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Captain America Dead at 66
jas_public writes to mention ABC news is reporting that comic book super hero Captain America has apparently tackled his last mission. "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."
Dead at 66?
According to the Captain America Wikipedia page (far more in depth than the encyclopedia britannica page I might add!), Steve Rogers was born on July 4, 1917 in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, to Irish immigrants Sarah and Joseph Rogers.
Anyway, lets hope this original & innovative storyline is as lucrative as the "death of Superman" thing DC ran a while back.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
That's a fine way to start the day. Log on to the computer and find out Captain America is being killed off? Why don't you shoot my dog too?
Now only Jack Bauer Can save us against the evil that confronts the United States.
I just heard some sad news on cnn. Famed costume advernturer Captain America was found dead in his home at Timely Comics. Even if you are not a comic book fan you probably enjoyed his defeat of the nazis and his relentless persuit of freedom for all americans. Truly an American Icon. He will be missed.
With Captain America dead, the terrorists have won.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Excuse me! There are some of us out here who haven't read Civil War yet! Ugh.
Maybe they could do a back-story series, something along the lines of "The Adventures of 2nd Lieutenant America".
i am wondering if it is to much for me to ask for some semblance of reality injected into the comic industry.
I agree! Let's stick to realistic flying people with telepathic powers and super-human strength that the got from a gamma-radiated firefly!
That's Captain America's point. He stands for what America was, not what it is now. That's why he's been leading the rebel faction throughout Civil War. Captain America's death is symbolic of the death of the American principles and ideals for which he fought for so long. If America has become a monster, then either Captain America must defeat it, or he must die fighting it, because to do otherwise would be to negate his own identity.
Plus, it always shifts a shitload of comics and gets mainstream press attention when you kill off a big name like this. Even if you then just casually bring him back to life a few months later.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Its clear the old Captain America doesn't really symbolise what America stands for any more.
I'm picturing a Baron Harkonnen from the Lynch Dune movie, drenched in blood and oil. His superpower would be the ability to fly at 50,000 feet in an invisible plane, and destroy his enemies (along with anyone else who happened to get in the way), with radioactive munitions.
His weakness, which all superheroes have, would be his incredible stupidity.
I gots ta ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
66 huh? So we are expected to believe that it's a coincidence that just 1 year after his pension benefits kick in he suddenly dies. I think not. Just a little too convenient...
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
So, Captain America dies. He, a hero burned in the popular imaginary as a *defender* the multiple freedoms people are naturally entitled (note the operative word there, defender, as in "a fighter who holds out against attack"). He that, even to the ones (like me) that didn't read the comics, is known to portrait the very image of America, the World Police, the Shield of the free world. He that used all his strengths to defend the world against the Nazi and the commies, armed with nothing more than a shield and his will to do the right thing. Dead.
Maybe it is just coincidence that he is dead now, right when the vision of an U.S.A holding the high standards of freedom and fighting the good fights is vanishing every intervention, every occupation, every bad move in the fragile international relationships. (And I say "the vision" because, even U.S.A. making some bad movies between the end of WWII and the fall of The Wall, the fear of the communism was enough to impair the sight of the so called Free World, forgiving every single American mistake on that time, from Indochina to Central America, from Africa to South America).
I doubt the artists behind the comics would be courageous enough to make such a statement, to kill a superhero only to make a point. But the could have done. Captain America doesn't represents U.S.A anymore, America a long time ago gave up of the "land of free and home of brave" motto, gave up the "land of opportunities" ideal to embrace a no holds barred savage capitalism, where companies have the same rights but none of the duties of the natural people and can leverage their immortality to get rich at the expenses of the less favored. If Captain America was a real person in the real world, it would probably be fighting with all his strengths to restore to America everything that was lost in the past 60 years. But he isn't, so he is better off dead.
Jack Bauer is a better hero for U.S. now, anyway. Rest in peace if you can, Captain America, knowing that everything you fought for is about to be thrown away for 30 pieces of silver.
Some folks, those who actually read comics, have been slogging through this particular story arc for the better part of a year. One of those frustrating "cross-over" event stories, that involves every comic on the shelf, so there's no escape.
A Year. A year of waiting and guessing and theorizing about the big ending, which is still a month or so away.
So now, the ONLY people who give a crap just got a big steaming pile of **SPOILER** handed to them thanks to a too-soon press release and an unthinking media that, in spite of a multi-Billion dollar comic book movie market, still thinks no one's reading them enough to care if they ruin entire plots in the headlines.
Jack Bauer Dies on 24 This Season!
Lost Is Really On An Alien Planet!
The Cheerleader Dies on Heroes!
Harry Potter Becomes Evil In Final Book!
you'd figure at least here in geek-land, a little more care would be taken.
Captian America was a bit different than your gadern variety superhero. He didn't fight super villians, evil geniuses, and/or monsters/aliens. He fought for civil liberty, freedom, and rights. Analogies of those at times, but those were his core reason to fight.
Imagine then the writers dillema when they realize in order for Captian America to fight for those things, he must fight America itself. Instead of be faced with that overwhelming irony, they took the easy way out and killed him off. I would have preferred they make a stand and actually had Captain America turn his shield on the White House for a few issues. Mr. Smith goes to Washington squared.
R.I.P.
Captain America
1941-2007
Crushed by Irony
America a long time ago gave up of the "land of free and home of brave" motto
Remember, the last line of the national anthem isn't a motto, it's a question:
"O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
o'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?"
Every generation has to ask themselves the question; every generation has to work to make the answer "yes".