Comic Book Questions Answered – where I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brianc@cbr.com).

Reader Hunter S. wrote in asking about a sort of lost piece of USAGent (and thus, Captain America) history and here is the answer.

As you may or may not know, one of the most notable storylines (likely the most notable storyline) of Mark Gruenwald's acclaimed run on Captain America involved Steve Rogers splitting with the United States government over how much control they wanted over him. He had to surrender the Captain America name, costume and the iconic unbreakable shield. The Commission on Superhuman Activities selected one of Captain America's old adversaries, the Super-Patriot, to take over as the new Captain America (Super-Patriot was more of a nuisance than an actual supervillain).

A dejected Steve Rogers realized that obviously he didn't actually need the government's permission to remain a superhero. So he took on a new costume that was based on his old look and started calling himself The Captain (which allowed people to still call him "Cap." One of my bet peeves is when people call the guys who have taken over as Captain America "Cap." You don't just automatically start calling everyone who goes by Captain America as "Cap." They're either effectively brand new heroes that you barely know, like James Barnes, or they're heroes that you knew very well in a different identity, like Falcon, so why would your mind go to calling them the same nickname as the guy you've known for years and is one of the most trusted superheroes in the business? It wouldn't).

Steve enlisted his old friend, and Avengers teammate, Tony Stark, to build him a replacement shield as a favor. Tony gladly agreed. However, soon after that, he and Cap got into a conflict during the event known as "Armor Wars" (where Tony was trying to neutralize any armors that derived from his technology, including those worn by the guards at the supervillain prison known as The Vault. Cap tried to stop him from depowering the Guardsman at the prison). So Cap told him to take his shield and shove it.

Steve then turned to a slightly less jerky friend and Avengers teammate, T'Challa, who supplied Cap with a vibranium shield in Captain America #342 (by Mark Gruenwald, Kieron Dwyer and Al Milgrom) and unlike Tony, T'Challa sprung for some paint on the shield, too...

Eight issues later, Steve took back the Captain America name. Four issues after THAT, John Walker, the guy formerly known as Super-Patriot, who had filled in as Captain America, was turned into a new superhero by the Commission using Steve's now unused costume and vibranium shield and became the USAgent. I don't believe they ever quite addressed Black Panther's reaction to learning that the shield that he made for his good buddy, Steve Rogers, was now being used by a jerk like the USAgent.

Anyhow, USAgent was soon assigned to to the West Coast Avengers. When the Avengers cut a deal with the United Nations, they were able to kick USAgent off of the team, but eventually they allowed him to rejoin on his own merits and he served with distinction for quite a while. When the team broke up in Avengers West Coast #102 (by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, David Ross and Tim Dzon - a crazy issue that I will write about in the future, I promise), a dejected John Walker decided to quit being a superhero and threw his costume and his shield into the New York Bay next to the Statue of Liberty.

Of course, this being comic books, all superheroes are like Michael Corleone in Godfather Part Three. They might try to get out, but they keep getting pulled back in and so John Walker returned to being the USAgent in Force Works #1 (by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Thomas Tenney and Rey Garcia). Tenney designed Agent a brand-new costume that now had photon shields....

Eventually, USAgent went back to his old costume, but he had no shield. During the original Thunderbolts run, USAgent began using a new ornate shield that was not rounded. However, in Captain America #20 (by Mark Waid, Andy Kubert and Jesse Delperdang), we see that USAgent received a brand-new vibranium shield, distinct from his earlier one. Sadly for him, this was at a time when vibranium objects were destabilizing and so it exploded on his arm...

USAgent has gone through a number of shields in the years since. He briefly used an eagle shield that had spikes on it and he also used photon shields again. For a while, he didn't even use a shield at all. During his time with the Dark Avengers, one of his most notable shields was an alternate reality version of Captain America's shield. Most recently, he has been using government-assigned shields that appear to be considerably less invulnerable than vibranium or adamantium, as he already went through at least one in just the first issue of his current series by Christopher Priest and Georges Jeanty.

However, unless you wished to argue that that vibranium incident that caused objects made out of the previous metal to explode also made USAgent's shield explode in the harbor (since it was nearby where similar vibranium objects that were destroyed), then it appears as though his shield is still there in the bay, along with his old costume. Since so many other vibranium objects were NOT destroyed, I tend to think that that is the correct take on this situation.

As an aside, the header image for this piece is from an unrelated comic book story, Mark Waid, Ron Garney and Bob Wiacek's Captain America #2 from 1998. Cap had just returned to Earth from his Heroes Reborn era and he sadly lost his shield on a mission on a submarine. It returned just in time for that vibranium story that I referenced earlier.

Thanks for the question, Hunter!

If anyone else has a comic book related question, just drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!