All Hail America

Oh, I am so triggered! Captain America is a Nazi now! My childhood is ruined! It's so offensive to his Jewish creators! How will I ever be able to look at Chris Evans' chiseled jawline again!? You know, for a guy who's been on the social border for some twenty years, I can legitimately say I love being on the outside and looking in. All those Captain America "loyalists" seem to be allergic to comic books, because if you think Cap is bad now you've never met today's Z-Lister: William Burnside from Marvel Comics.

So here's the thing, most people assume all of Steve Roger's adventures either took place in the 40's (during his origin) or the 60's (when he was thawed out), but in 1953, Stan Lee, Mort Lawrence, and John Romita Sr. wrote stories about Captain America and Bucky fighting communism in the 1950's. Complete with a communist version of The Red Skull. Then in the 1960's, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby brought Captain America back and made him an Avenger. They established that Cap's last story in the 40's ended with Bucky dying and Cap being frozen in ice. What they don't establish is where all those 50's stories fit in. If Cap was frozen in the 40's and thawed in the 60's, where did all of Stan's 50's stories come from. Stan never explained that, but Steve Englehart did.

In his 1972 Captain America story, Englehart explained that the Cap and Bucky of the 1950's were not Steve and Bucky Barnes, they were American History Professor William Burnside and his student Jack Monroe. William obsessed over Captain America and through his research he found old Nazi files that revealed the "deaths" of Cap and Bucky and the formula for Super Soldier Serum. William undergoes facial and vocal reconstructive surgery to look and sound just like Steve Rogers, he even legally changes his name to "Steve Rogers", he then goes to the FBI offering himself as the new Captain America and offering to help in the Korean War. The FBI reject his offer and plant "Steve Rogers" as a teacher at a school in Connecticut where he meets a fellow Cap Fan-Boy named Jack Monroe. When a communist Red Skull shows up in town, Will and Jack use the Super Soldier Serum to become the new Captain America and Bucky.

That's where Lee's stories were supposed to fit, right? But how do they end? As it turned out, the Super Soldier Serum was incomplete without "Vita Rays" and as a result Will and Jack underwent serious mental changes. The two started to believe they were Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, they crafted a lie and claimed they never died and still protect America to this day. Soon they take their crusade too far by attacking people of different races, religions, and nationalities. The two are arrested by the FBI and put on ice.

When they are unfrozen, the two are placed under the psychiatric care of Doctor Faustus. Big surprise, the not-so-good doctor was a white supremacist. Faustus forced Will to shoot and kill Jack (except he didn't actually die, we'll talk about that in a few weeks) and then become the leader of a Neo-Nazi group called The National Force. William Burnside/Steve Rogers/Captain America becomes The Grand Director. Then when the real Steve Rogers confronts him, Will sets himself on fire and curls into a ball.

Later, Will is discovered to be-yet again-on ice and being held by The Red Skull and Doctor Faustus. He eventually escapes them and becomes leader of a terrorist group called The Watchdogs. Will then dons his Captain America suit again, kidnaps Bucky Barnes-who had become Captain America after Steve's death-and puts Bucky in his old sidekick costume. Surprisingly it still fits. He was like 9 back then. Anyway, Will plans on blowing up the Hoover Dam and he wants "his new Bucky" to help him. He doesn't. Bucky shoots him. He survives.

Burnside had become a dangerous vigilante for a while until Steve (back from the dead) found him again and-as per the norm-Will almost kills himself by running in front of a semi-truck. When he wakes in the hospital, Steve informs him that his death has been faked, he's been given a new identity, and he's being sent out of country to a psychiatric facility.

So. What have we learned today? That brainwashing can turn the best men into racist assholes? That obsessing over an American icon can only go so far until you want to wear their skin? That meeting your heroes should only happen by winning some tickets instead of becoming a terrorist? Yes. Yes to all those things. I think more than anything this gives us time to reflect, the story of William Burnside wasn't planned. It was hot-potatoed from writer to writer. One writer just wanted to tie some of Stan Lee' stories into the overall continuity, other writers wanted to create a literal dark mirror to Captain America. Creating a version of Captain America who reflected the more biased, closed-minded, and unwilling to change side of our country. We should be happy this racist Captain America-like our current one-was created from mindwashing and not because he was racist from the start.

Like I said, William Burnside was the creation of a bunch of different people trying to do different things. But Steve Rogers now? Well, Nick Spencer has been building up to this "Captain Hydra" story since 2010. He's earned respect as a writer. And after all the engaging stories he's done he deserves a chance to finish what he started, and we should be willing to give him a chance. This was never a matter of politics, ethics, or social commentary, this is a comic book writer telling a story. A story that, like William Burnside, will be lost to the ages decades from now. And like William Burnside, we'll all look back at Spencer's story and reflect on it.

Thank you for reading.