Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Undead Again

Not like it is any surprise to anyone who understands marketing, but it has just been revealed that Steve Rogers (the “real” Captain America) is no longer dead (or will soon no longer be dead). As revealed by Tom Brevoort on Newsarama, and elsewhere, the real Cap is back (like we always knew he would be).



The above panel came to us courtesy of The Initiative #1 (released the same day as Captain America #25, where cap “died”).

Hey, I wasn’t surprised when Superman died and came back a decade-and-and-a-half back (1992), so the fact that Marvel “suddenly” got the idea to recycle this tired old storyline was obviously no surprise to those of us who have been reading comics longer than the past couple of weeks.

Here is how CNN reported the story:

Perhaps he should be called Captain Phoenix?

Rising from the dead after being killed off over two years ago, Captain America is being resurrected by Marvel Comics.

Though the circumstances of his return are being closely shielded, the star-spangled superhero returns July 1 in a five-comic-book series, "Captain America Reborn."

A big-budget movie in development by Marvel is also expected in 2011.

After close to 60 years in print, Marvel Comics killed off Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, in 2007, one of its most famous and beloved superheroes, amid a controversial story line.

He fought and triumphed over Hitler, Tojo, international Communism and a host of super-villains, but a sniper's bullet cut Captain America down in 2007, a move that shocked many of his fans.


Get the rest of that story, here.

I’ll probably pick up at least some of the comics revolving around this story (Captain America #600 — they are combining all the various runs of his various comics, to get that number), as well as the five-issue mini-series (Captain America Reborn). However, I’m still upset over the fact that the week that Cap was shot, every English newspaper in the free world reported it, but six real live U.S. Soldiers died in Iraq and not one newspaper mentioned their names.

Some days it is just embarrassing to be a comicbook fan, other days it is so uncomfortable you just want to hide. That day I was both.

3 comments:

Reggie White Jr. said...

Like you, Bob, I knew Cap wasn't dead. Guess he got tired of laying around on that Beach in Hawaii.

Still, I do wish comic books would stop killing characters if they aren't going to stay dead. Death in comic books is like Death (the character) in Family Guy: No one takes it seriously.

Sol (Frederick) Badguy said...

Who didn't know Cap is still alive? Even the angry comic nerds (I'm included in nerds, not in angry though) did know it even with their obvious rage & frustration.

I know what you mean about being embarrassed of being a comic fan when the important news are concealed and the shallow stuff is mentioned on every big time papero

Tommy said...

I wonder how Cap is going to be used though considering the current environment of the Marvel Universe.

My days under the Malibu Sun!

Way back in the early '90s I was writing for, well, virtually every comicbook magazine under the sun. As if that wasn't enough, I wa...