| William Burnside | |
|---|---|
.png) William Burnside, PhD, as he appeared prior to the surgical alterations on his features, inCaptain America #155 (November 1972 Marvel Comics). Art bySal Buscema and Frank McLaughlin. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Captain America #153 (Sept. 1972). (Captain America stories fromYoung Men #24 (Dec. 1953) through to 1955 retroactively ascribed to the character) |
| Created by | As Captain America: Steve Englehart Sal Buscema As The Grand Director: Roger McKenzie Jim Shooter |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | William Burnside, PhD.; legally changed to Steven "Steve" Rogers |
| Species | Human mutate |
| Team affiliations | United States Government National Force |
| Notable aliases | Captain America |
| Abilities | Trained boxer Superhuman strength Peak-level speed, agility, dexterity, reflexes, coordination, balance and endurance Access to various forms of advanced technology As Captain America: Wears a chain-mail costume Carries a bulletproof steel shield (Briefly): Use of an "atom-blaster" weapon |
William Burnside,PhD,[1] also known as theCaptain America of the 1950s,Commie Smasher orBad Cap,[2]: 50–51, 226–227 is a fictional character appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. He was created by writerSteve Englehart and artistSal Buscema inCaptain America #153–156 (Sept.–Dec. 1972) as an explanation for the reappearance ofCaptain America andBucky in 1953 inYoung Men comics and their subsequent adventures in the 1950s. It was established throughretroactive continuity that the character was a completely different one from the original Captain America, who was firmly established inThe Avengers #4 as disappearing near the end ofWorld War II. Since this revelation, the character serves as afoil personality to his predecessor, serving as an example of what Captain America could have become and as areactionary bigot driven violently insane by a flawed and incomplete copy of Project Rebirth's body enhancement treatment.
In a later storyline, the character was given a new white costume and the titleThe Grand Director by Buscema and writersRoger McKenzie andJim Shooter, inCaptain America #232 (April 1979), and altered to be a villain and leader of a group of white supremacists that included a brainwashedSharon Carter. The character was killed off at the end of that storyline and not used again untilCaptain America vol. 5 #42, returning to being active as the Captain America of the 1950s separate from the then-current Captain America,James "Bucky" Barnes.
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A character with a complicated history, William Burnside's origin lies in discrepancies that crept up in the history of Captain America.
As a character, Captain America had been continuously published from 1941 until 1949. He was then revived unsuccessfully in 1953 inYoung Men #24–28 (Dec. 1953– May 1954) byStan Lee with Mort Lawrence andJohn Romita, Sr. These stories starred the original Captain America and Bucky in both their civilian and superhero guises, and were clearly set in the 1950s, with the character prominently battling communism and a communistRed Skull. The character also made appearances inMen's Adventures #27–28 (May–July 1954) andCaptain America Comics #76–78 (May–Sept. 1954).
However, when Lee revived the Captain America concept a second time in 1964, he either ignored or forgot about the 1950s stories. When the character reappears inThe Avengers #4 (March, 1964) Lee reveals that the original Captain America had fallen into a state of suspended animation after a battle he fought near the end ofWorld War II in 1945.
The 1950s stories were thus considered outside of the official canon until Englehart's 1972Captain America storyline. This attempted to resolve the discrepancy by revealing how an unnamed man, and his teenaged student, had assumed both the public and private identities of the original Captain America and Bucky. This was part of a government-sponsored program which planned to replace the lost heroes to combat the "red threat" (i.e., communism). However, as Englehart's 1972 story reveals, the treatment, which these individuals underwent to replicate the original Captain America and Bucky's abilities, was flawed (as the vital Vita-Ray radiological component was left out) and, as a side-effect, they developed psychotic symptoms. Consequently, the government placed them in suspended animation in the mid-1950s (only for an undisclosed jingoistic individual to revive them, decades later in contemporary times, to battle the original Captain America).
This complicated origin is the reason that some sources listYoung Men #24 as this character's first appearance, when in fact this, and subsequent 1950s-published Captain America stories, was clearly created with the intention of depicting the original Captain America. Englehart's story was somewhat controversial; many praised it as accounting for a discrepancy in Marvel continuity in a way that expanded the Captain America cast, but a number of fans who had followed the 1950s Captain America adventures were dismayed by the revelation that their hero was just a well-meaning imposter.[3]
A 1977 story,What If #4 (Aug. 1977), introduces two other, previous Captain Americas -William Naslund, appointed by Truman in 1945 to succeed the original Captain America, andJeff Mace, who succeeds Naslund as Cap in the spring of 1946 after Naslund is killed in action. These versions of the character were created to resolve the discrepancy created by the Captain America stories which had been published between 1945–1949 in the newer, post-The Avengers #4 continuity. Though depicted in an issue of theWhat If? series, this story was explicitly noted as taking place as part of the formal canon.[4]
The 1950s Captain America was known for a time as Captain America IV. In later years, yet earlier Captain Americas were introduced, obscuring their numbering, though most of these other, later-introduced Captains are not formally part of the recognized lineage (such as the Revolutionary War-era ancestor of Steve Rogers). Many recognize this character today with the specific terms 1950s Captain America, Captain America of the 1950s, or "Grand Director" to distinguish him from the World War II Steve Rogers. In 2010 the character's birth name ("William Burnside") was revealed inCaptain America #602.
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Having idolized the original Captain America to the point of obsession, William Burnside[1] focused his life in an intense analysis of American history. He attains a PhD in American History in the early 1950s, with a thesis on the life of Captain America. Soon after graduating, Burnside further researches the secret "Project: Rebirth" and discovers private Nazi files revealing the true identity of the original Captain America as well as the lost Super Soldier serum.
Returning to the United States with this information, Burnside legally changes his name to Steve Rogers, then approaches the FBI offering the Super Soldier serum as leverage to become the next Captain America, in hope of being used as a symbol during theKorean War. While Burnside undergoes surgery to assume the physical appearance and voice of Rogers, the situation in Korea changes. Feeling that introducing a symbol of national pride would be unwise in the political climate of the time, the FBI cancels the project.
The FBI set up Burnside, as "Steve Rogers", a teacher at the private preparatory Lee High School in Connecticut. While there, Burnside encounters an intense advocate inJames "Jack" Monroe who shares his obsessive fascination with the original Captain America. When the communist Red Skull attacks the United Nations in an elaborate scheme, Burnside injects himself and Monroe with a sample of the unproven Super-Soldier serum and confronts the Red Skull as the new Cap and Bucky. However, without the vita-ray exposure the original Rogers received to activate and stabilize the serum, Burnside and Monroe undergo a dangerously flawed application. Although initially accepted in the roles of Captain America and Bucky, the formula they ingested eventually gives them psychotic symptoms. The two become unreliable and paranoid, attacking innocents simply for their race or for holding opinions that differ from their own. They are arrested and put into suspended animation by government agents.[5]
Burnside and Monroe are reawakened decades later,[6] and sent out to kill the original Captain and his partnerFalcon, but are defeated and returned to their suspended animation. For his part, Rogers has the unsettling thought that he could have suffered his imposter's fate had circumstances been different.[7]
Burnside is placed in the custody of psychologistDoctor Faustus for treatment.[8] Faustus brainwashes him, setting him up as The Grand Director,[9] the leader of aNeo-Nazi group called theNational Force. However, when confronted by the original Captain America Burnside is horrified with the revelation of his manipulation of his former identity as Captain America. He curls into a fetal position, and pushes a button on his utility belt engulfing his body in flames.[8]
After the true Steve Rogers' death, Sharon Carter discovers that Faustus and the Red Skull have been keeping Burnside in suspended animation while he healed from his wounds,[10] programming him to kill the current Captain America,James Barnes.[11] After escaping Faustus, and helping to rescue Sharon Carter from Arnim Zola, Burnside travels the country and considers his place in modern society. He is unimpressed with the current United States' cultural view.[12]
Eventually Burnside joins the terrorist groupWatchdogs, and captures Barnes forcing him to wear his World War II Bucky uniform and become his new Bucky. Burnside's plan involves blowing upHoover Dam to rally other groups like the Watchdogs behind him. Barnes shoots him at the edge of the dam when Burnside threatens to detonate the bomb.[13]
Burnside becomes a crimefighting vigilante. However, his insanity makes him recklessly endanger innocent bystanders. The original Captain America intervenes and Burnside becomes disoriented and runs in front of a semi-truck. Rogers visits Burnside in hospital and tells him that he did a lot of good as Captain America before the serum destroyed his mind, and that Rogers does not hold him responsible. Rogers also explains that Burnside's death has been faked, that he has been given a military funeral with full honors, and that he is formally relieved of his duty and will be taken to a facility to repair his damaged mind, and give him a new identity.[14]
Prior to becoming Captain America, William Burnside has university graduate level intellect proficient in research and critical thinking. He has actual superhuman strength. His agility, dexterity, speed, reflexes, coordination, balance, and endurance are superior to those of any Olympic athlete, and his physiological functions operate at the peak of human efficiency. He is a trained boxer and a competent hand-to-hand combatant. As the 1950s Captain America, he wore a chain-mail costume (his 1950s version was distinguishable from the World War II Captain America's costume in that his 1950s costume torso stripes did not fully encircle the costume's waist) and carried a bulletproof steel shield which was destroyed.[7] Following his first revival from suspended animation, he briefly used an "atom-blaster" weapon, presumably salvaged from a government lab. As a member of the National Force, he had access to various forms of advanced technology.
Burnside's current Captain America costume is an exact match to the first Rogers' primary current costume, complete with a new round shield that has survived blows from the "indestructible" round shield now used by Barnes. The exact composition of this new shield has not yet been revealed.
A terrorist calling himself "Grand Director" appeared in theHeroes Reborn universe.[15]
InWhat If? #44 (April 1984),[16] in an alternative world where theAvengers did not find the frozenSteve Rogers,[17] Burnside andMonroe (still as Captain America and Bucky) are revived in the 1970s by an over-zealous, anti-communist janitor at the government facility where they were put into suspended animation. Following their public re-appearance, they are conned by powerful subversive organizations—the Committee, theSecret Empire, and theSons of the Serpent—into helping them to subjugate the United States to a brutalwhite supremacist andfascist tyranny. However, in 1983 the real Steve Rogers is recovered by a loyal submarine crew from the Arctic ice, and with the aid of its captain he joins an underground rebellion—consisting ofNick Fury,"Snap" Wilson andSpider-Man—and leads an assault on a national convention, where he defeats Burnside in a vicious duel and leads a chastised population back to its democratic roots.[18][19]
Neal Curtis wrote that this version of Captain America was "aggressive and racist". He also praises his story arc and its eventual resolution in canon (related to someretconning) as not just "a brilliant way to explain the gap in Captain America's story" but one about dangerous aspects of American national identity, tackling issues such as discrimination, "zealotry, violence, prejudice, and racist myths of belonging", and situates this in the critique ofNixon's presidential campaign, which he argues relied on these motives.[2]: 50–51, 226–227 [19]
