Over the years, Marvel has had many replacements for Captain America, but one famous Hulk comic was originally planned to have a surprise classic character take up the mantle: Rick Jones. An erstwhile sidekick to both Cap and the Hulk, Rick would have taken Cap’s place in the original plans for World War Hulk. The story would have seen him arguing for the Marvel Universe’s future against the Hulk.
Introduced all the way back in 1962’s The Incredible Hulk Vol 1 #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Rick is a staple of 1960s Marvel and beyond. When Rick, on a dare, snuck into the gamma bomb testing site that Bruce Banner was working on, Bruce’s efforts to save Rick’s life led directly to Bruce becoming the Hulk. Since then, Rick has been one of the most steadfast supporting characters in the Marvel Universe. Rick has been key to many famous Marvel moments, including accidently forming the Avengers when attempting to help the Hulk in Lee and Kirby’s Avengers Vol 1 #1, and becoming a fast friend to the newly unfrozen Captain America. It’s this connection to both Cap and Hulk that explains his originally intended role in the event World War Hulk, in which Hulk faces off against the entire Marvel Universe.
Originally, World War Hulk would have climactically had Rick becoming the new Captain America in order to talk down the Hulk. Marvel Editor Tom Brevoort recently revealed the event's original pitch on his blog:
The Hulk wins. Finally faces Cap. One on one. Only to discover it's Rick Jones in Cap's uniform. The real Cap's been shot — he's in a wheelchair, directing the battle from behind the lines. Rick pleads. For the life of Tony and Black Bolt and the other heroes who he's captured. He's won. Have mercy. And Miek concurs.
This new identity, however temporary, would have made perfect sense for Rick’s character. So many of Rick Jones' early appearances in The Incredible Hulk were about him being one of the Hulk’s only friends, able to get through to him when nobody else could. By making him Cap, Rick would take on the mantle of his other major mentor to plead for the Marvel Universe as a whole against the Hulk. According to Brevoort, Hulk would have acquiesced to Rick's pleas and let the heroes go.
Rick Jones Is The Ultimate Superpowered Sidekick
This wouldn’t have been the first time that Rick had a brush with his own superpowers. Rick was originally used as a non-powered audience surrogate character to interact with the Marvel Universe, but like so many non-powered characters, the urge to give him his own powers was too strong. Rick has, in the past, tapped into the mysterious latent Destiny Force inherent to humanity, used the Kree Nega-Bands to merge with both the original Kree Captain Mar-vell and his son Genis-Vell, and later become the Gamma monster A-Bomb. Him becoming Captain America would only have been the latest occurrence in a long lineage.
The event’s original plan also has interesting synchronicity with what actually happened around this time in Marvel canon. One of Rick’s early stories with Captain America was as a temporary replacement for Bucky. In his grief, Cap saw the similar looking Rick as Bucky, and had him dress up for the role before realizing the mistake he’d made. When Cap was shot in continuity, in Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting’s Captain America Vol 5 #25, he does get a replacement in the form of Bucky, but instead of Rick, it’s the original Bucky Barnes. In the end, a Bucky did take up Captain America’s mantle during the same time World War Hulk was released, but Rick Jones was the sidekick who was originally planned to pick up the shield to face down the Hulk.
Source: Tom Brevoort