John Walker, Captain America
The Flag Smasher begins his career by destroying the flags surrounding the United Nations, then a flag company. His father had been an ambassador dedicated to peace. He traveled the world a lot as a child, living in many countries. He often felt picked on for being different, but recognized the differences were minor. His goal is to unite mankind, destroy all nations, and create peace on Earth. Step 1 is a lot of violence. Captain America seems a fitting symbolic target for his crusade.
You can see how his earth-logo inspired the Flag Smasher logo of the show, which fittingly added a hand to the concept.
The federal government decided Steve Rogers was owed decades of back pay for the time he’d been frozen while still technically in the federal service. He didn’t want to take the money, but found a good use for it, setting up a hotline where people who needed help from Captain America could reach out.
When Flag Smasher returns, he has a small army of terrorists, ULTIMATUM. That stands for “Underground Liberated Totally Integrated Mobile Army To Unite Mankind”. What does any of that mean? It means someone really wanted their initials to spell out “ultimatum”.
A new superhero dubbed the Super-Patriot is on the scene. He has a PR agent to help him gain publicity and position himself as the new superhero to represent America.
We get a sense of his character when he neglects to stop a mugging, preferring high-profile superheroics.
During a rally, he gets attacked by the BUCkies, allegedly representing Captain America. However, the whole thing turns out to be a staged publicity stunt. The Buckies were all former UCWF wrestlers.
Captain America is not impressed.
Super-Patriot’s new shtick is for the BUCkies to commit acts of xenophobic terrorism across the country that he can put a stop to.
This leads Captain America directly into a battle with Super-Patriot which ends in a stalemate.
Meanwhile, a tenacious IRS agent digs into the discrepancies in the finances of Steve Rogers.
Captain America’s investigation into the source of Super-Patriot’s strength brings him to a UCWF gym. There he meets Dennis “Demolition” Dunphy, who tells Captain America about the Power Broker.
After reviewing the report on Captain America’s taxes, a government group called the Commission sends two FBI agents, Jake and Elwood, to bring Captain America to them.
Remember Monica from Wandavision? It all fits together.
Captain America finally tracks down the Power Broker, and learns it’s Curtiss Jackson of the Corporation.
Lt. Lynch arrives with military support, allegedly to arrest Power Broker, but Ms. Marvel reveals he is in league with Jackson.
Lynch sets the new government super soldier–G.I. Max– against Captain America. Over the course of the encounter, G.I. Max is accidentally shot and killed by Lt. Lynch.
Super-Patriot gets his first big moment of publicity saving the Washington Monument from the terrorist Warhead.
Captain America confronts General Wexler about Lynch’s actions and to learn if working with the Power Broker was officially sanctioned. Wexler refuses to comment, and Jake and Elwood show up to take Captain America into custody.
Captain America is brought before the Commission on Superhuman Activities, who inform him that he is not a free agent.
The shield, uniform, identity, and super-soldier serum were provided by the US government for government use only.
Further, Captain America was paid the back money erroneously and needs to return it or agree to work off the debt.
Captain America is not comfortable answering to a single commission for all of his activities. He prefers to be a free agent. Given the choices, he turns in the shield and uniform. He cannot represent the government or one administration. He must serve only the American people and the dream.
He is Captain America no more.
This is where I came in. My first ever Captain America comic. You can imagine it was a confusing place to start.
You can perhaps tell the comic has been worn by time.
The letters page gives an incomplete guide to the faces on the cover: Beast, Laura Hitchcock, Falcon, Nomad, Punisher, Nick Fury, Tony Stark, Dawn Geiger, Wyatt Wingfoot, Super-Patriot, Stan Lee…
The Commission– including Val Cooper and Henry Gyrich– begins to discuss sanctions they can impose on Steve Rogers, including an injunction on any red, white, or blue uniform.
They turn to the question of who should replace him.
They consider various candidates before turning to Super-Patriot, who had just gotten good headlines for yesterday’s victory. Falcon is rejected for a variety of reasons, including that the country wasn’t ready for a black Captain America.
Cooper meets with Super-Patriot, learns his name is John Walker, and how he got his strength from the Power Broker. We see a less cynical side of Walker than we had up to this point. The series had so far focused on negative traits, like his interest in publicity over genuine heroism. We now see he genuinely believes in the US government, to the point he even trusts a random Executive Branch employee implicitly.
John Walker accepts the offer and becomes the new Captain America.
(Starting to lose count, so check my math. I think John Walker is the 10th Captain America we’ve met.)
The Commission has conditions. He will have to drop his manager and only one of his “Bucky” partners received FBI approval to work with him.
Lemar Hoskins did get FBI approval and becomes his official partner. They are the new Captain America and Bucky.
It’s not long before Walker is confronted with tricky situations. He tries to think what the real Captain America would do and almost invariably comes to the wrong conclusion, making repeated messes.
His first official assignment is against the terrorist group, the Watchdogs, who are against many of the more provocative aspects of modern American culture. Walker finds himself sympathetic with the group’s goals, but accepts the assignment.
Rogers gets a new costume that conforms to the government color injunction. He will now simply call himself “The Captain”.
In a battle against Professor Power, the new Captain America loses control and beats him to death.
Lemar Hoskins gets a new look and name: Battle Star.
A fellow black man had explained to him a handful of reasons the name “Bucky” was offensive for a black man, reasons Gruenwald’s readers had written in to let him know about.
They finally go public and explain that this is indeed a new Captain America.
At the rally, the other former Buckies show up to pick a fight, and reveal Captain America’s secret identity to the world. They now call themselves Left-Winger and Right-Winger.
Black Panther provides the Captain with a vibranium shield he can use.
The Captain takes on the deadliest snake of all… in the White House.
Walker’s parents are taken hostage by the Watchdogs.
Captain America surrenders to the Watchdogs to secure his parents’ release. He thinks he sees an opportunity to free them, but miscalculates and they end up dying in the crossfire.
Captain America brutally murders the Watchdogs, then seems to lose touch a bit with reality.
The Commission considers suspending or removing Walker, but the Commissioner answers to a mysterious superior, who wants him to stay on the job.
Walker holds his former allies, the Buckies (now Left-Winger and Right-Winger), responsible for his parents’ deaths, since they outed his secret identity. For revenge, he murders them.
It’s later indicated they are only critically injured, but it sure looks like they were blown to bits to me.
The Commission makes the decision to suspend and detain Walker.
President Reagan makes an unexpected and unwelcome appearance. We learn the Commission has been keeping him in the dark about many things. He makes it clear that he supports the new Captain America, but also wants the old one to be treated with the respect he’s earned. This leaves the Commission indecisive.
It seems Red Skull has been secretly behind every terrorist group they’ve fought recently. The fundamentalist Watchdogs, the anti-nationalist ULTIMATUM, the pro-mutant Resistants… the political agendas don’t matter to him, only the resulting chaos. He also controlled the Commission. It was the Red Skull all along.
In the end, there can only be one Captain America.
Here’s a good summary of everything we’ve talked about so far in one picture: “The Six Captain Americas!” We’ve met them all plus four nameless losers; we’ve skipped at least two super-villains who have impersonated Cap, and probably more. We’ve got at least three more Captain Americas to meet…
A press conference is held with the two Captain Americas, and Walker ceremoniously returns the shield to Rogers.
Then a Watchdog gunman assassinates Walker.
Turns out the government faked his death as part of a complicated plan to reform his image and give him a new identity. He takes up Rogers’ recently discarded “Captain” uniform and becomes U.S. Agent.
When Silver Sable and the Wild Pack go up against the Watchdogs, Battlestar offers to help.
He soon finds himself a place on the team.
Time passes. Steve Rogers dies a couple times, but returns from the dead before being replaced. He gives up being Captain America and takes some other identity, but again without getting replaced.
Click here to continue reading and learn the truth about Isaiah Bradley, the 1940s Captain America.
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.