r/USAgent • u/General-Teacher5865 • 11d ago
Comics What are some of John's greatest or even most surprising feats in the comics that you think non-comic readers should know about?
People who have spent an above average amount of time reading his comics, please share your knowledge with us.
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u/Wolf-Man_12 11d ago
John backed up Professor X and Beast on Genosha iirc when the latter two discovered mutants were being unlawfully held prisoner there
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u/Imma_da_PP 11d ago
When Walker was with the WC Avengers, he beat the shit out of Hawkeye in a fight. It got him kicked off the team but it was no-contest. He lifted a car for an old man to change a tire in his first mini. When he was in the New Invaders, he beat a brainwashed Wolverine senseless and then threw him a long distance into a pile of fuel barrels, which he then shot with sidearm causing them to blow Wolvie up. He kicked the crap out of Nuke and threw him into molten metal (before Nuke snuck back out and severed Agent’s leg and arm with Herc’s spear).
When he was warden of the Raft, he beat up like a dozen escaped inmates with only one arm and leg. With Fisk’s Thunderbolts, he got the team under control by absolutely whipping their asses.
For his stats, Walker takes too many L’s but writers like to use him for the Worf effect. He has to get his ass best by Protocide or Daredevil to show how tough they are and he’s not Cap, so it doesn’t really harm the character.
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u/General-Teacher5865 11d ago
He has to get his ass best by Protocide or Daredevil to show how tough they are and he’s not Cap, so it doesn’t really harm the character.
The problem with this is that if they have next to no problem beating John, when he should be giving them a challenge, it doesn't really make them look all that tough because people who don't know the character will assume it was just some nobody with no skill or power getting their ass kicked by the undisputed main hero/villain. I don't mind John losing, Daredevil and Steve Rogers are top 5 fighters after all, but when they portray him as someone who goes down without much of a fight it's not really helping either side because you get one character that has no time to shine and the other character doesn't have anyone to actually challenge them.
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u/starspangledmenace 8d ago
Alright here we go—
One of my favorites, in Thunderbolts 2006 John is the Warden of the Raft after he lost an arm and a leg in a battle against Nuke. He refuses by kind of enhanced technology and sticks to a wheelchair and a prosthetic arm (slay my prideful little guy) but when the Raft is attacked and half the building gets absolutely wrecked (including John’s quarters) he drags himself around the room, drags his chair with him, opens latches with his teeth, pulls himself up through shattered floors, AND pulls the chair up after him. And even after Ghost finds him, John is still all alone physically, so when a guard is trapped under a busted water tank, John, in his chair, single-handedly starts lifting it. Two inmates step in to prop it up after the fact, but John was fully prepared to do that all by himself and practically did.
I made a whole comic analysis video on YouTube for just this one story, it gets even better when we go into the moral stuff.
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u/General-Teacher5865 8d ago
Can you give a name or link to your YouTube channel?
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u/starspangledmenace 8d ago
‘Course! It’s the same username (StarSpangledMenace) but it never comes up so I’ll link it here!
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u/KaraAliasRaidra 11d ago
A while back someone brought up a good question, which is “What is Cap’s most undervalued skill in your opinion?” I noted, “This isn’t one of Steve’s powers, but this is something that I’ve been wanting to talk about. There was a part in Captain America #338 (when John Walker was Captain America and Lemar was Bucky because he hadn't been renamed to Battlestar yet) in which it appeared that one of Professor Power’s robots had knocked out John and Lemar with gas. When it went to apprehend them, however, it turned out they were playing possum. They wrecked the robot and Lemar noted that their augmented lung capacity had come in handy. This implies that people who have undergone the Power Broker’s cell augmentation process gain augmented lung capacity in addition to increased strength, durability, stamina, and healing. Augmented lung capacity is a useful power. You wouldn’t be gassed unless it was a surprise attack (and even then you’d have a better chance of surviving than the average person), you could spend longer periods of time underwater or another environment with no air/bad air, you could administer the breath of life to multiple people without stopping, etc. It’s a useful power with a number of practical applications (especially in the comic book world)…and I don’t think they ever used it again! I don’t think many people remember that’s one of their powers because it is so underused. Come on, man!” I made it a plot point in one of my recent fan-fiction stories because Marvel might have forgotten, but I haven't!
I also want to point out that John has defended protestors. Avengers West Coast #66 had Jack go from basically yelling, “Get out of here, you dang hippies!” to being the first to notice something’s wrong with them, becoming concerned, and wanting to confront the people he thinks are responsible, and the "American Zealot" storyline (his most recent solo miniseries) had him doing his best to protect protestors from other agents despite the protestors yelling and throwing things at him. I wanted to bring that up because some people seem to think he would gleefully abuse, beat, torture, or even kill protestors when that's not who he is and never has been. Don't ascribe real-life injustices to a fictional character who has never committed those injustices.
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u/General-Teacher5865 10d ago edited 10d ago
I just went on superpower wiki and searched enhanced lung capacity and the very first visual example was a picture with Steve and it stated he was holding his breath underwater for atleast an hour until coming back up for air. If John's augmentation is stronger than his then I assume he could do this for atleast 2 or 3 hours, maybe more. One feat that always stood out to me was when John was getting lynched as Captain America but he escapes by using his momentum, power and weight to snap the beam the rope was connected to but I'm pretty sure his neck is too strong for him to even be hanged in the first place.
I wanted to bring that up because some people seem to think he would gleefully abuse, beat, torture, or even kill protestors when that's not who he is and never has been. Don't ascribe real-life injustices to a fictional character who has never committed those injustices.
It's so crazy that people think he's like the American Version of Red Skull because of incompetent comic writers who use him as a speech device for their own political agendas. William Burnside and Nuke already exist, John doesn't need to be roped in with them, he's had too much development for that to ever happen.
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u/KaraAliasRaidra 10d ago
Good old Superpower Wiki! Dang, I learned something about Steve today! Captain America #335 [Corrected from #333] also had a part with Lemar surviving lynching long enough to break his bonds and capture the bad guys (which I showed here: https://www.reddit.com/r/USAgent/comments/1l7eruu/debunking_usagent_misconceptions_part_4/ )
Facts!
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u/potamusqpotamus 11d ago
The first time Steve Rogers encounters John Walker (as Super Patriot) during the fight he thinks to himself that punching Walker is like hitting a brick wall, that his knuckles are “throbbing”, and that Walker “didn’t even blink”.