The life of the youth who became the Anti-Cap changed forever at age 13, when his girlfriend was killed in an attack on the U.S., instilling in him a deep hatred of terrorism. Five years later, his application to the navy was rejected. He was instead selected by Admiral Jimmy Westbrook for an Office of Naval Intelligence (O.N.I.) program to create an enhanced operative. After six months of failure, he underwent Protocol Six, whereby a device grafted to his spine regulated his reflexes and reactions, stimulating his muscles and accelerating his recovery from injury. The device further controlled a "super-steroid," acetovaxidol (AVX), which enabled his body to adjust to the changes. As an O.N.I. operative, the youth spent the next year and a half performing covert operations in the Middle East. He eventually went rogue for reasons unrevealed.

At O.N.I.'s request, S.H.I.E.L.D. leaked word of O.N.I.'s involvement with the Rivas drug cartel in a bio-weapons project. Reporter Leila Taylor investigated the rumor and attempted to smuggle out a sample of O.N.I.'s research, a virus based on the DNA of the telepathic madman MODOK, only to be arrested by U.S. forces in Cuba. Taylor's friend, the vigilante Falcon (Sam Wilson), broke her out of prison, prompting O.N.I.'s rogue operative to emerge from hiding to pursue them. This was just as S.H.I.E.L.D. had intended. The operative, dressed in Captain America's uniform and dubbed "the Anti-Cap," confronted the hero at the Rivas estate and killed druglord Manuel Rivas. He then flew with both Falcon and Taylor to the U.S., only for them to escape when the plane crashed. The Anti-Cap tracked them again but was captured by the true Captain America after an excruciating battle.

Concerned that O.N.I. might execute its wayward operative, Captain America kept the Anti-Cap in hiding, only for him to apparently die from AVX withdrawal. Buried at sea, he was in fact only comatose thanks to a paralytic enzyme smuggled to him by the Falcon, who rescued the Anti-Cap and put him to work on private agendas. However, both men were attacked by MODOK himself, in possession of Rivas's brother Damocles Rivas. When the conflict was over, the Anti-Cap escaped to pursue his own demons, murdering the royal family of Baud Olan for their nation's aid to terrorists. Pursuing him to France, Captain America again fought his imitator. Preferring death to capture, the defeated Anti-Cap let himself get hit by a train.