Friday, March 09, 2007

Captain America


We come not to bury Captain America but to praise him. The brief media firestorm over the “death” of the Star-Spangled Avenger reached its peak when Stephen Colbert did a funny riff on it near the top of the Colbert Report Thursday night.

The media went nuts for a bit (they’ve since moved on.) Speculators are already charging insanely-inflated prices on eBay (buyers being perhaps a bit foolish since Marvel overprinted the issue in question…Captain America #25…and savvy comic book shops should have a new supply next week...hopefully at or near cover price. Baring that Marvel has announced a second printing that will be out at the end of the month...which, as I think of it, will only make the speculators even more happy. In any case, comics hoarded this way will not be a viable longterm "investment" since the supply will end up far outstripping the demand in the long run...especially once the storyline has run its course.)

Personally I’ve been to this particular rodeo too many times to take it at all that seriously.

I've been a comic book fan long enough to know that the death of Captain America is not a permanent thing (unlike here in the real world, death in comics…like death on soap operas…is a decidedly transitional thing…”dead” characters regularly return to “life”…Superman, for example, “died” in similar burst of publicity and he’s back fighting the “never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way” and living happily with his wife Lois Lane…and comic book fans, being the avid “suspension of belief” folks that we are, gripe at bit and then go with the flow.)

The stunt generated momentary media buzz (with outlets as diverse as the venerable New York Times and the aforementioned Colbert Report taking note) and kudos to the folks at Marvel Comics for that. Me, I just hope that there are some interesting stories coming out of all of this.

And Captain America? He’ll be fine…at some point in the relatively near future the "death" will be reversed and he’ll take up his shield and get back out there fighting the good fight again.

So rest in peace, Cap…and we’ll see you later, dude.


3 comments:

Peter said...

Yeah, you're right. He won't stay dead. Part of me wonders if they intended on killing him all along, or if they did it just to try to bring some attention back to the Marvel Civil War. Always a great way to sell books though... killing off a major hero, that is... :)

Doug The Una said...

It's a long history. I think 2/3 of Sherlock Holmes stories were published after the one in which he and Moriarty killed each other.

None said...

Im pretty sure Stephen Colbert is involved with Captain America’s death and that you will see him enter as a villain soon or as the new Captain America, who knows!

http://flogger.looble.com/2007/03/colbert-suspected-in-murder-of-captain.html