Fighting American

Fighting American is a patriotic comic book character created in 1953 by writer Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby. It was published by now defunct company Prize Comics and, against normal industry practices, owned by their creators, unlike their previous patriotic creation, Captain America. It was later published by Harvey Comics. Marvel Comics would later publish a hardcover collection of all the stories.

Related Topics:
Comic book - Joe Simon - Jack Kirby - Prize Comics - Captain America - Harvey Comics - Marvel Comics

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Fighting American started out as a serious attempt at creating a "commie-smasher" comic, but after disappointing initial sales, Simon and Kirby turned the magazine into a pastiche, deliberately overdoing Fighting American's attitudes, but the title was cancelled after six issues. The character was similar to Captain America in that it he was blond, wore a similar flag-inspired costume and a youthful sidekick, nicknamed Speedboy, but didn't use a shield. Villains were mostly communists with physical deformities (Round Robin, Crazy Ivan).

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Fighting American was brought back in the 1980s in a six-issue mini-series, published by DC Comics, where the character was turned into a former radio host bent on avenging his brother's death, and later in 1997 by Awesome Entertainment, based loosely on the Simon/Kirby stories, as a retired hero coping with the death of his partner. However, since the new series creator was Rob Liefeld, who months before had been working on the Heroes Reborn version of Captain America (and had indeed plans for a patriotic hero of his own named Agent: America), he was accused of plagiarising Captain America, as the new Fighting American had a round shield and a youthful female sidekick (actually a cyborg named S.P.I.C.E.) virtually identical to the Heroes Reborn Bucky.

Related Topics:
DC Comics - Awesome Entertainment - Rob Liefeld - Heroes Reborn - Cyborg - Bucky

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