U.S. Agent #1 (August 2001)

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! 

Captain America #341 (May 1988)

Before we begin here, I would like to apologize for the delay in posting this. I got my 2nd COVID vaccine last Friday, and it knocked me for a loop. But I’m all better now, so here we go!

For the past few weeks, Marvel Studios has been releasing installments of the mini-series Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+. It's an awesome show, and I highly recommend it. One of the things I love about the series is that it uses elements from one of my favorite runs of Captain America's comic: The Mark Gruenwald run. For ten years, Gruenwald wrote what is in my opinion, some of the most underrated Cap stories of all time. We've entered into Gruenwald's run before with my reviews of Captain America #332, and #333. And since elements of his run are being used in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, I thought I’d return to it. So let’s look at Captain America #341!

The cover is a Ron Frenz piece. I am a bit of a fan of his artwork, but I have to admit, I think the figures do look a bit...wonky here. It's like they're overly bulky. I do get that Frenz is going for something Kirby-esque here. After all, he's been known to imitate Kirby in his Thor work.

"Break-In"
Writer: Mark Gruenwald
Penciler: Kieron Dwyer
Inker: Al Milgrom
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Editors: Ralph Macchio, Marc Siry
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The first story begins with Tony Stark, aka the Invincible Iron Man, coming home with a date. But he has company waiting for him.

"Oh Tonyyyyy! Stevie's home!"

Cap wants to speak to the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist in private. Tony sends his date home, and the two get to talking. Tony figures that Steve Rogers is not happy with their clash at the Vault (a prison for supervillains), in Iron Man #228 (March 1988). But that's not the only reason. He's also here to return a new shield that Tony made for him.

He also wants to turn Tony in to the authorities. Tony tosses the shield as a distraction and switches to his Iron Man suit. But Steve Rogers is not intimidated by the Silver Centurion armor or any of Stark's techno-tricks. Steve feels he has the advantage because Tony's not going to go all out and wreck his own home in the process. The two brawl, the entire time debating. 

The debate is argualbly the most interesting part of this story. 

Time to look at the second story!

"Free Speech"
Writer: Mark Gruenwald
Penciler: Kieron Dwyer
Inker: Al Milgrom
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Editors: Ralph Macchio, Marc Siry
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

This one begins at Fort George M. Meade Army Base. Lemar Hoskins, who had previously been operatiing as the new Bucky, has got himself a new look.

"John, I look good!"

John thinks Lemar looks great. He does wonder how he was able to convince the Commission on Superhuman Activities to give him his new costume, as they wouldn't let John make even one minor alteration to his Captain America uniform. 

You see, the two government heroes had helped deal with a breakout at the Vault the week earlier. One of the guards approached Lemar and wanted to speak to him. The guard was a Black man, but asked why he went by the codename "Bucky". The guard felt the name was a bit insulting. After all, the original Bucky was a white teenager, and Lemar is presumably Cap's age himself. Lemar is also as tough as Cap, and is a bigger man, to boot. 

Also, the word "Buck" is an offensive term for Black men. That's because it was used as a term for male slaves before the America Civil War. Lemar discussed this with the Commission, and they were very reasonable about it. As such, he's now got a new look and a new name: Battlestar.

In real life, Mark Gruenwald was unaware of the racial connotations of giving a Black character the codename of "Bucky". Gruenwald grew up in Wisconsin, which is...very white. It was Dwayne McDuffie who made him aware of this. The two tried to come up with a new codename for Lemar, and it was Kieron Dwyer who came up with the name Battlestar.

In front of the Washington Monument, Walker and Hoskins announce themselves as the new Captain America and Battlestar. The two of them make speeches for the crowd, but then John notices that a news copter is flying a bit low. Two men climb down and leap on the stage.

Meet Left-Winger and Right-Winger. Yes, those are their names. I am not making this up. They do come off more as villains for a parody of Cap than an actual Cap story. Anyway, the two are revealed to be two of John's old BUCkies from his Super-Patriot days. They expose Walker's identity to the crowd, and a fight breaks out. 

The two villains are arrested and carted away, but as far as they're concerned, they already won. They managed to upstage the new Cap and Battlestar, and John hopes that the public will be understanding.

"In Our Midst!"
Writer: Mark Gruenwald
Penciler: Kieron Dwyer
Inker: Al Milgrom
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Editors: Ralph Macchio, Marc Siry
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The third story begins with a meeting of the Serpent Society.

I have always liked the concept of the Serpent Society. Imagine that if a bunch of supervillains got together and basically formed a labor union. Yeah, imagine if you got to have things like medical benefits by being part of a supervillain team. 

Anyway, the Serpents are doing some business. Mainly, they're nominating three new snake-themed villains for membership: the super-strong blade-wielding Fer-de-Lance, the technological suit-packing Copperhead, and the speedster Black Racer.

No, not that one.

That one! You may be thinking, wait, Black Racer? How's that fit the snake theme? Well, the black racer (or the eastern racer) is a species of non-venomous snake native to North and Central America. Their range goes from Canada to Belize. The black racer is also the state reptile of Ohio.

Thanks to a heist in Las Vegas in Captain America #338 (February 1988), these four new recruits demonstrated skills and qualities that showed that they should be considered full members of the Society. As such, they'll spend the next three months as probationary members, doing assignments for the Society and the like. Rachel Leighton, aka Diamondback, shows Fer-de-Lance to her quarters in the Society's HQ. However, the snake-themed villainess has a secret of her own.

Yes, Fer-de-Lance (as well as the other three Serpent Society newbies) is actually an agent for the vicious villainess known as the Viper. The green-haired terrorist heads towards Black Mamba's room. She knocks out the woman, and slips into her maid outfit.

It's here that she enters Sidewinder's room. Sidewinder and Mamba have a little thing going on between them at the time. Viper takes advantage of Sidewinder's being distracted by looking over some papers to bite and inject him with venom.

And Viper wonders why people make vampire jokes...

That's gonna hurt. And rather unhygenic. Despite his being weakened by the poison, Sidewinder is able to reach his teleporter cloak and flee. He teleports into Diamondback's room, and she saves his life thanks to having some universal anti-toxin. The two teleport to the communications room just as Puff Adder bursts in doing his best Kool-Aid Man impression.

“Hey, Puff Adder!” “OH YEAH!”

Looking over the security cameras, there's chaos erupting. Viper's agents are causing a ruckus, and Diamondback is unsure who to call for help...until she gets an idea.

There is one person to call that anyone can trust. Even crooks like the Serpent Society. She grabs the phone and dials for Captain America's hotline. Yeah, at the time, Steve Rogers had a hotline that people could call if they needed help. I imagine it got regularly swamped with calls. 

This comic was really good. Gruenwald does a great job with giving fair space to all three stories. The three stories are all short, but they do push plotlines forward. Being a continuity man, Gruenwald manages to smoothly tie in the events of the Armor Wars that was going on in Iron Man's book at the time in the story focusing on Tony and Steve. We also get a bit of a look at the inner workings of the Serpent Society. As I have said, I like these guys. 

Join me next time when we look at an adventure of Superman when the Man of Steel discovers that he's got an invader in his Fortress...