History of U.S. Agent

[Music] what's up my comic comrads as many of us are well aware of the us agent will be making his mcu debut in the falcon in the winter soldier disney plus series so like every time a major character makes their debut on the bigger small screen we're going to break down their comic history meaning today it's all about john walker aka u.s agent john walker the man who would eventually become the us agent made his first appearance in comics as super patriot in captain america issue 323 in november of 1986. he then became captain america in captain america issue 333 in september of 1987 before ultimately becoming us agent in captain america 354 in june of 1989. he was created by mark grinwald and paul neary but now that you know about his first appearances and who created him let's talk about his fictional origin when john walker was a kid he idolized his older brother who unfortunately was killed in the vietnam war idolizing his older brother michael so much he decided to join the military once he was older just like his big bro but even in the military he didn't feel like a hero accomplished like his big brother anyway while in the army he made several friends lamar hoskins hector linux and jerome johnson it wasn't too long after this group of friends were in the army that they were approached by the power broker aka curtis jackson of power broker inc power broker got into the business of augmenting the strengths of individuals to superhuman levels and guess what he offered to enhance the strength of john walker and his friends walker wanting to be a hero was like yeah i'm down so they agreed to the process and soon enlisted into the unlimited class wrestling federation like several of the power broker's most successful subjects that's right power broker inc essentially has their own wwe a wrestling federation where only super-powered individuals can compete in the square circle but walker didn't really want to be a wrestler that's not why he wanted superpowers he wanted to be a hero so his agent ethan thurm convinced them to be just that ultimately taking on the alias and hero persona super patriot as super patriot he instantly became a self-proclaimed rival to captain america telling the public that he stood for america's true ideals while publicly discrediting captain america and how he did things now like i said once super patriot walker would become a rival for captain america and a shady hero at that he wouldn't even do things like help old ladies cross the street on top of having his buddies lamar hector and jerome become a sidekick of sorts called the bold urban commandos he would have them stage attacks to intimidate and hurt others to make him look good as well as discredit captain america now even though all that is definitely not good or heroic by any means it's actually quite the opposite super patriot still wasn't exactly a super villain he was more of a misguided wannabe hero he was essentially just trying to prove himself better than captain america and because of that came into conflict with him and would even do whatever he could to prove himself better the ironic thing is after countless times of publicly disgracing captain america on tv having the urban commando stage attacks and things to make cap look bad john walker or super patriot would later become captain america himself you see long story short in issue 332 of captain america or what the comics literally titled captain america no more steve rogers took off the cowl and put down the shield literally handing it to the u.s government telling them he could no longer be captain america and that to serve the country your way he would have to give up his personal freedom and place himself in a position where he might have to compromise his ideals to obey their orders he goes on to tell them i represent the american dream the freedom to strive to become all that you dream of being being captain america has been my american dream to become what you want me to be i would have to compromise that dream abandon what i have come to stand for essentially steve realized that the government was corrupt and had their own motives wanting to use him for things he didn't feel comfortable doing so he couldn't in good conscience take orders from them because he represents the american dream even telling them i cannot represent the american government that's the president's job i must represent the american dream god i love steve rogers captain america anyway at this point of course america could not go without a captain america so that's when john walker was tapped to become the new captain america now captain america he became a little more heroic helping those in trouble more often but he didn't show restraint against enemies but once his parents were killed by a terrorist that he had locked up in the past he went down a dark brooding path eventually john walker captain america and steve rogers now going by the captain and wearing the costume that would later become the us agent costume team up to defeat the red skull and once the two caps make amends the commission of superhero activities faked john walker's death in front of everyone which led to steve rogers becoming captain america once again now remember how i just said the commission just faked john walker's death well not only did they fake his death they also altered his mind and appearance all so they can make him the commission's new pride and joy the us agent having a shield and wearing a costume similar to captain america's except with the black and red color scheme along with some other minor changes but that my friends is how john walker became the us agent from here he would become a hero in his own right but now you guys know what time it is story arcs and publication history the first major story arc for john walker is the captain america super patriot story which i pretty much already went over as his first appearance started there then you know the rest because i just said it he becomes captain america when steve roger quits at which point he's the new cap for a while but then his death is faked and he became us agent his first battle as us agent was bringing down and fighting the iron monger as a test to prove his strength to the commission he was then put on the west coast avengers team to be one of their watch dogs sometime after this he would end up rescuing his old buddy battlestar from the power broker it's at this meeting walker started remembering his original past that was altered by the commission but as for how he was doing on the west coast avengers as you would assume he doesn't play well alone so he's not going to play well with others his aggressive cocky attitude and bullheadedness frequently got us agent into fights with his fellow avengers then one day hawkeye couldn't take his crap anymore so he called him out basically saying let's work this out the old-fashioned way the ensuing fight lasted for the majority of the issue with the two knocking each other around like crazy all over an island but ultimately the us agent won it's at this point iron man calls him out saying you need to get your crap together or no one's gonna want to work with you but the u.s agent just runs off saying you could all go to blazes the us agent would later realize he needed to deal with his extreme temper in avengers west coast issue 72 when he almost killed julia carpenter spider-woman he's literally about to deliver the final blow but says i can't do it and that he doesn't care what spider-woman has done and that the avengers threw him off the team he's never going to waste anybody ever again if he could help him the us agent would continue to appear in the west coast avengers avengers west coast title for quite some time doing things like trying to capture the punisher he was even on the team during the infinity war story part of a team that remained on earth to protect it against waves of superhuman doppelgangers there's even a really cool story when u.s agent teamed up with fellow replacement heroes thunderstrike and war machine to fight iron man captain america and thor the reason they teamed up is because they were being manipulated to fight captain america thor and iron man by the villain terminatrix but ultimately they reconciled the team up and defeat said villain now eventually the west coast avengers broke up and were no more but several members from the team would create a new team founded by tony stark called force works and of course the us agent was like yeah i don't want to be on your stupid team but the scarlet witch convinced him to join the team saying they needed someone with backbone and she intended to run the team on military values of strength and dedication and she said the us agent had shown that when they worked together on the west coast avengers this convinced him and he joined the team with a new costume and energy shield given to him by none other than tony stark he got a new costume and shield because when the west coast avengers broke up he threw his original us agent costume and shield into the hudson river what can i say he has anger management and abandonment issues u.s agent remained a member of the team throughout their entire run helping them fight threats like the cree the mandarin and alternate reality man the serpent society and many more but skipping some stuff here and there like the morgan conquest where us agent and the avengers would battle morgan le faye marvel's most wanted where us agent was no longer an avenger we have the 2001 u.s agent 3 issue mini-series here john walker would work for the commission once again and was chosen to be the leader of the superhuman tactical activities response squad a force which was formed to bring superhuman criminals to justice it's here walker would get a brand new costume that looks very similar to judge dredd if you ask me he would then proceed to travel the country looking for the most wanted super villains but speaking of mini series his first one was from 1993 which was a four-issue mini-series that had him searching for the super villain mass murdering scourge it's actually a super fun mini-series that puts us agent undercover to find the scourge organization that's making mass murderers and who wouldn't want to see that because the us agent is basically a captain america that doesn't pull punches anyway usage is one of those characters that's not necessarily a prominent character like iron man or captain america but he's always around having appearances and minor roles in popular storylines and titles like the dark avengers civil war 2 secret empire and the list goes on but this brings us to john walker's most current status in comics which would be his 2025 issue miniseries here walker has been stripped from his u.s agent status and is now operating as an independent government contractor protecting government covert interests so that's what he's been up to most recently but now it's time for some powers and abilities now overall john walker's strength and abilities are basically the same as steve rogers but while it might be a little shocking to some of you is that his strength is actually greater than steve rogers now it's not like he's a freaking hulk or anything like that he's just a lot stronger than steve rogers to the point where it's more fair to compare walker's strength to that of spider-man's because in the raw strength area spider-man is way stronger than steve rogers with that said walker strength has varied over the years especially in the early 2000s depending on who's riding him where we see characters like bucky barnes defeat him easily but besides super strength walker is a superb fighter having been taught captain america's fighting style from the taskmaster he also possesses superhuman endurance and olympic level gymnastics skills then of course being a military vet he has extensive combat experience he's well versed in tactical and strategic planning as well as being extremely proficient with firearms and also like captain america he carries a vibranium shield that he could throw with incredible accuracy and super strength like i said at the beginning he's essentially just an alternate version of captain america meaning their abilities are almost identical with that said let's look at some u.s agent reading recommendations check out avengers west coast along came a spider woman captain america legacy of captain america the 1993 u.s agent 4 issue mini-series and the brand new us agent 2025 issue mini-series those should be enough to get you all started first up for the week of the 24th we have detective comics issue 1034. with the loss of his fortunate manner and the election of a new mayor and the growing anti-vigilance sentiment in gotham bruce wayne must rethink how to be batman or risk being left behind by his own city next we have alien issue 1 the iconic alien franchise makes their marvel comic debut that promises to be a sci-fi horror comic you don't want to miss here we have harley quinn issue 1 in her brand new series harley quinn comes back to gotham to make up from sins of her past and help gotham city recover from the joker war and finally we have teen titans academy issue one welcome to the teen titans academy packed with both new super power teens and numerous dark secrets teen titans academy student's body includes shazam a new australian speedster a trio of gotham teens obsessed with batman and one member of the class that's going to become red x and just like that that brings today's episode of variant to a close but if you liked today's video be sure to check out this one right here and if you like all of our content subscribe like and comment it always helps us out but i will see you guys next time when i talk about all things comics

Channel: Variant Comics

Views: 769,669

Rating: 4.9538207 out of 5

Keywords: John Walker, U.S. Agent, us agent, captain america, steve rogers, sam wilson, falcon, winter soldier, the falcon and the winter soldier, mcu, disney plus, marvel, marvel comics, comics, comic books, history of, origin, powers and abilities, story arcs, variant, reading recommendations, arrow, scarlet witch

Id: Bho_poUTo6I

Length: 10min 38sec (638 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 24 2021