Grand Director
Encyclopedia
The Grand Director also known as the Captain America
of the 1950s is a fictional character
in the Marvel Comics
Universe
. He was created by writer Steve Englehart
and artist Sal Buscema
in Captain America #153-156 (September–December, 1972) as having been a specifically different Captain America, the Captain America introduced in 1953 in Young Men comics.
After the above storyline, the character was given a new white costume and the title "The Grand Director" by Buscema and writers Roger McKenzie
and Jim Shooter
in Captain America #232 (April, 1979) and altered to be a villain.
The characters has refuted his tenure as the Grand Director, since he was under mind control at the time, and returned to being active as the "Captain America of the 1950s" separate from the current Captain America, James "Bucky" Barnes, but disappeared again at the end of the same storyline.
As a character, Captain America had been continuously published until 1949. He was then unsuccessfully revived in 1953 in Young Men #24–28 (Dec. 1953 – May 1954) by Stan Lee
with Mort Lawrence
and John Romita, Sr.
These stories starred the original Captain America and were clearly set in the 1950s, with the character prominently battling communism and a communist Red Skull.
However when Lee revived the Captain America concept a second time in 1964 he chose to ignore his own previous stories (in some interviews Lee claims to have simply forgotten the brief 1950s revival). When he has the character return in Avengers
#4 (March, 1964) Lee reveals that the original Captain America has been in a state of suspended animation
since a battle he fought near the close of World War II
.
The 1950s stories were thus considered outside of official canon until Englehart's 1972 Captain America storyline which attempted to resolve the discrepancy by revealing how an unnamed man and his teenaged student had assumed both the public and private identities of the original Captain America and Bucky as part of a government-sponsored program which planned to replace the lost heroes to combat the "red threat". The government eventually places them in suspended animation in the mid-1950s only for them to be revived decades later in contemporary times to battle the original Captain America. This complicated origin is the reason that some sources list Young Men #24 as the Director's first appearance.
A 1977 story, What If
Vol. 1 #4, (August, 1977), introduces two other Captain Americas (William Naslund
, appointed by Truman in 1945 to succeed the original Captain America, and Jeff Mace, who succeeds Naslund as Cap in the spring of 1946 after Naslund is killed in action). Though depicted in an issue of the What If? series, this story was explicitly noted as taking place as part of the formal canon.
The '50s Captain America was known for a time as Captain America IV. In later years, yet earlier "Captain Americas" were introduced, obscuring the numbering of the various Captain Americas, though most of these other later-introduced Captains are not formally part of the recognized linage (such as the Revolutionary War-era ancestor of Steve Rogers). Many recognize this character today with the specific terms "1950s Captain America" or "Captain America of the 1950s" and "Grand Director" to distinguish him from the World War II Steve Rogers, as his birth name (William Burnside) was not revealed until Captain America #602. He legally changed his name to "Steve Rogers" in the 1950s, and only refers to himself by this name, never by his birth name.
The man who would later become the Grand Director returns to the United States with this information and legally changes his name. Then he approaches the FBI offering the Super Soldier serum as leverage to become the next Captain America as a symbol during the Korean War
.
He undergoes surgery to get the physical appearance and voice of Rogers. After all of this preparation, the situation in Korea changes and the FBI cancels the project, feeling that introducing a symbol of national pride would be unwise in the current political climate.
The FBI sets up the new Rogers at the private preparatory Lee High School in Connecticut to take advantage of his extensive American history background as a teacher. He began wearing glasses and smoking a pipe and settled into his quiet life as a teacher. He found an intense advocate in James "Jack" Monroe who shared his obsessive fascination on the wartime exploits of the original Cap. When the Red Skull resurfaces in the mid-1950s (this communist Red Skull was not the Nazi original but a successor) attacking the United Nations in an elaborate scheme now promoting Communism, "Rogers" takes matters into his own hands and injects himself and Monroe with a sample of the unproven "Super-Soldier" serum and goes off with him to confront the Red Skull as the new Cap and Bucky. However, without the vita-ray exposure Rogers received to activate and stabilize the serum, his 1950s successors underwent a dangerously flawed application.
Although initially accepted in the roles of the new Captain America and Bucky, the radiologically untreated formula they ingested eventually gave them psychotic symptoms. The two become unreliable with a violent paranoia that led them to attacking innocents simply for their race or for holding opinions that even remotely differed from their own. They were arrested and put into suspended animation by government agents.
The Captain America of the 1950s and his sidekick Bucky are kept in suspended animation until they are reawakened decades later. The still mentally ill duo were sent out to kill the original Captain and his then-partner Falcon
. They were defeated by the heroes and returned to their suspended animation, although Rogers had the disquieting thought that he could have suffered his 1950s successor's fate himself in the same circumstances.
They are given over to the custody of the psychologist Doctor Faustus
for treatment. Faustus mind-controls the 1950s Captain in an attempt to use him against the World War II Steve Rogers. The unnamed man returns as "The Grand Director", the leader of a Neo-Nazi group called "The National Force
" under the mind control of Dr. Faustus. Dr. Faustus proudly reveals that he brainwashed the 1950s Captain America into becoming the Grand Director. Then Faustus orders the Grand Director to kill Captain America and Daredevil
. Instead, horrified with the revelation of his manipulation against his former identity as 1950s Captain America, the Grand Director curls up into the fetal position and presses a button on his utility belt engulfing his body in flames.
, who was the murderer of "his" Bucky, Jack Monroe as part of a larger plan. The plan was revealed to help third party candidate Senator Gordon Wright gain public sympathy as part of bid for the US Presidency under the ultimate control of the original Red Skull. The 1950s Rogers did not know the involvement of the Skull. The 1950s Rogers was last seen to have left Dr. Faustus' association after helping to rescue Sharon Carter from Arnim Zola and is now considering his place in modern society akin the same way that the World War II Rogers did when he first returned to modern society. Though based on his reflections he seems less than impressed with the current United States cultural view and reflects a world view that is no longer in line with current society but more that of the earlier US history such as that of former US President Theodore Roosevelt
from the Spanish-American War
sometimes called "American imperialism".
Eventually, the 1950s Rogers (whose real name was eventually revealed to be William Burnside) turned up with the terrorist group Watchdogs, whom he considers true patriots, and captured Barnes to force him to wear his only World War II Bucky uniform and become his new Bucky, threatening Falcon's life if Barnes did not comply. Burnside's plan involves blowing up Hoover Dam
to rally other groups like the Watchdogs behind him. Barnes stopped him and shot him over the edge of the dam when he threatened to detonate the bomb. A later search determined that Burnside was nowhere to be found, suggesting he might have survived being shot by Barnes and the fall to the water below the dam.
The 1950s Rogers' current Captain America costume is an exact match to the first Rogers' primary current costume and carries a new round shield that has survived blows with the "indestructible" round shield now used by Barnes. The exact composition of this new shield has not been revealed as yet.
Captain America
Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 , from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics, and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
of the 1950s is a fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
Universe
Marvel Universe
The Marvel Universe is the shared fictional universe where most comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Entertainment take place, including those featuring Marvel's most familiar characters, such as Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, and the Avengers.The Marvel Universe is further...
. He was created by writer Steve Englehart
Steve Englehart
Steve Englehart is an American novelist. In his earlier career he was a comic book writer best known for his work at Marvel Comics and DC Comics, particularly in the 1970s...
and artist Sal Buscema
Sal Buscema
Silvio "Sal" Buscema is an American comic book artist, primarily for Marvel Comics, where he enjoyed a ten-year run as artist of The Incredible Hulk...
in Captain America #153-156 (September–December, 1972) as having been a specifically different Captain America, the Captain America introduced in 1953 in Young Men comics.
After the above storyline, the character was given a new white costume and the title "The Grand Director" by Buscema and writers Roger McKenzie
Roger McKenzie (comics)
Roger McKenzie is an American comic book writer best known for his work on Daredevil with Frank Miller.McKenzie and Miller's first collaboration was on a two-page story entitled "Slowly, painfully, you dig your way from the cold, choking debris..." published in DC Comics' Weird War Tales #68...
and Jim Shooter
Jim Shooter
James Shooter is an American writer, occasional fill-in artist, editor, and publisher for various comic books. Although he started professionally in the medium at the extraordinarily young age of 14, he is most notable for his successful and controversial run as Marvel Comics' ninth...
in Captain America #232 (April, 1979) and altered to be a villain.
The characters has refuted his tenure as the Grand Director, since he was under mind control at the time, and returned to being active as the "Captain America of the 1950s" separate from the current Captain America, James "Bucky" Barnes, but disappeared again at the end of the same storyline.
Publication history
A character with a complicated history, the Grand Director's origin lies in discrepancies that crept up in the history of Captain America.As a character, Captain America had been continuously published until 1949. He was then unsuccessfully revived in 1953 in Young Men #24–28 (Dec. 1953 – May 1954) by Stan Lee
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....
with Mort Lawrence
Mort Lawrence
Morton "Mort" Lawrence is an American comic book artist and penciller. He is best known for his work on Atlas Comics' Young Men series which reintroduced Captain America and Bucky as communist hunting super-heroes....
and John Romita, Sr.
John Romita, Sr.
John V. Romita, Sr. is an Italian-American comic-book artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man...
These stories starred the original Captain America and were clearly set in the 1950s, with the character prominently battling communism and a communist Red Skull.
However when Lee revived the Captain America concept a second time in 1964 he chose to ignore his own previous stories (in some interviews Lee claims to have simply forgotten the brief 1950s revival). When he has the character return in Avengers
Avengers (comics)
The Avengers is a fictional team of superheroes, appearing in magazines published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1 The Avengers is a fictional team of superheroes, appearing in magazines published by Marvel Comics. The team made its debut in The Avengers #1 The Avengers...
#4 (March, 1964) Lee reveals that the original Captain America has been in a state of suspended animation
Suspended animation
Suspended animation is the slowing of life processes by external means without termination. Breathing, heartbeat, and other involuntary functions may still occur, but they can only be detected by artificial means. Extreme cold can be used to precipitate the slowing of an individual's functions; use...
since a battle he fought near the close of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
The 1950s stories were thus considered outside of official canon until Englehart's 1972 Captain America storyline which attempted to resolve the discrepancy by revealing how an unnamed man and his teenaged student had assumed both the public and private identities of the original Captain America and Bucky as part of a government-sponsored program which planned to replace the lost heroes to combat the "red threat". The government eventually places them in suspended animation in the mid-1950s only for them to be revived decades later in contemporary times to battle the original Captain America. This complicated origin is the reason that some sources list Young Men #24 as the Director's first appearance.
A 1977 story, What If
What If (comics)
What If, sometimes rendered as What If...?, is the title of several comic book series published by Marvel Comics, exploring "the road not traveled" by its various characters...
Vol. 1 #4, (August, 1977), introduces two other Captain Americas (William Naslund
Spirit of '76 (comics)
The Spirit of '76 is the name of two fictional comic book characters, one each from Harvey Comics and Marvel Comics.-Harvey Comics:The first comics character by this name is a patriotic superhero created by writer Gary Blakey and artist Bob Powell in Harvey's Pocket Comics #1...
, appointed by Truman in 1945 to succeed the original Captain America, and Jeff Mace, who succeeds Naslund as Cap in the spring of 1946 after Naslund is killed in action). Though depicted in an issue of the What If? series, this story was explicitly noted as taking place as part of the formal canon.
The '50s Captain America was known for a time as Captain America IV. In later years, yet earlier "Captain Americas" were introduced, obscuring the numbering of the various Captain Americas, though most of these other later-introduced Captains are not formally part of the recognized linage (such as the Revolutionary War-era ancestor of Steve Rogers). Many recognize this character today with the specific terms "1950s Captain America" or "Captain America of the 1950s" and "Grand Director" to distinguish him from the World War II Steve Rogers, as his birth name (William Burnside) was not revealed until Captain America #602. He legally changed his name to "Steve Rogers" in the 1950s, and only refers to himself by this name, never by his birth name.
Fictional character biography
Having idolized the original Cap to the point of obsession, the future 50s Captain America focuses his life in an intense analysis of American history with Captain America as its best representative. He attains a PhD in American History in the early 1950s (some text say 1952), with a thesis on the life of Captain America. Soon after graduating, he further researched the secret "Project: Rebirth" and discovered private Nazi files revealing the true identity of the original Captain America as well as the lost Super Soldier serum.The man who would later become the Grand Director returns to the United States with this information and legally changes his name. Then he approaches the FBI offering the Super Soldier serum as leverage to become the next Captain America as a symbol during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
.
He undergoes surgery to get the physical appearance and voice of Rogers. After all of this preparation, the situation in Korea changes and the FBI cancels the project, feeling that introducing a symbol of national pride would be unwise in the current political climate.
The FBI sets up the new Rogers at the private preparatory Lee High School in Connecticut to take advantage of his extensive American history background as a teacher. He began wearing glasses and smoking a pipe and settled into his quiet life as a teacher. He found an intense advocate in James "Jack" Monroe who shared his obsessive fascination on the wartime exploits of the original Cap. When the Red Skull resurfaces in the mid-1950s (this communist Red Skull was not the Nazi original but a successor) attacking the United Nations in an elaborate scheme now promoting Communism, "Rogers" takes matters into his own hands and injects himself and Monroe with a sample of the unproven "Super-Soldier" serum and goes off with him to confront the Red Skull as the new Cap and Bucky. However, without the vita-ray exposure Rogers received to activate and stabilize the serum, his 1950s successors underwent a dangerously flawed application.
Although initially accepted in the roles of the new Captain America and Bucky, the radiologically untreated formula they ingested eventually gave them psychotic symptoms. The two become unreliable with a violent paranoia that led them to attacking innocents simply for their race or for holding opinions that even remotely differed from their own. They were arrested and put into suspended animation by government agents.
The Captain America of the 1950s and his sidekick Bucky are kept in suspended animation until they are reawakened decades later. The still mentally ill duo were sent out to kill the original Captain and his then-partner Falcon
Falcon (comics)
The Falcon is a fictional comic book superhero in comic books published by Marvel Comics.Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Gene Colan, and introduced in Captain America #117 , the character is mainstream comics' first African-American superhero...
. They were defeated by the heroes and returned to their suspended animation, although Rogers had the disquieting thought that he could have suffered his 1950s successor's fate himself in the same circumstances.
They are given over to the custody of the psychologist Doctor Faustus
Doctor Faustus (comics)
Doctor Faustus is a fictional character, a Marvel Comics supervillain.An Austrian by birth, he is most commonly associated with Captain America, first appearing in issue #107 of his first series.-Creative origins:...
for treatment. Faustus mind-controls the 1950s Captain in an attempt to use him against the World War II Steve Rogers. The unnamed man returns as "The Grand Director", the leader of a Neo-Nazi group called "The National Force
National Force
The National Force was a fictional organization in the Marvel Universe.The National Force was a neo-fascist organization masterminded by Doctor Faustus....
" under the mind control of Dr. Faustus. Dr. Faustus proudly reveals that he brainwashed the 1950s Captain America into becoming the Grand Director. Then Faustus orders the Grand Director to kill Captain America and Daredevil
Daredevil (Marvel Comics)
Daredevil is a fictional character, a superhero in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett, with an unspecified amount of input from Jack Kirby, and first appeared in Daredevil #1 .Living in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood...
. Instead, horrified with the revelation of his manipulation against his former identity as 1950s Captain America, the Grand Director curls up into the fetal position and presses a button on his utility belt engulfing his body in flames.
Return
After the true Steve Rogers' death, Sharon Carter finds that Faustus and the Red Skull have been keeping the 1950s Steve Rogers in suspended animation so that he would heal from his fire wounds. It is revealed that Faustus was conditioning the 1950s Cap to kill the current Captain America, James BarnesBucky
Bucky is the name of several fictional characters, masked superheroes in the Marvel Comics universe. The original, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby as a sidekick character in Captain America Comics #1 , published by Marvel's 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics...
, who was the murderer of "his" Bucky, Jack Monroe as part of a larger plan. The plan was revealed to help third party candidate Senator Gordon Wright gain public sympathy as part of bid for the US Presidency under the ultimate control of the original Red Skull. The 1950s Rogers did not know the involvement of the Skull. The 1950s Rogers was last seen to have left Dr. Faustus' association after helping to rescue Sharon Carter from Arnim Zola and is now considering his place in modern society akin the same way that the World War II Rogers did when he first returned to modern society. Though based on his reflections he seems less than impressed with the current United States cultural view and reflects a world view that is no longer in line with current society but more that of the earlier US history such as that of former US President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
from the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
sometimes called "American imperialism".
Eventually, the 1950s Rogers (whose real name was eventually revealed to be William Burnside) turned up with the terrorist group Watchdogs, whom he considers true patriots, and captured Barnes to force him to wear his only World War II Bucky uniform and become his new Bucky, threatening Falcon's life if Barnes did not comply. Burnside's plan involves blowing up Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President...
to rally other groups like the Watchdogs behind him. Barnes stopped him and shot him over the edge of the dam when he threatened to detonate the bomb. A later search determined that Burnside was nowhere to be found, suggesting he might have survived being shot by Barnes and the fall to the water below the dam.
Powers and abilities
The 1950s Rogers has actual superhuman strength. His agility, dexterity, speed, reflexes, coordination, balance, and endurance are superior to those of any Olympic athlete, and his physiological functions operate at the peak of human efficiency. He is a trained boxer and a competent hand-to-hand combatant. As the 1950s Captain America, he wears a chain-mail costume (his 1950s version was distinguishable from the World War II Captain America's costume in that his 1950s costume torso stripes did not fully encircle the costume's waist) and carried a bulletproof steel shield which was destroyed. Following his first revival from suspended animation, he briefly used an "atom-blaster" weapon, presumably salvaged from a government lab. As a member of the National Force, he had access to various forms of advanced technology.The 1950s Rogers' current Captain America costume is an exact match to the first Rogers' primary current costume and carries a new round shield that has survived blows with the "indestructible" round shield now used by Barnes. The exact composition of this new shield has not been revealed as yet.