Prime Time Geek

SPOILERS AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Well, looks like James Buchanan Barnes, a.k.a. Bucky a.k.a. the current Captain America in Marvel Comics, is going to be looking for a new job very soon, because his predecessor will be returning to the land of the living after all.

As reported in the New York Daily News this morning, Marvel Comics will begin the story of the resurrection of Steve Rogers, the original Captain America, on July 1st with issue #1 of Captain America: Reborn. In yet another display of awesomeness, L.A. Times Hero Complex blogger Geoff Boucher has the only available five-page preview of that issue for the next 24 hours HERE.

Captain America #600, an giant-sized issue that marks the title’s return to its “original” numbering (starting with the original stories by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in Timely Comics in 1941 and all the appearances before Steve Rogers’ “true” return in Tales of Suspense #68 in October, 1964), plants the seeds for the now-confirmed “Captain America: Reborn” series, written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Bryan Hitch (The Ultimates, The Authority) and Butch Guice, who has handled art duties on Captain America on several occasions during Brubaker’s run along with Mike Perkins and Steve Epting. The issue is also quite the grab bag of fun stuff for fans of Brubaker’s run on Cap, as he shows us how those closest to Steve (including his enemies–Doctor Faustus and Tony Stark are noticeably absent from the issue) commemorate the one-year anniversary of his assassination. It happens to be that on that day Sharon Carter, Steve’s one-time SHIELD liaison/partner/paramour and the person who supposedly killed Steve while under the control of Faustus, follows up on pieces of her memory returning to her about that day, about the gun she used to shoot Steve and who she handed it to in the moments after she pulled the trigger and how something about it was wrong, and makes a ’stunning’ discovery. I won’t give away the details, but it all points to a doorway through which Steve Rogers can miraculously return.

If it sounds like I’m somewhat ambivalent about this turn of events, let me assure you that your perception is correct. In my mind, it’s simply too soon for this to happen. The Bucky-as-Cap era in the Marvel U has only just begun, and it’s gotten off to a great start. Both Brubaker and Brian Michael Bendis, handling Bucky-Cap in New Avengers, have crafted interesting and engaging stories featuring Steve’s successor, and the readership has responded. Judging from fan reaction I’ve read to today’s announcement and Cap #600, a great number of Marvel fans were okay with Bucky staying on as Cap for a while. Steve is beloved still, no doubt, but having a new Cap has made an already-must-read title even hotter on the stands every month.

When Steve was killed in the pages of Captain America #25 over two years ago, I mourned like no one else I know. In my fanboy heart, Steve Rogers stood equal to Clark Kent in terms of their importance and my personal devotion. But when people told me over and over, “Oh, don’t worry, he’ll be back soon,” I said, “No, or if he does come back, it won’t be for a LONG time.” I think a part of me didn’t really believe what I was saying, but it wanted it to be true because this death had had such resonance, had such a profound impact on readers and on the Marvel Universe itself. It felt like so much more than just the stunt that the death of Superman turned out to be fifteen years before. I said my farewell and Rest in Peace to Steve Rogers and moved on, hoping it would be at the very least like the death of Barry Allen in DC Comics, something that would truly stand the test of time and only be reversed after a whole generation of readers came to know and love a successor, as they did with Wally West.

Alas, it’s not meant to be. The only consolation is that the man who masterminded Steve Rogers’ death and successfully guided Captain America through the aftermath of that tragedy, writer Ed Brubaker, will also be the man who orchestrates his return. I have no doubt the story will be well-crafted and compelling reading, as I have as much faith in Bru as I do in any writer in comics today. And who knows what Marvel has in mind for Steve once he is back–as Marvel editor Tom Brevoort pointed out earlier today in an interview with Newsarama, Steve may not be ready right away to jump back into being Captain America once he’s ambulatory again.

But a part of me will still wish it hadn’t had to happen so soon.