Captain America is WHAT?!?

[knight errant00]

I know things on comics are never permanent (like death), but this seems a wrinkle on the character that's just not right.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...icle-1.2649521

[Starroid Raiders Dagon]

Yeah, I find that pretty weak. I really dont have any faith in the current guard at keeping comic characters with some "off limit" or list of parameters. The story takes precedence and you get to shoehorn said character into it as long as the story is interesting. Comic organizations need character curators, and if your story doesnt align with the character or a character in the huge Marvel Universe, then you get to make-up your own.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^Totally agree. While I think this is nothing but a story, and probably one that will end quickly (if Disney isn't stupid), there are some places you just shouldn't go. But character curators have been out the door since at least the early 00s. Stan Lee, Roy Thomas or Jim Shooter would have laughed in the face of the writer who jokingly proposed this, and fired the one who really meant it.

But controversy sells. Marvel puts out #1s every other wash day. What better way to make an impact with a twist ending first issue? That's all they care about. Comics are that desperate nowadays.

Given everyone's high over Civil War (the movie), seems an odd time to rake Cap through the mud at all, though....

Chris

[daz71]

glad i stopped reading them in the early 80s before things became rubbish.

[Marvelmania]

Agree with everyone else in that it's just how comics are now-a-days :(

[EMCE Hammer]

Agree with everyone else in that it's just how comics are now-a-days :(

I saw it yesterday, almost posted about it, and then just shrugged and moved on. Just more of the same.

[Makernaut]

Yeah, I find that pretty weak. I really dont have any faith in the current guard at keeping comic characters with some "off limit" or list of parameters. The story takes precedence and you get to shoehorn said character into it as long as the story is interesting. Comic organizations need character curators, and if your story doesnt align with the character or a character in the huge Marvel Universe, then you get to make-up your own.

Well-said.

[MIB41]

What an asinine story. After all these years of commitment to a standard, they will try and suggest he actually has a conflicted past driven by biases he can't reconcile? That is such a weak plot point. Are we now to assume Steve Rogers possesses the mind of a 15 year old and is somehow emotionally confused about the principles by which he has fought his whole life and that somehow the lessons offered through time and experience have not developed him fully to know the difference? Comics are just lost.

[jwyblejr]

What bugs me the most about the whole dumb thing is we're suppose to believe after all of this time,he's actually working for some of his worst enemies,guys like Baron von Strucker.

[LonnieFisher]

They should be ashamed of their company and the comics should stop being produced!

[knight errant00]

What bugs me is this is a writer and editor thinking they are "just so clever". This is a full-on retcon, they say, and everything from the Timely stories to Avengers #3 to Civil War (the comics) up to just last issue, Cap has been a loyal Hydra agent.

I was listening to a local radio personality discussing it and he (a big comic book and SF fan) was going on about what a GENIUS story he thought it was -- a great twist on the character and a great story that gets readers interested and riled up and creates reader tension because they're letting the reader in on the idea that Cap has been working for Hydra the whole time and it creates tension because none of the other heroes he interacts with have any idea. The radio guy dismissed concerns because it's just a story like Death of Superman that will be reversed, and he was looking forward to seeing how they'd write the resolution. He also felt it made Marvel's universe more real since it shaded all the characters and perhaps laid down groundwork that Hydra isn't all bad.

As a writer, from a pure storytelling standpoint, I get all that (and I think that's the big problem with current comic book writing -- they just do event story after drawn-out event story that in the end doesn't usually matter). And the easy un-do -- since we're seeing it all from Cap's perspective -- is that he realizes what he's done all these years is wrong and starts being the good guy everyone's always though of him as (I doubt they'll go that simple, but... )

But this is CAPTAIN AMERICA. Like Superman, he stands for something,something kids look up to. And kids nothing . . . writing this, thinking about how all these characters influenced and inspired me through so much of my childhood and even adult life, I'm getting a little watery-eyed. My problem is it's a story where someone wants to deconstruct an icon to make his own point about duality and secrets and who you can trust.

If I could't trust Captain America or Superman or Batman as constants, for being who they are in spite of all else and always standing for what's right . . . what bugs me is they're taking that away from kids (who maybe just don't read comics anymore, anyway) and telling a story for 35-year-olds like the radio guy I mentioned, who, like so many current creators, want re-tellings of Dark Knight, Watchmen, and Brat Pack over and over.

There's a reason why Superman and Captain America: The First Avenger are still talked about and mentioned as the very best comic book adaptations, and I just wish the creators today would see that, and bring the felling of those stories -- which had GREAT storytelling -- back to the comics.

Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised how it turns out. But for the moment. I'm not supporting something to darken or taint the character like this, in the interest of grabbing headlines and "shading".

[Earth 2 Chris]

^I still say it's just a story. These creators have learned to lie bald faced to media to cover such things. I seriously doubt this is going to be added to Cap's backstory. And even if it is, eventually, another set of creators will re-retcon it out of existence.

It's still pretty distasteful.

Chris

[huedell]

I agree with many who are intimating that ths merely another angle to showcase the character.

Makes perfect sense.

This is essentially making Rogers a variation on the Winter Soldier... i.e. "A good guy who is manipulated by a powerful faction w/an agenda, indoctrinating the good guy to perform in a more nefarious way than comic readers have come to know."

Bam!

[huedell]

There's a reason why Superman and Captain America: The First Avenger are still talked about and mentioned as the very best comic book adaptations, and I just wish the creators today would see that, and bring the felling of those stories -- which had GREAT storytelling -- back to the comics.

Great story-telling is top priority, of course. In fact, I agree on everything you said regarding the core of the Cap character and also how the Supes movie parallels CA:TFA in it's appropriate tone.

Where we diverge is that (to me) the movies are just that: Movies.

A whole different agenda than comicbooks IMHO....comicbooks've been around spouting out stories for decades (unlike Superhero FILMS), and comic stories are bound to get stale and/or lose the magic taste-making power that comics have always had in forming a character's relationship with an important audience that has a comic-hero savvy that mainstream moviegoers just don't possess, despite them loving Marvel/DC Americana (as Hollywood has come to terms with recently).

I almost see it as the comicbook guys' duty to put as many extreme spins on the character as possible---while still keeping an essence of the character's core there---which can be done with good story-telling skill---BUT, if the comicbook writer lacks that skill---then the whole exercise of contorting the character is a bust... because nothing is learned about the character if a writer can't maintain that core through a major change.

In other words, it'll only be "clever" (as the radio personality put it) if the writer rocks it with a great story arc---and there ya have it.

Movies, on the other hand? They're seen by a MUCH broader, less ambitious audience.

Keep 'em closer to the core---more people will be happier as a result.... but, of course, there'll always be the ones who criticize that "Hollywood does nothing original"---so, why can't Cap be a water-skiing zombie zoo-keeper in the next Captain America stand-alone movie????!!!

[CrimsonGhost]

Tom Peyer's take: "I haven't been this angry since Jimmy Olsen married a gorilla."