do the same. We end with some reading recommendations.
Bucky
When young camp mascot Bucky Barnes walked into the tent of Private Steve Rogers, he learned that Steve Rogers was Captain America. There was no choice left but for Cap to make Bucky his sidekick.
(Let’s try to count the Captain Americas. Steve Rogers makes 1)
They spent the next several years fighting in World War II together, Captain America and this young child. Bucky went by the codename Bucky, trusting nobody would guess his secret: that Bucky was really Bucky Barnes.
Captain America and Bucky weren’t the only patriotic superheroes helping the Allied cause. Newspaperman Jeff Mace secretly dons the garb of the Patriot to battle for the cause of freedom.
Later, after the end of the war, Bucky was seriously injured, and Captain America started partnering with Betty Ross, the Golden Girl.
Bucky recovered and had a couple more adventures with Cap before superheroes went out of fashion in America, and their adventures stopped getting chronicled.
In 1954, Bucky and Captain America briefly resurfaced to fight the Commie menace. Bucky was now a college student, though he didn’t look any older.
In 1964, the Avengers found Captain America floating on ice in suspended animation.
We learn he’d fallen into the ocean in the final days of World War II trying to stop a rocket aimed at America. The explosion that tossed him into the ocean had killed his young partner, Bucky, a fact that would haunt Captain America for the rest of his career.
You can maybe start to see the problem. Did Bucky die at the end of World War II, or spend several years fighting crime and Commies with Cap until the 1950s?
Zemo
Sgt. Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos foil the schemes of the top Nazi scientist, Dr. Zemo.
Decades later, Zemo resurfaces, now with his mask glued to his face by his own invention, Adhesive X. He assembles the Masters of Evil to battle the Avengers.
Captain America learns it was Zemo who was responsible for the rocket attack that killed Bucky and swears revenge.
Captain America gets some satisfaction soon enough, when Zemo dies in combat. But Bucky is still dead.
Captain America and SHIELD
Batroc the Leaper is a master of the French art of kickboxing. He runs afoul of Captain America on a mission to steal an important explosive chemical from SHIELD.
The SHIELD agent reminds Captain America of a girl he knew and loved during the war. She turns out to be Sharon Carter, Agent 13. It was her older sister Peggy whom Captain America had once loved.
Since Peggy has aged and Steve hasn’t, Steve decides he now loves her younger sister.
Bucky returns from the dead. But it turns out to just be a robot created by the Red Skull.
Duty always seems to come between Steve and Sharon.
Captain America decides he’s served his country long enough, and it’s time to retire. He reveals his secret identity to the world and announces his retirement.
He is Captain America no more.
Immediately, several imitators surface.
(Up to 4 Captain Americas, counting these losers; though there’s been at least one more we didn’t cover… see Strange Tales #114)
Captain America is reminded of his responsibilities when one imitator is almost killed after being mistaken for him, and decides to take up the shield once again.
(That’s a 5th Captain America if these nameless dudes count.)
SHIELD gets a new recruit, Contessa Valentina Allegro de Fontaine.
Nick and the Contessa seem to get along well enough.
This page famously had several points of censorship imposed on it by the Comics Code Authority. For example, in the original page, the phone was depicted off the hook. This was deemed far too suggestive.
Wakanda
The Fantastic Four accept an invitation from T’Challa, King of Wakanda, to his kingdom. He seeks their help against the evil Klaw. They learn that T’Challa is more than a king. He is the great warrior known as the Black Panther, and a great scientist who has built a hidden technological jungle within Wakanda and turned it into the most advanced nation on Earth.
Wakanda is made up of many tribes, each of which offers a woman as tribute to be a bride of the king. These women act as T’Challa’s ceremonial guardians, the Dora Milaje.
Falcon
For a long period of time, Captain America’s best friend and partner in crime-fighting was Sam Wilson, the Falcon.
The Red Skull regained the Cosmic Cube and used its power to torment Captain America.
Red Skull swaps bodies with Cap and traps him on an island to face the Skull’s former minions, the Exiles.
(That’s the Red Skull impersonating Captain America; does this count as #6? I’m going to say no. It’s just a bad guy in a disguise. And there are almost certainly going to be other times a bad guy pretended to be Cap that I’ll fail to count. But then maybe the 4 loser Caps shouldn’t count either…)
Captain America meets a man from Harlem who had been attempting to unite the native villagers against the Exiles.
Sam Wilson has a strange rapport with his falcon Redwing.
Captain America recommends he don a superhero costume and identity to better serve as an inspiration to the natives, and Sam Wilson becomes… the Falcon!
Together they defeat the Exiles, and finally the Red Skull himself.
The next time Cap and Falcon meet, circumstances require Sam to pretend to be Captain America for a bit. The disguise is obviously imperfect.
(We won’t count this as Sam becoming Captain America… yet)
Bucky returns from the dead, somehow.
But it turns out to be an android created by MODOK.
Falcon teams up with Captain America against MODOK’s next creation, the Bulldozer.
This battle and his near-reunion with Bucky convince Cap that he needs a partner in his quest for justice. The Falcon agrees.
Starting the next issue, the cover bears a new logo. For the next 90 issues, the book will be called: “Captain America and the Falcon”.
We meet Sam’s sister Sarah Casper when her son gets into trouble with the law. Sam and Cap are able to set him on the straight and narrow.
Falcon gets a new look.
Black Panther designs wings for the Falcon, allowing him to fly.
Under new quota rules from the federal government, the Avengers are forced to have at least one black member, so grudgingly allow Falcon into their ranks. Their liaison Mr. Gyrich insists.
Click here to continue reading and meet the other Captain Americas!
Holy Crap, that was just part one?
Extremely thorough and interesting, although I was a little sad not to see the fake Cap from Captain America Comics #…3(ish) and doubly saddened by the exclusion of Fake Chain-Smoking Midget Bucky, AKA the greatest character in the history of comics, Those five (ish) panels before they were gruesomely killed off were truly a milestone inside a watershed.
I wanted to focus on the time Rogers was not Cap and somebody tried to step in. I knew if I tried to count every fake Cap, I’d add a 5th page to an already long post and still inevitably miss some. For example, Golden Age comics are something of a weakness. I did google “chain smoking midget bucky” and the top hit was you talking about the comic. And I fear for what Google will start trying to advertise to me now.
That’s fair. “Return of the Red Skull” might been slightly noticeable because it’s the origin of the replacement Cap trope – and also my all time favorite Captain America story.
Finished reading the whole thing and learned a lot, especially from the last couple years of comics. Great post!
I should go a Cap reread. I remember really liking Dematties and Greenwald’s runs but a decade + on I forget damn near everything.