DC Has Their Own Version of Captain America But You’ve Probably Never Heard of Him

Captain America was born in the Golden Age of Comics, a time when DC Comics was king. Timely, the company that would become the House of Ideas in the ’60, entered the superhero game with 1939’s Marvel Comics #1, introducing Namor and the Human Torch, and in 1941, the publisher would give readers the Sentinel of Liberty in Captain America Comics #1. He came along at the perfect time; anti-Nazi sentiment was spreading in the country that inspired Hitler (never forget he based his racial laws on ours) and Cap took advantage of that. He became the standard bearer for patriotic heroes; sure, Superman and Batman had their World War II adventures, as did other DC characters, but none of them wore the American flag into battle. Marvel basically cornered the market on that kind of patriotic hero. However, DC has always had a character that could match the patriotism of Cap.

In fact, this character actually premiered before Captain America: Uncle Sam. This character first appeared in Quality Comics’ National Comics #1 in 1940, created by the legendary Will Eisner. You’ve never heard of Quality Comics unless you’re a comic book historian, but they were one of many superhero publishers that sprang up back then, creating characters like the Blackhawks, Plastic Man, and numerous others, all of which were acquired by DC. Since then, Uncle Sam has languished in the background, but he’s a patriotic character that could easily have been a superstar many times over the years.

Uncle Sam Harnessed the Power of the United States to Fight Evil… Literally

Uncle Sam has long been the symbol of the United States and Quality Comics decided to use that to their advantage. The original version of the hero was a mystical being who was the spirit of a slain Revolutionary War soldier who appeared whenever his country needed him. He would appear throughout Quality’s books, even getting his own solo, Uncle Sam Quarterly, mostly fighting Axis agents and the like. However, Quality was never able to break out of the pack and Sam languished, fading away until DC got their hands on the Quality characters.

This was back in the original multiversal era of DC Comics and Sam and the Freedom Fighters – Phantom Lady, Human Bomb, Doll Man, Doll Girl, Black Condor, the Ray, and the other Quality heroes – were shunted to Earth X, where they fought against the Nazis after they had conquered the world. On this Earth, he was created by an occult ritual by the Founding Fathers, becoming the “Spirit of America” and leading the battles against the Germans. Crisis on Infinite Earths would change this and the hero would end up being made into a hero of World War II with the same origin as before, fighting alongside the Justice Society and the Freedom Fighters. The stronger the belief in America, the stronger Uncle Sam was, and he’s made numerous appearances since then.

In the ’90s, DC tried to give the character a modern reboot with a Vertigo miniseries in 1997, written by Steve Darnall with art by modern legend Alex Ross. I was able to get my hands on it in the early ’00s and it’s a visually gorgeous book that uses the idea of Uncle Sam as the Spirit of America wonderfully. However, Sam wasn’t a character with a lot of name recognition and the book wasn’t advertised very much. Since then, we’ve gotten several attempts to make him and the Freedom Fighters popular again, the biggest coming after Infinite Crisis with The Battle for Bludhaven. However, none of these attempts have stuck and he’s been shoved into the back of the closet.

Uncle Sam is a character that honestly never really got the shake he deserved. He premiered in one of the lower level companies and wasn’t able to get out of the shadow of Captain America. He didn’t appear again until the 1970s and was shunted to an alternate Earth immediately, so he was never going to have a big role. DC tried to give the Freedom Fighters a book in the ’70s, but it’s failure kept Sam out of the spotlight. He seemed important in Crisis, but post-Crisis DC never really did anything with him. Captain America is a legend who deserves his spot, but there’s a good chance that if Uncle Sam had been a DC character from the beginning, we’d be having a very different conversation right now.

Everyone Dropped the Ball With Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam is one of the symbols of America mythology, a symbol of the country that everyone knows. You’d imagine a comic version of that character would be an easy sell, but Uncle Sam never really got the kind of shake he deserved. America is always mythologizing itself, so a literal version of that on the printed page should have been huge, but no one was ever able to really capitalize on it. By the time Sam made his way to DC Comics, Captain America has cornered the patriotic superhero market. He was a more grounded, less fantastic character and that went a long way, fitting better into the way Americans saw themselves – any American can be the best if given a chance – than a mystical spirit of superpowered patriotism.

Uncle Sam in 2026 is a character that no one really knows about, but now is the best time for him to come back. The United States is in a weird place and DC could easily get, say, Deniz Camp to reboot the character for the 21st century. Sam needs his “Captain America at the end of the first Secret Empire” story moment. Sam was always a little too simple of a character, which has hurt him in the long run compared to the living legend of World War II. In the past, it may not have been possible to push Uncle Sam to the top; he was buried under too much. However, nowadays, there’s a chance that the character can soar, merely by using the basics of the character to show just how great he can be.