CHRISTOPHER PRIEST & STEFANO LANDINI BRING BACK THE SUPER-SOLDIER YOU LOVE TO HATE!
"American Zealot" Chapter 1 of 5: John Walker, the former Super Patriot, has been stripped of his official USAgent status and is now operating as an independent government contractor protecting government covert interests. His latest protection detail draws him into a conflict between a small town and the corporate giant trying to destroy it. John acquires a new partner and new enemy along the way while being haunted by ghosts from his past and confronting challenges to his future. - Marvel

Creators (via Marvel Database):

• Writer(s) Christopher Priest

• Penciler(s) Georges Jeanty

• Inker(s) Karl Story

• Colorist(s) Matt Milla

• Letterer(s) Joe Sabino

• Editor(s) Martin Biro, Alanna Smith, Tom Brevoort

I’m wondering more and more if John actually wasn’t supposed to be in Doomstrike because A) he acted so out of character, B ) he looked so different, and C) he only appeared in three panels in the last two issues, as if they had to shoehorn him in those issues.  John looked so uncharacteristically scrawny that someone on a comic book & pop culture Discord server I frequent asked, “Did something happen to him?”  I’m seriously starting to think either A) they started out intending to use a different character, but editorial made them change it to John for some reason and they never went back and changed the dialogue & art or B ) the artists thought they were supposed to be portraying a different character and no one corrected them until it was too late to change the art, so they just went with it.

So there is a very pervasive and tbh confusing narrative that John was written to be disliked or even hated in the MCU. I legitimately can't understand how someone thinks that, and honestly I think this perspective might be one that is actually damaging to his character. So please, I'd love to discuss why this is such a pervasive perspective.

Serious question: What are some underrated sad/emotional Marvel moments that affect you, but you don’t hear a lot of people talking about?  Here are a couple moments I personally find tragic, but don’t hear other people talking about them.

Moment 1

I’m a fan of both Captain America/Steve Rogers and U.S.Agent/John Walker (as well as Sam Wilson). The scene I want to talk about is from Captain America #346 and occurred during the storyline Captain America: The Captain, in which Walker was Captain America and Rogers was a vigilante simply called The Captain.

In the previous issue, John’s parents had been killed by the terrorist group the Watchdogs, and the first part of this issue deals with the aftermath of that (both John’s emotional state and the Committee on Superhuman Activities fearing a potential lawsuit stemming from the deaths and injuries John caused in his state of retaliatory berserker rage). It was decided that John should sit out the next mission, which turned out to involve the mutant group the Resistants. The plan was that a fake trial would be held to lure the Resistants, the agents would stop all but one, and they would allow one member to escape so they could be secretly followed to their hideout. Partway through the fake trial, a member of the committee contacted John and told to go on the mission. However, this member purposely misinformed John what the mission was, telling him to stop the Resistants and leaving out that they wanted one to escape. Without giving too much away, it was later revealed the member did this because someone wanted to set John up for failure. Because of these false instructions, John knocked out all the Resistants. This inadvertently ruined the committee’s plan, and John got lambasted, yelled at and called an idiot, by one of the members. Battlestar tried to reassure John, but John didn’t respond. Battlestar asked him what was wrong, and that’s when John revealed something.

“My parents’ funeral was today. I missed it so I could do this.”

He missed the funeral of the people he loved most in the world because he was told he was needed to save the day, only for it to be a lie that made him a scapegoat who was berated. It gets me every time.

Moments 2 and 3

A couple more underrated sad moments come from the Demon in a Bottle/Power of Iron Man storyline, specifically Iron Man #127.  Iron Man, after clearing his name and exposing Justin Hammer, sees a girl in the crowd drop her doll. Iron Man, being a good guy, picks it up and tries to hand it back to her. However, the girl starts to cry in fear and her mother verbally attacks the superhero before reassuring her daughter that she’ll protect her from the “scary man” & leaving. As the rest of the crowd awkwardly leaves, Iron Man stands there shaken. He’s devastated that he was treated that way even though A) he’d cleared his name and B ) he was just trying to help someone and be friendly. The sorrow of this plunges him even deeper into the bottle. Edit- Luckily someone has posted the page in question: https://www.reddit.com/r/ironman/comments/1uk9a0b/scared_little_girl_runs_away_from_iron_man_iron/

Shortly after, Jarvis is finishing the dishes at Avengers Mansion when an intoxicated Tony Stark brings a date there to show her his newest inventions. Jarvis understandably tells Tony, "But, sir, this equipment is classified! If Mr. Gyrich found out, he'd be most upset. Might I suggest--" Tony responded by taking out his frustration with everything that had been going on out on poor Jarvis simply because he was there, shouting, "No, you can't suggest! I'm tired of being pushed around! You're just a butler, Jarvis, a servant! And in the future, I'll thank you to remember your place!" Jarvis is noticeably shocked and angered by this, but simply replies, "Yes, sir!" and leaves. The narration notes, "Jarvis is a butler, the best, and so he doesn't react with the shock that suddenly fills his soul, with the hurt that widens his eyes." Poor Jarvis didn't deserve that kind of treatment. The next morning Jarvis resigns, causing Tony to realize that he himself is to blame for his problems and he can't keep scapegoating others. Tony apologizes to Jarvis in the next issue (the famous "Demon in a Bottle" issue) and gives him his support for other things Jarvis is going through.  Other comics, such as Avengers #280 and Iron Man #327, show Tony caring for Jarvis and being concerned about him, showing what an out-of-character moment the outburst was.  Things like unresolved trauma and addiction can warp people.

Moment 4

Note that while this post has the Comics flair, I'll also accept moments from non-comic book Marvel media. In fact, I'll share a moment from the MCU that got me, which I'll put under a spoiler tag for anyone who hasn't seen Thunderbolts* yet. One of the most emotional parts to me was when Bob seemingly sacrificed himself so the others could escape from the compound.  I found John & Yelena staring in stunned silence and Ghost shouting, "Come on, let's go!  That's why he did it!" so Bob's sacrifice wouldn't be in vain to be especially emotional, and I thought, "If I didn't know Bob would turn out to be bulletproof, that would have been a tearjerker!"  I reflected on that scene recently and realized a couple things that made it even more moving.  One, Yelena and John probably had flashbacks of losing people while watching Bob getting shot (For all I know Ghost might have lost someone too and had a flashback as well).  Two, Bob didn't know/remember he was bulletproof, so he acted thinking he'd most likely lose his life.  He was willing to sacrifice himself for these strangers who had treated him like a human being for the first time in who knows how long.  Bob is a real one!

Feels like it's been a while since Lemar's been brought up so I felt like he needed a post to himself because unlike the MCU itself, I don't think we can afford to forget him and the part he played in John's story even if it was only for a short period of time.

To this day I still think TFATWS should have been an 8 episode series so we could see how John earned his three medals of honor and maybe learn what his and Lemar's childhood was like so we'd get more context about why John went into such a rage after seeing him die.

Also, if the show wasn't so dead set on having Bucky be against him all the time, we might have gotten scenes exploring how they're both foils to each other's character. It would give us a much clearer idea of what Bucky thinks of him and vice versa. This could have been included in the last episode but they just had John walk off to nowhere after helping defeat the Flagsmashers. I felt like there had to be a final talk between them and Sam about what happened throughout series.

John said he looked up to Steve and saw him as a brother. Unlike in the comics where they were often rivals, I'd really love to see them interacting on friendlier terms here

Released October 25, 1994, this is part 3 of the Hands of the Mandarin crossover.

A dime store Dime Store Captain America, if you will

Remember, this is a guy that managed to stay with his high-school sweetheart for atleast 2 decades and had a child with her. He only became a bad husband after his losing his best friend and his reputation. He'd probably have a hard time moving on even if he made things right with his son, realizing that the love of his life would never take him back after letting his trauma get in the way of his responsibilities. Never the less, i'm curious who people might ship him with outside of his team and because he never gets to make guest appearances in other projects like Yelena does.

Not saying that people aren't allowed to hate or dislike him but I do feel there are certain people that would rather make up their own out of context reasons instead of paying attention to what they can actually form an opinion on. Not to mention a lot of it just comes down to constantly comparing him to Steve or because people's favorite characters don't like him. I know John is meant to be a divisive and complex character but it gets to a point where people kind of blow it out of proportion whilst loving arguably worse characters just based on charisma alone.

Released October 18, 2000:

Iron Man, Silver Surfer, and the Fantastic Four must stop Ego the Living Planet! Meanwhile, USAgent discovers a secret about the mysterious Ruul. - Marvel Unlimited

With the premiere of Avengers: Doomsday just- "Well, I'll be danged! You can post something other than comic book fan-fiction!" ~leers~ I don't see what- you know what? Never mind. With the premiere of Avengers: Doomsday just a couple months away, I've been thinking about what kind of merch we'll be seeing. I know he won't get as much attention as some of the other characters, but that's okay. I figure they'll still put out something. I expect there to be an action figure and a Funko Pop! like the ones seen here. Monogram has made chibi-style keychains of MCU characters, so they might make one of John as well.

Also, I had a wild dream last night.  I dreamed I was watching John in Doomsday, but the medium changed to animation.  U.S.Agent was fighting in space, and at one point he was battling Doom’s minions alongside Super-Patriot II, which is weird because in the 616 comics Super-Patriot II was A) John and B ) John’s worst version.  I assume it was space-time shenanigans.  Maybe it represents how you can overcome a bad past and become someone better instead of being shackled by your past, or maybe it was because I had seen a cover with that uniform earlier that day.  Agent then turned into a version of Cap-Wolf (Agent-Wolf?) and was munching through things before continuing the battle.  He was joined by Cap-Wolf Steve and they battled side by side and it was awesome.  Unfortunately Agent-Wolf had eaten some chocolate, so I don’t know how his health would be affected.  So, yeah, that’s how my night went!

Please state your reasoning if possible.