Day Sixty-Five: Marvel's Biggest Jerks #2 - Patriot Acts Up

Ooh, we're nearly there. Aren't you on the edge of your seat, wondering who's the most unpleasant Marvel non-villain of them all? I am, and I know who it is, so I can only imagine how the worldwide incidence of hypertension must be skyrocketing. It's still one more day before you get to find that out, though, so in the meantime, let's take a look at the best second-rate Marvel hero there is: the US Agent.

US Agent, real name John Walker, was an ex-military man who gained super-powers from what was effectively a super-powers loan shark by the name of the Power Broker. Following that, and needing to pay for the treatment, he took corporate sponsorship, called himself the Super-Patriot, and began toting his butt around the States slagging off Captain America. As you might imagine, this didn't end terribly well for Walker, who was initially ignored by Cap before finally having his head kicked in by him.

When Steve Rogers quit as Captain America, Walker was appointed by the government to take his place, and this new Cap was not what readers had come to expect. Gone was the idealistic man Steve Rogers was known to be - instead, Walker saw himself as more patriotic than Rogers, and so just put his head down and got on with the task of being pretty brutal and right-wing and generally going against the established grain of what Captain America had come to symbolise.

Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just because Rogers is a liberal doesn't mean that Captain America needs to be a liberal. Indeed, many would say that having a more conservative man in the role would accurately reflect the US government at the time the character was created in 1986. However, that's not the problem with US Agent. He can be as right-wing as he likes, it's not an issue. His jerkdom comes not from what he does, but how he does it.

Walker is possibly the most insufferably reactionary character Marvel have. He's preposterously quick to judge and massively intolerant of anyone he sees as being weaker than himself (which is epitomised in his fairly one-sided fight against the powerless Hawkeye). He has no interest in being friendly towards any of the other heroes he teams up with - indeed, when the Superhuman Activities Commission railroaded him onto the Avengers West Coast squad, he bullied his way into leadership and then generally acted like an insufferable prig. Years after giving up the Captain America mantle and assuming the role of the US Agent, Walker made some inroads to becoming a fairly accurate copy of a man whose stance on crime he clearly admires when he adopted the tactics and a litigation-baitingly close version of the costume of Judge Joe Dredd. He was unsympathetic and more than a little annoying.

Walker's main problem is that he has no respect. He doesn't respect Captain America, he doesn't respect anyone's civil liberties, he doesn't respect those who are weaker than him or those who challenge him. He's hard-headed, stubborn and, not to put too fine a point on it, not terribly bright. This is the man who was so disliked by his fellow Avengers that when the team moved from being under US control to coming under the auspices of the UN - and consequently his presence on the squad was no longer mandatory - his membership vote went against him so badly that the only vote in his favour was his own. The final straw, though, it's the fact that he dissed Captain America in public. You don't slate Cap, man, you salute him. Support our troops.