Top 5: Captain(s) America

Well, sure. The go-to plot point is to think, "Steve Rogers is Captain America, and it has ever been thus!" Alas. you're fooling yourself. There's been many a Cap in the last few decades. These are just some of the ones we knew about:

 

 

 

5. William "Spirit of '76" Nasland

When Cap and Bucky "died," this is the guy Harry Truman tapped to wield the shield. As an expat member of the Crusaders (Great Britain's answer to the Invaders) I'm sure Bill was a great guy. I'm sure he'd like to be remembered as "the guy who saved John Kennedy's life, allowing him to run for president." Unfortunately, he will instead be remembered as "the guy in the tri-cornered hat who led the extremely ironically named 'All Winners Squad.'"

 

    jeff mace    

 

4. Jeffrey "Patriot" Mace

After Bill '76 came Jeff, a Daily Bugle reporter who led the Liberty Legion, whatever that may have been. Jeff was one of the few superheroes to die of old age, with Steve Rogers sitting at his side, thinking, "Wow. My inspirational life choices may have been questionable. Whoof."

 

             

 

3. John "USAgent" Walker

We all know John, John of Thunderbolts by way of Alpha Flight. John was the guy who took the shield after Steve quit in protest of Ronald Reagan's political posturing. Who doesn't remember that? What? Anyone, except old people? Whatever. Enjoy your "Nintendos" and "Super Mario Brothers," while the rest of us savor that sweet "Ms. Pac-Man" action.

 

2. "Bucky"

Apparently, this person believed he was Captain America for several minutes. Anyway: hammer through the chest! Moving on!

 

 

1. "Roscoe"

When Steve Rogers left the Cap persona behind to fail to fight in Vietnam and become Nomad, said persona was assumed by "Roscoe." This well-meaning dude gave his all, but he ended up dying by– yikes!– crucifixion, with the Red Skull sending the message that any more "fake" Captains would end up the same way. Message received, mein herr. Please willkommen your buddy, Steve Rogers, Just let me know where you'd like your ass sent.

Comments

  1. yeah

  2. How about “FIghting American”, or better still, “General glory”!

  3. Isaiah Bradley doesn’t count or something?

  4. Radmobile- Burn.

     

  5. Is John Walker the same guy in thunderbolts who’s in the wheelchair and runs the prison? Cuz that guy is one BAMF

  6. @ wangman31888

    Yes he is.  He was Captain America/US Agent in the 80’s/ 90’s I believe.  Personally I like his black US agent costume best out of the Cap costumes.

  7. How about Punisher-Cap, Clone body of Cap Red Skull, 1950s Cap, or best yet, Major Victory

  8. Or the first Silver Age Captain America… the Acrobat!

  9. Boo! USAgent all the way! You didn’t even show him in his standard costume.

    Too be fair though, that is a horrible costume Walker had in that picture. I don’t think I would’ve been an uber-fan of his with that costume. 

  10. Did I miss the Bucky funeral issue? Where it was revealed that he slept with The Sentry? I must have missed that.  

  11. The top of Walker’s head isn’t matching up to the rest of his head and it’s bothering me very, very badly.

    I also concur with Radmobile.  Where’s the love for Isaiah Bradley?  Straight up racism going on here.  (I kid!)

  12. @Siraim: ahahaha. Maybe that will make the next fun list.

  13. That first “Roscoe” panel looks like a bad parody of a comic panel

  14. @Heroville: That’s from the Frank Robbins run, which happened right after the legendary “Secret Empire” storyline.

    While Robbins’ work on such seminal newspaper comic strips as Scorchy Smith and Johnny Hazard is still considered some of the finest adventure strip storytelling of the middle years of the last century, by the time he was drawing Captain America, his style had become quite loose, and was somewhat outdated.

    His initial Cap issues were not well received by a readership used to Steranko, Kirby and Sal Buscema. His style was more suited to Invaders, which he also pencilled for a while, but on Captain America it was not only a shock to readers, at times it was unintentionally quite comical.

    Robbins, who was born in 1917, was somewhat past his prime by the time he was doing comics in the 70s, although there are some who have greatly praised his Batman work. As a longtime reader of Captain America when Frank came to the title, I have to admit I was among the many who were not fans of his work, although I came to appreciate his strengths and his place in the history of the medium in the ensuing four decades.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Robbins

    http://cdn.coollinesartwork.com/Images/Category_2/subcat_29421/ROBBINSFRANKScorchySmith1121.jpg

    http://www.actionplanet.com/blog-art/hazard-sunday-6-29.jpg

    http://cdn.comicartfans.com/Images/Category_10498/subcat_20037/RobbinsCap189p15.jpg

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_uZMPVFAFJD8/St87zXCX4cI/AAAAAAAAGSE/nr5fjIQmvks/s320/nomad.jpg

    http://www.flashbackuniverse.com/blogImages/BronzeAgeSpolight/InvadersFF/FrankRobbinsPanels.jpg

    http://www.heromachine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/morbius-5-multihit.jpg

    http://www.artandartifice.com/_imagery/_robbins/detective_426_a_1000.jpg 

  15. @player1  Thanks for the history lesson I can see his chops in those earlier snippets

  16. Was this supposed to be Top 5 WORST Captain Americas?

    I think “Roscoe” definitely counts.

    Also, U.S. Agent was Omega Flight, not Alpha Flight.

    “…Walker agreed to be a member of the new Omega Flight Program and left for Canada.”
    http://marvel.com/universe/U.S.Agent
  17. The Captain! Black costume is very cool.

  18. @Heroville: No worries. As somebody who slagged Robbins a little too energetically in the 70s, it’s my karmic duty to try to help place him in his proper place in comics history.

    The Johnny Hazard stuff has been collected, more than once, if memory serves. There was also a recent Noel Sickles retrospective, which collects the Sickles-era Scorchy Smith.

    I grew up during the 60s and 70s, an era when newspaper adventure strips were still a surviving format, and I was heavily influenced by them, even though they were very much a holdover from their 1930s and 40s heyday.

    Cheers.