Every installment of Abandoned Love we will be examining comic book stories, plots and ideas that were abandoned by a later writer while still acknowledging that the abandoned story DID still happen. Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of Abandoned Love. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

This time around, we look at the two young heroes who Captain America trained to take over after he died, only when he DIDN'T die, their comic book careers did instead...

I won't go into the specifics of "Fighting Chance," since I will likely feature it in a future column (most likely Remember to Forget, as this storyline was terrrrrible), but suffice it to say that while Captain America is slowly dying, writer Mark Gruenwald and artists Dave Hoover and Danny Bulanadi introduced four new patriotic-themed characters in the 12-part storyline (in four different "sub-storylines"). The idea was sort of a riff on the Reign of the Supermen storyline in the Superman titles, as in "Will one of these characters be taking over for Captain America?

The twist was that the first two "heroes" were really bad guys, or at least anti-heroes who were so far from being heroes that they were effectively villains.

The first sub-storyline introduced a new Super-Patriot...



The second sub-storyline introduced Americop...



But it was not until the third sub-storyline that we first met an actual GOOD person. Cathy Webster was a nerd in college who agreed to do an experiment...



The experiments turn her into a badass...



but they also brainwash her into becoming a man-hating feminist...



She breaks free from that control, though, and becomes FREE SPIRIT!



She goes to track down the professor who gave her her powers (and tried to turn her into a Man-Killer) and ends up crossing paths with Captain America (Free Spirit's professor turned out to be Superia). After Superia gets away, Free Spirit asks Cap to help train her so that she can take Superia down the next time they fight each other. He agrees.

The next sub-storyline introduces Jack Flag and his....sigh....commbat boom box. Go to the next page to see the "combat boom box" in action!





He tries to infiltrate the Serpent Society. He goes over his back story later in the issue, as he has surrendered to the Serpent Society to hopefully trick them into letting him join...





Meanwhile, Free Spirit is impressing the heck out of Cap...



Cap and Free Spirit end up attacking the Serpent Society while Jack is in the midst of them, but Cap takes a turn for the worse, leaving Free Spirit and Jack to stand up to the entire Serpent Society (luckily, Force Works saves the day). The two young heroes bond...



The two then become, for lack of a better word, Cap's new sidekicks. They become close enough to Cap that he takes an interest in their personal lives, forcing them to take some downtime (even though they insist on keeping their superhero costumes on).



So anyhow, in Gruenwald's last issue, Cap has only a day left to live. Before he dies, he leaves his superhero company in the hands of Free Spirit and Jack Flag...



The issue, though, is that Cap doesn't actually die (Gruenwald nicely set up an antidote that could save Cap, to help incoming writer Mark Waid out). In Mark Waid's second issue, Cap is back!



However, Jack and Free Spirit's story was completely dropped. Free Spirit has not appeared in a single comic book since 1995!! She was referenced in a post-Civil War book as a possible member for the Initiative, but it never went beyond that...



Jack Flag, though, had a better career. He showed up post-Civil War, in Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato's Thunderbolts, as a man who follows his hero's example and ignores the Superhuman Registration Act just like Cap did...



Ellis makes him quite capable, but he is paralyzed in the end. He is brought back and healed in Guardians of the Galaxy, but nothing for him since then, either.

So come on, writers, two abandoned characters are available for use!