William Burnside (character)

William Burnside, PhD, also known as the Captain America of the 1950s, Commie Smasher or Bad Cap, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He was created by writer Steve Englehart and artist Sal Buscema in Captain America #153–156 (Sept.–Dec. 1972) as an explanation for discrepancies in the fictional timeline for Marvel Comics. Captain America and Bucky were depicted in Young Men during the 1950s, but later official Marvel continuity established in The Avengers #4 from 1963 said Captain America disappeared near the end of World War II and was in suspended animation until the 1960s. The creation of Burnside allowed for the explanation, through retroactive continuity, that the 1950s Captain America was a different person from the original Captain America. Since this revelation, the Burnside character became a foil personality to his predecessor, serving as an example of what Captain America could have become and as a reactionary bigot driven violently insane by the same experimental procedure that created the original Captain America. In a later storyline, Burnside was given a new white costume and the title The Grand Director by Buscema and writers Roger McKenzie and Jim Shooter, in Captain America #232 (April 1979), and altered to be a villain and leader of a group of white supremacists that included a brainwashed Sharon Carter. The character was killed off at the end of that storyline and not used again until Captain America vol