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Law.
Before Jean Paul Valley...there was John Walker.
And Before Knightfall, there was Captain America No More! (Also
Known as The Captain on trade paperbacks)
Back in the mid-1980s at Marvel Comics it became fashionable
to put a new character in a veteran superheroes’ boots and see if they could
fill them. After the sales success of Jim Rhodes as the new Iron Man a few
years earlier, Marvel decided to give it another try with Captain America. With
a master craftsman like the late Mark Gruenwald penning the story comic fans
were in for a treat.
Yeah, Mavel was all about change in the 1980s. Wolverine’s
Brown costume. Spider-Man’s Black costume. Iron Man’s red and silver armor.
Thor’s beard and later his armored look. The Joe Fixit Gray Hulk. And because
the stories were just AWESOME the reaction to the changes at Marvel was mostly
positive. Most Marvel fans like myself back then just went with the flow. And
I’ll have to say we got some of the best Captain America comics in the history
of the character.
One day in 1987, (Captain America Vol.1 #332) The Commission
of Superhuman activities decided they wanted to control the actions of Captain
America. And Steve Rogers being the freedom-loving All-American patriot that he
is wasn’t having it. So he gave up his Red, white and blue costume and shield.
Steve, not discouraged by the Comission taking his costume
decided to keep fighting the good fight even without the Captain America
costume. Donning a Red, white and black costume and continued fighting crime as
The Captain.
Hey, heroes in Black were the in thing in comics in the 1980s.
Black costume Spider-man sold a kajillion copies. Black Iron Man sold a kajillion
copies. Gray Hulk sold a kajillion copies. So a Black Costumed Captain America
would sell just a kajillion more.
And after Steve left the Comission decided that Captain
America was just a costume. In their eyes anyone could be Captain America. So
they chose John Walker, formerly known as Super Patriot. Walker was the new n’
improved super soldier more in line with the grim n’ gritty Regan era 1980s. Complete
with a hardass attuide and no-nonsense approach to crimefighting Walker’s
personality was much more relatable to fans of 1980s action heroes like Rambo, and
Joe the American Ninja.
And thanks to strength augmentation by the Power Broker he had
enhanced powers ready to take right on those rougher, tougher grim n’ gritty
1980s badguys. With super strength, a higher resistance to injury, and training
from the Taskmaster, he was twice as dangerous as that old fart Steve Rogers.
Besides, who needs truth and justice when body counts are the
in thing?
Along with came
a new partner Bucky, Lemar Hoskins. Unfortunately writer Mark Gruenwald had no
idea that “Buck” was a racist term regarding Black people. And the idea of a
Black man who was bigger and stonger than Captain America dressed up in a
child’s costume was offensive to many Black readers. But with Gruenwald being a
man of character, owned up to his mistake, and dealt with the issue in a later
issue in the storyline. In a few issues, Lemar changed his costume and got the
new code name Battle Star. Shame we haven’t seen much of Battle Star in the
last few decades. He had a lot of potential as a character.
For all his new powers and new partner, Walker unfortunately lacked
one thing: HEART. Yes, he was a responsible, conscientous man. But his approach
to crimefighting was NOT that of Captain America. Walker like Jean Paul Valley
was emotional, aggressive and downright brutal. He was the kind of guy to throw
Captain America’s mighty shield and decapitate a guy. Yeah, this kind of thing
was considered “cool” back in the grim n’ gritty 1980s but at the end of the
day many comic fans realized it’s just not heroic.
On his first mission as Captian America John Walker beat
supervillain Professor Power to death. And that little incident of excessive
force only foreshadowed the future carnage Walker would get himself involved
in. After having his identity revealed by his former friends Left Winger and
Right Winger, he and his parents are kidnapped by the Watchdogs, a terrorist
organization. In the cross fire, he witnesses the murder of his parents. Seeing
his parents die in front of him in such a gruesome fashion, Walker snaps, murdering
most of the Watchdogs in an extremely violent and brutal ways.
But in spite of this traumatic event and Walker’s mental
breakdown, he was allowed to keep working for the commission. Head Comissioner
Rockwell said he’d invested too much money in Walker and he just didn’t want to
lose it. So On the day of his parents’ funeral Walker is sent to shadow Freedom
Force as they plan to capture the Resistants. Enraged, Walker compromises the by
brutally beating and murdering several of the mutants.
After this
incident, Walker terrorized Left Winger and Right Winger’s parents telling them
he’s going to kill their sons. This leads up to a brutal confrontation at an
oil refinery where he brutally beats both men and leaves them to suffer before
they’re blown up.
Wolverine boasts that he’s the best there is at what he
does…But with the body count John Walker racks up during his term as Captain
America I’m thinking he could give Logan a run for his money. When the bad guys
see that smile…Things are just not gonna end well.
Walker continues to leave a trail of bodies in his wake like
a 1980s Cannon Group action movie until he botches a mission to catch Flag
Smasher. As he screws up this mission, Battle Star is forced to call in The
Captain Steve Rogers (missed that issue at the newsstand,) to salvage the
mission where D-Man unfortunately is lost and Walker loses Cap’s shield to
Steve. It’s after the botched Flag-Smasher mission that some Commission members
realize they might have made a mistake. That maybe not anyone could be Captain
America.
But the head Comissioner Mr. Rockwell takes his orders from a
mysterious man behind a red screen and he’s just LOVING John Walker’s work. So Walker
is STILL allowed to keep working as Captain America in spite of NUMEROUS
fuck-ups that would gave gotten anyone else fired.
Eventually we get a big clue into who the Mysterious boss of
bosses with Steve Rogers’ face is during a morning workout where he takes five
a day…lives, that is. The opening first four pages of Captain America #350 are
some of the most chilling a comic fan will ever read. Watching the man with
Steve Roger’s face make light work of those Taskmaster henchmen stil sends a
chill down my spine 25 years later.
One panel in particular will eerily seem familiar to Batman
fans. Yeah, that’s where I think DC got the idea for Batman: Knightfall. I’m
just sayin.
Further along in the CLASSIC Captain America Vol 1. #350
Walker gets a call telling him to come to the Smith Building to get his shield.
And the man with Steve Rogers face is ready to reveal himself to Walker, the
Crazed Captian America. On seeing the numerous terrorists working for the
mysterious stranger and being told the man with Steve Rogers’ face is Steve
Rogers, the Original Captain America, Walker loses it. At this point you feel
for the bad guys. Why?
Because when Cap says it’s Party Time…Shit is about to get
Real.
Steve Rogers in his Captain garb has seen Rockwell, the
head commissioner die a horrible death that gives us a hint to who the big
villain of the storyline is. Steve heads down to the Smith Building where the
Crazed Cap has brutally slaughtered all of the henchmen. And now Steve Rogers
has to face the full on fury of John Walker, the CRAZED CAP!
Thankfully Steve is up to the challenge. And after a battle
with his replacement he shows that brains always over come brawn. Once he
dispatches of the Crazed Cap, Steve has a confrontation with the mastermind of
this whole mess: The Red Skull. But before the Skull can attack Steve, Walker
makes one last heroic action as Captain America and throws his mighty shield
making sure the Skull takes a face full of his own dust of death. But because
he’s a clone he doesn’t die from it. So he’ll be back to terrorize Cap another
day.
With the Skull defeated, The Captain and the John Walker head
back to the Comission to find out what’s to come of the mantel of Captain America.
Realizing that Walker is just too dangerous to have operating in the field.
But Steve ain’t
taking no orders from the Comission. So he leaves in his cool ass new red,
black and green costume. But Crazy John Walker has a moment of clarity and realizes
that he’s just NOT Captain America. That Steve created the morals, ideals and
code of conduct that make Captain America an ICON. And that no one can do the
job of being Captiain America better than he does. So on Walker’s concession,
Steve takes the costume back and goes back to being the Living Legend Captain
America!
While John Walker fakes his death, goes out to get some meds,
some psychotherapy, and would return to crimefighting in Steve’s red white and
black as the U.S. Agent. The Agent would make SHIT EXTRA REAL for the West
Coast Avengers before fading into obscurity. Trust me, the less said about
Walker’s later career after the West Coast Avengers the better.
FORCE WORKS *SHUDDER* Maximum Security *FACEPALM* New
Invaders…*DOUBLE FACEPALM*. Gamma Flight…Good Gravy.
And what happened to him in The Siege…Damn. Just Damn.
Yeah, I hear he’s back with all his limbs after being healed
by a lobotomized Venom symbiote from a pocket dimension (Damn, that’s
convoluted), but someone needs to just give Mr. Walker a good story where he
can be a badass patriot and not a joke. Maybe even team him back up with Battle
Star, another character who fell off the map. Walker is too good a character to
get screwed the way he’s been the last 25 or so years. I’d hate to think being
the Crazed Cap was the high point of his career.
Captain America No More/The Captain reinforces a cardinal
rule about replacement heroes: No matter how New N’ Improved things are
everything always goes back to classic. And there’s a reason why everything
always goes back to classic: It’s not who wears the costume, but what they
stand for.
In Knightfall, the breaking of Batman was the climax of the
story. We saw how much Batman could take from the bad guys before his body
broke. But in Captain America No More/ The Captain, we see the contrast. The
breaking of Steve Rogers is the inciting incident. When he’s stripped of
Captain America’s costume we see a powerful internal character transformation
begin as the man behind the mask rebuilds his character and resolve in his
mission to continue fighting to protect the country that he loves. And as he
rebuilds his character and resolve to adapt to the challenges put in front of
him, we see it’s the values of the man behind the mask are what makes him a
hero time after time.
Most of today’s modern comics just can’t compare to Captain America No More/The Captain. When there’s a PERFECT Buildup of a storyline and
the payoff delivers in HUGE dividends the way this one does it’s just SO WORTH
IT. I mean, Gruewald took 50 ISSUES to build to the Red Skull’s comeback after
his death in the 300th issue! And he took at least TWO YEARS to
build from Steve losing the costume of Captain America to his eventual return
to the red, white, and blue costume. When you consider that most comic series
can’t even GET to the 25th issue these days building into this kind
of storyline in a slow, organic fashion is a FEAT that shows the SKILL and
CRAFT of the writer and the creative team.
And the fact that Gruenwald dug DEEP into the Captain America
mythos and repackaged obscure villains in his rogues gallery like the Mutant
Force into the Resistants and made us CARE about D-listers like the Serpent
Society and D-Man shows how great a storyteller he is. His kind of
craftsmanship when it comes to storytelling is something that lacks in a lot of
today’s comics.
Captain America No More/The Captain was the second big comic
storyline I got into when I started collecting comics seriously at 14 in 1988.
And I’d have to say enjoyed it MORE than Armor Wars, the storyline that got me
HOOKED on comics! All the build up over a dozen or so issues led to an AWESOME
payoff. I never saw that Red Skull twist coming!
I’m gonna go on record saying we really need an Omnibus for
the late Mark Gruenwald’s Captain America. As a writer, the late Mark Gruenwald
is one of the greats in the comic book industry. His legendary knowledge of Marvel
Comics history, The Marvel Universe of characters and skill at weaving a tale
were all on display during his legendary hundred issue run on Captain America.
Gruenwald’s storytelling skill is something that needs to be preserved in one volume
so that aspiring comic book writers can see the skill and craft of comic book
writing. I’d say he’s just as much a visionary at Marvel as Chris Claremont,
John Byrne, George Perez, Walt Simponson, David Micheliene, Bob Layton, Jack
Kirby and Stan Lee. If you see a copy of The Captain in the trade paperback
section of your local comic shop pick it up. It’s one of the best comic
storylines of the 1980s.
