John Walker's path to becoming Captain America, from Captain America #333, written by Mark Gruenwald and Tom Morgan. I think this was Gruenwald giving readers the "Captain America for the Reagan era" that they thought they wanted.
His partner, Lemar Hoskins, who was just as skilled--and taller--than Cap, got Bucky's hand-me-down costume. The work environment wasn't the greatest. (Mark Gruenwald was unaware that "Buck" was a racially-charged insult until Dwayne McDuffie brought it to his attention.)
This from Captain America #335, when Walker--just sworn in as the new Cap--is tapped to infiltrate a watchdog group called...The Watchdogs. Extremist militia group claiming to be looking out for public decency and morality.
Lemar goes undercover as a sleazy magazine publisher, and John beats him up so that he'll get recruited by the Watchdogs.
Undercover mission blows up pretty quickly, with Lemar captured--and lynched. Walker decides to stand back to see where it goes, even though his partner might get killed. Not an auspicious start to his career.
I'll add to this later on...it's interesting to see how Walker's politics were pretty mainstream for Reagan's America, which made New Deal Democrat Steve Rogers look old-fashioned by comparison. Some of Mark Gruenwald's best writing came during this storyline.
Walker was terrible at keeping his cool in a fight. When an already-almost-defeated villain named Professor Power caught him with a ray blast, Walker lost it and beat Power to death with his augmented strength. (Kieron Dwyer's the regular artist from here on out.)
Here's the explanation of Battlestar's name change. As I said earlier, Mark Gruenwald had zero idea that "buck" was a racist term when he used it, felt mortified when Dwayne McDuffie pointed that out, and immediately copped to it in the pages of the comic book:
Cap and Battlestar's first public appearance goes south quickly, as their former partners crash the press conference and out John Walker as the new Captain America. Things would only get worse for him from there on out.
Walker was fine doing whatever the government asked him to do, even it it was tracking down and beating up mutants who just wanted to be left alone. Battlestar had reservations about all of this, but knew he was replaceable and didn't always voice his objections.
The next month, a villain named The Viper turned Ronald and Nancy Reagan into human snakes. Subtle political commentary that was lost on me as an eighties kid, but pretty sharp writing from Gruenwald in retrospect.
Steve Rogers, the former Captain America, was operating as "The Captain" at this time, and he came to D.C. and took care of business. He narrowly avoided crossing paths with John Walker here, but we got to see that Rogers was still at the top of his game.
At story's end, Reagan was back to normal...or, close enough, anyway.
Remember that Walker had his secret identity exposed? The Watchdogs kidnapped and murdered Walker's parents in front of him. Needless to say, he didn't take it well, and killed about a dozen Watchdogs in retaliation. Did I mention this was the Reagan era?
He missed out on his parents' funeral to beat the hell out of a mutant group called The Resistants. Wolverine and The Punisher would have told him to take it down a notch if they'd seen this fight.
Next up? Revenge on Walker's former partners, Hector and Jerome, who'd exposed his secret identity. Walker wasn't even attempting to live up to his predecessor's reputation here. Did I mention this was the Reagan era?
Next he goes off half-cocked and got his butt kicked by Flag-Smasher, who held him captive and would only exchange him for the real Captain America. He even took Cap's shield from him.
Steve Rogers teams up with Battlestar to rescue John Walker, who's completely catatonic at this point.
Rogers gets his original shield back in the process.
Thread picks up again here: https://twitter.com/andrewfarago/status/1381449809115054086
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