The Marvel Universe has long been populated with some of the most iconic superheroes and villains in all of pop culture. Of course, Marvel has seen plenty of its longest-lived mantles pass from one set of hands to another over the years -- and not always for the better. In the case of Citizen V, these changes have made the original almost unrecognizable compared to his more modern counterparts on the Thunderbolts and beyond, with some of them even standing in stark contrast to what the name was created for in the first place.
Now, we're taking a closer look at everyone who's worn the mask of this patriotic hero.
First introduced all the way back in 1942's "V For Victory" by Ben Thompson from Daring Mystery Comics #8, John Watkins was a British soldier believed to have perished during the retreat at Dunkirk during World War II. As it turned out, Watkins managed to survive that fateful day, though his superiors chose to hide that fact in order to send him undercover in occupied Europe to aid underground freedom fighters as the first Citizen V. Watkins' life would come to a tragic end only a few years after his superhero career began at the hands of Baron Heinrech Zemo, whose own son would twist the mantle of his father's nemesis into something quite different.
When Helmut Zemo decided to reform the Masters of Evil, he chose to do so under the guise of them being a new team of superheroes in a long-running ploy to unseat the Avengers. As such, there was no way for him to present himself to the public as he was, and so he adopted the role of the new Citizen V to lead the Thunderbolts in their first appearance during 1997's Incredible Hulk #449 by Peter David and Make Deodato Jr. Once the Avengers and Fantastic Four were seemingly killed during their battle with Onslaught, the Thunderbolts were given a chance to build their reputation as actual heroes before striking when the moment was right. Over time, Zemo's teammates would grow to enjoy acting as genuinely benevolent figures, leading them to turn against the man who brought them together when he finally made his move.
Introduced in 2002's Citizen V and the V-Battalion: The Everlasting by Fabian Nicieza and Lewis LaRosa, John Watkins Jr. followed in his father's footsteps as part of the V Battalion, even taking up the mantle of Citizen V for himself for a time. Unlike the first John Watkins, John Jr. was more concerned with securing his own place in the world than saving it, even reaching out to the Shadow King for help gather information about a seemingly undying threat his mother had killed decades earlier -- and that his own son would fight decades later as well.
From birth, it was John Watkins III's destiny to become the next Citizen V. His time with the V Battalion, unfortunately, left John in a comatose state for several years, which Helmut Zemo exploited by transferring his own mind into Watkins' body. Thankfully, this proved to not be permanent, and once freed from Zemo's influence, John finally got to take up the role of Citizen V for himself, with a much-needed costume change in the process.
During the disappearance of Earth's Mightiest Heroes following Onslaught's attack, Dallas Riordan was working as the aide to the mayor of NYC. This put her in a prime position to act as a liaison between the new super-team and the mayor's office, which itself made her the perfect scapegoat for the eventual revelation that they were villains all along. Now filled with a lust for revenge against Zemo and his team, Dallas didn't hesitate to take V Battalion's offer to make her the new Citizen V during 2000's Thunderbolts #38 by Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley.
Better known as the She-Wolf, Paulette Brazee was a double agent working to undo the Nazi regime from within, and that mission put her side by side V Battalion in the shadows. Before long, Paulette had formed a romantic relationship with John Watkins, and when V Battalion was reformed years after Watkins' death she took up her husband's old mantle as the second Citizen V. Tragically, Paulette only served as Citizen V for a couple of years before she was killed by the Everlasting, the same dark demigods that her son and grandson would battle for themselves in the decades to come.
Bobby da Costa aka Sunspot has never been Citizen V in the same sense as the others that bear that same mantle, but he has certainly fought the same good fight. When Bobby purchased A.I.M. and ousted its Scientist Supreme, he rebranded the organization several times before settling on using it to create and lead his own team of Avengers. To do so, Bobby took up the alias of Citizen V, and though the U.S. Avengers' time together was short-lived, it still proved to be quite memorable.
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