Celebrate Flag Day With These Five Obscure Star Spangled Superheroes

Today is Flag Day, the American holiday that celebrates the Continental Congress's adoption of the Stars and Stripes as the national flag during the American Revolution. Superheroes ranging from Captain America to Stargirl have incorporated the American flag into their costumes, honoring the US of A by kicking butts and acting awesome. ComicBook.com can't think of any better way to celebrate this national day of flag waving and patriotism than by putting a red, white, and blue spotlight on five superheroes that incorporate the Star Spangled Banner in their costumes. They may not be heavy hitters like Cap, but that doesn't make them any less patriotic.

Minute-Man

Jack Weston was your typical World War II era army private in prime physical condition and a little too much time on his hands. Not content with simply fighting in major engagements alongside his fellow soldier, Weston donned a flag-themed long sleeved polo shirt and mask to become the superhero known as the Minute-Man. While his costume looked like something your grandfather would wear to the Fourth of July parade, Minute-Man's superior officer used the overzealous soldier to go on unsanctioned missions behind enemy lines. Minute-Man would survive the war and years of working alongside Captain Marvel as a government agent before Nazi-themed villains killed him and his family in their sleep.

The Spirit of '76

Everyone knows that Captain America took an extended ice bath between the waning days of World War II and The Avengers' modern-day discovery of his Cap-sicle. But if Cap was napping at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, how was he fighting communists during a short lived series in the 1950s? Marvel's official explanation for the commie-fighting Cap is that three other wartime heroes replaced Captain America after his disappearance, the first of whom was the Spirit of '76.

The Spirit of '76 was a patriotic superhero who fought Nazi spies in America while rocking a gnarly tricorn hat, a ponytail and pirate gloves. Not even Razorback was that self-confident. After Steve Rogers and Bucky disappeared, President Harry Truman selected Nasland to take on the Captain America mantle. Nasland served as Captain America for about a year, and did a pretty decent job, to...until a robot trampled him to death while trying to assassinate a much younger John F. Kennedy.

Fighting American

When Marvel's predecessor Atlas Comics brought back Captain America in the 1950s without its original creative team, co-creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created a new patriotic hero called the Fighting American for a rival publisher (take that, Atlas). Simon and Kirby initially envisioned the character as a serious alternative to Captain America, but the comic quickly turned into a political satire about superheroes. Simon and Kirby owned the rights to Fighting American (a rarity in the 1950s) and the creators would utilize both Marvel and DC to publish comics featuring the character. The character later became the center of a legal battle between Marvel and Rob Liefeld, after the creator attempted to revive Fighting American using scrapped concepts and artwork from his previous job on Captain America.

Yank and Doodle

After Nazi sympathizers killed their mother, Rick and Dick Walters' father raised his identical twins to love freedom and the American spirit. When World War II began in 1941, Rick and Dick did what democracy demanded--and became flashy costumed spy hunters named Yank and Doodle. Yank and Doodle had superpowers too, which only activated when they stood close to one another. The comics really never explained how their powers worked, so I'm guessing their creator assumed that all twins just naturally came with powers of some kind. Yank and Doodle's career included fighting Frankenstein's monster and teaming up with their father, who also became a patriotically themed hero. Apparently, the apples didn't fall far from the tree.

Captain Flag

While there's plenty of patriotic heroes running around in comics, only one was trained by an actual bald eagle. Yeah. Captain Flag was an Archie Comics superhero with a pet eagle named Yank and a costume made from an actual American flag. After a supervillain murdered his father, a bald eagle kidnapped Tom Townsend and carried him back to his nest on top of a mountain. There, Townsend and the eagle trained until his body reached perfection and the bald eagle convinced Townsend to become a superhero after handing him an American flag. Personally, I wouldn't trust an animal that kidnapped me and forced me to become a superhero, but hey, that's comics.