Spoilers follow for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 4, The Whole World is Watching.
On the most recent episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the new Captain America, John Walker, lost control and ruined the name of Captain America.
After a fight with the Flag-Smashers, one started and caused by John Walker himself, his best friend and partner Battlestar died when he was thrown into a post and broke his neck.
John gave chase and when he finally caught one of the Flag-Smashers, he beat the man to death using Captain America’s shield. As he did this, people stood to the sides and filmed the entire brutal murder.
What happens next will determine the future of Captain America, but the comics show what could happen to John Walker.
How Marvel Comics broke John Walker
In Captain America #332 (1987) by Mark Gruenwald and Tom Morgan, Captain America quit. He just came out of a war with fascists who had infiltrated the White House.
Steve Rogers learned the President of the United States was put into power by this organization, and the POTUS took his own life in front of him. After this, Steve lost his faith in the U.S. Government.
When the government agency The Commission told him that they owned Captain America, he quit rather than choosing to become a pawn.
The Commission then chose another man to take on Captain America’s role and that man was John Walker.
However, John received his super-soldier serum from a villain known as the Power Broker, and he was never as strong as Cap. He was also more of a fascist and ended up losing the faith in America.
Former allies revealed John’s true identity to the world, and that caused terrorists to seek out and kill John’s parents. He lost control, sought out the two former allies, ignited explosives attached to them, and had them horribly burnt and placed into comas.
In both The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Marvel Comics, it was the death of someone that John Walker loved that sent him over the edge and he crossed a line Captain America never would have crossed.
How Marvel Comics dealt with John Walker
However, the U.S. Government was not ready to move on from John Walker.
The Commission faked John’s assassination and Steve Rogers became Captain America again. However, the U.S. Government did not punish John for the violent attacks.
Instead, they brought him back as U.S. Agent, a new masked government hero, and made sure the public didn’t know it was John Walker this time around. They knew the public no longer had faith in John, so they created a new identity they could have faith in.
The government then sent U.S. Agent to become the new leader of the West Coast Avengers, taking a man who brutally tried to kill two men and giving him an entire superhero team to run.
It will be interesting to see how The Falcon and the Winter Soldier deals with John and if the government continues to play in an underhanded manner when it comes to their super soldiers.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier drops new episodes every Friday on Disney+.