It's Comics-Related, So You Don't Have To Read It If You Don't Want To...

Marvel has killed Captain America. Which is sort of a big deal. Behind Spider-man and maybe the Hulk, he's one of the more recognizable icons in the Marvel stable. And he's dead. Shot by a sniper on the way to prison for being an unregistered superhero.

Now I'm not such a big nerd that I'm outraged by this. These are Marvel's toys. They were here before I was and, until the bottom drops out of the comic industry (which is another post entirely), will be here for a while to come. They're not "my" characters, though I do have an emotional attachment to some of them. In the end though, they're imaginary beings and, as John Seavey reminds us every Monday, storytelling engines.

I will say that when I had first heard about this, I was more than a little cynical. This death comes on the heels of Marvel's über-event, Civil War, and, from where I was sitting - out in the hallway, so to speak, as Civil War didn't interest me in the slightest, though I have kept up via online messageboards, blogs and reviews - it seemed like a cheap way to add meaning to what was widely considered a weak crossover. And cheap it may be. But maybe it isn't.

Maybe, just maybe, it's a really smart move from a publisher that's running remarkably low on them as of late.

Having read the Ed Brubaker interview here, I am removing myself from the "cynical" camp and placing myself in the "Okay, I'll bite" camp. Brubaker's a heckuva comics writer. I count his Catwoman run as one of the best in recent memory and he's doing some exciting stuff on Daredevil and his work with Matt Fraction on the Immortal Iron Fist is comics awesomeness at its finest. I've been meaning to get into his Cap run, as I've heard good buzz around it, but I just haven't had the cash lying around to catch up in trades. Bru's A+ in my book and is more than capable of turning this into a memorable and interesting run on a character that, despite his iconic appeal, hasn't had anything remotely interesting happen to him in a long time.

So, nerd speculation time: Who's gonna be the new Cap? The recently resurrected Bucky, aka the Winter Soldier (that's where my money is)? Iron Man? The Punisher? Paste-Pot Pete? M.O.D.O.K.? Time will tell whether this is an engine tune-up or screw-up, but for now, color me interested.