Sniper Dispatches Captain America, a Superhero Since '41, in Latest Edition

PATRIOT

Powers:______

Strengths:______

Weaknesses:______

Home:______

Residence:______

Friends:______

Enemies:______

Describe Morality and Ethics of the Character:

______

Sniper dispatches Captain America, a superhero since '41, in latest edition

updated 3/8/2007 10:35:13 AM ET

NEW YORK — Captain America has undertaken his last mission — at least for now. The venerable superhero is killed in the issue of his namesake comic that hit stands Wednesday, the New York Daily News reported.

On the new edition's pages, a sniper shoots down the shield-wielding hero as he leaves a courthouse, according to the newspaper.

It ends a long run for the stars-and-stripes-wearing character, created in 1941 to incarnate patriotic feeling during World War II. Over the years, an estimated 210 million copies of "Captain America" comic books, published by New York-based Marvel Entertainment Inc., have been sold in a total of 75 countries.

But resurrections are not unknown in the world of comics, and Marvel Entertainment editor in chief Joe Quesada said a Captain America comeback wasn't impossible.

Still, the character's death came as a blow to co-creator Joe Simon.

"We really need him now," said Simon, 93, who worked with artist Jack Kirby to devise Captain America as a foe for Adolf Hitler.

According to the comic, the superhero was spawned when a scrawny arts student named Steve Rogers, ineligible for the army because of his poor health but eager to serve his country, agreed to a "Super Soldier Serum" injection. The substance made him a paragon of physical perfection, armed only with his shield, his strength, his smarts and a command of martial arts.

In the comic-book universe, death is not always final. But even if Captain America turns out to have met his end in print, he may not disappear entirely: Marvel has said it is developing a Captain America movie.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Captain America, thought dead, comes back to life

·  Story Highlights
·  Captain America being resurrected; superhero was killed off over two years ago
·  Recent issues of Marvel comics shed light on plot behind superhero's death
·  "It just feels like the right time," says Marvel Comics editor
By Chris Kokenes
NEW YORK (CNN) -- 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.
"The reaction was amazing," says Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort. "It certainly was like the world went crazy for three days. Everybody had a point of view about it, including fans who hadn't read the comic for 30 years."
In the comic series, Rogers was to stand trial for defying a superhero registration law passed after a hero's tragic mistake causes a 9/11-like event. Marvel said the comic story line was intentionally written as an allegory to current real-life issues like the Patriot Act, the war on terror and September 11.
Rogers eventually surrenders to police. He is later mortally wounded as he climbs the courthouse steps. It was a violent and strange end for an American hero and icon.
The primary shooter, Crossbones -- working under the orders of Captain America's longtime nemesis, the Red Skull -- was caught. The identity of a second shooter is revealed in issue 600, which goes on sale Monday.
Many felt Captain America's death in 2007 was symbolic of the time. And his return now?
"The tenor of the world now is when we're at a point where we want to believe in heroes. Someone who can lead the way," said Brevoort. "It just feels like the right time."
Captain America first appeared in 1941, just as the United States entered World War II. He was a symbol of American strength and resolve in fighting the Axis powers.
As originally conceived by creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Rogers was born before the Great Depression in a very different America. He disappeared after the war and only reappeared recently in the Marvel timeline.
Keeping superheroes dead and buried does not come easy. Even Superman, who was killed off by DC Comics in 1993, came back to life a year later.
And what of Captain America's sidekick, Bucky Barnes? After taking up the shield and mission of Captain America for the past year, it'll be time to relinquish the mantle. Is there room for two sentinels of liberty? Stay tuned.
Glenn Perreia contributed to this report.

Captain America Lies A-Mouldering in theGrave

By Lev Grossman on March 8, 2007

So Captain America is dead. I know this not because I've read the comic, but because I've read the news reports about the comic.

Oddly enough I'm a fan of Captain America. I say 'oddly' because when I was a kid old flaghead wasn't considered one of the 'cool' comics -- he wasn't dark and edgy like the X-Men. He wasn't secretly a nerd. He was a big ol' jock with jingoistic iconography all over him. He was The Man. Nobody loves The Man.

But the weird thing was, I like CA more the older I've gotten. He's just so deeply unpretentious -- there's no power cosmic about him, no moaning and groaning about good and evil. He got his shots, and now he punches people (and whacks them with his shield) like I punch a clock. He doesn't sing a damn opera about it. There's a particular run of his, it must have been in the late eighties, when he was fighting the Red Skull and his Skeleton Crew, who at the time included the busty and rather tragic Mother Night, and the deeply awesome Taskmaster (I always wanted his powers), as well as headless Arnim Zola and his weirdly gelatinous Doughboy -- you read those issues, which were so rich and violent and sharply written, and so perfectly worked-out, and so unfussy, and you just said, yeah, screw those emo whiners, this is what I want. This is what it would really be like.

That said, I just can't get that worked up about his death. When an icon like Captain America eats a bullet, you know it's just a publicity stunt. An effective one, given the coverage it's gotten, but come on. There's going to be a clone, or some time traveling, or some alien medicine, or something. (There's already theories about this out there.) Guys like Captain America just don't stay dead. Why mourn them? Right? Name one instance where one of the big guys went down and stayed down...

Read more: http://techland.com/2007/03/08/captain_america_lies_amoulderi/#ixzz0vTZALlDJ

THE FOUR VIRTUES: Morrell Talks "Captain America: The Chosen"

by Dave Richards, Staff Writer |

Mon, August 13th, 2007 at 12:00AM (PDT)

First Look at "Captain America: The Chosen" #4

In February of this year, one of the Marvel Comics' greatest heroes, Captain America was slain, but that doesn't mean there aren't more tales left to be told of the Sentinel of Liberty. Beginning this September, writer David Morrell and artist Mitch Breitweiser will give readers a brand new Captain America story with the six-issue "Captain America: The Chosen" miniseries.

Morrell, the author of 24 novels including the 1972 thriller "First Blood," which introduced the world to the iconic action hero John Rambo, has been a comic fan at various points in his life. "When I was a kid I used to go on roller skates to a store that was five blocks away. They sold new comics but most of their trade was in used ones," Morrell told CBR News. "I'm of an age that I was around when the EC Comics were coming out, like 'Tales From the Crypt.' I just loved those. After what happened with the government and comic books, things were all so tepid; so I sort of lost my interest.

"Time moved on, I think my interest got rekindled when 'Batman: The Dark Knight Returns' came out and I saw how you could have that realistic look and go for deep psychological themes. I can't say that I've been a constant reader because the nature of my life is that I always have deadlines so I can't keep up with everything."

"Captain America: The Chosen" #1" on sale in September

Morrell has, however, kept up with the comic book work of some his friends and fellow novelists. "One of my friends is Max Allan Collins," Morrell said. "I've watched his career of course, with 'Dick Tracy' and particularly what he did with 'Road to Perdition.' I also know Joe Lansdale ["Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo"], who's worked in comics. So, a lot of my friends have worked in comics and I always thought it would be nice to be in that world but I didn't know how to make it happen. Also given that comics are illustrated stories, it seemed like a secret society in the sense of 'How the heck did these things get written?'"

Morrell's entrance to the world of comics came when former Marvel Editor Andy Schmidt contacted him. "I believe he found my website and e-mailed me through the site. I answer all the e-mails I get there," Morrell explained. "He said, 'Can we talk? I have a project you might be interested in.' So we got on the phone and he said he had been thinking about ways to add some new vitality to Captain America. One of the things that he thought was that it would be fun for the creator of Rambo to write a Captain America story."

Schmidt's offer intrigued Morrell, so he told the editor he was interested -- but they just had one big hurdle to clear first. "I needed to find out if I could write for comics. It's a different train track from novels," Morrell explained. "I like to do research so I immediately read books of theory about how comic books are created and written also Andy had sent me an awful lot of material about Captain America and some other heroes. I looked at some comic scripts and was sort of reminded of storyboards for films. I've written for films.

"I immediately thought this could kind of cool because, Will Eisner talks about this, the space between the panels is a main force in a comic book," Morrell continued. "You sort of only hit the highlights and as a consequence a close up of just a face staring has tremendous power. I went out and read most of what Will Eisner had to say about writing for comics."

Morrell was also intrigued by the unique way in which comic books can surprise the reader. "I've not seen this written down but I assume every comic writer understands this, and it was something I grasped a little slowly, is if say you're looking at page two of a comic you're also looking at page three. Your peripheral vision sort of does a gestalt of those two pages but whenever you turn the page the opportunity for surprise is very great. I tried to have some of the really big images of my story occur in that fashion. Like in one particular issue you turn the page and all these fighter jets are screaming at you almost in 3-D. When Mitch showed me those images I gasped and thought how exciting things can get when you turn the page like that."

Once Morrell felt comfortable with his ability to pen a great comic script he began discussing the details of his story with Marvel. "I told them what I wanted to do was a big story that would be set in Afghanistan and it would have the feel of a mini-novel," Morrell stated. It would deal with the very big theme of being a superhero in today's world, especially a superhero named after the United States."

After the story details were ironed out development seemed to stop on Morrell's Captain America project, so the writer took the initiative. "I wrote the first issue. I didn't have a contract yet. I just wrote it and sent it in," he explained. "This got some attention at Marvel because it showed my enthusiasm for the project. I guess they don't have that happen every day from somebody who is an established novelist.

"Then it hung fire for a little bit longer," Morrell continued. "I thought, 'I'm not going to let this stall.' So I wrote the second issue. I eventually got paid but this was essentially on spec to show them what it is that I wanted to do and to get the contract so I could write the remaining four issues. This really drew attention to the project at Marvel, so they said, 'Yes, let's do this.'"

There one was one other reason for some of the delay to "Captain America: The Chosen." "The more I learned, the more I wanted to rewrite," Morrell said. "I kept tinkering with it. I wanted to make it as good as I possibly could. When I got to issue #6 there was so much material that I got permission to do an extra four pages. In the sixth issue there are twenty six pages instead of twenty two."

Most of the changes Morrell made to his series were because he wanted to make the book better, but there was one change made to "Captain America: The Chosen" necessitated by developments in Cap's regular series. "Originally, it was called 'Captain America: The End,'" Morrell confirmed. "I was not informed about Marvel's plans for Steve Rogers to be shot on the courthouse steps in February. It came as a big shock to me. I knew I had to change the title because readers might think that my project was somehow a follow up or an explanation to something that happened earlier in the year. My story is totally self contained and could have happened at any time.