Multiple Caps

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whoisthedoctor
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Multiple Caps

Post by whoisthedoctor »

We all know there've been many Captain Americas over the years.

I've long been under the impression that the original, retroactive creation of Captain Americas II, III and IV came about in order to account for the discrepency between Cap's WWII disappearance described in Avengers #4 and the fact that there had been many published Cap adventures in the Timely/Atlas years that clearly took place after this event.

What I'm curious about is exactly what issue of what comic put forth the "multiple past Caps theory" on paper and changed it from conjecture to concrete, in universe fact. Basically, what comic actually presented Captaim Americas II, III and IV as existing entities? (As opposed to what I can only assume was the case prior...the assumption that those Timely/Atlas stories simply "didn't count.")

Was it an Invaders issue? What if #4?

Was it all done in one shebang? (We're told there were 3 post-Rogers Caps and who they all were at once?) Or was it something pieced together over time? (I know some parts were pieced together over time, since I can remember a time when Captain America IV had no civilian name other than "Steve Rogers.")

In addition, what's the criteria being used to determine which post-Rogers Cap retroactively appears in each Timely/Atlas story. Some of this seems obvious: Anything after WWII obviously isn't Rogers, Very Late WWII is probably Naslund, the 50's stuff is obviously Burnside. But how are determinations being made for the other appearances?

Thanks in advance.
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Col_Fury
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Re: Multiple Caps

Post by Col_Fury »

Issues 1-2 of the new volume of the Index goes into a little more detail, but here's the gist of it:

Cap #153-156 explained that the Captain America & Bucky appearing in Captain America Comics #76-78, Young Men #24, etc were different characters and not the originals. But this only applied to the '50s Cap (IV) & Bucky (III). This Bucky, Jack Monroe, eventually became Nomad, and this "Steve Rogers" Cap was given a real name, William Burnside, only recently.

The II & III Caps and the II Bucky were explained in What If...? #4 a couple of years later. William Naslund(Spirit of '76) became Cap after the original dissapeared, and Fred Davis bacame the new Bucky. Also in WI? 4, Naslund died and was replaced by Jeff Mace(the Patriot). Fred continued on as Bucky along with Mace as Cap. Eventually in the Golden Age comics, Bucky(Fred) was shot and replaced by Golden Girl. And later still, Fred joined the V-Battallion.

As for which Golden Age issues cover which Cap, this hasn't been laid out in a comic, but rather the Golden Age handbook from a couple of years ago. It was based largely on publication dates of the original Golden Age comics vs. the dates given in What If...? #4.

And there it is! :)
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whoisthedoctor
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Re: Multiple Caps

Post by whoisthedoctor »

Thanks much, Col. Fury.

I'll have to track down that Golden Age Handbook.
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