A superhero created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby for Prize Comics. The Fighting American first appeared in The Fighting American #1 in April 1954.

At the start of the Korean War, the United States was in the midst of a Communist scare and people need heroes to believe in. As Captain America was created to fight the Nazis, Simon and Kirby decided to create a "new" hero to fight the red menace.

Johnny Flagg was a radio and television announcer who used his air time to tell people of the Communist menace. Johnny was a superb athlete and a brilliant student and he used all of his formidable skills to keep the United States free of the Communist influence. In contrast to Johnny was Nelson Flagg, Johnny's brother. A small, frail man, Nelson admired his brother and wished that he could fight against those that would destroy his country like only the tall, ruggedly handsome, and dimple-chinned can.

As fate would have it, Nelson would get his chance, because enemy agents killed Johnny for his anti-Communist leanings. Nelson volunteered for a dangerous experiment that would transfer his mind from his pathetically small body into the rebuilt body of his brother. When the process was done, Nelson began his fight against the red menace as The Fighting American.

The Fighting American found that the Communists were not without defenders. Villains like Hotsky Trotsky, Poison Ivan, and Peter Piper sought to undermine the American way of life and would have succeeded if not for the Fighting American. But, as with any good hero, the Fighting American did not fight alone, but with a preteen boy, the partner to any defender of liberty. A former page at the television station where Johnny Flagg works, this unnamed boy became the Fighting American's sidekick Speedboy.

The Fighting American and Speedboy fought the Communists and kept America safe for seven issues before passing into oblivion.

Rob Liefeld, the comic artist and writer, attempted to bring The Fighting American back in the late 1990's after being fired from working on the Captain America reboot in Marvel's Heroes Reborn. Unfortunately, Liefeld was sued by Marvel Comics, because the new Fighting American in his new incarnation looked almost exactly like Captain America right down to the shield. Marvel won the case, although Liefeld's company Awesome Entertainment was allowed to keep publishing the Fighting American as long as there were some major costume changes and he never threw the shield.


Thanks to Jet-Poop for telling me about the Rob Liefeld Fighting America.
Other information on the Liefeld incident taken from http://members.aol.com/chrisv82/america.htm.