Cap is Back

As I reported the other day, some two years ago (real time, one year in the comic) Captain America was shot to death on the steps of the courthouse in lower Manhattan as he was being brought in chains to his trial for being a traitor.

To be sure, he wasn't really a traitor, he just chose to defy Tony (Iron Man) Stark in the Marvel Civil Wars. Anywho, Marvel played with us for an issue or two whyle they “debated” who would be Captain America.

Clint Barton’s name was tossed into the cowl in Fallen Son, but he backed away, and we finally settled on Bucky (now Buck) Barton;l Cap's former teen sidekick from WWII (who had been cryogenicly frozen, then revived and corrupted by the Red Skull into believing himself to be the Winter Solder).

While I always knew that Steve Rogers would be revived and will eventually put back on the uniform. I still think that Marvel missed a huge opportunity to do some truly innovative storytelling by not putting Sam (“Falcon”) Wilson into the Red White & Blues. I truly believe that an African American Captain America would have stirred up a hornet’s nest of controversy that would have truly raised the bar for most-excellent story-telling in Comics.

Seriously, can you imagine it, a Black Cap? (Sure I know all about Isaiah Bradley (from Truth) and his grandson Elijah, but neither of them were real Cap. I think that you could have done a whole riff with the Sons of the Serpents, the Klan, and other “White Pride” hate groups decrying the bogus Cap, while he is formally welcomed into the White House by President Obama.

Yep, Marvel totally missed out on a great potential story. Too bad.

Still, Cap #600 (they compiled all the various Cap comics, added their numbers together, and renumbered the Kit and Kaboodle to come up with this number). Now, with issue #600, we learn that like the guy in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Cap “isn't quite dead yet” and the team of New Avengers are going to revive him in the upcoming mini series Captain America Reborn. One of the other very cool aspects of this issue is that it reintroduces the Rickie Barnes character from the Rob Leifield run of Captain America when he was shunted off into that other dimension after Onslaught.

So, while Marvel may have missed a really cool story by not giving us a Black Cap, they still might have some nice chops left in where they do intend to go with his rebirth. Truth, I’m now buying Cap again for the first time in over a decade.