Fighting American
Fighting American is a comic book character that first appeared in Fighting American #1
John Flag was a scrawny average every day joe that wanted to serve his country. Voluntering for a secret Goverment Experiment John Flag Became the Living Legend from WWII, The Fighting American!
Original Origins
Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in retaliation for "issues" with the rights to Captain America. The first issue of Fighting American introduced readers to patriotic newscaster Johnny Flagg, a war hero much given to warning America about the dangers of communism. Those self-same communist agitators promptly beat him close to death, but on his deathbed he asks his feeble brother Nelson (who had been scripting Johnny's red-baiting speeches all along) to carry on his fight. Days later the army summons Nelson to a secret lab where he is given a costume to fit his revitalized body and fight on, he had a sidekick Speedboy. The villains he fought were mostly for comic relief such as Double header and Hotsy Trosky.
The series ended and no one thought that it could be seen again until...
Litigious Origins
In the 1990s Marvel had began a revamp project titled HEROES REBORN, bringing Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld and their creative teams back to Marvel on its core "hero" titles. Rob Liefeld was not received well despite being the highest selling Captain America run ever, 6 issues into his Cap run he was kicked off.
Liefeld created Agent America: an answer to Cap and a way for Liefeld to get use his remaining planned work from the Marvel run. Marvel put a lid on that quick. Then Liefeld discovered a similar situation happened to Simon and Kirby when they created Fighting American. Liefeld called the last survivor of the two families to obtain the right to produce the comic. A little redesign, a modification here or there, and Fighting American was ready to soar!
Fighting America in the 90s
Fighting American was named John Flag. A young man who volunteered for a government experiment and came out the governments number 1 super soldier. Equipped with his own shield Fighting American went out to do his duty. He had a trusted kid sidekick partner Speed Boy (based on Bucky). Speed Boy was presumed dead only to resurface years later as a deadly assassin.
Fighting American had a few very interesting rogues: Round Robin, Double Header to name a few.
John Flag retired after the war and after he lost his partner. He came back to action once he heard that the IRON CROSS was back from the dead. F.A. was teamed up with a spunky new sidekick named S.P.I.C.E.
Fighting American had a few "allies" who were introduced through out his series such: Thor, Diehard, and of course Supreme.
Fighting American Quickly became a cornerstone of the Awesome Universe and was set to head up The Allies team book before the company folded.
One wonderful bit of info...Fighting American was OKed by the court to be published as long as he never "Shield Slings", which Marvel considered to be an iconic trademark of Captain America's Shield. In Brigade Number 1 (published by Awesome) Fighting American "shield slings" one time....a final and fitting moment of defiance for the independent comic's Captain America!
Fight on F.A.
