Every Captain America In Comics

Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Captain America is often misused as proof that “comics have always been political”. While inspired by the hope America would join the war against the Nazis and other Axis powers after hearing about the treatment of their fellow Jews, the comic still maintained story first and told good stories, even with a goal in mind. Also, there’s nothing wrong with hating Nazis, but calling someone a Nazi just because they don’t share your view is asinine. That’s all I’ll say on this front.

Instead, because I’m too tired to write a proper post, I’m tapping a video by Comic Drake that goes over the various Captains America in comics. Not the various Steve Rogers, unless you count a relevant retcon, but every hero and not-so-hero who has assumed the mantle of the American hero in battling evil. Is this really every mainline Cap? Also I have a couple of notes on each of the men who threw his mighty shield in light of current discourse, and I don’t know if Drake himself would agree with all of my assassements.

Catch more from Comic Drake on YouTube

From the video’s pinned comment:

In case you missed the description, this is a compilation that takes my big “EVERY Captain America EVER!” video and makes it even more in depth by replacing the sections about Isaiah Bradley, USAgent, and Hawkeye with the dedicated videos that I did on them, now with upscaled comic scans, some tighter editing to meet my current standards, and ZERO sponsors.

Except for the ads YouTube shoved in there because they’re YouTube.

If the early issues of the tie-in comic is accurate, US Agent was supposed to be part of the first season Iron Man take on Force Works. Given that season, he was better off.

The Steven Rogers: Colonial America story just seems a bit forced to me. Not that it couldn’t be a bad story on its own, but I think it would have worked better as a “What If” than a main continuity story, partly because of the lore break Drake mentions. I don’t know if the Irish immigrant history came out before the Colonial version, but somebody clearly needed to pay better attention to character history.

As for Isaiah Bradley, a very recent retcon, I also think that should have been a What If because the point of the scientist being killed was that there would be only one Captain America. (Clearly that didn’t stick.) On the other hand, while it could be one of those “white men bad” stories, like having America Chavez time travel to steal Steve’s Hitler punch, it is a pretty important story to tell, given the history is one we need to remember and NEVER DO AGAIN! I’m not against the story but my personal perspective on the story side is not comfortable to have it in the main universe. I guess that is the point. It’s personal bias on superhero universes, not something that bothers me as a critic.

The Retcon Captains really got screwed over, didn’t they? Two less patriotic superheroes at a time when patriotism was still considered a good thing in the US (I miss those days), dying, going insane if not already insane, suddenly racist in the retcon, or seriously injured…it seems a shame. At least the Patriot got a new chance with a new hero. Patriot is meant as a tribute to the previous one, not the replacement that we get today, at least as far as I can tell.

It’s kind of a shame that John Walker was created to be Steve’s “Knightfall” replacement, made only to prove that action heroes are terrible, rather than showing them how the “Rambo” type should be done. It means Walker never had a chance, having him pay criminals so he could fight them and build his Superpatriot identity is not cool, and the fact that he got to continue on as US Agent is amazing. I guess someone saw potential in the character. Too bad Marvel keeps using him as “evil Captain America”. As for Bucky/Battlestar…yeah, probably better off, though “buck” being a racist term I only learned about with this video. Now you have to wonder about male deer, standard toy molds, and that guy from the 25th Century. Also, Bucky was his real name, so every Bucky who wasn’t actually Bucky Barnes was using some other dude’s actual name. That’s kind of weak. Battlestar is Lamar’s own identity, making him not an also-ran Bucky, even if that wasn’t the reason for the change.

You know where I’m going with this, right?

I have to admit he looks good in the outfit.

Regardless of the reason why, Lamar formed his own hero identity, while Isiah’s son took the discarded name of a former, dead hero. Patriot is not Captain America as far as the importance of the name in the Marvel universe. Meanwhile, you have Sam Wilson. Thanks to the retcons we’ve had a ton of Captains America, making Sam just Captain America #franklyIlostcount. When being Captain America is a step down in a superhero career where you had already formed your own superhero identity outside of the “real” Cap’s shadow despite being a former partner not named Bucky, mentored a Captain America, and frankly could have held his own title if they really tried, you’re better off being your own hero. It was Falcon that got Sam into the MCU, Falcon that got into the Avengers, the Super Hero Squad (anybody remember that toyline and show?), and Falcon that made Sam a popular Marvel hero, the same ones disappointed that’s he’s been reduced to Black Captain America in the same way Miles Morales is Black Spider-Man when he isn’t just referred to as Miles Morales or Spin, a nickname in a preschool show to not confuse the preschoolers and kindergarteners.

Meanwhile, you have characters like James Rhodes, who Marvel totally ruined in recent years, but that’s a whole other commentary. He started out as Tony’s friend, then took over as Iron Man, but then graduated into his own identity, War Machine. He even got to have an armor that wasn’t based on Iron Man for awhile, allowing him to even more break out past someone else’s codename. In a similar vein over at DC, you have John Irons, who was the only one of the “Supermen” who didn’t try to pretend he was Superman reborn, noting from the start that Man Of Steel was designed to homage the man who inspired him to fight back. He later became simply Steel, and the only thing in Christopher Priest’ run I like is that he created his own symbol not out of a sudden hatred for Superman but because he wanted to step out of his inspiration’s shadow and be his own man, perhaps so they’d stop calling him Black Superman, when he wasn’t even that.

Technically, Winter Soldier is a Soviet creation. I can see why Bucky would like to drop it.

So why are Battlestar and War Machine allowed to become their own man while Falcon and “Spin” aren’t? Politics and branding. They want that Name with no understanding why it’s important. As dumb as these Retcon Captains are, it was done so they could have Unfrozen Captain America (I so tried to come up with an Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer pun, I really did, but I don’t hate either of us enough) or do some commentary on the horrible treatment of black soldiers during World War II, which we should remember even while cheering on stories like the Tuskegee Airmen. Instead, critics are told they hate black people by those trying to replace the white hero, thinking they’re doing a good thing when they’re actually weakening the characters they already have.

Bucky Barnes being Cap makes a bit more sense if they’re going to get rid of Steve. His identities have been his own name or a name forced on him by Russians who brainwashed him and used him as a weapon against his own country when he wasn’t put in the closet. For him and even Walker and the Retcons (there’s a band name if you need one), being Captain America was a step up from being…nothing. Actually, only some of the retcons. Spirit Of 76 might remind me of the Fighting Yank but at least it was HIS identity.

If anything, this video kind of convinced me that Sam being someone else’s identity instead of his own is actually a bad thing for the character, brought on by sociopolitical nonsense rather than the character’s evolution. It’s a downgrade, and that shouldn’t happen with the identity of one of the Marvel Universe’s most important names. Then again, it’s only an important name because of the man who made it important.