Talking Cap
As a kid growing up in Britain, I didn't really identify with Captain America (or Captain Britain for that matter, but that's another story) and hadn't really heard of him. The majority of my comics reading, aside from UK comics like Beano and Eagle, was limited to Spider-Man reprints in Spider-Man Weekly - up until the Secret Wars II weekly hit the stands.
The Secret Wars II book reprinted not only the much-mocked miniseries itself but also all the crossovers (well almost all; the Hulk and Micronauts ones didn't make the cut) and storylines that spun off from those crossovers, so we got the full Malice/Return of Doom sagas from Fantastic Four #280-288, the full Nebula/Sanctuary II storyline from Avengers #255-#261 and a lot of the X-Men stuff circa #194-199. That comic pretty much introduced me to the Marvel Universe in its entirety.
Cap didn't show
up till the third issue of the comic, reprinting Captain America #308 - and to be honest I'm not even sure I knew who he was before that. The thing is it wasn't long before I was picking up Cap's own book imported, just in time to see him hand in his uniform to the Commission and become The Captain.
Mark Gruenwald's Cap, more than any other, was my Cap. He was a shameless superhero, corny and straightforward and I liked it. At some points, I fell out with the book - like during CapWolf and Fighting Chance, but at the end of the day I always came back. When Gruenwald left the book and Mark Waid and Garney took over (and lets just gloss over the Heroes Reborn fiasco) the book changed in tone.
A lot of the superheroics went out the window - not all, mind, but a lot. Then, when Waid moved on and Jurgens replaced him a lot of them came back. This was at the time when, post-Heroes Reborn many books were shamelessly pushing superheroes again, and Cap was at the forefront - and while I still picked up every issue it had stopped being an essential read.
When the book was relaunched with a 'real world' slant in the aftermath of 9/11 I bailed on the book completely for several years, only coming back for the Kirkman-penned Avengers Disassembled tie-ins. I could get doom and gloom on the news; I didn't need it in comics too.
And then there was the relaunch - the third since I picked up that first Cap comic years ago. I didn't expect too much; I'd liked Brubaker's work well enough on Catwoman and Gotham Central, but Epting was the real draw for me - being a fan of his much maligned Avengers run years ago, I was keen to see him back drawing Cap.
Didn't expect much, eh?
Well more fool me.
For t
he past three years Captain America has been the best book Marvel have been putting out month in, month out. Who would have thought that entrenching Cap in the espionage side of the MU and bringing back Bucky - the closest thing to an untouchable character that Marvel had - would work so well?
And running the book with the main character dead for the past nine months? That takes some creative balls.
For years and more than any other book, Captain America followed the trends in comic books and America. Comics got darker, Cap got armor. Comics got lighter, Cap got soapier. Comics got serious, Cap fought terrorists. Now Captain America is setting the trend for superhero books - got a book with an overarcing villain who the hero rarely meets? Got a book with conspiracies? Got a book with a multi-faceted supporting cast? Got a book where each and every issue is complete unto itself and part of a bigger storyline? This is why.
Tonight Cap will be getting a new man behind the mask and while this isn't exactly new for comics in general or for Cap in particular, I think its a bold move. Lets hope Steve Rogers rests in peace for at least a few more years because there are plenty of stories to tell with the new guy - and Captain America will keep moving forward, leading the way at the head of the pack.