A Brief History Of All The Men To Ever Suit Up As Captain America

Captain America IV – William Burnside

To this point, the men who took up the Captain America mantle while Steve Rogers was in suspended animation brought honor to the name, even if they couldn’t quite match his physical exploits. Not so with this guy, who brought obsession to a new level by seeking out the Super Soldier Serum and actually succeeding in finding its formula. Burnside agreed to turn over the secret, but only after receiving assurances that he’d be the one to receive the treatment. Oh, and he had surgery so that he looked and sounded like Rogers, plus had his name legally changed. Three guesses what he chose.

When a second Red Skull popped up in the 50, Burnside and Jack Monroe took the serum and became the new Captain America and Bucky (also a retcon, naturally). One problem: without the vita-rays to stabilize the process, the transformation started to have detrimental effects on their minds. When their anti-Communist crusade took a turn toward racism, the government ended up cutting its losses, apprehending the duo and placing both men in cryogenic suspension.

This being comics, someone eventually let them out, and he and Monroe needed to be stopped by Rogers, the Falcon and Sharon Rogers. He also took a turn as the Grand Director, leading a white supremacist group called the Mational Force, though he was thwarted again by the real Captain America and seemingly perished by setting himself on fire.

That wasn’t the end for Burnside, and in a recurring theme, he recovered (with some help from Doctor Faustus) and ended up joining the terrorists called the Watchdogs so he could “fix” what he perceive to be wrong with his country. Bucky Barnes, who was now filling in as Captain America, was able to defeat him, and a fall from the Hoover Dam may have finished Burnside for good.

Except we know that probably isn’t the end for this real piece of work. The insane “1950s Captain America” seems destined to remain a stain on the legacy for as long as writers keep coming up with ways to use him.