If you ever watched The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+, then you may be familiar with one John Walker, aka U.S. Agent, and a former holder of the mantle of Captain America himself. Our man Walker has graced this blog before, in my reviews of Captain America #333 (September 1987) and Captain America Corps #1 (June 2011). Since his days as Captain America, Walker has been a bit of a mainstay in the Marvel Universe, having a stint in the original West Coast Avengers, which eventually evolved into Force Works. He's also gotten time to shine in the solo spotlight a couple of times.
Yes, our man Walker's had a few solo adventures in the MU. His first miniseries was in 1993, in which he battled the Scourge of the Underworld, a mysterious killer of minor supervillains that appeared in various Marvel books in the 80s. Most recently, he got a miniseries in 2020, penned by Christopher Priest.
The comic we're going to look at here is the first issue of his 2001 miniseries, which followed up on the events of a story called "Maximum Security". In that story, the various intergalactic powers decided to make Earth into a glorified penal colony. They dumped their criminals on Earth, and basically said to Earth's superheroes, "They're your problem now". After this story, Walker joined the US Marshals. In particular, he became a member of the Superhuman Tactical Activities Response Squad, or S.T.A.R.S. And no, they never went to a mansion or Raccoon City.
So, with that out of the way, let's look at U.S. Agent #1!
The cover is a Jerry Ordway piece, and it's pretty cool. It depicts our man Walker in his U.S. Agent uniform at the time, standing in front of what looks like a crowded jail cell formed from the American flag. I have to admit, I am rather fond of this outfit for John. It always seemed to fit him, in my opinion.
"The One That Got Away."
Writer: Jerry Ordway
Penciler: Jerry Ordway
Inker: Karl Kesel
Colorist: VLM
Letterer: John Workman
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
The story begins with our man Walker on his way to a HYDRA fortress in Italy to capture a bail jumper.
Say what you will about Walker, but the man has his own sense of style. His plane gets shot down by a trio of heat-seeker missiles. This allows Walker to recall an earlier conversation he had with Val Cooper, who was the head of the Commission for Superhuman Activities. At this time, she was Walker's boss as the head of S.T.A.R.S. (Superhuman Tactical Activities Response Squad), basically a specialized police force to capture superpowered villains.
A Senator Warkovsky is none-too-happy with Walker's cowboy cop antics. He's also running for re-election, and what he wants is his own appointee running S.T.A.R.S. Walker is none too happy about this, but Cooper assures him the senator's choice is legit...and someone from Walker's past.
As the flashback continues, Walker is making his way through the HYDRA fortress to get his man: one Alfonso Lopez, aka Machete. The Agent is able to subdue the mercenary. He tries to make his way to the rendezvous point outside the fortress, but HYDRA is naturally not making that easy for him. Luckily, Walker has some backup.
Meet Kali Vries. Former US military, former SHIELD. And Warkovsky's choice to head S.T.A.R.S. The two argue over her being late when John discovers that Machete is dead. He caught a bullet during the escape. And to make things worse, SHIELD has arrived. And they are not too happy.
It turns out, SHIELD was monitoring the HYDRA fortress for the past month. They had discovered that Machete was pushing some new mind control tech on them. SHIELD wanted to find out where it came from and who Machete was selling it for. But thanks to Walker busting in, that lead is pretty much dead. Whoops.
Later , at S.T.A.R.S. HQ, Machete's body is being autopsied. A couple of discoveries were made. One is this bug-looking thingy.
It's a mind control device, likely extraterrestrial in origin. Machete had tons of these little monsters. It's also discovered that two of the slugs that killed the mercenary...were from S.T.A.R.S. themselves.
Yeah, that's not going to go down well. Vries and Walker try to discuss the situation, but it's clear the two have had a romantic entanglement in the past, and it's...causing some problems. Walker's co-worker Allie tries to get our man to see that Vries is messing with him, but Walker isn't interested in hearing.
In Washington DC, Senator Warkovsky's enjoying a nice run , when he meets up with Vries in a hoodie. Warkovsky asks if Vries has been accepted by the S.T.A.R.S. group yet. She hasn't, but she knows Walker still carries a bit of a torch for her. She plans to use that to win him over. Warkovsky gives her one of the alien mind control bugs, telling her to plant it on Walker.
Later on, Walker gets briefed by Cooper about a new mission.
Marion Pouncy (the comic misspells it Pouncey), aka Poundcakes, is a long-running supervillain. She first appeared in Marvel Two-in-One #54 (August 1979), and was a member of the Grapplers, a stable of superpowered women wrestlers. She had super strength, and was also equipped with "seismic boots", special footwear that allowed her to create powerful seismic events when she stomps the ground. It can be argued that she is a pastiche of the Female Fury known as Stompa.
She had escaped her lockup and is believed to be involved in the same operation as Machete was. Satellite imagine has also discovered a ne new structure thirty miles off the coast of Maine. It's Atlantean in design, so it's believed that she is trying to sell these alien bugs to radicals in the Atlantean Army. Namor the Sub-Mariner wasn't leading Atlantis at this time, but buying alien arms isn't his style. But Cooper's mission is simply get Poundcakes and those alien bugs. So, how will our man get to this Atlantean base?
In this stylish aero-submarine! Walker's been briefed, he's got his gear and his ride, he's ready to catch some criminals...hopefully without getting them killed this time. The story ends with Walker and the group on the way to the base...with Vries planting the mind control bug on him.
This was a pretty good comic, in my opinion. I liked that this set up Agent's status quo. We got a nice little bit of intrigue with Vries. I also admittedly enjoyed Walker's interactions with his co-workers. Ordway's art was also rather nice, although I will admit, something about his faces seems a bit...off to me. I can't explain it. But it was never something that really bothered me.
If you want to read this story for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2020 trade paperback U.S. Agent: The Good Fight. Thanks for reading this blog entry!
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