Well it has finally happened. Announced in an interview over at Newsarama, Ed Brubaker - the current writer of Captain America, said that Bucky was now the official Captain America.
Well, to tell you the truth I am pleased and saddened by the news. Of course this is all based on nothing ever stays the same for long in the comics, especially when dealing with title characters.
I, as most of you know, am a huge fan of Captain America. Ever since I bought a copy of Avengers #4, maybe even before that with a false Captain appearing in Strange Tales #113 ( I think it was). With the real appearance of Captain America in the Avengers, I was hooked. Even through the really bad years of the comic I hung in there. Through things like CapWolf, and all that silly crap. Bad Art, Bad Writing and all but I hung in there. Because there is something special about the Steve Rogers character.
I must have read those early Avengers, and Tales of Suspense a million times each, well it seems like it. I still go back and re-read them quite often to this day. Especially the Stan and Jack ones, and especially Sgt. Fury # 13, what a book that was.
Over the years, I have found that the idea of Captain America, as I see it has gone from the character. I always felt Cap stood for the ‘American Dream’, freedom, man’s duty to do right, the right to life your own life with out governments being involved in it, and lofty ideals like that. Not the America politics of any one preside
nt or party or anything to do with the government. Sure he fought in the wars, he had too. The war was affecting those ideals he stood for. But writers seem to forget that stuff. They seem to focus on the party, the president, the government, and politics. That isn’t what the story is about.
Think about the Steve Rogers story. To me one of the most heart-breaking of origins. The story of duty beyond all other heroes, held by one small person. His willingness to devote all he has in his heart to a cause….freedom of man.
Writers have lost that feeling, or I sure don’t see it in the comics. W
hen Cap ‘died’ I quit buying the books. That was a big thing for me. I have bought every Cap comic since Avengers #4. It leaves a hole in my life for sure.
Ever since I was a kid, all I ever wanted from life is to grow up and
draw and maybe even write Captain America. That is why I tried to draw. Why I spend thousands of hours as a kid sitting in my room trying to learn to draw comics. I remember hundreds of Friday and Saturday nights when guys I knew would be out on the town, but there I was sitting at drawing table I got from Sears - listening to the Oklahoma City radio station KOMA. We could only get that station at night.
The odd thing about that is that I hardly ever drew Captain America. I always felt I wasn’t good enough. I mean at the time Jack Kirby was drawing it, and in his prime too. I still rarely ever draw C
ap. I still don’t feel good enough to draw him.
It is good the character is moving on….Steve is finally really a man out of time and place. This new world of comics doesn’t seem to need Steve Rogers. They just don’t know what to do with him. So I am glad they are pushing him into the background. Now Bucky with all his modern iconography can shine. Steve wasn’t good enough anymore so now Cap can have a bionic arm, a killer instinct, and more guns. Sure Steve used guns, just not to assassinate people. He hardly ever carried one. Sure maybe he would pick one up on the battlefield…but he never felt he needed to carry one into battle. So let the modern readers have their Captain America….. I have mine and he lives in a little boys heart that is still trying to draw. But will never get to draw Captain America now.
It is sad indeed. I miss the old days of real Heroes in comics. Mine was Batman. But, I have Captain Spectre, my new hero.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I bought comics, was in the mid 90's. The way they killed, crippled, or destroyed the Heroes of old sicken me, so I left.
This is Marvel we're talking about here...
ReplyDeleteI give it three, maybe four, months before they start making noises about bringing Steve back.
I'm still reading that Brubaker Capt. America series, I just finished a part of that Winter Solider arc. I have to say though, I never followed Capt. in the early days. I was prone to be more all over the map, and never stuck with any one book or character. We as kids had everything from Hot Stuff, Archie, Superman, Batman, to Marvel & DC, and so on--I was a kid and never had much free spending money, though me and my siblings had a cardboard box of comics to thumb through to read and reread. :)
ReplyDeleteThough I think Brubaker and Epling and that team are par excellent. It's hard to say where he'll take the series, but like Marrock said, if he leaves the title, I'm sure Capt. will return (he's done it before), if not sooner. From having read some of the letters pages, Brubaker is a huge fan of the character himself.
As far as my comic spending it has slowed down considerably, due to price hikes on the books. I don't know how kids (really young adults) have that much spending money. That's the part that saddens me: that comics have become so expense, it's prohibitive to buy them due to cost concerns. It's become less a hobby of entertainment, and one of collectibles--or something like that. But I think, I'll always follow it to some degree or another.