The character gained some notoriety due to a lawsuit in the late 1990s when Awesome Entertainment founder Rob Liefeld announced intentions to publish a mini-series that was allegedly similar to that artist's run on Marvel's Captain America title.

[2] While the comic book initially portrayed the protagonist as an anti-Communist dramatic hero, Simon and Kirby turned the series into a superhero satire with the second issue, in the aftermath of the Army–McCarthy hearings and the public backlash against the Red-baiting U.S.

[4] Simon said in 1989 that he felt the anti-Communist fervor of the era would provide antagonists who, like the Nazis who fought Captain America during World War II, would be "colorful, outrageous and perfect foils for our hero": The first stories were deadly serious.

Recruited for the U.S. military's "Project Fighting American", Nelson has his mind and life force transferred to Johnny's "revitalized and strengthened" corpse.

In the premiere issue's second story, the six-page "Second Assignment: Track Down the Baby Buzz Bombs", an unnamed, blond-haired teenager working as a page at Flagg's network assists the hero and is rewarded with own costume and the name Speedboy.

[13] The two went on to battle an array of mostly Communists grotesqueries with physical deformities and colorful names, such as the two-headed criminal Doubleheader, the redheaded battleaxe Rhode Island Red, the Russian dwarf Sawdoff, the super-smelly Super-Khakhalovitch, the bouncing bank robber Round Robin, and Invisible Irving, the Great Nothing.

In a six-issue miniseries (February–July 1994), published by DC Comics and written by Dave Rawson and Pat McGreal, with art by Greg LaRocque,[14] the character was a former TV host bent on avenging his brother's death.

While Awesome was legally prohibited from having him throw the shield, Rules and Dogs showed several additional weapons are built into it, including multiple spike projectiles, a Gatling gun and a mini-missile.

The first four issues were written by Gordon Rennie, drawn by Duke Mighten and PC De La Fuente, inked by Jed Dougherty, coloured by Tracy Bailey and edited by David Leach.

This was followed up by a second four-issue mini series called The Ties That Bind, written again by Gordon Rennie and drawn by Andie Tong, with colouring by Tracy Bailey.