Captain America #155
The Incredible Origin of the Other Captain America!
Steve Rogers and Sharon Carter are enjoying a vacation on the remote island of Mosca Cay. Little do they know that they have been tracked down by a phony Captain America and his partner Bucky, who seek to eliminate Rogers and take his place.[1] While the fake Captain America watches, his partner approaches the couple on the beach. Sure enough, Steve notices the young man’s uncanny resemblance to his former wartime partner and tries to follow after him and figure out who he is and why he is on the island. Following Bucky into the bush, Steve is ambushed by his look-alike who then changes clothes with Rogers in the hopes of catching Sharon off guard.
Unfortunately, the impostor doesn’t count on Sharon being a trained SHIELD agent. She instantly knows that this is not the real Steve Rogers when she notices that this man does not have a sunburn. However, before the fake Steve Rogers and Bucky can attack, the Falcon arrives with his hawk, Redwing. Ultimately, the two impostors win the battle thanks to the fact that they both have super-human strength. When Steve, Sam, and Sharon come around they find themselves prisoners aboard the impostor’s plane. As it takes them back to the United States, the fake Captain America decides to reveal the truth about his identity before eliminating Steve — who he thinks is another successor to the title of Captain America, and not the original from World War II. They are all shocked to learn that this man was the Captain America who was active during the 1950s.
He starts his tale by telling them how, as a boy, he idolized the original Captain America and in 1941 even joined his fan club.[2] However, when Captain America was reported missing in action in 1945, the young boy was devastated. However, he devoted his life to becoming the leading scholar on Captain America’s history. In 1952, now an adult, the man who would become the next Captain America graduated Summa Cum Laude in American history due to the thesis he wrote on his hero. Having learned everything he could from American records, the man then traveled to Germany to learn from the Nazi records on his hero. There he learned about the Super Soldier serum that created Captain America. Although the formula was said to be lost because a Nazi spy murdered the scientist who invented it, he discovered a copy of the formula survived in the reports written by the spy’s superior.[3]
Deciding to use this formula to make himself the new Captain America, the man returned to the United States and reported his findings to the US government. He refused to divulge the secrets of the formula unless the government agreed to allow him to become Captain America. As the Korean War was going on, the government was very interested in creating a new Captain America to boost morale. After testing the formula on a monkey, they discovered that it worked but could not reverse engineer it from a blood sample. With no choice, the government allowed this man to become the next Captain America. Wanting to make people believe he was the real Captain America, the man legally changed his name to Steve Rogers and underwent plastic surgery so he looked and sounded like the real Rogers as well. Unfortunately, this coincided with the end of the Korean War and the government decided against creating a new Captain America so as not to enflame tensions during the Cold War.
“Steve Rogers” went back to civilian life where he started working as a teacher for the Lee School. There he met a young student who idolized Captain America as much as he did. The boy even resembled the original Cap’s sidekick, earning him the nickname Bucky. He told the boy about his secret and even though Bucky eventually made a Captain America costume for him to wear, “Steve” refused to go against government wishes. However, one day while driving into town to buy some new text books, “Steve” and “Bucky” heard a radio report about how the Red Skull had apparently returned and is holding members of the United Nations hostage.[4] However, this wasn’t the real Red Skull, but an impostor who usurped the identity for his communist backers.[5] Deciding to get involved, the pair changed into their Captain America and Bucky costumes. However, before going into action, they injected themselves with the serum that “Steve” created from the Nazi journal he found. The transformation to their bodies were painful but they soon discovered that they were also gifted with super-human strength.
After they defeated the communist Red Skull, they continued to fight for freedom and justice, clashing with other communist operatives.[6] They soon started to see communist infiltrators everywhere and began attacking the African-American community in both Harlem and Watts. The government had determined that the serum that gave this new Captain America and Bucky there powers were slowly driving them insane. The pair refused to surrender themselves for treatment and were incapacitated and placed into suspended animation until a cure could be found.[7] There they remained there until one of the men in charge of monitoring their bodies grew upset by the President’s recent visit to China. Fearing this will lead to the rise of communism in American, the man set the fake Captain America and Bucky free. Their minds still fractured by the impure Super Soldier Formula, the 50s Cap and Bucky then began their hunt for the man they think is their present day successor.
When the 50’s Cap concludes his story, the Falcon calls him nothing more than a bad imitation of the real Captain America. Slapping Sam across the face, the phony Steve Rogers vows to show them he’s the genuine article by killing them and heads back into the cockpit. It’s then that Steve reveals that he freed himself from his ropes but decided against acting to see what they wanted. Now knowing exactly what they are dealing with, Steve Rogers frees his friends and puts on his costume ready to defeat his impostor.
Recurring Characters
Captain America, Falcon, Captain America (Burnside), Bucky, Sharon Carter, Redwing
Continuity Notes
I’m going to get this all out of the way off the top. The whole fake Captain America and Bucky plotline is very complicated:
The real Captain America and Bucky went missing in 1945, as explained in Avengers #4. Cap was later revived by the Avengers in the Modern Age.
At the time of this story, everyone believes that the original Bucky died in 1945. It’s not until years later that it is learned he survived. He was recovered by the Russians and transformed into the assassin known as the Winter Solider. See Captain America (vol. 5) #14.
Since the apparent death of America’s two wartime heroes would have a negative impact on morale, the President had others to secretly take Steve Rogers place as Captain America. In the 1940s, these men were William Nasland and Jeff Mace, the former Spirit of ‘76 and Patriot respectively, per What If? #4
Mace later retired as Captain America in 1950, per Captain America: Patriot #4.
By the 1950s a man named William Burnside developed an obsession with Captain America, idolizing the hero during his childhood. He even went so far as get plastic surgery to resemble Steve Rogers and legally changed his name. He then went on a trip to Germany where he found an earlier version of the Super Soldier Serum that created Captain America. A school teacher at the time, Burnside and one of his students, Jack Monroe, then used the formula to become the “Commie Smasher” versions of Captain America and Bucky in the 1950s. See Young Men #24.
The real names of the fake Captain America and Bucky are not given here. William Burnside’s real name was not revealed until Captain America #602, while Bucky is identified as Jack Monroe in Captain America #281.
This would be the Sentinels of Liberty, a real-life fan-club that readers could join back in the Timely era of comics, first advertised in Captain America Comics #1. They were also featured in-universe and were the basis for the Young Allies. See Young Allies #1.
Of course, this is recounting Captain America’s origins in Captain America Comics #1. However, there are a lot of details that are not shared here.:
The scientist is unnamed here, but he is identified as Abraham Erskine in Captain America #255. The assassin who killed Erskine was named Heinz Kruger, he isn’t named until Captain America #109.
The reports William reads here belong to a Major Kerfoot of the Nazi SS. His full name is revealed to be Albrecht Kerfoot. in Marvels Project #2.
Kerfoot and Kruger’s operation to steal the Super Soldier formula created by Erskine was explored in greater detail in Marvels Project. Kruger was killed by Captain America shortly after his birth. In the 5th issue of that series, Kerfoot is revealed to have secured a copy of his formula. His superiors then murdered him and recovered his notebook, the same one that Burnside finds years later in the Nazi archives.
Portions of this part of the story are reprinted from Young Men #24.
In the 1950s, the real Red Skull — Johann Schmidt — was still buried in a German bunker in a state of suspended animation and would not be revived until the Modern Age. See Tales of Suspense #72 and 79. The Red Skull here is Albert Malik, as revealed in Solo Avengers #6. A proper origin was given to him in Captain America Annual #13.
The other foes depicted here include the communist operative known as Electro and the Chinese assassin called the Man With No Face. See Captain America Comics #77 and 78.
Here, a government official states that the lack of vita-ray bombardment is what caused Burnside and Monroe to go mad. The vita-ray retreatment was first detailed in Captain America #109. However, this was just part of various procedures that were done on Steve Rogers. There was an injection (first seen in Captain America Comics #1) as well as oral tablets (Tales of Suspense #63). Captain America #255 confirms that all three methods were used in succession.
Topical References
The present day events in this story are depicted as happening in the year 1972. This should be considered a topical reference. Per the Sliding Timescale, this story takes place during the “third year” of the Modern Age and should not be ascribed to a specific date.
Likewise, the passage of time between World War II and the 1950s and the Modern Age should also be considered topical. The Sliding Timecale makes it so the gulf of time between the start of the Modern Age and these time periods will continue to grow larger. If you like math, how to crunch the numbers is here.
Needless to stay, the “present day” headline about President Nixon going to China should be considered topical as well. This is in reference to when Nixon made his historic trip to China in February of 1972, which was a big deal back then in during the height of the Cold War. Modern readers should interpret this as a generalized Presidential visit to China and not specifically Nixon’s visit.