Captain America Returns?
Saturday June 20, 2009
Marvel Comics got a lot of hype for releasing Captain America #600 two days early and there was speculation that this issue would see the return of Steve Rogers as Captain America…(in my opinion as it should be.) Spoiler warning! – Read on at your own peril. What we actually see is the suggestion that Steve Rogers can be saved and not the actual return of Captain America. That plot line will be answered in the upcoming Captain America: Reborn. For some reason, comic companies seem to like to do the ol' bait and switch routine on comic fans. DC did this with the death of Batman in Batman R.I.P., which got a lot of mainstream press, only to be told to see the true outcome of Batman in the pages of Final Crisis.Don’t get me wrong, Captain America #600 has a lot to offer the fans of the star spangled avenger, with multiple stories, a great cover gallery, and reprints of Captain America Comics #16 and a part of Captain America: Red, White, and Blue. For only five bucks you get over one hundred pages of comic, which is really pretty good, but I can’t help but wonder that comic fans will feel a little burned when they find this is really a segue into Captain America: Reborn.
Comments
Your description of this as a sort of “bait and switch” is dead on. I understand that comics are business, but how long can the market support the “death” and return of heroes? I love what Brubaker has done with Bucky taking over as Cap and his challenges taking up the shield. I think Marvel is showing that the story of Captain America can progress without Steve Rogers.
I hate the way Batman died. Batman RIP was a RIP off. It was a collection of a bunch of random stories, none of which had anything to do with Batman’s death or even gave a nice tribute to the life and times of Bruce Wayne (Don’t get me started on the WTF factor of Final Crisis). How did word get around in Gotham that Batman was dead? Sure, news travels fast, but there were no witnesses to his death.
Something more bothersome to me lately than the deaths and returns of comic characters (it *is* comics, so it will happen) is the playing with the issue numbers. It happened in the past where comic makers tried to reset various series with new volumes (We are all supposed to think, “Oooh! Issue #1!”) only to have them go back to the original numbering when it suits there needs to sell more. Why reset the numbering on Black Panther? Was the series not selling well enough, so they needed to start from 1 again? Thor #600, Captain America #600, Daredevil #500… Don’t get me started on the weirdness in the Superman titles or what the heck happened to have the Incredible Hulk become the Incredible Hercules… by all rights *that* should have been a new series rather than continuing the numbering…
I have been following comics for a long time now. Here in India its difficult to lay hands on any of the classic comics (Spiderman, Superman, et al). But I have a fair hang of how the stories of these superheroes have proceeded over time.
My point of writing this comment and I dont know if Im doing it in the right place, is to point out that the superheroes of today (in comics and movies) are actually superheroes who should be about 40-60 years old, with sagging muscles and greying hair. What I mean is that these guys have been conceived a good bit of time ago. Isnt it time for the world to see a new superhero? A superhero who belongs to todays times and has a fresh set of super powers and does things in a completely different way? How long are we going to drag the Spidermans, Supermans, the x-men..???
The closest who comes to a superhero of today is Harry Potter, only that he’s been written and not illustrated. I think we need to have a superhit superhero from todays times.
your comments please..