10 Characters Who Replaced Captain America

Marvel actually published Captain America stories through the 1940's and into the 1950's. This created a bit of a problem when Steve Rogers later revealed he had spent those years frozen in ice.

Marvel's eventual solution was to retcon it so that the Captain America of the late 40's and early 50's was actually a series of other men pretending to be Steve Rogers. The first man to take up the mantle was William Naslund, the Spirit of '76.

Spirit was actually created as part of an unofficial crossover between Marvel and DC. Both companies introduced a WWII team called the Crusaders whose members were based on each other's superheroes. The DC Crusaders had obvious copies of the Invaders whereas the Marvel team was based on the Freedom Fighters. Spirit of '76 was based on their leader, the ultra-patriotic Uncle Sam.

When Captain America went missing, Naslund was asked by President Truman to take over the role so that the Nazis wouldn't know the original was gone. After the war, he helped found the All-Winners Squad with most of the other former members of the Invaders.

William Naslund fought as Captain America until his death in 1946. He was crushed to death by the robot Adam II while trying to warn the rest of his team about its plot to kill John F. Kennedy.