-Even though he wasn't an original founding
member of the team, Captain America
still has been a very prominent member of the Avengers.
Making his big debut on the team in "Avengers" number four
from 1964 after being frozen for awhile, which I hear
isn't as cool as it sounds.
Get it?
Cool?
Sorry.
But if he really was frozen in ice near the end of World War
II, then how do you explain his comic book appearances
after the war ended, but before his Avengers debut?
Well, it's an interesting story.
But as you would expect, it is kind of complicated.
[MUSIC]
Welcome to Comic Misconceptions.
I'm Scott, and boy oh boy do we have some fun
retcons to discuss today.
By now, I think we all have a general grasp on Captain
America's origin, thanks to movies, cartoons, and even
other YouTube channels-- [? Aeris. ?]
But as always, I'll go over an extremely brief summary
of what you need to know.
Captain America was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby,
premiering in "Captain America" comics number one from 1941.
A scrawny Steve Rogers wanted to serve his country during World
War II and volunteered to be the test
subject for a super soldier serum that
enhanced his body to the peak of human physical potential.
He would then go on to fight Nazis and Japanese soldiers--
among other enemies-- with his sidekick Bucky.
We've talked before about how sales of superhero comics
sharply declined after the war ended,
and Cap's book was no exception.
By issue number 74, the comic became
known as "Captain America's Weird Tales" to try and jump
on the bandwagon of what kind of comics
were selling at the time.
Now, by issue 75 the entire book was cancelled.
About a decade later, Captain made his comeback
in a Avengers number four, and tells
a story of how he and Bucky were trying
to stop an explosive filled drone plane.
But Cap fell off and into icy waters,
where he froze and was thawed out by the Avengers years
later.
But this, my dear friends, is only half the story.
Because now we have this huge problem of Captain America's
continuity.
You see, before Cap was brought back in the Avengers,
he was in a bunch of golden age comic books
even after World War II had ended.
For example, he and Bucky fought on the All-Winners Squad
with other golden age heroes like Namor, Human Torch, Toro,
Whizzer, and Miss America.
This team was created by President Harry Truman in 1946,
which was the year after Cap would be frozen in 1945.
There was also a very short run on "Captain America"
comics from the '50s, where issues number 76 through 78
showed Cap and Bucky fighting communists before the book was
cancelled.
There were other inconsistencies as well
that we'll touch on in a bit, but you get the general idea.
Cap was around in comics during times
when his backstory said he was frozen in ice.
So the question then is, if Captain America was frozen
in 1945, then how do you explain his comic book appearances
in the time between the war being over
and his revival in the Avengers?
The simple answer is that it wasn't Steve Rogers, but rather
someone else standing in for the role of Captain America.
This shouldn't come as much of a surprise,
since the mantle of Captain America
has been taken up by more than a few people over the years,
like Isaiah Bradley; Bucky, aka the Winter Soldier;
and most recently Falcon, plus many others.
What's kind of interesting is that it wasn't just
one man standing in for Rogers during this time,
but a few of them.
The first one to take on the role
after Rogers went missing in 1945
was a man named William Naslund, aka the Spirit of '76,
which we can see in "What If" number four.
Naslund was inspired by Captain America
to help with the war effort, so he
became the Spirit of '76, where he would help fight in any way
that he could, like taking down Nazi spies
or even teaming up with Cap himself once.
When Cap went missing and was presumed dead,
President Truman asked Naslund to become the second Captain
America, along with a kid named Fred Davis who
would become the new Bucky, who was really
just a bat boy for the Yankees.
Though he did impersonate Bucky once before,
so I guess that qualified him for the role.
Together, they would fight alongside Namor, Human Torch,
and the rest of the Invaders, who later changed their name
to the All-Winners Squad.
Naslund, aka the Spirit of '76, aka the second Captain America
didn't really last that long.
He was killed a very short time later in that same comic book
when an android crushed him to death.
He was found by another hero named Patriot, who became
the next Captain America.
Now, there is a little bit more to the story behind Patriot
that is best explained in a miniseries
from 2010 called "Captain America-- Patriot."
Naturally, Jeffrey Mace was a reporter
who was inspired by Captain America
to fight as a costumed hero named Patriot during World War
II, even joining a team of heroes called the Liberty
Legion.
The team splits up as the war comes to a close,
and in 1946 Patriot finds himself
in Boston during the same time that the All-Winners
Squad was on their mission where Naslund died.
Androids were going to kill John F. Kennedy,
replace him with robots-- classic comics stuff.
The team was all split up and Naslund found himself in
over his head.
He sends up a flare, but not before being critically wounded
by one of the androids.
Patriot follows the flare and finds Naslund,
who dies shortly thereafter.
At the time, Patriot had no idea that Naslund wasn't
the original Captain America.
He believed that he just witnessed the death of his hero
and inspiration.
What he does know is that Cap's mission with the All-Winners
Squad isn't over yet.
He puts on a spare costume and finishes the fight
as Captain America.
When the battle is over, Bucky-- or rather the kid filling in
as Bucky-- spots that this Captain America isn't Naslund.
Patriot unmasks himself and explains
to the group what happened.
But they all know that the Captain America name needs
to live on, so Patriot is accepted as part of the team
without hesitation.
Patriot grows to become a respected member of the team
and close friend to Fred Davis, aka Bucky number two.
Unfortunately, Davis was shot one night.
He survives, but retires from the role of Bucky.
Patriot then takes up a new partner
named Golden Girl, whose real name is Betsy Ross,
and they end up getting married and settling down
as they both retire from the superhero lifestyle as well.
But the Captain America name must live on!
So now we have yet another stand in during the 1950s
with William Burnside.
As a boy, Burnside was devastated
when he heard that Captain America disappeared.
He dedicated his life to studying Cap and his exploits,
even travelling to Germany to read up on Cap from the other
side of the war.
While reading through some files,
he discovered the written down formula
for the super soldier serum that enhanced Steve Rogers.
Burnside took his findings to the president
and demanded that he be made into a new Captain America
and fight in the Korean War.
He even went under plastic surgery
so he could look and sound exactly like Steve Rogers.
But the next day, the war was over
and the president didn't want to introduce a new Captain
America to the public, for fear that it would shake up
more controversy.
So a disappointed Burnside went off
to pursue a teaching career, still living under the name
and face of Steve Rogers.
One day, he saw a younger student reading
about Captain America.
As obsessed as Burnside was, he looked like Bucky
and even called himself that on occasion,
but his real name was Jack Monroe.
They became friends, and injected themselves
with the super soldier serum so that they
could fight in the names of Captain America and Bucky
like they always had dreamed.
This was the pair that fought against communism
in the unsuccessful revival of Captain America in the 1950s.
Burnside and Monroe took a turn for the worse
when they realized that the super soldier serum alone
wasn't the entire process that enhanced Steve Rogers.
A crucial part of the process was the introduction
of Vita-Rays that the duo did not have access to.
So they started experiencing side effects
of the serum, namely paranoid schizophrenia, where
they gradually lost touch with reality.
They started thinking everyone was a communist and fought
anyone they didn't think were quote "pure-blooded Americans."
They were out of control, so the government
captured them and put them on ice indefinitely.
Eventually, they were thawed out and came back
as villains that Cap and Falcon fought in "Captain America"
number 153 through 156, as well as popping up a few other times
over the years.
Notably, once being brainwashed and made
the leader of a neo-Nazi group, where
he took the name of the Grand Director
before he snapped back to reality
and set himself on fire due to the overwhelming mental strain
and realization that he was manipulated
to oppose the very hero that inspired him.
We've all been there.
The last we saw of Burnside, he was hit by a truck
and hospitalized.
The real Captain America showed up to talk to him,
and he revealed that they had faked Burnside's funeral
and are moving him to another hospital
so that he can finally let go, start a new life,
and let Steve carry the full burden of Captain America.
Burnside's Bucky, aka Jack Monroe
also went on to have his own entire history as Nomad,
Scourge, and eventually being shot
and dying at the hands of the original Bucky.
So that is just some of the interesting stuff that
happened in order to cover up all of the Captain America
appearances after the war had ended.
And that's what I think makes comics so interesting--
the ability to create full stories and characters
from minor screw ups and inconsistencies.
Trust me, this only scratches the surface
of the crazy retcons behind Cap's origin.
There are a bunch of things that I didn't have time
to talk about, but I will put links in the description
if you want to check out more fun trivia behind the history
of Captain America.
What do you guys think?
Were all of these retcons necessary?
Do you like having multiple versions of Captain America
throughout history, and would you
like to see them pop up in the MCU in some capacity?
Personally, I think it would have
been neat to have the "Agent Carter" TV show explore
a replacement Captain America, like Patriot or somebody,
and see how Peggy deals with all that, but.
This video is a part of NerdSync Avengers month.
We're doing a whole month of Avengers and Marvel
episodes in preparation for "Age of Ultron."
We've got plenty more time that I'm very excited about.
So make sure you hit that big sexy subscribe button so you
don't miss out on any of it.
Once again, I'm Scott, you can find me
on Twitter and Instagram, and we will see you
right here on Friday for a tie-in video
also about Captain America, one that's really cool,
and more things that you thought you knew about comics.
See ya!