Origin

Having witnessed the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, David joined the Army, despite multiple attempts by those around him to stop him. Prior to any augmentation, he was shown as relatively short (at 5'4") and only possessing average (or even below-average) physical capabilities, but he showed a high-tolerance for pain and an unshakeable set of principles, though may seem more jaded by comparison to that of Captain America. For those reasons, he was chosen to undergo the super soldier process. He was originally considered for a Bucky role, but when the original Cap candidate's heart couldn't take the strain of the super soldier serum and died, Colton was promoted.

Creation

David Colton first appears in Captain America (2025) #1 by Chip Zdarsky and Valerio Schiti. He is a product of the sliding timescale of the Marvel Universe which keeps stories in the present day and the entire publication history compressed to the last 15 years. This marks the first time that Captain America (Steve Rogers) was portrayed as being unfrozen after the events of September 11, 2001, thus Colton was his replacement during the War on Terror era.

Major Story Arcs

War on Terror

After getting a super soldier makeover, Colton went to the Middle East to fight for democracy, first in Kabul and then in Kandahar. Proud of their actions, Colton was ready to celebrate, but his translator, Qasim, had a different opinion. He believed Colton had done very little. He credited the US with dropping bombs but admitted the fight on the ground was being handled by the locals, with the path to democracy still very long.

Colton started to become suspicious of Qasim and followed him one night. He thought the worst but found Qasim trying to take out the pre-Taliban warlord who victimized his family. Qasim succeeded but at the cost of his own life. His death was Colton’s first step toward cynicism. The next was when he saw a local boy shot by one of his fellow soldiers after a suicide bomb went off. The soldier’s excuses enraged Colton so much that he beat the soldier to death.

Normally, Colton would be discharged for this, but the military already spent too much money on him. Instead, they took him off public missions and only allowed him on covert missions.

Mission to Latveria

After Doctor Doom led a coup on Latveria, Doom took a US ambassador and her staff hostage. Colton was sent into the country on a rescue mission with two members of the new Howling Commandos and a recently unfrozen Captain America. They parachute in and meet up with a local rebel group led by a man named Marius Wolf and including a reprogrammed Doombot. Wolf tried to leverage their help with a coup against Doom, causing Colton to get angry.

Cap calmed him down and volunteered to help Wolf, hoping it would also work as a distraction for Colton and the Howling Commandos to save the hostages. Colton didn’t like it, but he thought his disagreements with Cap would slow them down. So, Colton led the Howlers and rebels to find the hostages. Unfortunately, he found them all dead, except the husband and child of the ambassador. The Howling Commandos kill the husband, revealing that the US backed Doom’s overthrow of the previous ruler. Now, they had to clean up the mess and leave no witnesses.

Enraged, Colton tried to protect the child, eventually killing one of the Howling Commandos. Under this pressure, he finally snapped, taking on a barracks full of Latverian military. Cap, having just embarrassed Doom into publicly retreating, tried to track him down and talk him out of any more violence. Cap nearly succeeded until the surviving Howling Commando caught up with them. Colton managed to take the last Commando out but also took a bullet for Cap.

Luckily, Colton survived the attack and was saved with Tony Stark’s patented heart-saving technology.

Weapons of Armageddon

Colton had been living in isolation since the Latverian mission. When he learned about Primewarrior, a private military operation who was using Weapon Plus research to create new super soldiers, he started covertly attacking the labs. After freeing a super soldier subject, Colton gave him the names and info on his torturers. Soon after, Colton was tracked down by Wolverine, who was tipped off to Primewarrior and wanted to help that test subject, a kid with a mutant healing ability. Unfortunately, Wolverine led Nuke, Primewarrior's attack dog, to Colton's location.

After Colton's safe house was destroyed, he joined Wolverine tracking down the super soldier. They tracked him back to Primewarrior, where he was looking for answeres and revenge. Standing between them and the kid was an enhanced clone of Nuke. He was just too much for them to handle until Nuke caught up with them and took out his own clone. He nearly turned on the others until Colton talked Nuke into being the soldier he always wanted.

Nuke killed the leader of Primewarrior himself, saving the escaped super soldier from having to do it. The four super-soldiers still needed to escape. Fighting their way through more enhanced soldiers, Colton hesitated to use the shield due to his PTSD, leaving him open to getting shot. With no other choice to save Colton, Wolverine used an origin box from Earth-6160 that Primewarrior had in its possession to revive Colton. Not only did it revive him, but it gave Colton a new suite of powers.

Armageddon

Following his new power boost, Colton continued to shut down super soldier programs. Members of the Avengers met him outside the Pentagon to recruit him for a mission to Latveria, now renamed New America, to stop Red Hulk, who was planning to remake other governments to his standard. He agreed as long as they wouldn't stop him from destroying the Pentagon's current super soldier experiment.

They catch up with Ross in Symkaria, where he had just invaded. While the Avengers took on Ross' gamma platoon, Colton took on Ross. He managed to deplete his gamma charge, reverting Ross to his human form. He was about to kill him, when Iron Man stopped him, wanting to put Ross on trial. Unfortunately, while Colton and Stark argued, the Winter Guard kidnapped the unconscious Ross. Disappointed in Stark, Colton went his own way.

Colton decided to continue disarming the world, starting with the nuclear armaments. All of these new Avengers tried to stop him, except Bucky Barnes, who shared with Colton the location of America's off-record nukes. This forced Russia's hand, who preemptively launched their remaining nukes.

Powers & Abilities

Super Soldier: As a super soldier, Colton has enhanced strength, speed, agility, and endurance, paired with a physiology change to his height, weight, and muscle mass.

• Limitations: Colton's super soldier serum makes him prone to berserker rages, symbolized by blood red eyes, similar to Nuke without a dependency on pills. He also has Starktech implanted in his heart after his final official mission into Latveria.
• Training: Colton received U.S. Army training circa War on Terror, including many forms of firearms and explosives.
• Shield: Colton has a shield that is visually similar to Captain America's but without its ability to ricochet.

Origin Box: David Colton received new suite of powers contained in an origin box from Universe 6160. Neither the full extent of these powers nor the 6160 variant of which 616 hero has been revealed.

• Flight: Colton is now capable of flying
• Super Strength and Durability: Colton seems to be even stronger and more durable than the super soldier serum allowed him to be.