The Death of Captain America

In the inconsequential news department, there's been a lot of buzz about Marvel's decision to kill off Captain American, one of their oldest superheroes. I haven't read comics in quite a while, but this news gives me a nostalgic twang.

As I've posted before, comic books, particularly Marvel, was a mainstay for me for several years. For a couple of periods in my twenties I was a serious buyer of them, hitting Forbidden Planet in NYC once a month to get the latest Marvel superhero titles. I finally gave up, due no doubt to some maturity of taste, but also because I was tired of Marvel's practice of continuing storylines across several different titles, making me chase them down, designed to separate the money from my wallet. I was glad I was done with it when I read that they had started the "Marvel Universe" all over from scratch. In most things I'm a purist, and would have made me quit right then and there.

Captain America was one of the titles I purchased faithfully, and I can see why Marvel has made this decision. First of all, it's less an artistic choice than a marketing one. There's no better way to get people interested in a comic book character than to kill him off. DC learned this with Superman some years ago. Who in the world was even thinking about Captain America until this story broke? Captain America and Superman are similar characters--they are both kind of dull, and there probably isn't much for a writer to do with them. A little death never hurt anyone.

Cap was born in 1941, a jingoistic champion of the United States against enemies like the Nazis and Japanese. After the war his popularity waned, though he did fight the commies. Marvel deep-sixed him, but he came back in 1964. To explain away why he didn't seem to have aged, a story was concocted about how he was frozen in an ice floe. He joined the Avengers, and fought the usual garden variety of supervillains, though he had his own particular nemeses, Red Skull and Dr. Faustus (the doctor it seems, is responsible for his death).

The trouble with Cap is that he didn't have very interesting superpowers. He was super-strong, courtesy of a "super soldier" serum he was given in WWII. He also had a shield that was indestructible. It seems interesting that it took 65 years for a villain to figure out all you had to do was shoot him when he wasn't looking.

His secret identity was Steve Rogers, and I remember Marvel trying to make him interesting. If I remember correctly, he was an architect or graphic artist, and toted around a portfolio briefcase. He was rugged and blond, but seemed to have girlfriend troubles, so much so that the actual shooter in his assassination was his longtime sweetheart Sharon Carter (but she was under Doctor Faustus' mind control, so I'm sure no jury would convict). Compared to neurotics like Peter Parker (Spider-Man), Tony Stark (Iron Man) and other more well-rounded characters in the Marvel Universe, Steve Rogers/Captain America was kind of a square.

The extra spin of this story is what it means for a character that exemplifies American ideals (and American might) to be killed off. I wouldn't read in too much to what a gaggle of geeky comic book writers do, but it is an interesting metaphor. A guy in red, white and blue spandex with a shield couldn't stop al-Qaeda, or whip the insurgents in Iraq any more than an entire intelligence bureau or army could.

I suspect Captain America is not really dead. Steve Rogers may be, but someone else will put on that jumpsuit. I once knew a guy who wrote for Marvel, who said the axiom over there was "No ever dies for ever, except Uncle Ben" (Peter Parker's uncle, whose death inspired him to fight crime).