Acquiring

Target 22 of 30 · Thunderbolts*

U.S. Agent

IdentityConfirmed

Real nameJohn Walker

CodenameU.S. Agent

ContinentThunderbolts*

In DoomsdayWyatt Russell (on Marvel's cast list; role not yet named)¹

First seenCaptain America #323, November 1986²

Created byMark Gruenwald, Paul Neary, Tom Morgan, Kieron Dwyer²

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Level 1 // The briefDecrypted · 30 seconds

WhoA decorated soldier chosen by the U.S. government as the new Captain America, who lost the role after killing a surrendering enemy and became U.S. Agent.³

AbilitiesSuper-soldier serum strength and Army Ranger combat training.³

In DoomsdayMarvel lists Wyatt Russell in the cast but has not named his role; his most recent released role was John Walker / U.S. Agent.¹

Last seenThunderbolts* (2025), as John Walker / U.S. Agent: Escapes Valentina's death trap, faces his broken marriage in the Void, and becomes a New Avenger.⁸

Sources

Level 2 // Surveillance recordOn screen · 2 sightings, 2 in the MCU

Every live-action sighting of U.S. Agent, and everything Marvel has confirmed.

2021
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier MCU
Wyatt Russell A decorated Army Ranger, Walker is unveiled as the government's new Captain America and hunts the Flag Smashers with his best friend Lemar Hoskins, clashing with Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes along the way. Shaken by a defeat, he injects himself with the super-soldier serum, and after Lemar is killed he publicly kills a surrendering Flag Smasher with the shield, which costs him the title, his rank and the shield itself. In the finale he chooses to rescue hostages instead of taking revenge, and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine gives him a black suit and the name U.S. Agent.¹²³
2025
Thunderbolts* MCU
Wyatt Russell Divorced and doing covert jobs for Valentina's O.X.E., Walker is sent into a desert vault to kill Yelena Belova, only to find that Valentina has lured several of her operatives there to wipe each other out. He escapes with Yelena, Ava Starr and the mysterious Bob, is flattened by Bob's new Sentry persona, and later walks into the Void, where he relives the argument that ended his marriage. After the team frees Bob and saves New York, Valentina presents them to the press as the New Avengers.¹⁴⁵

What Marvel confirmed

The film. Avengers: Doomsday opens 18 December 2026.⁶

Sources

Level 3 // Deep archiveThe comics · since November 1986

Origin, the comics by era, abilities and recorded feats.

Origin

Jonathan F. Walker grew up in the small town of Custer's Grove, Georgia, the middle child of Caleb and Emily Walker. His hero was his older brother Mike, an Army helicopter pilot who had once pulled him out of a burning house and who was later killed in combat while John was still young; his younger sister Kate completed the family. Hoping to live up to Mike's memory, John enlisted and was stationed at Fort Bragg, where he made friends with fellow soldiers Lemar Hoskins, Hector Lennox and Jerome Johnson. To his frustration there was no war on during his tour, and he left the service without ever seeing action.

After their discharge the four friends were approached by a recruiter for the Power Broker, whose company promised to boost paying clients to superhuman strength. They took the free bus tickets to Los Angeles and the treatment worked, but it left John owing money, and the company's counsellor pointed him toward professional wrestling as a way to pay it off. Before he stepped into a ring, a talent agent named Ethan Thurm offered to manage him. John told Thurm he really wanted to be a costumed hero in the mould of Captain America, so Thurm found backers, and John became the Super-Patriot, with his three friends behind him as the Bold Urban Commandos, or Buckies.

Thurm's idea of publicity included having the Buckies pose as Captain America fans and stage fights so the Super-Patriot could look good, while John toured the country calling Cap a relic. Steve Rogers saw through the act and warned him to be worthy of the symbol he wanted to be; when they finally came to blows at a benefit concert in Milwaukee, they slugged it out for nearly an hour without a clear winner. John then earned real credit by climbing the Washington Monument to stop the terrorist Warhead and his nuclear bomb. When Rogers resigned rather than take orders from the government's Commission on Superhuman Activities, Valerie Cooper put the Super-Patriot forward, and John was chosen as the new Captain America, trained by Taskmaster and partnered with Lemar as his Bucky.¹²³⁴⁵

The record, by era

1986-1987
A rival for Captain America The Super-Patriot
Walker arrives as a slick, media-managed alternative to Steve Rogers, staging rallies that paint Cap as out of date while his manager quietly sends the Buckies out to rough up others in Cap's name. Rogers tells him to his face that he had better be worthy of the flag he waves, and their brawl at a Milwaukee benefit concert ends with neither man able to put the other down. Walker's breakthrough comes in Washington, where he scales the Washington Monument and gets a nuclear device away from the terrorist Warhead.¹²³⁴
Key issues: Captain America #323 (1986) · Captain America #327 (1987) · Captain America #332 (1987)
1987-1988
Wearing the stars and stripes The replacement Captain America
The Commission hands Walker the shield on condition that he cut loose Thurm and two of his old friends, and he trains to fight like Rogers while Lemar Hoskins serves first as Bucky and then as his partner Battlestar. The bitter ex-Buckies, now Left-Winger and Right-Winger, crash his press conference and expose his real name, and soon afterwards the Watchdogs murder his parents in front of him. Walker snaps: he tracks down his former friends and leaves them horribly burned in an oil-tanker explosion, and the Commission keeps him in the role only because of political pressure and hidden manipulation from above.¹⁵⁶⁷
Key issues: Captain America #333 (1987) · Captain America #345 (1988) · Captain America #347 (1988)
1989
Handing back the shield Becoming U.S.Agent
The Red Skull, hiding behind the name Mr. Smith, turns out to have steered the Commission and arranged the attacks that wrecked Walker's life. Walker ends up fighting Rogers, then helps defeat the Skull by forcing him to bite down on his own Dust of Death, and afterwards insists that Rogers is the only real Captain America. A staged shooting at the handover press conference lets a Commission general fake Walker's death, and he resurfaces as U.S.Agent in a black version of Rogers' old costume, soon assigned to lead and keep watch over the West Coast Avengers.¹⁸⁹¹⁰
Key issues: Captain America #350 (1989) · Captain America #354 (1989) · West Coast Avengers #44 (1989)
1994-1996
The team's backbone Force Works
When the West Coast branch of the Avengers is shut down, Walker throws his costume and shield into the Hudson River. The Scarlet Witch talks him into joining Tony Stark's new team, Force Works, where he wears a fresh uniform, carries an energy shield and pushes for military-style discipline against threats such as the Kree and the Mandarin. He argues against breaking the team up after Stark's apparent death but still turns out for its last mission.¹¹¹¹²¹³
Key issues: Avengers West Coast #102 (1994) · Force Works #1 (1994) · Force Works #22 (1996)
1999-2001
The Jury and S.T.A.R.S. Corporate and government muscle
Walker leads the Jury, Edwin Cord's armoured vigilantes, in a failed attempt to take down the Thunderbolts. A beating from Protocide nearly kills him, and S.H.I.E.L.D. rebuilds him with an enhancing exoskeleton. Back on the government payroll as head of the S.T.A.R.S. squad, he hauls in Piledriver at the Mexican border and, during the Kree crisis, holds off Ronan the Accuser single-handed, then turns down the Avengers' thanks and blames them for drawing the trouble to Earth.¹¹⁴¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷
Key issues: Thunderbolts #23 (1999) · Captain America Vol 3 #34 (2000) · Maximum Security #1 (2000) · Maximum Security #3 (2001)
2004-2007
Captain America in all but name Invaders, Civil War and Canada
With the New Invaders, Walker demands to be called Captain America, though veterans who knew Rogers refuse, and the team falls apart after the death of the original Human Torch. In the superhero Civil War he backs registration, but when Tony Stark orders him to Canada as liaison to Omega Flight he refuses and goes after the Purple Man instead, surviving a long fall after the villain seizes his mind. He ends up in Toronto anyway, leads Omega Flight against a demon-powered Wrecking Crew and finally takes his shield back from the Purple Man.¹¹⁸¹⁹²⁰²¹²²
Key issues: New Invaders #1 (2004) · New Invaders #9 (2005) · Civil War: Choosing Sides #1 (2006) · Omega Flight #1 (2007) · Omega Flight #5 (2007)
2009-2013
Maimed, made warden, restored Siege and its cost
Walker joins a new Mighty Avengers line-up assembled by someone posing as the Scarlet Witch, who is really Loki. During the battle for Asgard, Nuke, now operating as Scourge for Norman Osborn's Thunderbolts, slices off Walker's left arm and leg. He becomes warden of the Raft with a simple hook for a hand, refusing more advanced cybernetics, until a crash strands him and the Dark Avengers in an altered New York where June Covington bonds him to a mindless Venom symbiote that gives him working limbs again.¹²³²⁴²⁵²⁶²⁷
Key issues: Mighty Avengers #21 (2009) · Thunderbolts #142 (2010) · Thunderbolts #145 (2010) · Dark Avengers #184 (2013) · Dark Avengers #185 (2013)
2016-2021
Shield fights and a family crisis Old grudges and freelance work
Political backers of a campaign against Sam Wilson's Captain America bring Walker home from overseas, and a Steve Rogers who is secretly the Hydra-made duplicate persuades him to take the shield from Sam. Sam beats him by drawing him into a dark tunnel and using owls as his eyes. Later, on a revived Force Works, Walker quietly hands Maria Hill a blank drive so that dangerous Deathlok data is destroyed, and in his own series he works as an unofficial government contractor protecting a struggling mining town, where he has to face his own sister in a deranged Super-Patriot role and a violent replacement U.S.Agent.¹²⁸²⁹³⁰³¹
Key issues: Captain America: Sam Wilson #13 (2016) · 2020 Force Works #1 (2020) · U.S.Agent Vol 2 #1 (2021) · U.S.Agent Vol 2 #5 (2021)
2022-2023
Leading the Mayor's Thunderbolts Devil's Reign
When Mayor Wilson Fisk outlaws vigilantes in New York, Walker talks his way into leading Fisk's enforcement squad of Thunderbolts while secretly feeding information to the FBI. Fisk uses the Purple Man's power to keep him in line, and Walker ends up among the mind-controlled crowd sent against the city's heroes until the Purple Man is beaten. He then serves briefly as warden of the Myrmidon prison, where a magically boosted Daredevil defeats him and walks off with his shield.¹³²³³³⁴
Key issues: Devil's Reign: Villains for Hire #1 (2022) · Devil's Reign #6 (2022) · Daredevil Vol 7 #5 (2023)
2024-2026
Bucky's Thunderbolts and the Imperial Guardians Revolution and the stars
Bucky Barnes, operating as the Revolution, tries to recruit Walker and his partner Todd Ziller, the American Kaiju, for a black-ops war on the Red Skull; the pitch goes badly wrong in Hong Kong, but Walker ends the issue as a member of the team. Later Maximus the Mad recruits him into a deniable Imperial Guardians unit serving under Death's Head to protect the new Galactic Union. When the squad grows suspicious, Maximus pits it against a second Guardians team led by Gamora on Cinnibar, and the two sides work out that they have been set up.¹³⁵³⁶³⁷
Key issues: Thunderbolts Vol 6 #3 (2024) · Imperial Guardians #4 (2026) · Imperial Guardians #5 (2026)

Capabilities

Superhuman strength

Can lift over 11 tons and jump more than 20 feet.¹

Superhuman durability

Tougher than normal tissue lets him shrug off blows that would badly hurt a person; he has taken hits from Sasquatch and a bomb blast.¹³⁸

Superhuman stamina

His muscles make far fewer fatigue toxins, so he can fight at full effort for hours.¹

Speed, agility and reflexes

His speed, coordination and reaction time are all pushed slightly past human limits.¹

Expert fighter

A superb soldier and tactician who modelled his style on Captain America and trained under Taskmaster.¹

Shield fighting

Has used many shields over the years, including Captain America's own, a vibranium star shield, an eagle shield and a photon shield.¹

Pilot and linguist

Flies aircraft and speaks Arabic and Spanish as well as English.¹

Source of power

An Army veteran who paid for the Power Broker's augmentation process, which raised his strength and body to superhuman levels; later boosted while recovering from Protocide's beating.¹

Studied and copied Captain America's fighting style and was trained by Taskmaster in combat, gymnastics and acrobatics.¹

Fights with a run of shields, from a vibranium disc and star shield to an energy shield, plus a bulletproof costume.¹

Recorded feats

comics As Super-Patriot, traded blows with Captain America for nearly an hour; neither man could truly beat the other. Captain America Vol 1 #327 (March 1987)³
comics Kept fighting after a pipe strike and a hit from a torchsword, beating Left-Winger and Right-Winger together. Captain America Vol 1 #347 (November 1988)⁷
comics As warden of the Raft, missing a leg and with a hook for a hand, swiftly put down inmates who tried to escape. Thunderbolts Vol 2 #147 (October 2010)³⁹
screen Fought Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes at once, tearing off Sam's Falcon wings with little effort. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, episode 5 "Truth" (2021)⁴⁰⁴¹
screen Held back a truck full of civilians with his bare hands while striking a Flag Smasher. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, episode 6 "One World, One People" (2021)⁴²⁴¹
screen Held up a giant slab of concrete wall to keep it off a civilian until his teammates helped flip it. Thunderbolts* (2025)⁴³⁴¹

Notes from the archive

The comics Walker is said to keep a photograph of his murdered parents taped inside his shield.¹
The MCU version is described as the first person in American history to be awarded three Medals of Honor, decorations he privately links to the worst days of his service in Afghanistan.⁴¹
Wyatt Russell had earlier auditioned for Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger before landing the role of Rogers' replacement a decade later.⁴¹
According to the MCU Wiki, early drafts of Thunderbolts* had Walker as the final villain the team faced; the writer swapped in the Sentry because he wanted a threat the heroes could not simply punch.⁴¹

Sources