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Just kidding, there will be a CAPTAIN AMERICA #26 and many, many more to come by creative team Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting. But, speaking of events and news and cycles and recreational readers and rising tides and what not, today is one of those slow news days that gets a comics story picked up every where. It started in the Daily News as an EXCLUSIVE, and the AP story is since running on ABC, Business Week, Fox, and a kajillion other places, including CNN which has the headline Shocking event for Captain America. To avoid shocking cave dwellers too much, we’ll put the rest of the story in the jump.

…yes, it’s true as the Times of India bluntly put it: Captain America falls to sniper.
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We’ve been monitoring some of the comments over on the private retailers forum, and without breaching any confidentiality, let’s just say that retailers across the nation are apparently having a field day with media requests, phone-ins and general attention. While Marvel sort-of kept this under wraps (the #1 internet rumor for months has been Cap dying in Civil War) they are making more copies available to keep up with media fueled demand. Well played, Marvel!

Of course the big BIG question…how long will he stay dead? With a Marvel-funded CAPTAIN AMERICA movie in the works, some may say not long. Indeed, a literal reading of the solicitation copy reveals, “about a year.”

Trust us, folks, this oversized 25th issue will stun readers and send shockwaves through the entire Marvel Universe for the next year!


Meanwhile, Wizard Universe is offering a Special “Death of a Legend” three-pack variant cover edition.

Perhaps the most interesting thing in all of this is the quote in the Daily News piece from the 93-year-old CREATOR of Captain America, Joe Simon:

“It’s a hell of a time for him to go. We really need him now,” said co-creator Joe Simon, 93, after being informed of his brainchild’s death.


We hope they broke the news gently.

UPDATE: Newsarama has some of Marvel’s publishing plans in an official statement.:

“Captain America will continue to be published despite the very real death of Steve Rogers.

Next week, Civil War: The Confession features the final moments of his life.

In April & May, Fallen Son: Death of Captain America will follow the Marvel Universe’s reaction to this tragedy.

Also in May, Captain America #26 is where the aftermath of his death must be faced, beginning with the autopsy of his body.

Comments from Ms. Marvel in this week’s Civil War: The Initiative, which seemed to indicate that Captain America is still alive, and being held prisoner by the Pro-Registration forces may not have been exactly what they seemed on the surface, and events related to those comments will play out in upcoming issues of New Avengers.

So, yes, Captain America, Steve Rogers, is dead.”

1 COMMENT

  1. I betcha that sneaky Arnim Zola (the guy with the face in his chest) makes an offer to the government for amnesty to clone Steve Rogers’ body to create an army of super-soldiers.

  2. was in a theatre before a movie today and a bunch of guys were talking about captain america dying a few rows back…and one guy asked the other…where do we get comics from? and no one knew. it was a really sad exchange

    had to clue them in, but really, event books should be in bookstores in another format or done as a magazine size to be at newstands the same day all this press goes out.

    you think he is really dead? lol…

  3. What no one seems to remember is that Cap WAS killed, within the last five years I believe, in #50 of the post “Heroes Return”, pre-MK series, by a retirement community full of Project Paperclipped geriatric Nazis in Red Skull masks. They even had his funeral, written by Evan Dorkin & drawn by Kevin Maguire, where Falcon delivers his eulogy. I mist up a little from a single silent panel where Sam has to stop mid-sentence in order to not completely lose his shit; the look of pain practically bursting out of his face is a beautifully sad moment.

    Then they relaunched the series and behaved as though that never happened. So color me unimpressed, with prejudice.

    Maybe Joe Simon was on the verge of regaining the copyright and Marvel figured they’d better wipe their asses on the character, via CIVIL WAR and this, while they still could. (Before you tell me that’s unlikely, let’s consider the status of another major contested comics icon, the original Superboy.)

    Prediction: Bucky/Winter Soldier is going to take up the mantle. Or Punisher, since he got all weird over Cap’s discarded mask at the end of CIVIL WAR (maybe he’ll put it on and dance in the mirror to “Goodbye Horses”). Steve Rogers will be reborn as the new host for the Phoenix, looking like his archangel persona from PARADISE X. Jack Kirby’s coffin rotates so much it’s fitted with magnets and generates power for Stan Lee’s condo. Mark my words.

  4. Marvel seems to be putting quite an investment into Cap’s death. It’ll be hard for them to resurect him without generating serious ill-will among both the fans and the casual readers.

    Assuming whatever post-Cap book (replacement cap) fails, I give it about 2-3 years.

    Let’s be honest. Cap’s not exactly a top-seller (not bad and it has been increasing with Brubaker), and isn’t as much of a comic book icon as say Superman, Batman, Spider-Man or even FF. I think the world can live without Cap on the stands.

  5. Over at the kirby-l mailing list, someone’s who in touch with the Simon family said that when Joe Simon was approached for quotes about this, his first comments consisted of death jokes which were not what the reporters were looking for. So I wouldn’t worry about Simon taking this too seriously.

  6. Cap also died 2 years ago in the last issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE FALCON. The issue was weiten by Priest. So my reaction to Cap’s death is “been there, done that”.

  7. holey crap!!!! midtown comics was PACKED yesterday!!! all ages!! genders!!!! races!!!! I’ve never seen the likes!

    i, of course, was not there for the book, but apparently many, many were.