U.S.Agent

Origin

John Walker was born in Custer’s Grove, Georgia, to parents Caleb and Emily Walker. He had an older brother, Michael, and a sister, Kate. Growing up, John idolized his older brother who had since died in the Vietnam war. The moment John turned of age he enlisted in the army, against his mother’s silent wishes, hoping to prove himself as a “hero” like his brother. While in the army, Walker befriended Lemar Hoskins, as well as Hector Lennox and Jerome Johnson. The quartet served their time together and when they went back to the real world, John felt he still hadn’t proven himself as a hero.

Not long after, the group were approached by a representative of the Power Broker who offered them enhanced strength and power. They agreed to his strength augmentation process and soon after were ready to enlist in the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation like many of the Power Broker’s successful subjects. Walker however was dissatisfied with this decision and when he was approached by an agent, Ethan Thurm, who wished to represent him as a wrestler, together they instead fleshed out his idea of what he really wanted to do with his strength; be a hero, in the shape of, the Super-Patriot.

Creation

John Walker was created by Mark Gruenwald and Paul Neary and first appeared as Super-Patriot in Captain America #323, 1986. He first appeared as U.S. Agent in a cameo in West Coast Avengers issue 44 and fully in Captain America Vol.1 issue 354 (1989).

Character Evolution

John Walker was introduced as an adversary to Captain America, and early appearances had him doing such things as refusing to help an old lady who was being mugged and organising the beating of exchange students at a college to discredit Captain America. Despite this, he wasn’t exactly a “supervillain” and was more of a misguided wannabe hero who came into conflict with Captain America.

Eventually when Walker became the new Captain America himself, he began to display far more altruistic and heroic tendencies but he was still misguided and showed little restraint against enemies. The defining moment came when his mother and father were murdered by vengeful terrorists he had previously put away. After this incident, Walker had a dramatic personality shift and began down a dark path of brutality and little compassion.

After eventually meeting the real Captain America, Walker gave up the Captain America guise and shortly afterwards began working for the government as the U.S.Agent. He joined the Avengers shortly after, which infuriated Hawkeye who quit in protest, and other members like Iron Man were quick to write Walker off for his origins, his blind devotion to the government and for his appearance as “a Captain America wannabe”.

Despite the bulk of his peer’s negative feelings towards him, fellow Avengers have come to express some degree of faith in Walker. Captain America has come to see Walker as a friend and worthy ally, Hank Pym, the Wasp and Wonder Man also respect him for his bravery and leadership skills and he formed a “big brother” relationship with the Scarlet Witch and Spider-Woman.

Walker has remained a hero, although with complications, since joining the Avengers and has returned to the team multiple times after his initial tenure. Most recently he was seriously crippled fighting alongside the Avengers during Siege where he lost an arm and a leg in a bid to stop Norman Osborn from retrieving Gungnir. Following his injury, he began acting as the Warden to the Raft prison for super-powered criminals as well as assisting Luke Cage and Songbird in the Thunderbolts program. Despite having lost an arm and a leg, Walker is shown to still be in peak condition managing to dispatch a gang of criminals with relative ease.

Major Story Arcs

Clashing Symbols

Upon becoming the Super-Patriot, Walker set himself up as a corporately-sponsored Hero in opposition to Captain America. Walker adamantly felt Captain America wasn’t a good enough symbol for the country, and the title should be handed down by the people to the person the deem most worthy. The Super-Patriot, alongside his friends war-time friends,, began a campaign to discredit Captain America. Lemar, Hector and Jerome acting as a group who claimed to be supporters of Captain America called the “Bold Urban Commandos“. Captain America quickly began to suspect that the Super-Patriot was manipulating the public and was involved with the Bold Urban Commandos after witnessing a staged fight between the Super-Patriot and the team at one of the Patriot’s rallies. Steve Rogers confronted John Walker in public about his suspicions and soon afterwards he was attacked by the Bold Urban Commandos which only cemented his belief.

While Steve tried to remain amicable with the Super-Patriot, when the Bold Urban Commandos began attacking foreign exchange students claiming they were doing so on behalf of Captain America, Steve confronted Walker again. The two, in their superhero guises, engaged in an intense and lengthy fight in the car park of a festival the Super-Patriot was appearing at. During the fight, Captain America was finding it difficult to preserve against his opponent who had far greater strength than him. Captain America eventually admitted defeat and began researching the Power Broker, which led him to make an alliance with D-Man.

Behind the scenes, the Red Skull had slowly maneuvered Steve Rogers into conflicts with the government’s Commission on Superhuman Activities in an attempt to drive him out of his role as Captain America. While Steve Rogers was considering his options and future as Captain America, elsewhere, a terrorist with a nuclear bomb attempted to devastate Washington. With Steve unavailable, Walker was the first on the scene as the Super-Patriot. Walker managed to subdue the terrorist and save the day. His actions worked in his favor as the Super-Patriot, the newest hero on the scene, had won the public’s approval.

Captain America No More

Steve Rogers ultimately decided to relinquish his role as Captain America rather than go to work for the Commission. leaving the country without an important symbol. Valerie Cooper, having read about Walker in the newspapers, invited Walker to take over as Captain America for his effort in saving Washington. After some hesitation he agreed to do so but remained curious about why the last Captain America resigned and tried to arrange a meeting with him to discuss things to no avail.

Walker is soon given the original Captain America’s costume and shield and is as an agent of the government is appointed to the Commission’s superhero team Freedom Force. Walker struggles to get to grips with being as good as the real Captain America should be, and the Commission bring in the Taskmaster in order to help him learn how to properly handle the shield.

Walker requests that in exchange for him taking up the mantle, he wishes also bring his friends in to assist him. Lemar is chosen to become Walker’s “Bucky” but Hector and Jerome are rejected for having engaged in criminal activities in the past. Incredibly resentful for having being abandoned by Walker and Lemar, Hector and Jerome are quick to try and blackmail the government with their intimidate knowledge of the “new Captain America”. Walker and Lemar decide to handle the situation themselves by stealing the Guardsman‘s armor and assaulting their former friends in a bar. The next day, Valerie Cooper confronts Walker about the reports to which Walker decides the best thing to do would be to be honest and confess to doing so.

Baptism of Fire

Walker and Lemar’s first task is to infiltrate the Watchdogs, a very conservative terrorist group based out of Walker’s hometown. Walker is conflicted as he agrees with the Watchdogs basic views and the fact that some of the members are old friends of his. To infiltrate the group, Lemar poses as a sleazy photographer who Walker barges in and assaults during a “talent search”. Walker is eventually arrested and bailed out by the Watchdogs which was their plan all along.

While Walker is infiltrating the group, Lemar is captured and the gang decide to lynch him and Walker has to choose whether to allow this or break his cover and save his comrade. He guiltily leaves Lemar to hang, trying his hardest to reassure himself Lemar can break free. When the group decide to torch a library for housing books they deemed unlawful, he Walker chooses the right thing to do and unveils himself as Captain America dispatching the group with ease.

He returns to Lemar to, thankfully, see he was in fact strong enough to break free from his lynching but this doesn’t make Walker feel any less guilty about having left his friend to die.

The Captain

Soon after, Steve Rogers discovers that there is a new Captain America acting and adopts a new identity himself; simply as The Captain. With the help of Falcon, Nomad and D-Man, Steve begins his own career parallel to the new Captain America and Bucky’s. While Steve battles the Serpent Society, Walker and Lemar are pitted against Professor Power. During battle, Walker becomes irritated by his opponent and his constant gadgets and beats him to death. Walker is instantly stricken with remorse and guilt feeling as if he has completely let down the Captain America ideal. Lemar tries to reassure him by telling him to stop being so hard on himself, to which Walker simply replies he’s going too easy on himself.

Fall of the Mutants

For more information see: Fall of the Mutants

Walker and Lemar (who has also being assigned to Freedom Force) begin to develop a rivalry with their team-mates who are comprised entirely of former mutant villains and members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants masquerading as government-sponsored heroes. Tensions between the two almost reach boiling point when the news breaks that the X-Men have apparently died and that the mutant known as Apocalypse has launched an attack on the country.

Freedom Force are dispatched to deal with one of Apocalypse’s horsemen; Famine who is ravaging the countryside. Freedom Force arrive only to discover that someone has already taken care of the problem for them and Famine is nowhere to be seen. Unbeknownst to them, it was The Captain and his allies.

Soon after, Freedom Force are sent to track down an unregistered mutant and Walker and Lemar are shocked to find he’s a scared teenager. After reluctantly apprehending him, they are attacked by The Resistants who defeat Freedom Force with relative ease and free the captive mutant. Walker and Lemar awake later to realize they’ve messed up again and swear to track down the Resistants and make up for their blunder.

Downfall of Captain America

After several successful missions, the Commission decide to reveal to the public the current Captain America is actually a replacement. While preparing to make their first official appearance, Lemar opts to change his superhero name to Battlestar after discovering that the term “Bucky” had racist connotations in certain parts of the country. As the two heroes walk out to speak to the public they are accosted on stage by Jerome and Hector, now calling themselves Right-Winger and Left-Winger. They announce to the public the new Captain America’s real identity is John Walker of Custer’s Grove, Georgia but before they can reveal anything else, Walker and Lemar subdue them in battle.

Shortly afterwards, Walker and Lemar are tasked with capturing Steve Rogers who the Commission have become aware of his activities as The Captain following a major crisis in which he saved President Ronald Reagan from Viper. Elsewhere, in Custer’s Grove, Walker’s parents are taken hostage by members of the Watchdogs seeking revenge for the new Captain America’s prior conflict with them. Walker soon discovers this and abandons his mission to try and save his parents.

Walker arrives in Custer’s Grove and surrenders to the Watchdogs who take him to an abandoned barn where they intend to hang him. Walker’s parents are brought out to watch their son be executed and they are shocked to discover that their son is actually Captain America. Realising his parents are still in danger, Walker manages to escape his noose and attempts to fight his way out to get his parents to safety but along the way they are both are caught in crossfire and killed. The act causes Walker to lose all control and brutal attack and murder all of the Watchdogs present. After killing his parent’s killers, Walker breaks down and is soon arrested at the scene of the crime.

Out of Commission

Walker is released back into the care of the Commission and is reprimanded and told he is to hand in his uniform and shield. Walker still distraught over his parent’s death couldn’t care less and is happy to comply. Before he can leave the Commission’s employ, however, Walker is given one more chance to prove himself as Captain America, unbeknownst to him at the behest of the Red Skull‘s infiltrator in the Commission.

Active as Captain America again, Walker and Freedom Force intend to go up against The Resistants once more. This time the team have a plan to lure them out of hiding by using a captive mutant as bait and then trail them back to their base. However the plan is utterly ruined when the Resistants arrive to liberate the captive and in the madness, Walker again loses control and kills and severely injures all of The Resistants present. The Commission and the rest of Freedom Force are quick to penalize Walker for his actions while Lemar discovers that Walker was forced to miss his parent’s funeral for the sake of this mission.

While on the outs with the Commission, and likely going to be put on trial for several counts of murder, Walker decides to track down Hector and Jerome. Blaming the two for his parent’s death, he begins to approach their parents and threaten them which leads to a confrontation between Walker and his former friends on an oil rig. A brutal fight between Walker and the two breaks out and upon beating them, Walker ties them both up, lights a match and leaves them to die in an oil tanker explosion. Walker walks away smiling as his former friends scream out in agony as they are engulfed in flames. The two miraculously survive the incident but are critically injured.

Evolutionary War

For more information see: Evolutionary War

As the High Evolutionary declares war on humanity, the Flag-Smasher resurfaces and takes an entire Arctic outpost hostage and demands to see Captain America in exchange for freeing his prisoners. The Commission, despite having just fired him, decide to send Walker assuming that Flag-Smasher won’t know the difference.

On the way there, Walker is emotionally distant from everyone including Lemar. When Walker arrives at the outpost, the Flag-Smasher insists he surrenders to which Walker refuses stating he isn’t bothered if Flag-Smasher kills him or any of the hostages. With this, Flag-Smasher instantly realizes that this isn’t the real Captain America and a fight breaks out between the two which Walker loses.

Walker is taken away and tortured by Flag-Smasher over the next few days until Lemar arrives alongside the Avengers, whom he had went to for help instead of the Commission or Freedom Force, and together they free Walker. Flag-Smasher escapes, with Captain America’s shield, and is later engaged by the Avengers and Steve Rogers reclaims his shield from the terrorist.

Boiling Point

On top of the murder charges and countless botched missions, Walker is also held accountable for having lost the original Captain America’s shield in battle with Flag-Smasher for which the Commission finally wash their hands of him and fire him for good. As Lemar tries to comfort and help him, Walker dismisses him for having humiliated him, believing that he could’ve escaped from Flag-Smasher without his help and for bringing in the Avengers.

Following this, the Red Skull orchestrates a meeting between an enraged John Walker and Steve Rogers with the hopes that Walker will kill Steve. After the Red Skull, in disguise, manages to convince Walker that Steve is ultimately responsible for the death of his parents, Walker and Steve share a passionate and brutal fight. With both the men close to defeat, Steve eventually manages to uncover the Red Skull’s involvement at the expense of his victory over Walker. The Red Skull revealed to both the men, Walker opts to save Steve from a surprise attack by the Red Skull at the last minute.

The Red Skull manages to escape, and the two men decide to go to the Commission together to sort everything out and expose the Red Skull’s machinations in a lot of the events that have led to this point. Steve is reluctant to become Captain America again at the desire of the Commission until outside Walker approaches Steve and implores that Steve becomes Captain America again believing that nobody else could ever live up to the legacy of Captain America.

Changing of the Guard

Following his resignation as Captain America, Walker is prepared to face charges for his crimes and at a press conference in which Walker announces his resignation, he is targeted by both Scourge and the Watchdogs. Walker is assassinated by a member of the Watchdogs but before his assailant can escape he is in turn gunned down by Scourge.

Following Walker’s death, Lemar became suspicious of the events and the Commission’s attitude in sweeping it all under the rug and upon discovering that Walker in fact hadn’t died he quits the Commission and Freedom Force himself. After the attempted assassination of Walker, the Commission spent the next few months investing great time and money in training him and helping him with therapy to deal with his parent’s deaths. With his memories of his parents death repressed to the point that he still believed they were alive as well as a new costume and name; the U.S.Agent was the Commission’s new super-powered operative. The costume he wore was the discarded costume of Steve Rogers’ from his days as The Captain and came complete with the Vibranium shield that Black Panther had designed for Steve to wield.

The Commission’s U.S.Agent project was their response to not being able to control the real Captain America as they had done Walker and a deal was struck between the two parties that the Commission would allow Steve to continue as Captain America without interference if he relinquished his former “Captain” costume and identity and accepted the US Agent as a member of the Avengers.

Follow the Leader

As part of their arrangement, Walker was soon forced upon Hawkeye’s team of Avengers which didn’t sit well with most of his new colleagues. Walker was to act as the team’s new leader, which led to their actual leader Hawkeye and his wife quitting the team in protest and forming another group of Avengers in response. The rest of the team opted to simply accept Walker into their ranks and discovered Walker was quick to enforce odd new policies on the team such as mandating that Vision must wear clothes at all times and that the team should eat a healthy breakfast every morning. Decisions like these led to the rest of the team opting to not bother alerting him and leaving him at the mansion as they quickly left to deal with a threat.

Walker also infuriated his team-mates when he inducted the recently revived Human Torch into the team without conferring with the rest of them, neglecting to tell anyone else that Tigra had been acting weird and bestial around the mansion and refusing to welcome Iron Man back onto the team without the government’s approval first. Despite the tension between the team and their new “leader”, Walker was shown to privately voice great belief in the team as people – particularly the Scarlet Witch.

Fragments of Greater Darkness

On his first mission with the team, Walker and the Avengers found them under attack by Master Pandemonium who wanted to claim the the souls of the Scarlet Witch’s children for himself believing they were actually parts of his own missing soul. As the team battled off an army of Pandemonium’s demonic forces, they quickly discovered Walker offered little in terms of leadership skills or experience in dealing with things of this nature and was only really able to motivate them to continuously attack. The team, and even Walker himself, wound up looking to Hank Pym for leadership instead.

With the assistance of Agatha Harkness, the original Human Torch was able to defeat Pandemonium but not before the truth about Scarlet Witch’s children was revealed to the team by both Mephisto and Harkness. Due to her desire to have children, the Scarlet Witch had an imaginary pregnancy that appeared real due to her own unpredictable hex power and her two children were never real. As Harkness revealed that she had closed a part of Scarlet Witch’s mind so she would never remember she even had children, Walker stepped up and scolded Harkness for the inhumane decision as the Avengers saw for the first time a caring side of their new leader.

Atlantis Attacks

For more information see: Atlantis Attacks

As the Atlanteans were attacking the surface world, the Scarlet Witch and 6 other women were kidnapped to be Brides of Set. The Avengers were one of the many superhero teams who opposed the assault and tried to free the captive “brides”. As the Avengers battled, Walker and Pym went to investigate a lead on a nameless pacific island as Captain America assumed leadership of both Avengers teams in their absence.

Instead of finding an Atlantean outpost or anything relevant, they instead discovered one of the High Evolutionary’s bases from the Evolutionary War. Walker and Pym were quickly targeted and attacked by one of the High Evolutionary’s Storm Troopers and during their battle with it Walker began to unravel his own repressed memory of his parent’s death. Although he was quick to brush them off as simply remembering a bad nightmare and continued to believe his parents were still alive and well. After defeating their attacker, the two Avengers discovered that the Trooper believed the Evolutionary War was still ongoing.

Acts of Vengeance

For more information see: Acts of Vengeance

When Loki began a campaign to destroy the Avengers once and for all, he and a group of villainous masterminds orchestrated an onslaught of attacks on the Avengers and other superheroes by various super-villains. The sudden heightened appearances of villains also brought the serial killer known as Scourge out of the woodwork and Walker was contacted on behalf of the Commission to capture and apprehend him.

Walker snuck away from the Avengers to complete this mission for the Commission and while he was gone the rest of the team were attacked by the U-Foes. While Walker pursued Scourge, he discovered that in actual fact the Commission cared very little about the actual apprehension of the serial killer and simply wanted Walker to prevent Scourge from assassinating the Power Broker because his strength-augmentation process was too valuable an asset to them.

After subduing Scourge and also inadvertently ruining the Power Broker’s operation, Walker returned to find the Avengers now under attack by the Mole Man. After Iron Man criticised their “leader” for his absence during the U-Foes’ attack which badly damaged their mansion, the team managed to convince the Mole Man to relent his assault on them.

The Avengers all gathered together afterwards to work out who was behind these recent attacks on them, meanwhile the team of masterminds themselves had already begun to fall apart due to tensions between the various megalomaniacs and arrogance between the quorum. When two of the masterminds, Mandarin and Wizard, launched an ill-fated attack on the Avengers, the team uncovered the true nature of these attacks and who was involved. The team managed to defeat Loki and Thor banished him but the rest of the villains escaped or were unaccounted for in the final fight.

The Dark Scarlet Witch Saga

Magneto, who had severed ties with the Acts of Vengeance masterminds much earlier on, tracked down his daughter who was still in a catatonic state of shock from recently losing her husband, her children and being brainwashed by Set. As the Avengers were busy battling Loki, Agatha Harkness had taken the Scarlet Witch into her home to watch over while she was in her current near-comatose state only to be confronted with Magneto who managed to kidnap his daughter torn Harkness’s cottage from it’s base and hurled skyward.

Wonder Man arrived to check in on their team-mate to discover from Harkness that the cottage had disappeared into the sky. He also found Walker present who was concerned for the Scarlet Witch himself and caught a glimpse of the house heading skyward. The two Avengers hop in a Quinjet and head into Earth’s orbit to find the cottage where they discover that in their absence Magneto has manipulated the Scarlet Witch into joining him in a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The two are attacked by the Scarlet Witch who kills Wonder Man and badly injures Walker.

The Wasp arrives at Agatha’s cottage, which has since returned back down to Earth after Magneto left, and encounters Walker who attempts to warn her to get away and call the Avengers but it’s too late as Wasp is confronted by the Scarlet Witch. The maddened Scarlet Witch held Walker, Wasp and Harkness captive using her hex power to hold them in place and also brought Wonder Man back to life and repeatedly killed him and brought him back over and over again to torture him.

Following more personal torture of Wonder Man, Scarlet Witch grows bored and decides to turn her attentions to Walker who she believes is jealous that Wonder Man is getting special attention. Magneto arrives having left to conduct some other business and is greeted by arrival of more Avengers: Hank Pym, the Human Torch, Iron Man and Quicksilver. While Hank seems to have the situation in hand, Quicksilver betrays the rest of the Avengers and knocks Hank out allying himself with Magneto and his sister.

The new Brotherhood leave as the Avengers regroup to plan an attack to try and save Scarlet Witch from Magneto’s clutches on Asteroid M. The Avengers attack is less than successful with the Human Torch being killed by the Scarlet Witch and Walker being critically crushed by strips of metal by Magneto. After defeat, Magneto uses his power to entrap the team within a huge ball of metal (composed of their Quinjet) and transport them back to Earth with the reminder they do not stand a chance against the new Brotherhood.

With Walker out of action for a while, Hawkeye returned to the team and arrogantly wished to lead the team again but was dismayed to discover Walker had recovered from his injuries and again resumed his “leadership”. An infuriated Hawkeye opted to stay since the team had lost two members in the Human Torch and Scarlet Witch but began undermining Walker’s leadership and trying to convince the rest of the team to nominate himself as the team’s chairperson.

Elsewhere it was revealed Quicksilver and Pym had actually been working together and he was feigning allegiance to Magneto in a bid to try and secure and save his sister. When the Scarlet Witch found out she broke his legs but not before Quicksilver used a shrunken Lockjaw (thanks to Pym!) to transport himself, her and Magneto to the Avengers mansion. In the ensuing battle, Magneto discovered that the Scarlet Witch was being manipulated by some greater force when she entered a trance and even his own power could not phase her. He took his leave as the Avengers brought the entranced Scarlet Witch back to their mansion and were soon presented with the greater force: Immortus.

Immortus sought to use the Scarlet Witch and her power as a nexus for him to control over all time itself. Transporting himself, the Scarlet Witch and the Avengers to his Limbo dimension, he brought forth a new version of the Legion of the Unliving to defeat the interfering Avengers for him. Battling against the Legion, Walker was forced to fight against Hector and Jerome and was puzzled to why they were a part of the Legion of the Unliving as they had actually survived their brutal fight some months earlier. Walker disposed of his former friends as the rest of the Avengers also managed to defeat the rest of the Legion, and then Immortus’ servant Tempus, the team confront Immortus once more.

It was then that the Time-Keepers arrived and unveiled that they had recruited Immortus as an agent for them but he had been acting out of his own interests in his attempt to use the Scarlet Witch. Faced with a problem that was far out of his depth, Walker wished to bring the Time-Keepers and Immortus back and put them on trial by the U.S. goverment. After seeing the extent of the Time-Keepers power, Walker admitted he had no experience dealing with Cosmic powered beings and on-the-spot handed over leadership of the team to Hank Pym.

The Time-Keepers decided to free the Scarlet Witch from Immortus’ influence, banished Immortus and transported the rest of the Avengers back to their mansion in the blink of an eye.

The Unremembered Past

Walker’s former sidekick Lemar arrived at the Avengers mansion to reunite with his friend but instead was attacked by Walker when Lemar suggested that Walker’s parents were dead. Walker’s fellow Avengers broke up the fight between the two and Lemar was sent on his way.

Shortly after, Lemar was captured by the Power Broker who sought to use Lemar as a further test subject in a bid to get expand his strength augmentation process after Walker had previously caused problems for it during Acts of Vengeance. Captured and helpless, Lemar was eventually freed by Walker who again shut down the Power Broker’s organisation.

Afterwards, Walker wanted to know why Lemar had insisted his parents were dead and, realising his friend’s memory of his parent’s death was deeply repressed, Lemar took Walker to his parent’s grave. Discovering the truth about his parents, Walker broke down and cried.

Following Walker’s discovery, he became incredibly angry and depressive and blamed himself for his parent’s death and began a quest to find peace with himself. After learning that Hector and Jerome had killed themselves shortly after his fight with them those months earlier (explaining why they were among the Legion of the Unliving), Walker again began blaming himself for their deaths and after some serious soul-searching and attempting to set himself on fire believing it was God’s intention, Walker resolved that from now on he wouldn’t kill another person again and would show greater restraint so that he has no more death on his conscience.

The Terminus Factor

For more information see: The Terminus Factor

Walker was among Pym’s Avengers who were the first Avengers team to respond to the attacks from Terminus on the country. As the team attempted to extinguish Terminus’ threat, Walker courageously attempted to battle the gigantic Terminus all by himself to no avail. His team-mates respected his bravery but also lauded his stupidity in single-handedly trying to fight a foe way out of his league with only his head-strong attitude and fists. Eventually, the Avengers were joined by Captain America’s team as well as the Great Lakes Avengers and together the three teams were able to overcome Terminus.

No Escape

Walker’s next mission for the Commission was to apprehend and arrest Frank Castle, the vigilante otherwise known as the Punisher. Despite Walker feeling the Commission were overstepping their boundaries since Castle was not a superhuman, he predictably agreed to complete the assignment. On his way out, Walker overheard certain members of the Commission berate him for being nothing but their personal whipping boy.

Walker locates the Punisher and after some hand-to-hand combat, the two are evenly matched. The Punisher discloses that he is attempting to take down the Maggia, Walker joined forces with Castle and the two began a quest to bring down an expanding mob family before it was too late. The two launched an assault on the mob bosses mansion and were challenged by Paladin who had been hired as the mob bosses personal bodyguard. Walker found himself battling Paladin as Castle ascended onto the mansion guns blazing. After breaking both of Paladin’s legs, Walker caught up with Punisher and sensing a kindred spirit, he let him go and then convinced the Commission that the vigilante had died in an explosion at the mansion.

The Reaper and the Robot

Tensions between Walker and Hawkeye continue to heat up on the Avengers, mostly because Hawkeye simply doesn’t want Walker around and sees him as completely invaluable. While Hawkeye regularly antagonises Walker and makes no effort to hide his dislike, the two are quick to come to blows which are luckily frequently interupted by their fellow Avengers. Despite Hawkeye’s hatred of Walker, the rest of the Avengers becoming more accepting of him, particularly since he relinquished leadership to Hank Pym, although Walker’s attempts to strike up actual friendships with his team-mates are often at inappropriate times.

After Pym and Wasp have an unusual encounter a family of robots in a farm land of America, the Avengers gather together for a meeting to investigate the incident. When Walker comments that they recently he has been told that someone is secretly doing midnight spraying on farm lands in California, and the odd side effect to this spraying is that people’s skin turns into metal, Hawkeye instantly berates Walker’s contribution and writes it off as irrelevant while getting the rest of the team to ignore Walker’s observation.

Later on, Hawkeye goes to investigate the midnight sprayings and is caught by Tigra and Quicksilver who he admits to that he actually thought Walker had a point but he hates Walker so much that he didn’t want Walker to earn any credit as a valuable team-mate. Hawkeye, Tigra and Quicksilver are caught by Ultron and transformed into robotic slaves and due to Hawkeye’s reluctance to admit Walker was right, the rest of the Avengers are unaware of their capture.

Later on, Ultron sends his robotic slaves to capture Pym and when they attack the rest of the Avengers discover what has happened to their team-mates. Walker initially takes great satisfaction in having an excuse to fight Hawkeye but ultimately feels bad about it. After managing to free their team-mates from Ultron’s influence, the Avengers go forth and thwart Ultron’s plan.

Grudge Matches

When the Avengers Charter was implemented by the United Nations, the team began voting in a new line-up. While Walker was adamant that he would remain among the team as he was placed there specifically by the government, the Commission contacted the team to reveal they no longer had any need for an undercover operative since the Avengers were now regulated by the United Nations. Unsurprisingly, in the following polls, he didn’t make the final line-up and received a sole vote from himself for placement on the team. He was relegated to reserve status alongside Mockingbird, Quicksilver, Machine Man and the Human Torch.

Walker, displeased with the Avengers and the Commission both treating him as if he was worthless, stormed out but not before making arrangements with Hawkeye to “settle” things. The two met up that evening and ironed out their differences physically with a long drawn-out fistfight. While Walker was easily Hawkeye’s superior, Hawkeye refused to surrender to someone like Walker which resulted in Walker beating him severly before finally taking mercy on his stubborn victim and relenting. The rest of the team show up and were quick to scold the two Avengers stating they have no place for Walker, even as a reserve member, since they have given him chance after chance to prove himself but, despite his bravery he just isn’t a team player. Walker responds to this by simply storming off stating he doesn’t need the Avengers.

Following his removal from the Avengers, Walker approached Steve Rogers with one last request for the two of them to take down the Watchdogs once and for all. Steve refused Walker’s help and turned him away as he was no longer an Avenger and because the last time Walker fought the Watchdogs, he murdered most of them. Frustrated with the Avengers again, Walker left as Steve began his own personal mission to bring down the Watchdogs.

Later on, Steve had tracked down the Watchdogs to their headquarters and attempted to sneak in to free some hostages they were trying to condition to be “morally decent” people. As Steve stealthily infiltrated their base, his entire approach was spoilt when Walker suddenly barged in through the skylight and began making as much noise as possible fighting against the Watchdogs. Steve was quick to free the hostages as Walker was pummelling Watchdog after Watchdog and when presented with an opportunity to kill one of the terrorists, Walker instead relented and spared his life remembering his vow to never kill again.

After wrapping up their mission and successfully having brought the Watchdogs down, Steve initially admonished Walker for wrecking his plan but then commended Walker and was impressed that he managed to actually show restraint for once. Walker told Steve of his resolve to never take a life again and Steve wished him good luck with it.

The Pacific Overlords

No longer an Avenger, Walker continued to do various work for the Commission as well as prowl the streets and avert crime. The Commission eventually handed him a mission to dispose of a rogue former member of Freedom Force called Spider-Woman which brought Walker into conflict with the Avengers whom Spider-Woman had recently allied with. Walker broke into the Avengers mansion, knocking Hawkeye out and then attempted to murder Spider-Woman before realising that he couldn’t do it. Keeping his vow to never kill again, Walker instead allied with Spider-Woman and the Avengers in defeating the Pacific Overlords. When the mission was over and done with, the Avengers welcome Walker back onto the team believing he had rightfully earned his place among them.

Subterranean Wars

For more information see: Subterranean Wars

Claiming he had quit the Commission to work full-time as an Avenger, Walker reluctantly accompanied the Avengers to aid Mole Man and Tyrannus in a territory war against the Deviants.

Infamous Monsters of Hollywood

When Night Shift began a series of attackson the movie set of Wonder Man’s latest picture, he brought the problem to the Avengers and asked for another member of the Avengers to be on set at all times to help him deal with any problems. Despite being against standing around being Wonder Man’s bodyguard for two weeks, Walker agreed to assist Spider-Woman and Hawkeye in investigating the new Night Shift on his behalf as the Scarlet Witch agreed to play bodyguard to Wonder Man.

Discovering the Night Shift’s new leader the Hangman had a vendetta against Wonder Man for having got a part in the movie over him, the trio were then attacked by Night Shift. Hawkeye and Spider-Woman were quickly taken out but Walker valiantly tried his hardest to fight against the entire team by himself but he was eventually overwhelmed. Night Shift took the three Avengers to use as spiritual offerings to the demon Satannish whom Hangman answered to. The three were luckily saved by their team-mates Iron Man and Living Lightning but soon discovered the whole thing was just a diversion as Night Shift had left and captured Wonder Man to use as their ritual sacrifice to Satannish instead.

As the Avengers regrouped to discuss what to do next, Hawkeye and Walker once again began bickering which led to Walker deciding to let the Avengers do their own thing as he had a plan of his own to find Wonder Man. Assuming Wonder Man’s acting role in the movie, Walker’s successfully agitated Hangman and Night Shift were quick to attack him. Again overpowered, Walker was taken prisoner alongside Wonder Man until the rest of the Avengers with Doctor Strange showed up and were able to defeat Night Shift as well as fight off Satannish from claiming any of their souls.

Infinity Gauntlet

For more information see: Infinity Gauntlet

After obtaining the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos used the immensely powerful artefact to remove half of all living things in the Universe to impress his mistress Death. On Earth, this meant an incredibly large amount of the population suddenly vanished from existence – and among those was Walker. After Thanos was defeated by what remained of the heroes, all those who were missing returned to life.

Operation Galactic Storm

For more information see: Operation Galactic Storm

When the Kree/Shi’ar war erupted with Earth caught in the middle, Walker was one of the many Avengers called in to help deal with the conflict. Initially Walker was chosen to be on Captain America’s personal squad who would go to the Kree throneworld as his strength meant he could be a valuable asset. However, a jealous Hawkeye was quick to have Walker removed from the team by assuming his old Goliath identity so that he was now more useful to the team with his growth power.

A bitter Walker was left behind with the Earth team who remained out of the fray and watched over Kree and Shi’ar warriors whom the Avengers had imprisoned earlier. Instantly assuming leadership of the Earth team (despite Steve having explicitly chosen Black Widow), Walker quickly began to grate on his fellow team-mates – particular She-Hulk. When the Imperial Guard arrived and launched an assault on the team to rescue the Shi’ar prisoners, the Kree prisoners used this as cover to make their escape. Walker chased after the Kree escapees and as their ship launched he leapt onto it clinging desperately in a foolish bid to not let the prisoners escape. As the ship soared higher and higher heading for space, Walker eventually let go and came plummeting down to Earth where the team he had previously aggravated saved him from the fall.

As the war was reaching it’s climax, the Earth team received a call from the terrorist Flag-Smasher who claimed to have the Avenger known as D-Man held as a captive and demanded to see Captain America. Walker and the Falcon travelled to Flag-Smasher’s arctic base, in place of Steve who was in space, to free D-Man from captivity. Walker was pitted against the man who previously humilated and tortured him and after a ferocious fight, Walker found himself standing over Flag-Smasher who was holding onto a cliff’s edge for his life. Walker considered letting the terrorist fall to his death but again remembered his vow never to kill. He offered his hand to Flag-Smasher and attempted to help him up but ultimately Flag-Smasher plummeted to the icy waters of the Arctic. Walker, Falcon and D-Man returned to the rest of the Earth team where a returning Steve was elated to see his friend D-Man safe again. Steve thanked Walker for helping his friend in his absence and began to consider Walker a friend.

Infinity War

For more information see: Infinity War

When Magus created doppelgängers of Earth’s heroes, Mr. Fantastic called a meeting of almost all of America’s superheroes at the Baxter Building. Walker arrived with the rest of the Avengers and after learning of the existence of the doppelgänger tensions heightened which was only made worse by Walker throwing about accusations towards Gambit. After exposing Mr. Fantastic and Iron Man as imposters, the heroes discovered the involvement of Thanos and an Expeditionary Force were sent to confront him while many heroes, including Walker remained behind at the Baxter Building.

The heroes left behind on Earth wound up battling a gigantic army of Magus’ doppelgängers as the Expeditionary Force attempted to stymie the larger situation at hand. The doppelgängers eventually melted after a massive fight with the heroes.

The Death-Web Saga

When US political figures we’re being assassinated by Death-Web, a group of spider-based supervillains, the Avengers attempted to thwart their next attempt. Walker and Hawkeye were injured during their battle with Death-Web as the rest of the team discovered that the supervillains were created by The Commission who had also kidnapped Spider-Woman’s daughter to try and blackmail her into betraying the Avengers.

Assault on Armor City

Walker was contacted by the Commission shortly after with a covert mission, and a more steady job offer, to help them retrieve the Iron Monger armor which had been stolen from them. Ironically it turned out the armor had been stolen by Professor Power who Walker had believed he killed back when he was acting as Captain America and the two never recognised the connection between one and another.

Despite being told not to involve his team-mates, Walker soon found that they were already on a similar mission at the behest of Iron Man to destroy Professor Power’s new-found armor. With new recruit Darkhawk, the Avengers defeated Professor Power and Walker’s operation was botched when Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers chose to destroy the armor instead of hand it over to Walker to give to the US Government.

Peace Dividend

Walker’s next mission for the Commission took him to Canada to investigate a military outpost that had been randomly attacked. After he abruptly walked out on the rest of the Avengers after learning of the alleged death of Iron Man, Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man decided to tail Walker and they discovered his duplicity as an Avenger and an agent working for the Commission.

Upon arriving in Canada, Walker was attacked by Russian soldiers as well as a Russian mutant called Bogatyr. Bogatyr made short work of Walker and attempted to drown him but he was saved at the last moment by the Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man. The three Avengers next went to investigate the outpost where they also encountered the X-Men‘s Wolverine in the thick of it. Walker found out that the attackers of the base were a small Russian army along with Bogatyri – a group of Russian superhumans who consider themselves Russia’s answer to the Fantastic Four.

The four discovered Bogatyri intended to start a second Cold War by using a “quick-freeze crystal” which would to bury North America in ice. The Avengers and Wolverine soon found themselves the only people capable of stopping a potential major international incident. With help from the U.S.-Canadian military forces, they eventually managed to thwart Bogatyri but Walker’s status as a double agent was exposed to the rest of the team.

Ultron Unbound

Upon returning to their Mansion, the Avengers had a meeting to discuss what to do about Walker’s working for the Commission, before any action could be taken, War Machine arrived petitioning to join the team. Let off the hook temporarily, Walker and the Avengers went to aid Myron MacLain only to discover in the time it took to get there he had been replaced with a robotic impersonator. After the Avengers defeated the imposter, they discovered Ultron was planning a new mad scheme.

Kidnapping Mockingbird, Ultron made himself a new robotic mate named Alkhema by copying her brain patterns. The two robots then fought the Avengers hoping to destroy them once and for all by stealing a nuclear warhead and starting a holocaust of their own. As the Avengers rushed frantically to stop the two, Walker was hypnotized into attacking Hawkeye who had since returned to his Goliath guise. The Avengers instead used the warhead to launch both Ultron and Alkhema into space and although they noted it didn’t destroy either it would take them a while to get back to Earth.

Pax Demonica

Walker was becoming incredibly dissatisfied with his fellow Avengers treatment of him and considered quitting the team, although before he could voice such a thing the team were attacked by two new members of The Pacific Overlords: Klaw and Bogatyri’s Morning Star. After Walker fought against Morning Star, the two villains escaped back to Demonica – Doctor Demonicus‘ own country and base of the Pacific Overlords.

As the Avengers launched an attack on Demonica, Walker and Mockingbird were taking captive by the Pacific Overlords and discovered Demonicus answered to a demon called Raksasa. Upon discovering who their master truly answered to, both Klaw and Morning Star allied with Walker and Mockingbird in fighting against Demonicus and his Pacific Overlords.

After defeating the villains, Walker and Morning Star shared a kiss as Morning Star promised they would meet again either under happier circumstances or as foes. Walker stared on, stunned from the kiss.

Manhunt

Walker was contacted by Captain America’s former ally Vagabond who asked for help from the Avengers when she was being targeted for assassination by Scourge. Walker agreed to help and aimed to bring the Scourge of the Underworld to justice once and for all. After saving Vagabond’s life, Walker was captured by Caprice and Bloodstain who began torturing him and tried to manipulate him into become Scourge himself. Walker played along and upon being granted freedom battled against the two and eventually discovered that Scourge was financially backed by the, now elderly, superhero known as The Angel. While Bloodstain died and Caprice was injured, The Angel couldn’t be tried for his crimes as there was insufficient evidence.

Infinity Crusade

For more information see: Infinity Crusade

The Goddess manipulated several of Earth’s heroes into protecting her from those who would do her harm by putting them into a trance and appealing to their own religious beliefs. Among her Holy Guard was Walker who turned on most of his team in favor of the Goddess. War Machine attempted to free Walker from his trance but was instead attacked by his fellow Avenger who pledged total allegiance to The Goddess. Walker was later seen beating Beast and Wolverine of the X-Men half to death in the name of the Goddess.

Eventually, Walker and all of the other heroes who the Goddess had entranced were free of her influence and the Goddess was defeated.

The Terminatrix Objective

For more information see: The Terminatrix Objective

Walker was among the six Avengers chosen by Princess Ravonna as her personal champions in her bid to become Mistress of Time.

Soul Gauntlet

When Hawkeye and Mockingbird decided to quit the Avengers to work on their marriage, the team elected a new leader. Although Walker petitioned for himself to take up the role, the Scarlet Witch was voted in instead. Frustrated with his team-mates ignoring him and his contribution again, Walker opted to go out on his own and beat up some bad guys. Unfortunately, the bad guys he encountered were Hangman and a new Lethal Legion. Walker held his own very admirably against the villains but eventually was worn down and collapsed. His fellow Avengers arrived just in time for him to state it was a good thing they didn’t make him leader because they’d just have to vote a new one in now.

Walker was rushed to hospital in critical condition and miraculously recovered. Upon telling his team-mates of the new Lethal Legion, Walker was mortified to learn that he couldn’t go into action with the Avengers and had to stay in hospital. As Mockingbird watched over Walker, the two were attacked by the Lethal Legion’s Coldsteel and Zyklon who kidnapped Mockingbird and wished to give her soul to Satannish.

The Avengers regrouped to travel to Satannish’s realm to retrieve Mockingbird where they were approached by Mephisto who wished to reclaim the souls of the Lethal Legion who were reincarnated versions of some of history’s most despicable people. Before Hawkeye was seduced by Mephisto into accepting, Scarlet Witch transported the team to Satannish’s realm where they attempted to free Mockingbird. All seemed to be going well until Mephisto arrived and attacked the team in response for turning down his offer. As he flung projectile balls of brimstone at the team, Mockingbird was hit with one and subsequently died.

Bloodties

For more information see: Bloodties

The Avengers next teamed up with the X-Men to fight against Exodus who sought to kill Quicksilver and Crystal’s daughter Luna for not being a mutant. Walker was sent with Beast to protect Professor X as the rest of the Avengers attempted to calm the civil war tearing apart the island of Genosha.

Following the conflict on Genosha, the Avengers ceased to operate under a United Nations mandate. Captain America and Black Widow decided that it would be best to close their West Coast branch and remove most of their current members from active duty. With both Hawkeye and Wonder Man absent from the meeting, the remaining Avengers didn’t have much of a leg to stand on it arguing in favor of the team remaining active. Walker was infuriated by once again being treat like garbage by people he assumed were friends and afterwards decided to quit being a superhero altogether. A decision symbolised when he melodramatically threw his shield and costume into the Hudson River claiming he no longer believes in anything.

Force Works

Walker eventually was contacted by his former team-mates who wished for him to rejoin them in a new West Coast team. Walker however refused and didn’t want to rejoin with a team who simply don’t care for him or his contribution. After some encouraging words from the Scarlet Witch, Walker reconsidered and agreed to join the team. Without his costume and shield, Walker had a new costume and a new plasma shield designed by Stark Industries that were radically different from what he wore before.

Outfitted and among Force Works, Walker fought against the invading forces of the Kree and The Scatter but he, Spider-Woman and Scarlet Witch were defeated and captured by the Kree. As they broke free, a battle followed that saw the team lose Wonder Man and gain a new member in Century.

Soon after, Walker tracked down Hawkeye, who hadn’t been seen since the Genoshan conflict, and after a fight between the two, Walker attempted to recruit him to Force Works. Although Hawkeye didn’t join he and Walker had a lengthy discussion where they managed to set aside their differences – partially down to the fact Walker was one of the few Avengers who actually attended Mockingbird’s funeral. No longer antagonistic towards each other, Walker and Hawkeye parted ways once again as Walker returned to Force Works and Hawkeye went off to mourn.

The Morgan Conquest

For more information see: The Morgan Conquest

Upon the Avengers return from Counter-Earth, a summons was placed to bring in all the former members of the team when they were all subsequently attacked by Norse mythological creatures. Walker was among the many members who arrived and received active membership status again as the incredibly large team aided Thor in a quest for the Twilight Sword. Instead, the Avengers found the attacks were in fact a diversion by Morgan Le Fay who wished to kidnap the Scarlet Witch.

The Avengers were all momentarily trapped in a medieval reality remade by Morgan Le Fay where she hd made it so that the Avengers were her personal guard squad. In Le Fay’s reality, Walker was now known as Liegeman. The Scarlet Witch defeated Morgan Le Fay, and the Avengers awoke and returned to normal.

Following the Morgan Conquest, the founding members of the Avengers decided on a new roster to whittle down their current 30-something roster. Captain America seriously proposed Walker for membership on the team but the remainder of the founding members responded with utter silence.

Marvel’s Most Wanted

No longer an Avenger, Walker was recruited by Edwin Cord to lead The Jury shortly afterwards. Unbeknownst to Walker, the group had been hired to be nothing but Cord’s personal goon squad. Playing up to Walker’s patriotism and desire to be a hero, Cord sent The Jury after the Thunderbolts who had recently been revealed to be the Masters of Evil. After their first skirmish with the team, The Jury were mostly defeated by the Thunderbolts and their new leader Hawkeye.

Walker and the team backed out from the battle and returned to base. Walker began attempting to train his men up to no success. Later, Walker wished to lead the Jury out into a battle against Graviton but was angered when he found Cord reluctant to allow it as there was no personal gain in the battle. Discovering the true nature of The Jury, Walker silently remained with the team but made no effort to conceal his dislike of their modus operandi.

Walker and the Jury went up against the Thunderbolts once more, but this time, Walker decided to ally with Hawkeye and the Thunderbolts. Walker allowed Hawkeye and the Thunderbolts to go free, effectively resigning from The Jury.

The Protocide Saga

While attacking an A.I.M. base, Walker found himself confronted with Protocide, a former experimentee of the super-soldier project who had recently been thawed out of cryogenic suspension and manipulated into blindly serving A.I.M.. The two quickly engaged in a savage fight in which Walker was severely beaten and almost killed by his attacker. SHIELD agents and Thor located the badly injured Walker and managed to save his life.

Maximum Security

For more information see: Maximum Security

Walker returned to working for the Commission and was chosen to lead the Superhuman Tactical Activities Response Squad, a force designed to bring superhuman criminals to justice. Outfitted with yet another new costume, Walker travelled the country apprehending escaped and wanted super-villains such as the Wrecking Crew.

When an Intergalactic council decided to punish Earth for their constant involvement in their affairs, Earth became a prison planet for intergalactic criminals with Ronan the Accuser selected as the “warden” for this new prison. Walker found himself thrust into the events and returning to the Avengers to help them fight against the intergalactic threats posed within.

After eventually assuming leadership of the Avengers for the duration of the conflict, Walker also managed to convince the various alien prisoners to fight on the side of Earth, and leads the Avengers into battle against Ronan. Finding himself fighting one-on-one with the “warden”, Ronan pummels Walker. However, reluctant to give up knowing that the entire planet is at stake, Walker manages to keep on fighting through perseverance and manages to defeat Ronan all by himself.

With the conflict over, the Avengers congratulated Walker for saving the day and leading the team well, but Walker rejected their gratitude and instead partially blamed them for most of the events that had recently befell them.

Degrees of Evil

When several supervillains all independently embarked on huge conquests for world domination the Avengers faced Kang in Kang Dynasty, Thanos’s gambit for the Heart of the Infinite, Graviton’s attempt to take over the world and finally the original Defenders likewise attempting to take over the world, the Avengers were forced to call in several reserve members to help them during these adventures. U.S.Agent was among the Avengers called forth to help battle Graviton, although he and the rest of the Avengers didn’t fare very well as Graviton held them all prisoner by controlling the gravity around them. Ultimately the Thunderbolts managed to defeat Graviton and the Avengers were free.

Once an Invader

Walker was next selected by secretary of defense Dell Rusk to lead a new team of Invaders. Returning to the guise of Captain America once more, Walker was tasked with finding members for the new team and managed to recruit two of the original Invaders to his team in Namor and the original Human Torch as well as their allies like Union Jack, Spitfire and Blazing Skull.

The Invaders’ first mission was to assist Namor’s Atlantean armada in replacing the president of the oil-rich-dictator-state called Mazikhandar in response to Mazikhandar’s refusal to stop polluting Atlantean waters.

The team quickly found themselves locking horns with the Avengers over the issue developing in the Middle East. As the two teams fought, Walker faced off against Steve Rogers again but this time, Rogers was able to get the upper hand and revealed to Walker and his fellow Invaders that Dell Rusk was really the Red Skull and he obviously had an ulterior motive in having the team formed.

Upon learning of the team’s origins as nothing more than a weapon of the Red Skull, Walker opted to keep the team together, remain acting as Captain America and finish their mission – a decision that once again saw him severing all his ties with the Avengers. The Invaders succeeded in replacing Mazikhandar’s dictator with a new political leader who summarily executed his predecessor, to the shock and dismay of the gathered heroes.

Enemy of the State

For more information see: Enemy of the State

Walker’s Invaders were attacking a HYDRA base when they encountered a brainwashed Wolverine. The bloodthirsty and beserk mutant severed Blazing Skull’s arm and then attacked Namor. As Wolverine stabbed Namor, Walker arrived and saved the Atlantean from the frenzied mutant. Earning the Sub-Mariner’s gratitute, Walker achieved something few surface-dwellers have in Namor’s respect.

Cruel and Unusual

Captain America confronted the new Invaders once more leading to another showdown between the two Captains. Walker declares he needs to be Captain America to make the country look good and because Captain America needs to fight. Walker revealed the reason he became Captain America again was because the Invaders needed to be led by Captain America. Upon discovering that Steve Rogers was never asked to lead the new Invaders and that Walker was being used to make Captain America look bad. The real Captain America reminds Walker that he owns the copyright to the uniform and that he’ll be hearing from his lawyer.

Despite the tension between the two, both Captain Americas went into action with the Invaders in what turned out to be their final mission shortly after. While battling U-Man and Atlantean forces, team discover that their ally Tara is in fact a sleeper agent planted by the Red Skull set to detonate and destroy them all. Sacrificing himself to save his team-mates and Tara, the Human Torch absorbs all of the energy from Tara and flies skyward where he explodes.

In the wake of the hero’s death, Walker and Rogers put aside their renewed animosity and both attended the Torch’s funeral clad in their respective Captain America uniforms. After paying respects to his fallen comrade, Walker gathered Union Jack, Spitfire and Blazing Skull and said they should go back to help Tara insisting that they leave no one behind.

Civil War

For more information see: Civil War

During the events of the Civil War, John sided with the Pro-Registration heroes being happy to comply with whatever his government demanded. Returning to his U.S.Agent identity, he was tasked with helping capture escaped criminals who were using the climate of unease to perpetrate crimes while the heroes fought amongst themselves. This task brought him into direct contact with the Purple Man who forced Walker to part with his shield and jump from a great height which resulted in the breaking of most the bones in his body.

ron Man commended Walker for his good work and appointed him as the leader of the first Initiative team; Omega Flight based in Canada, something Walker despised. It wasn’t until he discovered that the Purple Man had immigrated to Canada that he was willing to join the team.

The Initiative

In Canada, he was joined with long-time friend Spider-Woman as well as former Alpha Flight members Talisman and Sasquatch. The team fought alongside Beta Ray Bill against a possessed Wrecking Crew, accepted a new teammate in the shape of the man responsible for the deaths of most of the original Alpha Flight, and rounded up super-villains such as Titania and, in a fight where John finally got his shield back from him, the Purple Man.

John was also shocked by the death of his former ally Captain America at the climax of the Civil War and saw it as a great blow to America’s national spirit. While he put on a brave face to appear strong, insisting one day vengeance would be had, he fell into a berserker rage when one a supervillain Omega Flight were attempt to apprehend mocked Captain America’s death.

Talisman soon left the group in disagreement with Michael Pointer, the man responsible for the deaths of her past team-mates, being appointed as the new Guardian. Walker showed constant concern about Pointer’s mental state when his power set continued to be inconsistent and was only more confused when dead bodies of mutant prisoners were showing up. Eventually, US Agent with help from Spider-Woman and her boyfriend The Shroud, uncovered Canadian officials manipulating Pointer into becoming a defense weapon for the country through his therapist. With the conspiracy uncovered, Pointer rejoined the group regularly in the field and proved slightly more stable and thankful for US Agent and Spider-Woman’s looking out for him.

Secret Invasion

For more information see: Secret Invasion

Not long after, the team fought against invading Skrulls in Canada and were one of the two Initiative teams that the Skrulls had not managed to infiltrate during their Secret Invasion. The team beat any Skrull threat and Canada continued to be safe from intergalactic war.

Dark Reign

After the Skrull war, Norman Osborn rose to power in central America and as a result US Agent was drafted into Hank Pym‘s team of Avengers to combat Osborn’s own team. Unlike many of his fellow Avengers, Walker was willing to give Osborn a chance. Walker soon changed his mind when Osborn tried to storm and take over Asgard.

Siege

During the events of Siege, US Agent and the remaining members of the Avengers battled Norman Osborn‘s black ops team the Thunderbolts in the middle of Asgard. In the battle, U.S. Agent fought furiously to recover the Spear of Odin from the Thunderbolts. Nuke, also known as Scourge, from the Thunderbolts went toe to toe with U.S. Agent and was seemingly beaten, but in the chaos of Asgard being brought to the ground by Sentry, and in an incredible stroke of good luck, Nuke was able to get a hold of the Spear of Odin. Stunned from Asgard’s decent into Oklahoma, U.S. Agent stumbled to recover his balance, but before he could Nuke severed U.S. Agent’s left arm and leg in one foul swoop.

The Heroic Age

Walker, injured serving his country, finally managed to live up to his dreams of being a hero like his fallen brother. Now missing limbs, he was no longer capable to serve as an active Avenger and was offered a job as the warden for The Raft, the super human prison, for his heroic actions during Siege. Walker accepts the job, wishing to return to service, and has his missing limbs replaced with prosthetics.

The Raft is now being used as a home base of operations for Luke Cage and his new Thunderbolts. The Fixer informed Walker that he could outfit him with better prosthetics, which Walker refused not wanting to be treat any different to an Army veteran and despises the idea of becoming a “cyborg”, like the one that cost him his arm and leg to begin with. Due to his work in The Raft, he has also taken on a role helping run the Thunderbolts project alongside Luke Cage and Songbird.

As Warden of the Raft, during one attempted prison escape, Walker took out 3 super-criminals all on his own; hardly hindered by his missing limbs in the least. Since this skirmish, the prisoners are easily cowed by Walker, knowing he is absolutely not to be trifled with.

Fear Itself

Walker found himself at the center of destruction at The Raft during the events of Fear Itself, particularly when Thunderbolt Juggernaut became one of ” the worthy“. After a breakout and mayhem ensuing on the Raft, Walker and Thunderbolt Ghost attempted to restore order to The Raft following the bedlam caused by Juggernaut and escapees. Throughout their plight, Ghost began to respect Walker for his intentions despite the inmates attitude towards him.

The former Thunderbolt Crossbones later attempted an escape from the Raft which saw him face off against his fellow Thunderbolts and Luke Cage. After seemingly beating Cage, Walker confronted Crossbones telling him to stand down. Crossbones berated Walker for being a cripple and unable to, both literally and figuratively, stand up to him. Walker responded by shooting Crossbones. However, after a further battle with the remaining Thunderbolts, Crossbones escaped – merely wounded from Walker’s gun shot.

Shattered Heroes

Sometime afterwards, another breakout occurred at The Raft to free Norman Osborn. Walker, who had been drugged while this went down, found himself a suspect and being interrogated by SHIELD’s Daisy Johnson.

Cataclysm

Luke Cage, Songbird and MACH-V took Walker into their confidence as they began to suspect something was amiss with the Federal Advisory Committee to the Thunderbolts. The four formed a discreet alliance to uncover what was really going on, particularly with regards to the new Government-appointed team of Thunderbolts featuring Norman Osborn’s former allies. After Songbird and MACH-V were attacked, Walker freed the Juggernaut from imprisonment to help in the imminent battle between them and the Government’s new Thunderbolts team.

Accompaning Songbird, MACH-V and Hank Pym to Sharzhad, Walker was tasked with taking the prisoners back to The Raft in an Avengers Quinjet. Accompanied by Skaar and Moonstone, the Quinjet was attacked by the captive Toxic Doxie in a last bid attempt to escape and as the Quinjet fell Man-Thing transported it elsewhere to avoid crashing into the rest of the Thunderbolts.

Darkness

Walker and the Thunderbolts were transported in a strange and dystopian alternate universe where the superheroes were at territorial war. The team were keep heavily sedated by a villanous Iron Man and his slave Hank Pym until Toxic Doxie managed to shake off the sedative and take control of Pym herself. Toxic Doxie began using this version of Stark Industries’ resources and Pym’s expertise to operate on her fellow Thunderbolts.

Using this reality’s Venom counterpart to synthesize new limbs, Toxic returned to Walker the limbs he lost during the Siege of Asgard. Upon awaking to find his new limbs and learning of the team’s problem, Walker was quick to resume his career as U.S.Agent and chose to lead the make-shift Thunderbolts to get back to their real world.

After running afoul of Spider-Man’s street gang and having an intense fight with an evil Doctor Strange, U.S.Agent and the Thunderbolts managed to return to their own reality and stop an A.I.M. plot involving tampering with the timestream. Upon returning home, Skaar took the opportunity to leave the team at the first chance and Ai Apaec was crushed by Toxic Doxie who had begun to find him incredibly annoying. Toxic Doxie “persuaded” U.S.Agent that they had earned the right to freedom and that under his watchful eye they could accomplish something good. The obviously mind-controlled U.S.Agent them resolved to lead the Dark Avengers in a charge; “To victory!”

AXIS

During AXIS, Walker is seen working as a military recruiter. With the new Captain America temporarily turned evil and most of the Avengers either evil themselves or captive, Walker is recruited as part of an emergency team of Avengers by Valeria Richards and Phil Coulson. The substitute Avengers manage to hold off the rampaging Scarlet Witch long enough for Doctor Doom (temporarily transformed into a more heroic figure) to absorb her energy, causing her to flee. The captured energy is then used to resurrect Cassie Lang.

Government Man

The U.S. Government memorably called on Walker’s services twice since AXIS. Once when a group of wealthy decision makers wanted him to take back Captain America’s shield from Falcon, who had used his position to combat racism. However, he would ultimately stand down on orders from Steve Rogers himself.

The other was when he was put on the government sanctioned Force Works during the A.I. Revolution. The team was investigating a number of Deathloks assembling on an island, only to uncover MODOK secretly building a giant Dreadknought. They were under orders to bring evidence back so the government could take advantage of the technological advancement, and when the team rebelled against those orders, so did Walker uncharacteristically.

He would lose his government position when he was sent to quell the Beach Blanket Protest. Residents were protesting for 30 hours against US Naval Exercises carried out in Puerto Rico. Walker’s team was given the green light to open fire, which Walker disagreed with entirely. When the protest fought back after being antagonized, the military brought in an A.D.S., which Walker immediately destroyed, costing him his position.

American Zealot

To get a rise out of Valerie Cooper, a desk jockey activated John Walker for a delicate operation. Walker got a coded message from his handle that sent him to Ephraim, West Virginia, a former coal town that became a distribution hub for a company called Virago. Once there, Walker was confronted by a SHIELD team, led by his sister, Kate. She claimed they were looking for stolen helicarrier fuel cells that she believed were taken by the townspeople.

The honest answer was Virago was a front for SHIELD to dispose of helicarrier fuel waste as well as a dead test subject of the American Kaiju Project. The unstable fuel leaked into the kaiju’s bunker reviving it. Kate had partnered with the new U.S. Agent, April Manning, to take advantage of a kaiju project test serum. They planned to use it to strike back against the government lies and corporate greed that ruined the town of Ephraim.

Walker was forced to stop them because the only people they were hurting were the town and themselves.

The United States of Captain America

Walker got a call from Captain America when he needed help dealing with some imposters. Sin and Speed Demon had stolen Cap’s shield and were using it to ruin the good name of the Cap mantle for their boss, Commander Krieger. Now, they were targeting a NORAD facility that housed the Hate-Monger spirit. When Cap could only get two members of the newly discovered Captains Network to join them, he requested Walker strengthen their ranks. Unfortunately, Krieger was able to escape with Hate-Monger, but the team detained Sin and Speed Demon.

Walker uses his interrogation skills on Sin, getting a location out of her. From there, Hate-Monger planned a broadcast to mesmerize the country to hating each other. Walker follows Cap and Falcon to the location, but it is a trap. Thankfully, Bucky figured it out and led members of the Network in to rescue them. Once free, Walker was able to help the Network take down Hate-Monger.

Devil’s Reign

After Kingpin outlaws superheroes in New York, Walker is volunteers for his Thunderbolt Units. He claims he is there to uphold the law and keep the villains in order, but he is secretly working for the FBI collecting evidence. However, whenever Fisk pushes the boundaries of the law, he uses The Purple Man‘s powers to keep Walker in line.

Kingpin plans to upgrade Purple Man’s powers with those of The Purple Children. The Thunderbolts are tasked with finding them. Walker is able to the lead the team and capture 4 of the 5 Purple Children before Jessica Jones and The Champions try to stop him. Now that Kingpin has more power to control his Thunderbolts, he uses his mind control to force them to start a riot.

They would take on the Avengers but would ultimately be freed by the 5th Purple Child, who was able to overpower his father. While the rest of the team was arrested, Walker retained his freedom thanks to his status as an undercover FBI asset. Free of his Thunderbolts detail, Walker took up a new assignment at the Myrmidon, the maximum security prison for superhumans.

Operation: Worldstrike

Walker was partnered up with Todd Ziller aka American Kaiju for a number of official American operations. Their newest mission was to attack Latveria, however, it was an operation manipulated by the Red Skull to give him cover to make an escape from his Latverian bunker. Bucky got intel on this manipulation and tried to stop them while they were waiting for their greenlight in Hong Kong.

Unfortunately, Red Skull had already planted a mind control program on Ziller, forcing him to change into his beastly form and attack Hong Kong. Working with Bucky and Shang-Chi, they were able to incapacitate Todd and return him to his hero form. Confronted by the truth of his newest mission, Walker reluctantly agreed to join Bucky’s Thunderbolts to take on Red Skull.

Since Doom was unwilling to cooperate with the Thunderbolts, Walker and the team were forced to sneak into the country. After breaching Red Skull’s bunker, Walker joined the others against Skull’s cyborg army. He attempted to take on Skull one on one, but Skull got Walker in the throat with his own shield. Fortunately, the Thunderbolts plan was to be as conspicuous as possible to get the attention of Doom, who would witness Skull in his country and serve the fatal blow.

With the mission over, Walker agreed to be available if Bucky found a new target.

Character Profile

• Height: 6’4″
• Weight: 270 lbs
• Eye Color: Blue
• Hair Color: Blond
• Citizenship: American
• Place of Birth: Custer’s Grove, GA
• Marital Status: Single
• Occupation: Adventurer, prison guard; formerly government contractor, government agent, Army soldier
• Known Relatives: Caleb Walker (father, deceased), Emily Walker (mother, deceased), Mike Walker (brother, deceased), Kate Tollifson (sister)

Powers and Abilities

John Walker possesses frequently understated superhuman strength vastly greater than his predecessor Steve Rogers. He also possesses superhuman endurance as well as Olympic-class gymnastic skills. Walker is an excellent fighter learning Captain America’s fighting style from the Taskmaster. He is a combat veteran with military combat experience in tactical and strategic planning and observations, special operations, and is highly proficient in the use of conventional firearms. He uses his shield defensively and as a weapon throwing it with great accuracy due to his superhuman strength.

His exact strength level wavers but has been compared to that of Spider-Man’s (although it should be noted Walker has actually bested Spider-Man twice in a fight). He was enhanced by the Power Broker but also appears to have strength beyond his normal treatments. The depiction of his strength mostly depends on the writer and how much research they have made into the character. For example, until very recently, Steve Rogers simply could not beat him due to his superior strength, but in 2004, Rogers was shown to beat him in a fight with relative ease. Recently it was also seen that Bucky Barnes, who has an even smaller amount of strength than Steve, could best him.

Alternate Realities

Earth-1610

In the Ultimate Universe he is Major John Walker ( Ultimate Comics X-Men #9) , he is been seen accompanying Colonel Lake, in a prison like facility, that contains a lot of mutants captured after the Ultimatum Event.

Earth-2149

In this reality where most of the super-humans has turned into flesh eating zombies, John is one of the few heroes that are still human. The few remaining survivors are assembled in a SHIELD helicarrier by Nick Fury. He was very vocal about allying with Magneto to try and salvage the world. He was sent back to New York to look for other survivors, and is notable as one of the few heroes that survived the zombie plague.

Earth-8909

In this universe, Steve Rogers refuses to give up being Captain America when the Commission demanded which ultimately lead to his death at the hands of the Red Skull. John Walker again took up the mantle of Captain America, however this time, he was not replaced and only got worse as his madness overtook him and he continued down a path of violence and insanity. He was eventually arrested and institutionalized for life; having truly damaged the legacy of Captain America.

Earth-9200

John Walker was one of the superheroes killed in Maestro’s rise to power in this reality. His shield and costume are on display in Rick Jones‘ trophy room.

Earth-9907

In this reality, John Walker is a villain that goes by the name S.S. Agent and he is the second-in-command a team called the Thunder Guard to fight the Avengers.

Earth-12973

US Agent works for the corrupt Government alongside other heroes in this reality

Earth-21993

In this world, where Cable had destroyed the X-Men and Magneto took over the United States, US Agent is seen be among the heroes defending Washington D.C. when Magneto and his army attempt to take over. When Magneto holds the entire US government hostage, US Agent and the other heroes are be forced to stand down. In this universe, he was one of the few surviving superheroes, having not being killed by Sentinels programmed to hunt superhumans.

Earth-93165

In the world where the Avengers lost Operation Galactic Storm, US Agent dies alongside everyone else on planet Earth. He is also one of the many Avengers who the surviving members pay tribute to when the war is over.

Other Media

Marvel Cinematic Universe

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

John Walker appears in the Disney+ TV series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, portrayed by Wyatt Russell. He is introduced as a highly decorated soldier who is chosen by the government to become the new Captain America following the disappearance of Steve Rogers at the close of Avengers: Endgame. Partnered with his best friend Lemar (a.k.a. Battlestar), John is tasked with hunting down the Flag Smashers, an extremist group led by a radical named Karli Morgenthau. Walker becomes deeply frustrated after suffering several defeats, and eventually doses himself with a sample of the Super Soldier Serum used by the Flag Smashers in order to gain superpowers. When Karli accidentally kills Lemar, John suffers a mental breakdown brought on by a mixture of his grief and the side effects of the serum. He takes down one of the Flag Smashers and then brutally executes the man with his shield, an act that is captured on-camera and witnessed by many civilians.

Walker disappears after this, continuing his pursuit of the Flag Smashers in order to avenge Lemar. He is eventually confronted by Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes, the former partners of Steve Rogers. They attempt to persuade John to hand over the shield and turn himself in, but he refuses leading to a brutal fight. The two manage to defeat John, with Sam taking the shield. After this, a disgraced Walker is discharged by the military, losing his rank and benefits. However, he is later approached by Countess Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who offers to recruit him for some mysterious purpose. After helping Sam and Bucky stop the Flag Smashers, John is last seen donning a new, black costume given to him by Valentina. With the Captain America name no longer available, Valentina decides to dub John U.S. Agent.

Thunderbolts

U.S. Agent has been announced as a member of the MCU’s Thunderbolts. It is tentatively dated for July 5, 2024.

Video Games

• U.S. Agent appears as a secret, palette-swapped version of Captain America in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. His win quotes are also changed to be far more arrogant and aggressive than those of the standard Captain America in the game, indicating that he is indeed John Walker rather than Steve Rogers.
• U.S. Agent appears as an assist character in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, where he performs Captain America’s “Charging Star” special move.
• U.S. Agent appears as an alternate costume for Captain America in Marvel Ultimate Alliance.
• U.S. Agent appears as a playable character in Marvel Super Hero Squad, voiced by Nolan North.
• The U.S. Agent costume appears as an alternate costume for Captain America in Marvel Heroes.

Merchandise

• U.S. Agent was featured in ToyBiz’s Marvel Super Heroes action figure line as a repaint of the earlier Captain America figure.
• U.S. Agent was featured in ToyBiz’s action figure line for Iron Man: The Animated Series, despite not appearing in that show.
• U.S. Agent was featured in Hasbro’s toy line for Captain America: The First Avenger.
• U.S. Agent was featured in the HeroClix figure game.
• U.S. Agent was featured in Diamond Select’s Minimates line as part of a two-pack with Taskmaster.
• U.S. Agent was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Epic Heroes wave.
• U.S. Agent was featured in Hasbro’s Super Hero Squad line as part of a special box set.
• U.S. Agent was featured in Funko’s Pop! line of bobbleheads as a Comikaze Expo exclusive.
• The MCU version of Walker was featured in his Captain America identity in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as a Walmart exclusive. A repaint of Walker in his U.S. Agent colors was later released as part of the Disney+ wave.
• An updated comic U.S. Agent was later included in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Controller Build-a-Figure wave.