Falcon And The Winter Soldier: 10 Things Only Comics Fans Know About The Flag Smashers

The Falcon And The Winter Soldier established the intriguing mystery of the Flag Smashers in its first episode. All that is known about the group as of now is they want to go back to the world of The Blip. In the comics, the Flag-Smasher wasn’t a group but a person, with a different agenda.

The Flag-Smasher has actually been two different people over the years, with similar goals but different experiences against Captain America, the U.S. Agent John Walker, and other assorted Marvel heroes. The comics might provide some clues for where the group is going in the MCU though.

10 Became A Terrorist

The original Flag-Smasher, a Swiss-born man named Karl Morgenthau, first showed up in Captain America #312 in December 1985. He was co-created by writer Mark Gruenwald and artist Paul Neary. His father was a diplomat who died in a violent riot, which led Morgenthau to hate the idea of nations and countries.

His anti-nationalist stance morphed into the Flag-Smasher. At first, he was more of an activist and protester. Steve Rogers tries to appeal to Morgenthau’s humanitarian instincts, but he later turned to violence on a global scale.

9 ULTIMATUM

ULTIMATUM is a terrorist organization in Marvel Comics dedicated to the abolition of nation-states. They appeared alongside Flag-Smasher, who led the group in various complex schemes to overthrow governments and disrupt the global economy. These manifested in episodes like hijacking an airliner and attacking the New York Stock Exchange.

Captain America often worked with the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization to defeat the group, whose name is an acronym for Underground Liberated Totally Integrated Mobile Army To Unite Mankind.

8 Battle At The North Pole

One of the major incidents involving ULTIMATUM took place at the North Pole. Flag-Smasher and the group created an electro-magnetic generator that would have shorted out every electrical system on Earth. Morgenthau is shocked to discover that the Red Skull (a major MCU Phase One villain) is actually funding the group behind the scenes.

He turns to Captain America for help in defeating him. At this point, Captain America is John Walker, who later becomes U.S. Agent. With his help, they defeat the Red Skull.

7 Overthrowing The Government

Morgenthau’s reluctance at being associated with such a heinous villain as Red Skull didn’t stop him from being a villain himself. In the Acts Of Vengeance crossover in Marvel Comics in the early ’90s, Flag-Smasher attempts to overthrow the U.S. government.

Morgenthau attempts this with Avengers otherwise engaged by a massive gambit by the Asgardian trickster Loki, who leads a host of supervillains including the Red Skull and Doctor Doom in an effort to destroy the Avengers once and for all.

6 Fighting The U.S. Agent

Morgenthau returned to his original exact electromagnetic generator scheme a few years later, which ended with Flag-Smasher suffering severe injuries. This time, John Walker had moved on from being Captain America and was operating as the U.S. Agent.

Walker is a lot more confrontational than Steve Rogers is and the battle doesn’t go as expected for Morgenthau. Flag-Smasher is cast into the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean which severely wounds him.

5 Guy Thierrault Flag-Smasher

A new Flag-Smasher emerged after Morgenthau appeared to be killed by Domino, a member of X-Force. Guy Thierrault had been a rank member of ULTIMATUM and with the passing of Morgenthau, he assumed the mantle of Supreme Commander. This version of the character was co-created created by writer Zeb Wells and artist Stefano Caselli.

Like the original villain, he has no superpowers but is an excellent hand-to-hand fighter and uses a variety of weapons, including a mace.

4 Facing Off Against Nomad

One of Thierrault’s early efforts pitted him against Nomad in New York City. Flag-Smasher attacks a military recruitment station and is challenged by Rikki Barnes, a version of Bucky Barnes from an alternate universe. With the help of Falcon, Flag-Smasher is captured and thwarted again.

Rikki Barnes trained with Captain America and was then later transported to the Earth-616 universe, where she took up the name Nomad, which Steve Rogers had used once when he stepped away from being Captain America.

3 Fought Venom

Sometime later, Flag-Smasher has escaped and returns to his anarchist ways. They kidnap a banker but this time it’s not Captain America who shows up to stop them. It’s the sometimes villain, sometimes hero Venom.

Venom bites off Flag-Smasher’s right arm and destroys the ULTIMATUM squad. Flag-Smasher gets a new bionic arm ala Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier.

2 A Third Flag-Smasher

Not long after the Venom incident, Guy Thierrault is assassinated by one of his own ULTIMATUM agents. This agent, known only as Carl, takes over the role of Flag-Smasher. His career doesn’t go any better than his predecessors, though. His efforts pitted him against Deadpool in 2004’s Cable &Deadpool #28.

Written by Fabian Nicieza and drawn by Reilly Brown, the issue sees the Carl Flag-Smasher and his ULTIMATUM agents fall victim to the unrelenting violence of Deadpool. They are apparently destroyed once and for all.

1 Life Model Decoy

The most recent iteration of the Flag-Smasher isn’t even a real person, but a Life Model Decoy, a human-looking android. The LMD has been a staple of the S.H.I.E.L.D. armory since their debut in Strange Tales #135 in August 1965.

In this case, Flag-Smasher is actually a secret agent of Steve Rogers himself, who at the time was revealed to be a secret agent of HYDRA in one of Marvel’s most controversial storylines in recent years, Secret Empire. Rogers used the Flag-Smasher LMD to try and assassinate a U.S. Senator.

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