6/15/2009

in

Fatal shot not so fatal after all.

John Winn

According to the Los Angeles Times, Steve Rogers, the alter ego of superhero Captain America, has been brought back to re-inhabit the red, white and blue spandex tights.  
  
The rebirth is part of a five issue miniseries by Marvel Comics, entitled "Captain America Reborn." Drawn by Bryan Hitch and written by Ed Brubaker--the man who killed Cap off two years ago as part of the epic "Civil War," the miniseries explores Captain America's long life and subsequent death. But as with anything in the Marvel universe--or any comic book universe--death should be put in quotation marks.  
  
Although only a few pages have been released, the main plot seems to focus around a super secret group that kills Rogers in order to sow chaos and disorder.  
  
Appropriately, the teaser reads like a trailer for a Hollywood film.  
  
In August 2007, writer Alex Ross announced a new Captain America series in which the old Captain America from WWII time travels to the present day. It is unknown whether "Captain America Reborn" is a spin-off of that, or whether the 1940s Steve Rogers will interact at all with characters from the present day, including James "Bucky" Barnes, his old sidekick who he mistakenly believes to have perished in the North Sea during a classified mission.  
  
Founded in 1941, the Captain America comics have stood out for the patriotic depictions of American ideals through Rogers and his alter ego, Captain America. Captain America #1, which featured Rogers as Captain America punching Adolf Hitler in the face, sold 1 million copies in its first run. Since the postwar era, Captain America has been reinvented from his status as an figure helping the Allies fight Nazism to a generic hero with patriotic leanings fighting bad guys of all stripes, including international terrorists.