The Four Color Media Monitor

Once more, it seems that we have a publicity stunt upon our hands. And yes, it's an insult to a famous character and his fans too. In a New York Daily News exclusive, we're told that Steve Rogers, Captain America, is going to be killed:

Captain America is dead. The Marvel Entertainment superhero, created in 1941 as a patriotic adversary for the Nazis, is killed off in Captain America #25, which hits the stands today.

As Captain America emerges from a courthouse building, he is struck by a sniper's bullet in the shoulder and then hit again in the stomach, blood seeping out of his star-spangled costume.

His death is sure to ignite controversy in the comic book world - still reeling from Superman's death in 1993 and resurrection the following year - and even political pundits, who may see Captain America's demise as an allegory for the United States.

"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.

As a matter of fact, it is, even though it's unlikely that his death will be permanent and that this is most likely a publicity stunt. That said, the problem is that, in the past several years, Marvel's depiction of Steve Rogers was anything but patriotic. They wouldn't allow him to be what he was created to be, and instead of depicting him fighting Islamofascism, they made him sympathetic to terrorists, as seen in the since notorious and unreadable Marvel Knights version during 2002-2004. And even after Marvel disavowed all that horrible stuff, they soon boomeranged right back onto it when Civil War was first written.

And it wouldn't surprise me if even current writer Ed Brubaker had little or no interest in tackling the hard, challenging directions that could be taken with the Star-Spangled Avenger, no matter the quality of his writing now. Speaking of which, it's sad to see that even he's voicing some kind of moral equivalence, and telling something about himself:

Series writer Ed Brubaker - who grew up reading Captain America comics while his father, a naval intelligence officer, was stationed on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - said it wasn't easy to kill off the character. The 40-year-old, however, wanted to explore what the hero meant to the country in these polarized times.

"What I found is that all the really hard-core left-wing fans want Cap to be standing out on and giving speeches on the streetcorner against the Bush administration, and all the really right-wing [fans] all want him to be over in the streets of Baghdad, punching out Saddam," Brubaker said.

Oh boy, just what we need, a writer who otherwise doesn't want to do anything to make opponents of Islamofascism proud of him. Frankly, I doubt he really wanted to do anything, and it wouldn't surprise me if editorial wouldn't let him either, given how ultra-leftoid they are just now. The moral equivalence he's voicing here now tells that his wishes may not be as sincere as one might be led to think. In fact, why do I get the feeling that Captain America may not have that many fans among the anti-war crowd, let alone among leftists?

Comic book deaths, however, are rarely final. Marvel's archrival, DC Comics, provoked a media frenzy when it killed off Superman in 1993, only to reanimate its prize creation a year later.

Joe Quesada, 43, Marvel Entertainment's editor in chief, said he wouldn't rule out the shield-throwing champion's eventual return. But for now, the Captain's fans are in mourning.

Now just hold on a moment there! Who said exactly that people like me are specifically in mourning? I take that as an insult to the audience that invokes the stereotype of comic fans being unstable cry-babies. It's not so much that I'm in mourning so much as that I'm angry that Marvel's pulling their umpteenth publicity stunt.

"I was shocked. I was not expecting it," said Gerry Gladston, co-owner of Midtown Comics in Manhattan. "I'd rather they didn't kill him - but it's going to mean great sales."

Well, there's one store manager who doesn't need to get rich on my tab. In fact, now that I think about it, I would strongly advise all concerned NOT to buy this issue, to show that you're not in favor of it no matter how long Steve's "death" could last. It's also a good way to show solidarity with Steve Rogers and much of the rest of the Marvel Universe.

There should also be some kind of a movement, maybe conservative, to campaign for getting Captain America to be depicted in true patriotic form for a change. In fact, I think it's time already that the Marvel Comics got bought out by a better ownership, whether or not it'd be a conservative one.

Update: there's more on this to look over, such as this AP report (via Newsarama blog), in which they figure about the same as me:

NEW YORK (AP) - Marvel Entertainment Inc. is taking the "risk" of killing off one of its iconic characters.

And now that I think of it, it's not as if they literally want to kill him off, since they could cause even more damage to their licensing and merchandise revenue.

Captain America, the 66-year-old superhero, is killed by a sniper in the latest edition of his namesake comic, which hits stands Wednesday. The New York Daily News reported.

The red, white and blue character was created during World War II to embody patriotic spirit. But the "Sentinel of Liberty," one of his many alias, is shot down coming out of a courthouse after starring in 210 million copies of the comic book, according to the Daily News.

That doesn't mean a comeback isn't possible.

Indeed, resurrections have been seen many times before in the comics world. Notably, Captain America's counterpart in the truth, justice and the American way business, Superman, was put to rest in 1993 by Marvel rival DC Comics, a subsidiary of Time Warner, only to fly again.

And even if Captain America, the print version, is gone, Marvel is in the midst of developing a film based on the character as part of 2005 development deal with partner Paramount Pictures, a subsidiary of Viacom Inc. The flick isn't expected to reach the multiplex before 2009.

Marvel shares closed at $27.12 on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday.

You know, I have to wonder if such a flick will be any more patriotic than how Cap's "adventures" in the comics are being portrayed now. I hope it will be. But as I said, with merchandise potential at stake, that's just one of the reasons why they wouldn't want to just simply kill off Steve Rogers. The others include mine and your fandom, and our solidarity.

Now, what's this: CNN has their say about this latest publicity stunt, and in true CNN fashion, they seem to indicate why they are no FOX News:

In the comic series, Rogers was to stand trial for defying a superhero registration law passed after a hero's tragic mistake causes a 9/11-like event.

[...]

Marvel says the comic story line was intentionally written as an allegory to current real-life issues like the Patriot Act, the War on Terror and the September 11 attacks.

"Every child knew about 9/11," says Dan Buckley, president of Marvel Comics. "If [he] could see a TV he knew what 9/11 was. The other similarities [to] things going on are just part of storytelling."

The way this is written sounds very insulting, as if they were trying to blame the goodies for causing bad things to happen. Shame on you CNN. They also don't make clear that regardless of how it ends, the series was intended as an attack on US goverment policy, as well as the war on terror, another typical CNN letdown.

Captain America first appeared in 1941, just as the United States entered World War II. He was a symbol of American strength and resolve in fighting the Axis powers, and later Communism.

And what's a shame is that he's not being allowed to serve as a symbol for American strength in the war on terror/Islamofascism/slavery.

"He hasn't been living in the modern world and the world does move," says Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada.

Look who's talking! Quesada was but one of those wouldn't give Cap any stories in which he is living in the modern world, and develops a genuine understanding of who and what the enemy is today, in the 21st century.

Quesada said he wanted to readers find their own meaning in Cap's end.

"There is a lot to be read in there. But I'm not one who is going to tell people, this is what you should read into it, because I could look into it and read several different types of messages," he told CNN.

Several? Does that imply that there's still more unwelcome moral equivalence to be found here? I guess that's why personally, I doubt I'd find much of any meaning in this uncalled for character death. Not to mention that I don't ask for characters to be killed off. If they want to replace one character with another, that's one thing, but if they're going to kill off the first character as the path to replacing with a new character, that's another. And that we don't need. We probably didn't need for even Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, to be killed off, now that I think of it.

Still, one has to wonder: Is Captain America really dead? Comic book characters have routinely died, only to be resurrected when necessary to storylines.

Joe Quesada agrees -- but said times are different now.

"There was period in comics where characters would just die and then be resurrected. And the death had very little meaning and the resurrection had very little meaning," he said. "All I ask of my writers is if you're going to kill a character off, please let that death have some meaning in the overall scope of things."

Stuff it, Quesada, I've heard it all before, and one of the reasons why death, and maybe resurrection, is so meaningless today is because of how often it's been repeated ad nauseum. It's something that grew tired and old goodness knows how long ago. It's to be wondered if anybody ever really asked for death to be performed to begin with. I guess the big difference is that years ago, death wasn't done solely for the sake of media publicity. That's why some deaths of yore may have worked. But since the 1990s, that's when the whole obsession that developed with killing off characters really began to take a turn for the worse. It's not only uncreative, it's also throwing away the potential for real character study. That's one of the reasons why killing off characters has become more and more pointless today. And that's one more reason why it needs to be moved away from.

And one more reason why Quesada needs to step down as EIC of Marvel.

More on this from A Blog for All, Inside Larry's Head, Comics Should Be Good, Hot Air, Riehl World View, Mary Katherine Ham, Right of Texas, Verbal Abuse.

Open trackbacks: Basil's Blog, bRight and Early, Church and State, Phastidio.Net, Point Five.

Labels: bad editors, Captain America, golden calf of death, marvel comics