[salmonjunkie]

Because I don't want to join newsarama's message boards full of it's fanboys...

So Cap is dead. The news had a field day with it. Comic book retailers didn't order enough and sold out too fast to fuckface "investors" who are putting it up on ebay for $200. But still, Captain America, Steve Rogers is dead.

So we all know that they say "no one stays dead in comics." Aunt May, Magneto, Jean Grey, Colossus, Jamie Madrox, Psylocke, Professor X, Norman Osborn, Galactus, and a whole slew of popular Marvel characters have come back from the dead, for better and for worse. Some have died for only a short time, only to be resurrected either in the same story arc or in the same issue (Echo/Ronin, Northstar, and Quicksilver come to mind). And of course there is heavy speculation that Hawkeye is still alive.

But there have been a few that have stayed dead. Many relatively unimportant like Pyro, Nova (the girl in Silver Surfer, not the guy in New Warriors), Thunderbird, Destiny, and a few that were important like Captain Marvel, Gwen Stacy, Harry Osborn, Karen Page, X-Man (Nate Grey), Magik (although isn't she coming back soon?).

Everybody seems to think Steve Rogers will end up being on the former list rather than the latter. I'm willing to agree, although I think it'll be a few years. But they threw something out there in Civil War: The Initiative where Ms. Marvel says that Rogers isn't dead, that his body's on the raft and they're trying to keep him alive or something to that affect. That was kind of out there...

So what do you think? Anything else you want to discuss about this topic? Shoot!

[docx]

I have yet to read "Civil War". My brother is about to lend me the full series. He mentioned that when Steve Rogers gives himself up at the end, Frank Castle picks up the cowl and looks at it contemplatively. Is Punisher the new Cap?
If so, does the Cap persona become more Punisher-like, or does Castle adjust his ways to better fit the style of his fallen friend?
And of COURSE Steve ROgers will be back, at some point.
By the way, you forgot Uncle Ben on the list of died and stayed dead.

[The Canadian Content]

I read an interview on the aforementioned newsarama with Ed Brubaker, and he said Steve Rogers is dead. There was no coyness about it. No way around it. Dude's dead. Now, I can see them bringing him back with some kind of "the super-soldier serum kept him alive blah blah blah", but it's going to be a tough sell. That article's here.

Also, I missed it myself, but apparently Colbert talked about it. The link to that is here.

[OpTard]

marvel handled this terrible with the whole media thing. retailers didn't have enough to meet demand, so most randoms coming in for the book they heard about on the news couldn't get theirs and regular costumers also couldn't get theirs because of the randoms that did get to the stores in time. and by next week when the heavy reorders come in, many of those randoms who missed out will have lost interest. not to mention the story being spoiled for readers. even without giving away what happens, marvel should've still made it much more clear to retailers to order heavy.

as far as the death itself, i think it'll be a while before we see steve rogers alive again. i mean a long while. not captain marvel long (by the way sal, if you didn't know, he's back), but a few years.

time was i wouldn't really care about cap's death. for much of the 80's and 90's, he was handled pretty shitily and i wasn't very interested in the character. but in the last few years (most notibly in ed brubakers recent run but even well before that) they've really reminded us that cap was the premiere hero in the marvel universe an built him up into someone that mattered.

if anyone has any doubts about this from a story stand point, i'd have to say fear not. brubaker knows what he's doing. who ever thought bringing back bucky could ever be well done, but all the winter solder stuff has been some of the books i've read in years. where ever brubaker plans to go with this, you know it'll be great.

[salmonjunkie]

Winter Soldier was quite awesome, I agree. I have to say that I was never interested in Cap until his Marvel Knights book, but only for the first few story arcs. Ed Brubaker's Cap has been great, although I missed a few issues here and there when they did the story with Crossbones in the small Hydra town, and even an issue here or there during Civil War.

So far, the rumored frontrunners for the next Cap is either Frank Castle or Bucky Barnes.

I'm willing to bet Brubaker keeps Rogers dead through his entire run, and some other writer down the road will retcon his death and bring him back somehow.

[docx]

I hate Bucky Barnes. And anyway, isn't he dead, too?
Castle could have some incredibly cool dynamics in play.
By the way, is "Winter Soldier" the run that began with him helping dig through the WTC ruins?

[Loki]

Anyone who likes Brubaker's stuff should check out "Sleeper" from Image. It's a four book series, very dark, and a kick ass story. Knowing a bit of the Wildstorm Universe adds to the enjoyment, but is not necessary.

[salmonjunkie]

docx said:

I hate Bucky Barnes. And anyway, isn't he dead, too?
Castle could have some incredibly cool dynamics in play.
By the way, is "Winter Soldier" the run that began with him helping dig through the WTC ruins?

Winter Soldier pretty much begins when Ed Brubaker's run begins (Captain America Vol. 5, #1. The story arc is, I believe, 15 issues, collected in 2 TPBs). This is where Bucky comes back. And the return of Bucky is actually pretty dope. I never liked him until this story arc. Brubaker's Bucky would actually make an interesting Cap.