Characters / MCU: John Walker

Main Character Index > Other Individuals and Organizations > Government & Military > United States Government (United States Military | John Walker | Thaddeus Ross) | Wakanda Government & Military (T'Challa)

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John F. Walker / Captain America II / U.S. Agent

"A word of advice then... stay the hell out of my way."

^{Click here to see Walker as Captain America} 
"I am Captain America."

^{Click here to see Walker as U.S. Agent} 
"It's the same, but black!"

Known Aliases: Captain America, U.S. Agent

Species: Enhanced human

Citizenship: American

Affiliation(s): Custer's Grove High School (formerly), US Army (formerly), DOD (formerly), Global Repatriation Council (formerly), Valentina Allegra de Fontaine

Portrayed By: Wyatt Russell

Voiced By: Tatsuhisa Suzuki (Japanese dub), Martin Watier (Canadian French dub)

Appearances: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier | Thunderbolts

"I'm not trying to be Steve, I'm not trying to replace Steve. I'm just trying to be the best Captain America I can be."

A decorated U.S. Army special forces Captain, Afghanistan War veteran and the first three-time Medal of Honor recipient in the history of the United States, John Walker was chosen by the Department of Defense as the official successor to Captain America. This ends up being a colossal mistake, and Walker is forced to grapple with the realization that he doesn't have what it takes to be America's paragon.

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A-E

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: He suffers from PTSD from his time in the army as unlike in the comics, he actually saw action during his time there. Needless to say, this would end up taking a massive toll on him when he takes on the mantle of Captain America.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • He didn't see action in the army in the comics, while the show version gets to be the first serviceman to be awarded the Medal of Honor three times. And then, he takes the Super Soldier Serum.
  • Also in the comics, John was enhanced by the Power Broker and needed help from Taskmaster to learn how to use the shield. In here, he masters the shield without any augments and by himself.
• Adaptational Curves: Inverted. Unlike his comic book counterpart’s beefier physique, this Walker has leaner muscles.
• Adaptational Hairstyle Change: In the comics, he rocks a 1980s flat top. In the MCU, he sports a side-parted one instead due to the modern setting.
• Adaptational Heroism: In the comics, U.S. Agent mostly serves as a Anti-Hero Substitute for Cap who is an outright Jerkass with a My Country, Right or Wrong approach. Here, while still not an Ideal Hero like Steve Rogers, he's more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who genuinly wants to prove being a worthy successor as Captain America, respecting his legacy. His more heroic qualities in the MCU compared to the comics are best shown in the series finale, when he choses to save people instead of taking Revenge Before Reason.
• Adaptational Late Appearance: In the comics, John Walker debuted before Infinity War and was present during the event as one of the heroes who stayed on Earth. This Walker debuted long after Infinity War.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Walker in the series is shown to be a relatively well-meaning person at first; he looks up to Steve, is relatively respectful of others, cares deeply for Lemar Hoskins and loves him like a brother, and he tries to keep his negative traits in check until the death of Hoskins and the effects of the serum that were compounded by severe untreated PTSD end up driving him over the edge. Conversely, his comic book counterpart was an unrepentant Jerkass and long-time rival of Captain America, being both an arrogant sellout and adopting a My Country, Right or Wrong approach that clashed with Steve Rogers' more rational approach to patriotism. He also lacks his comic book counterpart's far right-wing political views.
• Adaptational Wimp: His comics self had been enhanced by the Power Broker prior to his first appearance, while this version is just a well-trained soldier. This still holds true even after he takes the super soldier serum; Comics Walker could lift up to ten tons (for reference, that's the same level of power as Spider-Man), making him Steve's physical superior by a very wide margin.
• Adapted Out: The comics version started out with the costumed identity of "Super-Patriot", something the MCU has skipped over.
• Adopt the Dog: The point that he switches back from being a "violent, unstable anti-villain" to a "well-intentioned but unscrupulous anti-hero" in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is when he decides to give up his vendetta against Karli in order to save the hostages. He's not Captain America, but he's not incapable of being a hero.
• Always Someone Better: His insecurities at not being good enough to be Captain America worsen when, despite being one of the best fighters the U.S. Military has to offer, the Dora Milaje hand him his ass on a silver platter. Even if he was taken by surprise, it was clear to him that they were straight-up better than him despite also not having powers.
• Ambiguous Situation: The ending of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has him signed up for what he thinks is a No Such Agency branch of the US government to do deniable black ops missions for them, under the codename "U.S. Agent". It seems doubtful that this is actually the case, given that the terms of his Other Than Honorable discharge specifically forbade him from ever serving as an agent of the government in any capacity again, and there are a lot of things about the Contessa that make her being a legit government agent unlikely — never mind that she never actually said who she's working for. It's revealed in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever that she's the director of the CIA, although it's also strongly implied that she's operating on her own agenda, so it's still not altogether clear.
• Anti-Hero: Walker is already deeply shaken by whatever happened in his past, and had insecurities about becoming Captain America due to not feeling like he's worthy of the mantle. His attempts to try to befriend Sam and Bucky fall flat, and he increasingly loses patience with the way he's intended to operate because of this and his own personal flaws. And when he takes the super-soldier serum, every single one of his problems are magnified as he becomes increasingly deranged and violent. He's ultimately someone who tries to do the right thing and embody the concept of Captain America, but is incapable of living up to it, something he ultimately realizes and accepts by leaving that mantle to Sam and taking up a different mantle more suited to his personality.
• Anti-Hero Substitute: Valentina makes him U.S. Agent for this reason.
  Valentina: "Things are about to get weird. So, when they do, we're not gonna need a Captain America. We're gonna need a U.S. Agent".
• Armies Are Evil: He is eventually shown as a negative and cynical embodiment of this in contrast to his predecessor Steve, who is an embodiment of the mostly positive and idealistic WWII-dated depiction of the American military, with the fourth episode making this valid with his killing of Nico, one of the Flag Smashers. It's because he becomes a negative embodiment of American military that warranted an Other-Than-Honorable Discharge for him for making Americans and their armed forces look bad with his association with them.
• Ascended Fanboy: John states during his interview with Good Morning America that he openly admires Steve Rogers and followed his career very closely, and he's clearly happy to be taking Steve's place as Captain America, even if he admits in private that they're very big shoes to fill. Later deconstructed; he understands the stats and the legend of Captain America, yet clearly has no clue as to who Steve Rogers was as a person, so he believes himself worthy of the title due to his service record, training and hero-worshipping, not by any merit of his character.
• The Atoner: It's implied this is why he jumped at the chance at becoming Captain America.
  John: Three badges of excellence to make sure I never forget the worst day of my life. We both know that the things that we had to do in Afghanistan to be awarded those medals felt a long way from being right. Being Cap is the first time I've had the chance to do something that actually feels right.
• Ax-Crazy: A combination of taking the Super Soldier Serum and Lemar's death causes him to not only take Extreme Mêlée Revenge on one of the Flag Smashers — and not even the one who accidentally killed Lemar, but also begin to lose his grip on reality. He becomes insistent that he's still Captain America despite getting stripped of the title and losing the shield, so much so that he makes his own homemade shield adorned with his Medals of Honor, not to mention the vicious yet soft-spoken way he growls at Sam and Bucky for making him their enemy instead of being a team. It's clear after taking the serum he would now qualify by military standards as a Section 8 (for being judged mentally unfit for service). Thankfully, it's subverted in the finale. when given the choice between continuing his Roaring Rampage of Revenge or saving a group of hostages about to plummet to their deaths, he comes to his senses and chooses to save the hostages. He then helps Bucky capture the remaining Flag Smashers to turn over to the authorities and ends the episode by taking up the U.S. Agent mantle, suggesting that his more extreme actions were more of a Moment of Weakness.
• Badass Normal: He doesn't have the serum, so all his abilities are purely him, no enhancements backing him up. With the vibranium shield, he's actually able to fight even the enhanced Flag Smashers remarkably well, but without it he gets his ass handed to him rather swiftly, and even with the shield he's completely outmatched by the insanely well trained Dora Milaje. This changes in Episode 4, where he takes the Super Soldier Serum and acquires the associated power boosts.
• Barehanded Bar Bending: Does this to Dovich in Episode 4 to prove to the audience that he has indeed taken the Super Soldier Serum.
• Bash Brothers: With his best friend and partner, Lemar Hoskins.
• Be Yourself: By the end of the series, John finds new purpose as a hero by taking up the mantle of U.S. Agent, one that he can call all his own, instead of trying to live up to Steve Rogers as Captain America.
• Beard of Sorrow: His facial hair keeps growing during the series as his stress and mental state worsens from all the pressures of being Captain America. He shaves it off after becoming U.S. Agent, signifying that he's recovered mentally.
• Beneath the Mask: Much of Walker's public personality and mannerisms are put on specifically to fit how he thinks his Captain America should act, but his first major scene after his introduction shows that outside of uniform and in private, he’s a much more visibly and vocally somber man who prefers action to public performance. The third episode also implies that he has a fairly short fuse that's only kept in check by Hoskins. The fourth episode further reveals that he's a Shell-Shocked Veteran, with the incident that got him awarded the Medal of Honor three times being "the worst day of his life".
• Berserk Button: People showing utter disrespect towards him and his title as Captain America is this.
• The Berserker: In Episode 5, when Sam and Bucky confront him after his murder of Nico, he fights the two with fury and savagery, unlike any super-soldier before him. He screams with every swing, with a wide-eyed craze, even frothing at the mouth when he tears off Sam's wings. Even after the two break his arm and take the shield, he refuses to give in. This exacerbates what Steve could have been capable of if he didn't hold back.
• Big Damn Hero: The first time Sam and Bucky face the Flag-Smashers, they are caught off guard by their superpowers. Walker and Hoskins show up just in time to save them. The Flag-Smashers still win, but Sam and Bucky don't die.
• Blue Is Heroic: Much like Steve Rogers, his Captain America costume is primarily blue. He starts to steer away from the heroic part of the trope when he starts to commit more morally-questionable actions and ditches the trope altogether when he switches his blue costume for a black one when he becomes U.S. Agent.
• Boxing Battler: As shown by the punching bag workout that was played during his interview in Good Morning America, he's trained in boxing and uses it as his primary fighting style in hand-to-hand combat whenever he loses his shield.
• Break the Badass: He's an extremely successful and accomplished Army Captain, having been awarded three Medals of Honor which hasn't even happened in real life, and even before all that he was the team captain of his high school's football team. Unfortunately, being chosen to take the mantle of Captain America utterly breaks him apart. He never succeeds in anything and he's completely outclassed by other superheroes. And that's before he takes the Super-Soldier Serum and starts going crazy.
• Broken Ace: He's the first soldier to have been awarded the Medal of Honor three times ^note only 19 have been awarded two, the last being during WWI and is said to far exceed other soldiers in terms of physical abilities. Whatever he did to get awarded the Medal of Honor three times is what also turned out to be "the worst day of his life", in which apparently a lot of people died because he and Hoskins were unable to perform at a superhuman level. It also left him psychology damaged to the point he's unable to live up to the Ideal Hero of Steve Rogers despite having the on-paper qualifications.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": He has an emblem that's an amalgam of the letter A and the shape of a star on the helmet, right pectoral, and the shield harness on his Captain America costume.
• Butt-Monkey: Played for Drama. Absolutely nothing has gone right for him since he became Captain America, from being ignored and disrespected by Sam and Bucky to getting a beatdown from the Dora Milaje.
• By-the-Book Cop: Despite trying in earnest to work with Sam and Bucky, John makes it clear that he's only willing to pursue the threat of the Flag-Smashers with what jurisdiction the U.S. government gives him, and isn't pleased that Sam and Bucky are acting as freelance agents. He may be the next Captain America, but unlike his predecessor Steve he's a stickler for the rules no matter how incompetent and unfair the system that make them may be. However, he ends up willing to bend the rules when he suspects Sam and Bucky have broken out Zemo from prison to get a lead, while his own investigation has run into nothing but dead-ends.
• Captain Geographic: The United States Department of Defense chose him as their new Captain America and given the shield along with a new costume made just for him. He still fits the trope when Valentina Allegra de Fontaine gives him the codename "U.S. Agent" and a new costume to make to go along with it.
• Captain Patriotic: He was introduced as the second Captain America. The biggest difference between Walker and Rogers, however, is that while Steve was loyal to the fundamental idea of America, John was purely loyal to its government. He does still fit this archetype when he becomes U.S. Agent, essentially a darker version of Captain America.
• Captain Superhero: He gets chosen by the government as the new Captain America, but is stripped of his rank and title after killing a Flag-Smasher in broad daylight. He's later given the alias U.S. Agent by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, which he gladly accepts.
• Casting Gag: In Episode 4, Walker takes the Super Soldier Serum; his portrayer has previously played a trained American Super-Soldier in Soldier as a Tyke Bomb younger version of the main character played by the actor's father Kurt Russell (aka Ego).
• Celebrity Superhero: Unlike Steve, who enjoys a low-profile and a private life when he's not being a superhero, Walker gets a lot of attention from the public wherever he goes. Many of his scenes in crowded areas have people taking pictures of him, and a fan approaches him to ask for his autograph at one point.Unfortunately for Walker, this ends up biting him in the ass when a large number of bystanders record him murdering a Flag-Smasher in cold blood.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Walker is stated to have exceeded all of his peers in every physical aspect, explaining why he's the government's pick for Captain America. This no longer applies as of the fourth episode, where he acquires the Super Soldier Serum and subsequently becomes superpowered.
• Combat Pragmatist: To a degree; he occasionally uses a pistol in combination with the shield, and he mentions that he actually has jumped on a grenade before (multiple times, in fact), but unlike Steve he used his next-gen helmet to cushion the blast. At the same time, he's got a lot of Honor Before Reason too; part of the reason he gets his ass kicked so much is that he's trying to fight "like a hero" like Steve did, without considering the fact he's just an ordinary human and would need to level the playing field with firepower and playing dirty, more like Punisher does, if he wants to succeed against superior opponents.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: While they do have him as Captain America and later U.S. Agent, in the comics, John started as a rival to Cap called Super-Patriot.
• Composite Character: Walker's character mixes aspects of his comic book counterpart along with William Burnside, the 1950s "Commie-Smasher" Captain America, and later the Grand Director. While not as extreme as Burnside, who legally changed his name to "Steven Rogers" in his desire to be Cap, Walker held the idea of being Captain America no matter what was said of him. As well, both men subjected themselves to the Super Soldier Serum and went insane from it, though Burnside went insane due to it missing the "Vita-Rays" treatment and Walker went insane due to the serum amplifying his more negative traits.
• Cruel Mercy: In Episode 5, Walker is struck with an Other-Than-Honorable Discharge for his actions in Episode 4, effectively being stripped of all titles, awards and benefits without being court-martialed.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Suffers an embarrassing one against the Dora Milaje, who take him down in mere seconds and make sure he doesn't even get the chance to get back up by constantly attacking him. When he does get back up and gets the opportunity to attack their leader Ayo, one of them disarms him by throwing her spear into his shield's handle and onto a table, making him give up. He's devastated by this, as not only does he know that there are superpowered beings who could easily beat him, there are also other non-superpowered beings who can also beat him with ease.
  • He inflicts one against several Flag-Smashers when he takes the serum that they also took. He already had a fighting skill advantage against them, but taking the serum allows him to fully use that advantage to take any of them down. The only Flag-Smasher who could give him a hard time was Nico, and he's the one John murders.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Valentina gifted John a darker-colored costume upon becoming U.S. Agent, and he is not a bad guy despite his aggressive methods.
• Deadpan Snarker: There are some moments where John throws jests that earn some giggles, such as when he converses with Bucky about a quote by Abraham Lincoln.
• Despair Event Horizon: In Episode 4, Lemar's death pushes him off the metaphorical edge and he proceeds to kill Nico in rage.
• Determinator: In Episode 5, after a brutal fight in which Sam and Bucky break his arm in order to take the shield, John still refuses to give up - broken arm, bruises and all. It takes a joint effort from the latter two, slamming the shield into him to finally incapacitate him.
• Disc-One Final Boss: John is set up as a major antagonist to Bucky and Sam, as an unworthy successor to Captain America whose Sanity Slippage leads to him brutally murdering a Flag-Smasher. By the finale, he seemingly holds no grudge against the two who took his shield and is more concerned with stopping Karli, ending on the face side of the Heel–Face Revolving Door.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: He completely misses the point of being Captain America, and it contributes to his decaying mental state. He insistently believes that being a great and obedient soldier is why he deserves to be Cap and doesn't know that what makes a good Cap is being a good person. Once he realizes that he's wrong does he finally recover mentally.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: He finds himself annoyed that no one grants him the respect he feels the mantle deserves. Bucky and Sam make their dislike of him clear, allies of the Flag Smashers openly spit on him, and his attempt to assert authority over the Dora Milaje ends about as well as one would expect.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: In the series finale, John has finally found his purpose and calling as a superhero, not as Captain America, but as U.S. Agent, a mantle he can call his own.
• Easily Forgiven: In the series finale, he's never called out neither by Bucky or Sam on his attempt to kill them on the previous episode or for the murder of the Flag-Smasher Nico.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: Served as a U.S. Army Ranger before the Government chose him as the new Captain America.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Already one of the finest regular soldiers the U.S. Army had to offer, he gets enhanced by the Super Soldier Serum in Episode 4.
• Everyone Has Standards: He's visibly uncomfortable when he finds out that Zemo's associate who will lead them to Morgenthau's location turns out to be a child no older than ten. He even mutters "What the hell?" in response to the event.
• Evil Costume Switch: Downplayed. Walker isn't a villain per se, but once he is stripped of his mantle as Captain America, he becomes U.S. Agent and is gifted with a black and red costume by Valentina.
• Expy: In many ways, he resembles Gilmore Hodge from The First Avenger, exemplifying the "perfect soldier" Erskine cautioned against out of fear that Hodge's worse aspects would be amplified by the serum. Concerns which turn out to be completely founded.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: After seeing Lemar killed, he chases down the first Flag Smasher he can get his hands on, and ends up caving in the man's chest with his shield repeatedly even as he begs for mercy.

F-M

• Failure Hero: Most of his attempts to be a hero end up failing spectacularly. He fails to stop the Flag-Smashers' theft of two 18-wheelers filled with supplies, failed to interrogate one of their associates (who spits on his face too), and both of his attempts to bring in Karli Morgenthau end up making things worse for everyone and got Lemar killed. He finally stops being one when he stops trying to be Captain America and starts being himself.
• Fallen Hero: John crosses the line when he murders a fleeing opponent in front of a large crowd. In-universe, the fifth episode reveals it immediately turned him into a pariah of a Broken Pedestal to the mass public and as a result kicked out of the Army in disgrace. He ultimately still manages to be a hero, of a kind.
• Fatal Flaw: His insecurity. John's fears deep down that he may not be good enough to be the next Captain America, which is not helped by the fact Bucky, Sam, the Flag Smashers, and the Dora Milaje refuse to treat him as such. It eventually leads to him taking the Super Soldier Serum in an attempt to be like Steve Rogers and things go downhill from there.
• Fights Like a Normal: After taking the serum, he still fights very differently than Rogers. While Steve's fighting style is fluid and more suited to his superhuman abilities, Walker fights very similarly to how he did before the serum but can dish out more offense due to having the strength and durability to match other super powered beings.
• Foil: To Baron Zemo. Both are ordinary human special forces soldiers living in a world of superbeings; however, while Zemo understands his limits as a mere mortal and is able to succeed because he recognizes and plans around those limits, Walker tries to fight like a superhero in the exact same manner as Steve and gets his ass kicked because he's not a superhuman like Steve was.
• Freudian Excuse: He has severe PTSD from his time serving and alludes to numerous awful things that he witnessed and/or took part in, and he is either unable or unwilling to recognize the extent of them. It's clear that his mental state was already fragile before he took the title of Captain America, let alone the serum, and the serum completely destroyed what was left of his stability.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: The government's decision to make him Captain America ends up as this. Despite his impressive service record and remarkable skills with the shield, he lacks the necessary virtues and traits that Steven Rogers had and becoming even more murderous and ruthless after taking the serum just shows how unworthy he is of being Captain America. Val appointing him as the U.S. Agent has been shown to be a much better decision than making him Captain America.
• Green-Eyed Monster: It's implied that he envies super soldiers because of their superhuman abilities. When Bucky gets in his way when he tries to arrest Karli Morgenthau, he tells him "This is all really easy for you, isn’t it? All that serum runnin' through your veins". This may have helped influence his decision to take the serum he filched when he stopped Zemo from destroying the other vials.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: He has blonde hair and is ultimately a good guy underneath his insecurities and issues.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Walker's shown to have a poor temper and is easily provoked into violence as seen when he roughs up a supporter of the Flag-Smashers for refusing to give him any information about the current whereabouts of the Flag-Smashers. It becomes worse when he takes the super soldier serum and goes postal as shown when he tries to outright murder Sam and Bucky for trying to get him to surrender the shield.
• Happily Married: He's married with his high-school sweetheart Olivia. Even after Walker's murder of Nico at the end of the fourth episode, she still hasn't given up on him. Sure enough, they remain married at the end of the series.
• Hated by All: Zig-zagged, and ultimately subverted. On his initial debut as Captain America, he is widely accepted into the role by the public, frequently taking selfies with fans, and has the backing of the American government and the GRC; whilst Sam and Bucky take an instant dislike to him appropriating the mantle of Captain America, they otherwise find him more of an annoyance than anything, and don't actively antagonise him without cause. He gets hit with this hard when he murders the Flag Smasher Nico in broad daylight. His once adoring fans are the same people who boo him on his way to the capitol, his superiors strip him of the Captain America mantle, the shield, and his honors, and discharge him from the Army and the only people who still truly care about him afterwards are his wife and Lemar's family. However, the whole world later gets to see him help save the GRC hostages from the Flag Smashers during their attack in New York, suggesting that his reputation may be back on the upswing.
• Heel Realization: A subtle example but seeing Sam save hostages and chew out the GRC for their harsh and unjust treatment of people affected by The Blip while donning the Captain America mantle and shield made him realize what priorities Captain America should actually have. This may have been what convinced him to work for Valentina and take up the U.S. Agent costume and mantle she gave him.
• Healing Factor: Gets one after taking the Super Soldier Serum. When Bucky and Sam break his arm at the beginning of Episode 5, he recovers from it by the end of the episode. Keep in mind that the episode took place in the span of two weeks at most.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Lemar, who was his best friend since high school and served alongside him in the Army. The two are shown to be incredibly close and Lemar is shown to bring out John's more vulnerable side and holds John together when he's losing it. Their close bond makes it all the more heartbreaking when Lemar gets accidentally killed by Karli and John's grief causes him to go off the deep end.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Despite his good intentions, he nearly becomes an even greater threat than the criminals he's trying to bring in, luckily he's able to get over this and do the right thing when push comes to shove in the last stand between Flag Smashers and GCR.
• Headbutting Heroes: Bucky and Sam have a beef with him from the moment they cross his path, seeing him as an Inadequate Inheritor. For Walker's part, he initially wants to work together with the duo, but comes to mistrust their status as unaffiliated agents, even warning them to "stay out of his way".
• Heroes' Frontier Step: In the series finale, when forced to choose between saving the GRC members that Karli had taken hostage and exacting his revenge on Karli for Lemar's Death, John ultimately chooses to give up on getting revenge and attempts to save the hostages.
• Heroic BSoD: When the Dora Milaje kick his ass with ease, he's left speechless by the whole event, only lamenting that they weren't even super soldiers. He could at least excuse his losses against the Flag-Smashers with the fact that they were super soldiers, but the Dora had no powers whatsoever. They were simply better trained fighters than him.
• Hero-Worshipper: John adores Steve Rogers, the original Captain America, and states in an interview with the press that he kept very close tabs on Steve's career during the man's tenure as an Avenger, going so far as to claim that he feels he and Steve are practically brothers. Bucky doesn't take that last part well.
• Hidden Depths: After first appearing to be a more smug version of Captain America with his first impression on TV, we get a quiet conversation between himself, his best friend, and his wife, which indicates that he's having serious doubts about whether or not he's capable of being Captain America.
• Humble Hero: Zig-zagged. While visiting his local high school as part of a PR conference, John refuses to compare himself to Tony Stark, Bruce Banner or Steve Rogers, saying that he isn't anything special compared to them. However, it's clear that John believes that he can be a worthy successor to Steve Rogers because of his previous accomplishments and is enjoying the attention he's getting as a new Captain America. Episode 3 starts having him shift away from this trope entirely, having him briefly go berserk and assault a Flag-Smasher collaborator not because of his affiliation but because he dared disrespect him. Yet Episode 4 shows that, more than anything, this is a result of him fearing he really isn't qualified to be Captain America and lashing out. But by the time Episode 5 occurs, the super soldier serum has eroded what little moral standing John had left, leaving him a raging berserker who feels entitled to the role of Captain America.
• Humble Pie: He constantly throws his weight around as Captain America and tries to intimidate or rough up people who don't give him the respect he feels he deserves due to carrying the mantle. This bites him hard when he encounters the Dora Milaje. Not only do they not tolerate his attempts to assert himself, but they also effortlessly kick his ass when he tries to be patronizing. This deeply wounds his pride, but does not make him change his behavior.
• Hypocrite:
  • He calls the Dora Milaje out on operating in Latvia, outside their jurisdiction, while he himself is an American agent going off the books to operate in Latvia.
  • In "The Star-Spangled Man", he condescendingly warns Bucky and Sam to stay out of his way. In "The Whole World Is Watching", he constantly gets in their way and makes things even worse in the process. This on top of the fact that he decided to follow them because his own investigation hit a dead end, in essence leeching off their hard work.
  • Also In "The Whole World Is Watching", he accuses Bucky of patronizing him. That's pretty cheap coming from a guy who sees both him and Sam as Steve's "wingmen" and wanted to make them both his wingmen too in "The Star-Spangled Man".
• Hypocrite Has a Point: While he had no moral high ground whatsoever, fact is that the Dora Milaje claiming they have jurisdiction wherever they feel it necessary could very easily be considered antagonistic in a different context, given the Latvian government might take issues with Wakandan soldiers operating on their soil without a head's up.
• Implacable Man: After taking the serum and becoming a Super-Soldier, John becomes incredibly difficult to take down for good. Bucky and Sam have to cripple him to take the shield away from him, and during the final fight against the Flag-Smashers, the criminal group has trouble keeping him down for good because he immediately gets back up whenever they knock him down. At one point, Karli kicks him in the torso and he casually shrugs it off.
• Inadequate Inheritor:
  • Sam and Bucky do not approve of the government's decision to pass the mantle of Captain America to John Walker. The latter in particular is seething with Tranquil Fury when he watches Walker on television claim that Steve felt like a brother to him, despite openly admitting he never even met the man.
  • Walker himself has concerns about being an unaugmented human with PTSD shoved into the costume and eventually decides to stop trying to be the next Captain America and be his own hero as U.S. Agent.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Being Captain America means Walker has pretty big shoes to fill. Already feeling inadequate when compared to Steve Rogers, Walker struggles in his first mission and having people around him looking down on him. His attempts to prove himself worthy of the mantle only ends up in him failing miserably. The accumulated stress eventually leads to him to inject himself with a Super Soldier Serum.
• Injured Limb Episode: He spends most of "Truth" with his left arm injured and put on a sling as a result of Bucky and Sam brutally breaking it in the opening battle.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • John means well, has a lot of respect for Bucky and Sam, and genuinely wants to live up to Steve's legacy as Captain America. However, in his efforts to prove it he winds up making multiple micro-aggressive remarks that rub Bucky and Sam the wrong way, particularly when he says that he feels like he's practically Steve's brother in an interview.
  • He makes the mistake of attempting to get up-close-and-personal with the Dora Milaje, who react by knocking him down a peg or two, literally and metaphorically.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Christina Raynor. The two were old comrades in the army as they served field ops together.
• It's All About Me: Shows shades of it as the series goes on. Perhaps due to feeling pressure as the new Captain America, John makes a very big deal out of him being the one to resolve the issue of the Flag-Smashers. The serum dials this up a notch, but in the finale he defies this by putting the needs of others above his own.
• It's Personal: His campaign to take down the Flag-Smashers becomes deeply personal when Karli accidentally kills his best friend Lemar, motivating John to avenge his death by any means necessary.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When he's given an other-than-honorable discharge for murdering Nico, he tears into the senators for sending soldiers to carry out their mandates without caring about the hell they have to endure, the multiple risks they take, or the mental and psychological toll it takes on them, but being quick to hang them out to dry when something gets caught on camera. It's a shame his credibility was shot to hell at that point because he was right about all of it.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He comes across as friendly and fairly decent, if rather insensitive, and repeatedly tries to reach out to Sam and Bucky, until they make it clear that they're not interested. Even after the serum starts affecting him, he is still driven by a fundamental desire to be a hero, if nothing else. In the finale, he ultimately proves that, for all his flaws, he is a good person when push comes to shove.
• Just Following Orders: His breakdown in front of the senate committee boils down to how he followed the government's order to the letter.
  Walker: I lived my life by your mandates. I dedicated my life to your mandates! I only ever did what you asked of me, what you told me to be, and trained me to do, and I did it... and I did it well.
• Knight Templar: The Super Soldier Serum worsens his negative qualities dramatically, causing him to brutally murder a fleeing Flag Smasher protesting his lack of responsibility after Karli accidentally killed his friend. Then he defies the trope. When given a choice between pursuing a criminal or saving hostages, he chooses the hostages. Then he helps Bucky capture the Flag Smashers alive. He even quotes Lincoln's "Mercy bears richer fruit than strict justice". Which is the opposite of what a typical Knight Templar would say.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Part of why Sam and Bucky consider him an Inadequate Inheritor. While John may have admired Steve from afar and kept close tabs on his entire career in the military and with the Avengers to the point he feels that he knows the man, it's clear that he is so focused on Steve's accomplishments that he doesn't quite understand the man's actual character.
• Large and in Charge: An army captain who's around 6'2" to 6'4". He later gets other-than-honorably discharged after murdering a Flag-Smasher in public and gets reinstated by Val after helping Bucky and Sam capture the Flag-Smashers.
• Large Ham: One that gets larger after taking the serum.
• Last of His Kind: He's the only one of Nagel's super soldiers who wasn't killed or imprisoned.
• Lean and Mean: In contrast to Steve's bulky physique, Walker has a lean, but still muscular build and unlike Steve, can come across as smug and condescending. Even after taking the new serum and gaining superhuman capabilities, he retains his physical appearance due to its creator, Wilfred Nagel, stating that his serum doesn't give people visible changes, and due to the serum's ability to enhance its user's personality, Walker becomes more aggressive and unstable after taking it, increasing the mean part of the trope. Fortunately, he gets better by the end of the series.
• Leeroy Jenkins: One of his most defining traits. Unlike Steve Rogers, who tries to reason with people who are amenable to it, Walker just barges in and tries to take them down. He ruined both of Sam's negotiations with Karli Morgenthau because of it.
• Legacy Character: He is the U.S. government's chosen successor to Steve Rogers. His costume bears a great resemblance to Steve's, albeit with a number of modifications that make it more of an adaptation of his comics costume. Walker is also a deconstruction, for while he greatly admires the hero whose shoes he is trying to fill, a combination of his self-doubt, being seen as an Inadequate Inheritor by those close to the original, the pressure of the public attention his new role has brought, being a product of a different, more cynical time than his predecessor, an already troubled mental state and, last but not least, not having some of Steve Rogers' best qualities such as his compassion, humility and restraint, sends him into a dangerous spiral that culminates in him brutally killing someone in broad daylight, tarnishing the uniform and symbol of the hero whose persona he had assumed. He is stripped of his title in Episode 5.
• Lightning Bruiser: He's already naturally athletic - his speed, endurance, and intelligence testing off the charts in an MIT study. Taking the serum just made him much, much faster and stronger than ever, allowing him to easily overpower every Flag-Smasher who tries to fight him one-on-one.
• Load-Bearing Hero: He pulls an armored car filled with hostages the Flag-Smashers tried to kill. The Flag-Smashers manage to stop him from fully pulling the truck back, but Walker's act of heroism did buy enough time for Sam to come in and finish the job.
• Lying to Protect Your Feelings: He lies to Lemar's family that the Flag-Smasher he murdered was the one who killed Lemar, not Karli, to give them closure.
• Madness Mantra: Episode 5 has him growling "I am Captain America" in sporadic intervals, indicating his worsening mental state.
• Medal of Dishonor: Walker initially sees his Medals of Honor as a Mark of Shame as he received them on "the worst day of his life". After taking the serum however, his judgment has been twisted and he now sees them as a symbol of pride and even embedded one of them on his home-made shield.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: In Episode 4, he takes the serum and becomes a Super-Soldier.
• Military Superhero: A special operations officer chosen to be Steve Rogers' successor. It's arguably deconstructed, showing what would happen if you saddled a combat vet who likely has PTSD with a responsibility as great as defending the world. Needless to say, he cracks quickly.
• Mirror Character:
  • To Steve Rogers, his predecessor with the Captain America mantle. Steve is "not a perfect soldier but a good man", while Walker is a perfect soldier but he struggles with being a good man.
    • Steve was a scrawny weakling from Brooklyn who was constantly overlooked and underestimated by people until he received the Super Serum. John was an athletic high school football star from a small town who was widely recognized for his accomplishments before becoming the second Captain America.
    • Steve got his rank in the U.S. Army through a Field Promotion during World War II. John is a graduate of West Point who was immediately commissioned as an officer.
    • Steve was a firm believer in Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! and always fought on behalf of America's ideals, even if it meant going against the authorities. John is a By-the-Book Cop who works on behalf of the U.S. government, whether they're right or wrong.
    • They both start out as living propaganda tools for the U.S. government. Steve managed to keep his frustration at his position to himself until he got his chance to prove his worth on the field. Walker, who was already a highly decorated war hero before taking up the shield, becomes consumed with rage that no one treats him with the respect and recognition he feels he has earned.
    • Steve always remained collected and in control. Walker has a temper, and after seeing his best friend die in front of him, beats a man to death with the shield in front of a crowd.
    • While Steve uses his mantle of Captain America to inspire people, he always introduces himself as Steve Rogers, and he doesn't really need the mantle or the shield to do the right thing. He was willing to surrender the shield when he feels that he doesn't deserve it anymore. Walker, has completely etched his name to the mantle. He always introduces himself with both his name and mantle. Even after the government confiscated both his mantle and his shield, he refuses to ever stop referring to himself as Captain America, and crafts his own shield to make up for it.
    • Steve was willing to listen to people's problems and talk about his own, seeing no shame in it or stigmatising it, befriending Sam in a group therapy session and running a support group after the Decimation. John very rarely will talk about his feelings with even his wife and Lemar. He holds a stigma against mental illness, implying in a talk with Sam that trauma equals an inclination towards violence, and is not once seen engaging with mental health, despite being old army buddies with a therapist.
  • To the Red Skull, who took the super soldier serum before Steve. While he has many faults, Walker isn't evil and does desire to be a good man unlike Red Skull who was a sadistic madman.
  • Walker also compares and contrasts quite a bit with fellow Valentina recruit Yelena Belova; arguments for this can be seen on the latter's character page.
• Moment of Weakness: His brutal murder of Nico is a result of the combination of his intense grief over Lemar's death and the Super Soldier Serum amplifying his desire for revenge. It winds up costing him his place in the military, even though he had a clean record beforehand and ultimately moves past his desire for revenge later on in the series.
• Moral Myopia: He calls out the Dora Milaje for not having jurisdiction in Latvia to pursue Zemo, despite he and Lemar "going off the books" to do essentially the same thing.
• Motive Decay: At first, Walker tries to prove that he is worthy of the title of Captain America but as his mental state worsen and after taking the serum, he goes on about declaring he is Captain America to the point that even after he is stripped of the title, he went on to create his own shield. He even put one of his Medals of Honor, initially to him a Medal of Dishonor and a Mark of Shame he received on the "worst day of his life", onto the shield, now seeing them as a twisted sense of pride and honor.
• My Greatest Failure:
  • Whatever he and Lemar did in Afghanistan to receive their medals of honor was this to John as he felt that it was the furthest from the right thing to do and that it was the worst day of his life. It apparently caused a lot of casualties as implied by Lemar.
  • Later, Lemar's death becomes this to him. He is so ashamed that lies to Lemar's family to give them closure and he becomes even more determined to take down the Flag-Smashers.
• Mysterious Middle Initial: It's never stated what the "F" in John F. Walker stands for. It was never revealed in the comics or any other iterations of the character either.

N-W

• Never My Fault: Refuses to take responsibility for the extreme measures he's enacted as Captain America, blaming both Sam and Bucky as well as the government for his actions. In the case of the latter, it overlaps with Jerkass Has a Point.
  Walker: Why are you making me do this?!
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Having three Medal of Honors means nothing in a world with Gods, robots and super powered beings. While Walker is a excellent soldier, he is way out of his league in fighting Super Soldiers as he has no experience in dealing with them whereas Sam, Bucky, and Zemo all have experience with them to at least some degree (Zemo least of all, but he is at least knowledgeable). Then he realizes that the Dora Milaje are even better fighters than he is after they give him a Curb-Stomp Battle. This lack of power hurts his already diminishing ego and makes him feel unworthy to hold the mantle of Captain America, leading to him injecting himself with the Super Soldier Serum in order to gain the upper hand.
• No Such Agency: Ends up going from Captain America, the heroic public face of the U.S. military, to U.S. Agent, a deniable covert wetworks operative who does the dirty work Captain America can't. So he thinks, anyway.
• Not So Similar: At first glance, he seems to be a lot like Steve Rogers. He's a tall and muscular blonde-haired, blue-eyed white man who holds the rank of Captain. His friendship with Lemar is also a lot like Steve's friendships with Sam and Bucky. As the series goes on, however, it becomes clear that these similarities are only skin-deep. Personality and beliefs-wise, the two are nothing alike and it becomes clear that John's a poorly chosen successor for the Captain America mantle. Sam, on the other hand, clearly has more similarities with Steve.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Every time he encounters Sam and Bucky, he frequently gets in their way and takes charge of their operations which just contributes to their growing dislike of him and makes everything worse.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: After killing Nico in rage in front of a crowd after Karli killed Lemar, his reputation is ruined and as he was heading to court, he gets booed and jeered at by people, and is ultimately stripped of his rank as Captain America and is also stripped of his military benefits.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: In the real world, being an accomplished soldier with three medals of honor would be considered extremely impressive. In the MCU? Not so much. He can briefly hold his own against the Flag-Smashers with Cap's shield but without it, he gets taken out as quickly as any normal human would against a Super-Soldier. He also loses a fight (embarrassingly to boot) against the Dora Milaje simply because they were much, much better at fighting than him, proving that he's just a normal guy inadequately thrust into the world of superheroics. These inadequacies are the very reasons as to why he decided to take the serum he purloined from the Flag-Smashers.
• Paint It Black: He gets his U.S. Agent outfit after deciding to work with Val, who is Ambiguously Evil.
• Palette Swap: In-practice, his current "U.S. Agent" outfit is near-identical to his previous "Captain America" gear, just with the Primarily Color Champion replaced with a Red and Black and Evil All Over scheme, and the stars and "A"s filed off.
• Perma-Stubble: He sports a few days' growth after the pressures of being Captain America start to build up, serving as yet another contrast to Steve, who is almost always impeccably groomed, beard or no beard.
• The Peter Principle: He's an excellent soldier but that alone does not make him worthy of being Captain America, no matter how much he thinks it does. He's only able to make things right by letting go of his obsession of the title and going back to covert ops, as U.S. Agent.
• Please Wake Up: When Lemar is punched into a pillar and loses consciousness, John tries to wake him up until he realizes that the impact has in fact, killed him. He does not take this well.
• Primary-Color Champion: Like his predecessor Steve. He slowly starts to lose the heroic part of the trope when he starts committing more morally questionable actions as the series unfolds. Gets a Significant Wardrobe Change when he loses the blue in his costume for the black-and-red US Agent outfit
• Psycho Serum: After taking the Super-Soldier Serum, some of his more ambiguous actions like killing a Flag-Smasher in rage are at least partly caused by the serum having a negative side-effect on his psyche, leaning in on the "great persons get better, bad persons get worse"-approach introduced in Captain America: The First Avenger.
• Rabid Cop: As shown during the raid on Rudy's internet cafe, Walker is aggressive and quick to anger. Taken further in the fourth episode, where he outright kills an unarmed, surrendering Nico in broad daylight after his negative qualities are enhanced by the Super Soldier Serum.
• Ranger: Of the 75th Rangers Regiment.
• Real Award, Fictional Character: The Medal of Honor is in fact an actual award and is the highest decoration that can be given to an American soldier. The fact that he won three of those is impressive given how in real life, no one has gotten that amount yet.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite being a military officer lawfully following a particular unfair American system and eventually warning Bucky and Sam to stay out of the way when they make their refusal of his offer for a team-up clear, he still shows his respect towards the latter two for their heroics and even bails them out following Bucky's arrest in the second episode. This is undone in Episode 4, starting when he impatiently barges in on Sam's attempt on talking down Karli and ending in killing Nico in cold blood, who was attempting to de-escalate and flee after clearly being shocked by Karli (accidentally) killing Lemar. Then he returns to being this despite losing his position as a military officer for Nico's death and show in spite of everything he's this trope deep down in the season finale when he chooses to rescue a busload of hostages over pursuing Karli, thereby redeeming himself.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Subverted. His U.S. Agent outfit has this color scheme, but John finding an identity of his own, separate from the Captain America mantle, ultimately helps him to become a better person.
• Red Herring: Initially, in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier following his seemingly Face–Heel Turn murder of Nico as a result of With Great Power Comes Great Insanity at the end of Episode 4 and later on fights Bucky and Sam at the beginning of Episode 5, it was initially thought he would act as part of the Big Bad Ensemble, however, by Episode 6, it turns out not to be the case when he redeems himself by saving van filled with hostages from going over the ledge, revealing himself to be instead the show's ultimately true Tritagonist.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The hotheaded, impulsive red oni to Lemar's blue.
• Red Is Violent: Walker's Captain America outfit has many red accents, slightly even more than Steve's, and Walker is shown to be an ill-tempered individual. Taking the serum makes John downright ruthless and murderous, playing this trope up. Noticeably, red is the only color he retains from his old Captain America outfit when he becomes U.S. Agent, with the blue and grey being replaced with black and white.
• Reimagining the Artifact: While mostly a faithful adaptation of the source material, Walker here has many of his key traits downplayed, removed, or obscured to fit the series' modern setting and because Walker's personality in the comics and right-wing beliefs would be considered more unacceptable in today's increasingly progressive and open-minded society and government, making his comic book counterpart less likely to be chosen as Captain America by the modern government. In the MCU, his Jerkass personality, while still present, is a lot less prominent and he's more polite and respectful, his prejudice towards minorities is also entirely omitted, he clearly suffers from severe PTSD that is given a great deal of weight, and his political views are more ambiguous.
• Replacement Goldfish: He's the U.S. government's own Captain America. Heck, John was even an Army Captain no less, having graduated from West Point (which is where he differs from Steve, who trained under the SSR and became a Captain via field commission). And of course, he's a blonde, blue-eyed white man, just like Steve was.
• Revenge Before Reason: He brutally murders an already beaten Nico for Lemar's death right in front of horrified witnesses. It's subverted in the finale, however, when he gives up a chance to pursue Karli Morgenthau to save a truck full of hostages.
• Revenge by Proxy: After Karli accidentally kills Lemar, he snaps and brutally butchers Nico in retaliation.
• The Rival: While Sam at least tries to be polite with Walker, Bucky does not like him at all, and Walker eventually starts requiting Bucky's hatred of him. The seriousness of their rivalry tends to shift throughout the series. At times, it's funny (like Bucky watching Walker get his ass kicked by Ayo and thoroughly enjoying it, and Bucky expressing annoyance at Walker quoting Abraham Lincoln), and at other times, its serious (Walker actively trying to kill him and Sam because they want to take the shield from him and exchanging Death Glares at one another when Bucky tries to stop Walker from barging in and bringing in Karli Morgenthau).
• Rousseau Was Right: At the end of the day, John is a good person at heart. His more negative personality traits and morally questionable decisions are more influenced by the bad things that happen to him rather than actually originating from John himself.
• Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: John is prone to aggression and has a very bad temper (which was worsened when he took the super-soldier serum), while his partner Lemar is much more patient and understanding.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • He is very attached to Steve Rogers' vibranium shield and what it represents, the idea that he's worthy of being the next Captain America. Sam and Bucky have to work together to break his arm to get him to drop it in Ep. 5 when he has his Face–Heel Turn; his Heel–Face Turn in the subsequent episode is shown by him throwing away his beat-up replica shield to try to save the truck full of hostages from falling off the cliff.
  • His stubble gets bigger and bigger as the pressures of being Captain America continue to worsen his mental state, but after becoming the U.S. Agent, he's clean-shaven again, symbolizing that he's finally free from the stress he suffered as Cap.
• Sanity Slippage: He was tightly wound while tracking down the Flag-Smashers, but taking the serum and watching his best friend get killed right in front of him certainly didn't help his anger issues. By the time of Episode 6, he would now qualify by military standards as a Section 8 (for being judged mentally unfit for service).
• Screaming Warrior: After taking the serum, his anger issues is one of the negative traits that gets exacerbated. As such, he grunts and shouts a lot during fights.
• Shadow Archetype:
  • Walker is essentially why Erskine chose a weak but good man for the serum instead of a good soldier with a bad attitude. Steve Rogers is a humble and All-Loving Hero who fights for the weak while John Walker is a Glory Hound who only sees the title of Captain America as a reason to be in charge. Whereas the serum made Steve an even better man than he already is, Walker's worst qualities are enhanced, making him the opposite of what Captain America should represent. However this is downplayed in episode 6 where it's shown that despite all his faults, Walker isn't a bad man and is instead simply flawed.
  • Walker is also one for Sam Wilson, the true inheritor of the Captain America mantle. Sam had fought side-by-side with Steve for years and came to know the man on a personal level while Walker never met Steve and only knows of his accomplishments. Whereas it takes Walker going bananas and tarnishing the shield with blood for Sam to even consider accepting the mantle and he rejects the serum outright, Walker takes the mantle and serum with little hesitation, seeing both as a source of power. Sam is chosen by Steve himself to be the new Captain America, since Steve, as the man Erskine chose for Project Rebirth, understands what makes a good Captain America and sees every single one of those qualities in Sam, while Walker is chosen by the government, who don't have the right priorities or understand what makes a good Captain America.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: In Episode 4, he reveals that he was forced to do horrible things alongside Hoskins during his service, with the medals he earned being a constant reminder of a particularly traumatizing mission.
• Shoddy Knockoff Product: After losing the title of Captain America and having the shield taken away, he crafts a fake shield in his garage. It is quickly destroyed in the fight against the Flag-Smashers.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Not that Captain America is a small name, but Bucky, who refuses to recognize John as such, clearly believes that the man is overstepping his boundaries by claiming to be the new Captain America.
  John: [after a Flag-Smasher sympathizer refuses to cooperate] DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!
• Smug Super: The most unlikeable trait he has. He's incredibly arrogant, as despite having genuine respect for Bucky and Sam, it's clear that he believes himself superior to both of them. He also tries to assert his authority around people, believing they will respect and obey him for being Captain America. This earns him a spit to the face by a sympathizer of the Flag-Smashers and an embarrassing ass-kicking by the Dora Milaje.
• Sociopathic Soldier: After taking the Super Soldier Serum and showing no regret in his brutal killing of Nico.
• Sports Hero Backstory: Not only was he hold the rank of a Captain in the military, but he was also the captain of the Custer's Grove High School football team, explaining his natural athleticism.
• Strong and Skilled: Before taking the serum, he was vastly physically inferior to the Flag-Smashers but was far more skilled to the point where he can briefly hold his own against them. After taking the serum, he proves to be stronger and superior to them to the point where they have to resort to stealth, evasion, or sheer numbers to beat him.
• Sucksessor: Since he's more loyal to the government he's seen by them as a superior Captain America, but he's got nothing on Steve too begin with, and his murder of Nico just serves to further emphasize that he's a terrible replacement. He eventually decides to give up trying to be the next Captain America and takes up his own mantle as U.S. Agent.
• Superhero Packing Heat: Can be seen holstering a pistol on his hip, much like how Steve used to use firearms during WWII. He puts it to use against the Flag-Smashers.
• Super-Soldier: Becomes one after taking the serum in Episode 4. However, in a stark contrast to Steve, Walker's negative qualities become magnified, worsening his anger issues and causing him to become murderous. This leads to him killing a Flag-Smasher in public and later trying (and failing) to kill Bucky and Sam.
• Super-Strength: After taking the Super Soldier Serum, his already impressive physical strength multiplies tenfold. He was able to send a Flag-Smasher flying, tear off Sam's wings, and most impressively, pull an armored vehicle filled with hostages.
• Super-Toughness: Becoming a super soldier grants him incredible superhuman durability. In contrast to his first fight with the Flag-Smashers where he goes down in one strike, he's able to take several blows from them in their next encounters, and he's able to survive a brutal beatdown from Sam and Bucky. In the final battle, Karli kicks him in the stomach and it does absolutely nothing to him.
• Supporting Protagonist: Of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, specifically from the second episode onwards as Bucky's and Sam's escapades in hunting down the Flag Smashers are sometimes told from his viewpoint, while some of his characterization and backstory development are simultaneously revealed in the process.
• Sympathetic Murderer: He killed a Flag-Smasher in public, and later tried to murder Bucky and Sam for trying to take the shield back, but this is all the work of a man who has been mentally deteriorating due to failing to live up to the legacy of a mantle that was given to him and recently watched as his best friend since childhood was accidentally killed by the very criminals he was tasked to bring in.
• Taking Up the Mantle: He was chosen to be the next Captain America by the government after Sam surrendered the shield to them. Unfortunately, he proves to be an awful choice and becoming even more unstable after taking the serum just shows how unworthy he was of becoming the next Cap.
• Temporary Scrappy: Just like in the comics, he is appointed to be the next Captain America after Steve Rogers retires and Sam Wilson declines the role. Steve and Rogers' other old friend, Bucky Barnes, has some hangups with this arrangement even before meeting the man. Walker's brash arrogance doesn't do him any favors as he tends to act like he's owed respect and recognition just for bearing the title. Eventually, the stresses of the job (and feeling inferior compared to Steve's legacy) get to him, and when his best friend is killed in combat he breaks and beats a man to death in public. This results in Walker losing the mantle and being slapped with an Other Than Honorable discharge to avoid a PR catastrophe. Ultimately, he's there to help give Sam the push he needs to claim the legacy Steve left to him.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After suffering a series of misfortunes and failures, he finally gets a good thing going for him when he's recruited by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and rebranded as the U.S. Agent.
• Took a Level in Badass: He was already a Badass Normal but taking the serum allows him to fight even-handedly against the Flag-Smashers and perform superhuman feats that he couldn't do before.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: In the season finale, as he became cheerful, giddy, Endearingly Dorky and much happier than before upon becoming U.S. Agent.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Considering he already had ego issues to begin with, after taking the Super Soldier Serum, his negative traits get amplified ("good becomes great, bad becomes worse"), to the point where he straight up commits murder on one of the Flag Smashers, Nico. Thankfully, this is undone in the season finale following redeeming himself.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In the season finale, when he chooses to rescue a van full of hostages over his Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Karli for Battlestar's death, thereby redeeming himself after his crimes of killing Nico following by fighting Bucky and Falcon to the death for the shield two episodes earlier.
• Tough Act to Follow: In-universe, Walker knows being the next Captain America would mean he would have big shoes to fill to live up to Steve Rogers, while Bucky and Sam think he's an unworthy poser of an Inadequate Inheritor.
• Tranquil Fury: The above quote. He says that after Bucky and Sam repeatedly refuse his help.
• Transhuman: Taking Nagel's super soldier serum makes him much stronger, tougher, and faster than a normal human could be, like Steve and Bucky are. He's even far stronger than the Flag-Smashers who took the same serum on account of being more naturally athletic.
• Trauma Conga Line: Where do we even begin?! It's clear that he has PTSD from his time as a soldier and that's before the series began. In the series proper, he gets no respect from the people whose opinions he actually cares about like Bucky and Sam, fails to capture the Flag-Smashers several times, gets summarily trounced by the Dora Milaje, his best friend Lemar gets killed, he gets publicly shunned when numerous bystanders record him killing a Flag-Smasher, gets his arm broken and shield taken from him by Bucky and Sam, and then the senate strips him of his rank, title, and mantle as Captain America. Is it any surprise that he went insane? The fact that he was able to regain his sanity in the series finale is nothing short of a miracle.
• Tritagonist: Ultimately of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, at first he appeared to be a Decoy Protagonist with Zemo as seemingly the true tritagonist after taking the Super Soldier Serum and goes on a rampage as an antagonist, but after Zemo turns himself in in the penultimate episode and Walker redeems himself in the season finale by rescuing hostages, he returns to this tertiary role.
• True Companions: With Lemar. Walker confides his insecurities and worries with him, and clearly regards him as a brother. He is clearly worried sick when Lemar is captured by the Flag Smashers and quietly and pleadingly repeats his name in vain hope when Lemar is killed, then immediately butchers the first Flag Smasher he finds in a fit of rage.
• Two First Names: Both "John" and "Walker" are applicable as first names.
• The Unapologetic: He doesn't show any remorse when it comes to his murder of Nico and repeatedly tries to justify it with flimsy excuses and outright lies.
• Underestimating Badassery: When confronted by the Dora Milaje, Walker ignores Sam's warning and thinks he can speak to them as if he has authority since they're not Super Soldiers. The Wakandan elite soldiers make it clear they think nothing of his authority with a Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: It become rather obvious that he didn't practice much with his new shield.
• Unfit for Greatness: At his core, he's a decent guy who simply happens to be grossly unsuited for the pressure of being Captain America. His Sanity Slippage is triggered in part by his inability to live up to the lofty legacy Steve Rogers left behind, and his mental health takes a marked upswing once he is finally able to let go of his need to uphold said legacy.
• The Un-Smile:
  • The smug sneer he wears when he makes his first public appearance in the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It's implied to largely be a result of John not being that good/accustomed at public appearances rather than actual smugness, though. According to Lemar, he failed drama class.
  • His scenes in private, where we get to see Beneath the Mask, suggest he may in fact be a much more natural, if downplayed Perpetual Frowner, further explaining why his public smile seems artificial.
• Unstoppable Rage: After Lemar gets killed, he's so pissed off that he wants to get his hands on the nearest Flag-Smasher he could find and take his anger out on them. When he does, he bashes him to death with the shield. Later when Bucky and Sam try to confiscate the shield from him, he's crazy enough to try and kill them too. He doesn't succeed, fortunately.
• Use Your Head: In the finale, he headbutts a Flag-Smasher after she tries to grapple him.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Killing Nico because Karli killed Lemar doesn't give him any form of satisfaction whatsoever. In fact, it only makes him feel more awful than he already was for the past couple of days.
• War Hero: He has earned no less than three Medals of Honor, which is why he was chosen to be the next Captain America. It's not until his killing of Nico turned him into a disgrace to the uniform unlike before.
• Weak, but Skilled: He doesn't have any powers of his own but he can put up a remarkably good fight against the Flag-Smashers. However, once facing the Dora Milaje, who are physically weaker but far superior in fighting skills, he's severely outmatched. These constant failures push him to take the super soldier serum, which makes him Strong and Skilled but also enhances his negative qualities.
• Wearing a Flag on Your Head: Being the new Captain America, his uniform is naturally based on the American flag like his predecessor before him. Even after becoming U.S. Agent and getting a new costume in the process, his chest has the American stripes on it.
• What You Are in the Dark: John chooses to save the hostages rather than pursue revenge on Karli, despite the fact that no one is watching and the good deed will likely go unrewarded and unreported.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: After taking the Super Soldier Serum, Walker gains super powers but at the cost of his sanity. Lemar's death proves to be the final straw; after this, he flips his shit and ends up brutally murdering a Flag Smasher - the wrong Flag Smasher, no less - in broad daylight, too consumed by rage to realize there are people watching until it's too late. As Erskine put it the day before Steve was given the serum, "good becomes great; bad becomes worse". Walker wasn't exactly the nicest or most mentally stable person to begin with, and the serum worsens his negative traits, especially without Lemar to keep him from going berserk and completely becoming a Section 8 by military standards.
• The Worf Effect:
  • He and Lemar get easily defeated by the Dora Milaje in a straight fight. What makes this noticeable is that Worf Had the Flu wasn't in effect; the Dora were just much better fighters than them.
  • To showcase just how strong the Super Soldier Serum has made him, he ends up taking down multiple Flag-Smashers with ease. The only Flag-Smasher who was able to give him any sort of challenge was Nico and he is the one who gets violently murdered by Walker at the end of the episode.

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"They just do not know what it takes to be Captain America, they just don't. It's not like I'm just gonna disappear..."