Major America

Origin

Anti-Cap was a pretty normal teenager living in Sayreville, Oklahoma. He had a girlfriend who he loved and was pretty content with his life. That was until his girlfriend died in the Oklahoma City Bombings.

This event triggered a deep hatred within him against all terrorists and he soon tried to enlist in the Army but was rejected on the grounds that he wasn’t fit enough. After failing to pass tests to fight against terrorists, the kid was approached by the Government who wanted him to take part in a Naval Intelligence project to recreate the Super Soldier Serum.

Having being unable to recreate the drug successfully in the past, this time a new method was used in which the patient would receive regular doses of a drug called Acetovaxidol (AVX) which promised to enhance his strength and pain threshold to Super Soldier levels. Regular ingesting of the drug was provided by a chip implanted on Anti-Cap’s spine. Unfortunately the AVX didn’t seem to work and the patient’s physical attributes didn’t seem enhanced in the slightest, so Admiral Jimmy Westbrook executed him in cold blood.

This action was what was needed to kick-start the drug in his body, and the Anti-Cap survived the shooting and now found himself with enhanced strength and speed. Despite Westbrook’s claims that he knew this would happen, Anti-Cap remained sceptical about the attempt on his life. The kid began wearing a costume very similar to Captain America’s and acting as The Navy’s very own Super Sailor. He was operational for over two years and took part in operations in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

Creation

Major America was created by Christopher Priest and Bart Sears and first appeared in Captain America & the Falcon issue 1 (2004) and appeared through-out the series as both an antagonist and an ally to the titular heroes.

Character Evolution

Throughout the series, the character was never given a real name or a codename, in one issue Alisande Morales dubbed him “Anti-Cap” as he was similar to the real Captain America in all but values. Due to no in-universe name ever being revealed, this nickname became the character’s de facto name.

The character’s first appearance featured him running around Cuba threatening and killing people while dressed as Captain America suggesting to the reader that this was the real Captain America. It wasn’t until the final panel, after having shot and killed several members of the Rivas drug cartel, that the character unmasked and we discovered this wasn’t the real Captain America after all.

The character returned when super-villain Superia restructured the mainstream reality in Captain America Corps. Here he was a member and spokesperson for Superia’s team of Avengers which mostly consisted of similar strong-minded patriotic vigilantes. He returned to his state of death when reality was once again returned to normal.

Major Story Arcs

Two Americas

Seeking to expose Project AVX, the project responsible for both Luke Cage and the Anti-Cap, reporter Leila Taylor attempted to smuggle out samples but was caught and arrested, only to be broken out of jail by Falcon afterwards. However, the Anti-Cap was sent to Cuba to track down the Falcon and Leila and retrieve their evidence.

After shooting his way through the Rivas compound, he captured both and began his journey back to the U.S. Unbeknownst to him, he was being set up by the Navy who had felt he had gotten out of hand. The Navy tipped SHIELD off to “rogue agent” which led to the real Captain America, the Scarlet Witch and SHIELD agent Alisande Morales on his trail. Along the way, the real Captain America engaged him in a dog fight, forcing Anti-Cap to jettison his damaged jet and captives.

After Anti-Cap escaped from the crash he tried to track Falcon again and when he found him he was confronted by the real Captain America. An intense brawl between the two took place across downtown Manhattan, where Anti-Cap seemed to be capable of over-powering the real Captain America.

During battle, Anti-Cap revealed to Captain America that he admires him greatly and while he put the costume on to impersonate him he has no desire to take it off. He also stole Captain America’s shield.

Anti-Cap continued on to berate Captain America and how he isn’t suitable against the War on Terror and that he doesn’t have the will to win the new war. Anti-Cap refuses to back down and surrender, knowing that doing so will likely result in him being executed as the Navy feels he has gotten out of hand and has combined forces with SHIELD to bring him down. Anti-Cap pulls rank and as Naval Captain asks Captain America to stand down. Captain America stands back as Anti-Cap begins to leave, warning Captain America that the “war goes on”. At the last minute, Falcon arrives and blasts the Anti-Cap with a taser which short-circuits the chip administering his dosage of AVX and he is subdued by Captain America and Falcon.

Disassembled

With both the Navy and SHIELD wanting to get their hands on the Anti-Cap, Captain America and Falcon helped the operative go into hiding. Anti-Cap was held at the Wakandan embassy where neither organisations could touch him.

However, the operative began suffering from serious AVX withdrawal and continued to berate Captain America. Captain America began seeing the kid as Bucky, and feeling guilty about the death of his former partner, swore to protect the Anti-Cap.

As Captain America and Falcon continued to stalemate the Navy and SHIELD by refusing to relinquish the Anti-Cap from their protection. Meanwhile, Tony Stark and Hank Pym worked to try and develop a substance to replace the Anti-Cap’s dependence on AVX.

Upon returning to the Embassy, Captain America discovered that the Anti-Cap was having violent seizures from his lack of AVX which led to the operative seemingly dying in Captain America’s arms. His final words stating how he still admires Captain America.

Brothers and Keepers

Captain America attended his funeral on the North Atlantic. Captain America discusses the kid with Westbrook and the nature of AVX and Westbrook reveals that nobody ever learnt his name. Anti-Cap’s coffin is launched out to see.

Despite his assurances to Captain America, Westbrook deployed divers into the sea to retrieve Anti-Cap’s body for further analysis. The Falcon however has anticipated this and fights them off and retrieves Anti-Cap’s body for his own motives.

It is revealed that though appearing to have died from AVX withdrawal, Anti-Cap was actually only comatose from paralytic drugs smuggled in by Falcon who had saved him because, like the Anti-Cap, Falcon had been set up by Admiral Westbrook. Falcon promises to supply Anti-Cap with AVX if he helps him get his life back.

The Anti-Cap and Falcon teamed up to kill Westbrook, who had been making deals with the Rivas drug cartel and had set them both up to take the fall. The two attacked Westbrook’s personal yacht while he was holding a party and Anti-Cap was prepared to assassinate Jimmy but was unable to as Westbrook activated a neuralizer built into his chip rendering him no longer a threat.

Westbrook was ready to, again, execute Anti-Cap but before it could happen, MODOK arrived and confronted the two, manipulating them and using memories to try and get the two to join the ranks of A.I.M. In Anti-Cap’s case, MODOK spoke to him as his girlfriend, trying to condition him into becoming a killing machine for A.I.M. Anti-Cap realised what was happen and he and the Falcon tried to fight the manipulations, but ultimately were unsuccessful.

The real Captain America arrived and saved the two from captivity. While Captain America and Falcon did battle with MODOK. The Anti-Cap used this as his chance to escape from the duo and avoid being re-captured by them.

American Psycho

The Anti-Cap once again continued his War on Terror after escaping MODOK. He began killing and torturing suspected terrorists and their associates.

The Falcon manages to locate Anti-Cap again after he kills the Royal Family of Baud Olan for helping the terrorists. What transpires between the two isn’t seen, but the Falcon goes missing afterwards.

Anti-Cap’s assassination of the Baud Olan Royal Family almost starts an international incident, and Captain America finds himself trying to track the Super Sailor once again hoping he can also shed light on the disappearance of his partner.

With the help of Robbie Robertson, Captain America learns of a missing French doctor who has recently been buying components of the AVX drug. Captain America follows the trail to Paris where he finds the kidnapped doctor and the Anti-Cap.

Anti-Cap and Captain America engage in another enormous fight through the streets of Paris. The brutal fight winds up with the two battling in a Subway station, Anti-Cap claims that the Falcon is dead and almost has Captain America beat until Redwing shows up and distracts him. The tables turn, as Anti-Cap’s dosage of AVX begins to wear off.

As Anti-Cap realises his defeat at the hands of Captain America, wanting to avoid imprisonment, he allows a train to run him over claiming “death before dishonor” before martyring himself. Captain America is shocked by the Anti-Caps suicide and follows Redwing to discover the Falcon’s costume lying in a graveyard in Paris.

It was revealed that the Navy attempted to extract any remains of the body from Paris to further deny any involvement in the project, where they clashed with a SHIELD team who were hoping to attain the body for themselves. SHIELD allegedly secured them remains for themselves but what they sought to do with them has never been established.

Captain America Corps

The super-villain Superia travelled back in time in hopes of altering the past to make herself rule the world in the future. One of her first acts was ensuring that the real Captain America was never discovered by the Avengers. Superia then established herself as a costumed hero called Broad-Stripe and managed to join the ranks of Avengers. When the original team of Iron Man, Thor, Ant Man and Wasp broke up, without Captain America to form a new team Broad-Stripe did instead.

Broad-Stripe recruited the “Anti-Cap”, who was still alive in her altered reality, for her new team of Avengers and he was re-dubbed Major America. Major America appeared to lead the team, as well as act as the group’s main spokesman, however behind the scenes it was Broad-Stripe who controlled most of the group.

Major America, and the Avengers, fought against many threats to the country such as the Red Skull and the robotic Sleeper. Major America also located Nazi war criminal Baron Zemo‘s lair and murdered him in cold blood. Major America then ordered the attack against and eventual execution of Alien invader Mar-Vell, the capture and imprisonment of the X-Men and backed the campaign of “strong-minded” politicians such as Senator Miles Brickman. The influence of the new team of Avengers eventually led to them policing the entire country and the mysterious disappearances and retirements of many of Earth’s actual heroes.

When the Captain America Corps entered this new reality, Major America and the Avengers captured the team and held them at Seagate Prison. At Major America and Broad-Stripe’s insistence, the members of the Corps were tortured. When the Corps escaped with several “political prisoners”, such as Luke Cage and Sam Wilson, Major America led a group to re-capture the escapees to no avail. He later argued with Broad-Stripe about the amount of resources and time she was devoting to the capture and elimination of the Corps of Captain Americas. Broad-Stripe responded by blasting Major America with her energy force, sending him flying across the room, and re-affirming to the group and him just who was really in charge of the group.

Major America later fought with the real Captain America when the Corps and a team of rebels assaulted the Avengers headquarters on Valhalla Mountain. Major America was one of the final Avengers still standing in the ensuing battle but once again went down proclaiming his own superiority and appropriateness for fighting against the country’s real threats. As Captain America beat him, Major America declared himself as “the opposite to Captain America; an Anti-Cap!”.

Major America regained his strength and then battled against Commander A, who was aware of Major’s history – claiming he was barely a footnote, and disarmed his AVX implants, rendering him powerless.

Later, when the timestream became unhinged, history corrected itself to its true state and as such Major America faded away to “perhaps his final destiny”. It’s presumed he once again returned to his death.

Powers and Abilities

The Anti-Cap has absolutely no strength or impressive physical attributes without a routine dosage of Acetovaxidol (AVX), a drug developed by the Office of Naval Intelligence as a substitute for the Super Soldier Serum.

When supplied with AVX via a neural net processor grafted to his spine, Anti-Cap possesses super-soldier abilities. As well as his enhanced strength and athletic ability, the chip regulates his pain, reflexes and timing and helps accelerate his healing.

Anti-Cap also carries with him an arsenal of weaponry to aid him in his War on Terror. Among machine guns, pistols and combat knives, Anti-Cap also regularly carries a replica shield modelled on that of Captain America’s. The shield proves to be less than durable as it is shattered from the impact of the real Captain America’s shield and another shield is smashed into pieces by the train that kills Anti-Cap.

Physical Characteristics

Born: Sayreville, Oklahoma.

Height: 6’4″

Weight: 258lbs

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Dark brown