Captain America Killed In Latest Comic

[Ragingblues]

Captain America has been shot down and killed in the latest edition of his comic:

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,257398,00.html
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One of America's most patriotic superheroes has died.

Marvel Entertainment killed off Captain America in an issue that hit newsstands Wednesday, the New York Daily News reported. The superhero, who was created in 1941 as a patriotic hero during World War II, is shot down by a sniper in front of a courthouse. His demise is a blow to one of the men who created him. "We really need him now," the superhero's creator, Joe Simon, 93, told the Daily News. Over the years, an estimated 210 million copies of "Captain America" comic books have been sold in 75 countries.

And he could be back at some point. Marvel Entertainment said a resurrection isn't impossible. The company has said it's developing a Captain America movie.


Sounds like another media hype to boost sales....

Ken

[pitfallharry]

Marvel has really lost it in my eyes! This whole Civil War event was a joke.

[IndyBlues]

Kill off Cap!!! That's absurd! What are they doing, paving the way for comic sales in Iraq??
Bullcrap!
'Blues

[indianatone]

Yeah, this seems to have "hype" all over it.

If I remember correctly, Superman had been killed off as well in the past.

[bendingoak]

Have we forgot about Jack Kirby?

[pitfallharry]

bendingoak said:

Have we forgot about Jack Kirby?

No, but I think the people running Marvel's comic line has. To be honest I haven't collected any comics for about 2 years now. Besides the lack of money the other reason in particular was the total lack of respect these companies were showing for the history of their characters and the people that created them.

It was just one "hyped" story after another. Every time you turn around there's some shocking revelation after another. I collected Spider-Man and they crap they've done to him and his supporting cast over the last few years makes me want to puke.

They've killed off and brought back so many characters over the years that just killing someone anymore in a comic has become a joke. No one takes it seriously.

I think the thing that really ticks me off is when they take a character with a long established history and certain moral stance and up and change them just for a quick shock and a boost in sales.

Right now I'm enjoying Marvel's movies more than I have their books over the last few years.

[pastimesteve]

Bravo PH! I couldn't have said it better myself. I can't read today's comics for the exact same reasons.

It's good to know Sam Raimi hasn't forgotten the core spirit of Spider-Man and the moral dilemmas the character has always faced. I hear SM 3 has some amazing messages about forgiveness. That's good to see.

Granted, I'm not encouraging comic book writers to hit people over the head with morality tales, but come on, the stuff today is crazy. I guess I'm old fashioned and boring.

Steve

[pitfallharry]

Thanks, Steve.


Yeah, I by no do I means to have a moral lesson shoved down my throat every time I read one of them but at least stick to the history and the continuity that's been built for the character by the greats that created the hero to begin with. Nowadays it's anything goes and they'll do anything for a buck.

Not only is it the lack of respect for the history and continuity it's just the total lack of taste and creativity. I mean what they've done to Spidey makes me want to pull my hair out. Sure the character has his share of problems and angst but he was also a lot of fun. When I was a kid and read the books they were fun and entertaining......now their just depressing and boring. The violence has gone over the top in the books as well. I'm no prude but I wouldn't want my kid reading a Spidey book where the bad guy beat him to a bloody mess and then eats one of his eyes! YES, that did happen! Right after that Spidey "died" and was reborn in a weird way where he crawled out of his other skin that had merely become a shell. This all went along with the mystic slant they changed his original origin to where the spider that bit Peter was seeking him out because of some mystic animal totem where each generation had their own "Spider-Man". I can handle the movie using the genetic angle because it's more modern but them changing the origin to being mystical in nature just isn't Spider-Man.....give me the radioactive spider any day. To my knowledge this is still the current explanation as well.....unless they changed it.

Yeah, to me the only Spider-Man that carries on the Lee / Ditko spirit is the movie version.

I wish I had the power to go in and fire everyone at Marvel right now and start the whole line over.

So anyone want to take any bets on how long Captain America will stay dead? I'm sure he'll pop back to life by the time the movie hits theaters.

[bendingoak]

Pirfall, I have read a comic since I left the business, it was a long time ago. Comics were a dollar then. I saw one a few weeks ago and almost lost my mind.

After spending a few hours with Jack. There is no doupt in my mind who was a huge part in creating most of the marvel hero's.

[pitfallharry]

I always hear guys high up in the industry praise Jack Kirby and what he did for the industry and Marvel in particular but these some people are the ones that are destroying the work of the person they supposedly respect.

They've got some writers working at Marvel that I wouldn't even let write the instructions for the back of airline puke bag.

This is semi-comic and Kirby related. Turns out Galactus IS in the new Fantastic Four 2 film, but there's a catch. He's a giant cloud of gas! I can understand not being able to make a live action version of the character because it would kind of look silly but this is the best they could :-Xing come up with?!?! At least it looks like they nailed the look of the Silver Surfer. Just don't look to close at his crotch in certain shots. Some online have pointed out the CGI guys made the Surfer anatomically correct.

Gives new meaning to the title "SpaceBalls" doesn't it?

[Deleted]

Oak,

You actually spent a few hours with Jack Kirby? Now that is cool

He was one of my favorites along with Ditko. I have reprints of almost all the silver age work that they both did for Marvel. Truely great stuff.

Cheers,
G-MANN

[pitfallharry]

Yeah, Oak that is cool. I totally missed that before. I'm going to go check the mirror and see if I have blond roots. ;D

[bendingoak]

pitfall, very funny. Yes , I spent a few hours with Jack, what a great man. one of my childhood heroes. He even invited me to come stay with him if I was ever in california. I missed out on that. He passsed before I made it out to the west coast. I friend in the bussiness who I knew at the time introduced me to him just before he was going to do a interview with Entertainment weekly ( he made them wait for over an hour do he could keep talking with me).
All I wanted to do was to shake his hand and thank him. I told him " I know it may not mean a lot for him to hear but I needed to say this to him." "I grew up like him, a poor NYC kid with a bad education." I told him, " I don't think I would have learned to read if it were not for him."" I would go to the dictionary when I didn't understand what someone in, lets say a Captain America Comic was saying." As I grew up I notice that most of the comics that I bought said Jack "King " kirby on them. " I don't think I would have stayed in school. There was nothing in the school at the time ( so much violence). He say to me " are you kidding, thats the best complament I have ever gotten in my life." Thats when he asked m to sit down and we talked for hours.
FYI, Marvel comics doesn't and hasn't treating well at all.They never gave the created that he deserves or his artwork back. He can't even draw one of his own characters in a convention( and Jack would give them out for free). He sent me a drawing of Captain Victory ( signed) that I still have today. I have to tell you when I recieved it in the mail, I couldn't believe it. Out of the blue, he send me this drawing. I haven't seen him in months and he does this. I ahve meat a lot of famous people in my time ( I don't mean a five mintute meating) but a few hours sitting down eating a meal talking for a fe hours. Jack is one of my favorites and I think it will be for a long time to come.
any way I hope you guys enjoyed this.

[IndyBlues]

Very cool story, B.O. Jack Kirby was truly the King of Comics. I remember trying to draw his stuff as a kid. His work on the Fantastic Four and The Hulk was amazing. Thanks for sharing the tale.
Mike

[pitfallharry]

Yeah, that is a very cool story. It makes me wish I would have met him. Heck, I've only gone to one comic convention in my entire life and it was some little thing here where I live. It was just a bunch of local artists there selling their own published stuff. I had some younger kid walk up to me while I was looking around and ask me if I was Todd McFarlane! ;D

I'd like to meet Stan Lee someday and some of the other famous creators before they shuffle off to that great bullpen in the sky!

[Havana]

Hasn't just about every superhero been killed at some point only to come back within just a few months? It's like a cliche now. I'm really disappointed in Marvel for going down such a well worn path. There really seems to be a serious lack of creativity and originality in comic story lines these days. People were saying the same thing back in the early 80's and were predicting the death of comics. Then, Frank Miller came in and shook the comic world with bold visuals and actual stories instead of formulas. There's a definite creative void in American comics now. The comic companies seem far more interested in spitting out movies than in developing their core product.

[pitfallharry]

havana said:

Hasn't just about every superhero been killed at some point only to come back within just a few months? It's like a cliche now. I'm really disappointed in Marvel for going down such a well worn path. There really seems to be a serious lack of creativity and originality in comic story lines these days. People were saying the same thing back in the early 80's and were predicting the death of comics. Then, Frank Miller came in and shook the comic world with bold visuals and actual stories instead of formulas. There's a definite creative void in American comics now. The comic companies seem far more interested in spitting out movies than in developing their core product.

Well, when it comes to comic companies I don't know who's worse at killing people off and bringing them back months later. I guess on DC's end the most high profile one was Superman but even when I heard all the hype about his death I knew it wouldn't last long. Captain America is basically Marvel's equivalent to Superman so I feel the same way about his death. You know he's coming back you just don't know when. My guess will be around the time they release a Captain America film or sooner.

There have been some deaths in comics over the years that have stuck and most everyone agreed that the characters should stay dead. It was kind of a "line in the sand" that no writer should cross. Bucky Barnes, Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy , Jason Todd and a few others that have slipped my memory. If you go buy a comic book now you'll find that only Uncle Ben is still truly dead. They cloned Gwen years ago. Bucky actually never died and the Russians had him all these years and he's now The Winter Soldier. Jason Todd never died because of a wrinkle in time caused during DC's latest "Crisis" event. Oh, and I guess I should mention that an alternate universe version of Uncle Ben did pop up in a recent Spider-Man story so I guess you could say he's alive too.

None of these "resurrections" were even necessary. All of them came about because the writers basically were running out of ideas and the "bean counters" in charge needed the "next big event" to generate sales.

They don't really listen to the fans. They say the fans love it but the majority of the people that have stuck by the characters for years are pulling their hair out. There are a lot of great Spider-Man stories out there waiting to be told and you don't have to resort to having his eye ripped out and being beaten to death to pull in readers. You think the audience would sit through something like that in one of the films??

The problem is these people running these companies anymore are only worried about the almighty dollar. They spend more time worrying about how they can expand a character out across all the different forms of media than they do on actually turning out a quality product.

"Hey, let's have Spider-Man unmask himself on live TV" "That'll get everyone talking." "We'll sell a ton of books then." "Sure it goes against the way the character has been portrayed for years and it makes no sense but who cares?!"

That may not be the best example but it shows how little they care about the history and continuity of the books. Not to mention it spits in the face of the fans that have followed the character for years. Peter put the mask on to begin with to protect his family from the people he was fighting. He's also got brains and common sense. I don't care what the situation was he would never do something like that after years of going out of his way to hide his identity. So now were supposed to buy that he just up and changes his mind because of peer pressure from a fellow hero? Gee, and guess what happens....he does it and then all the villains go after him and his family right away. As of right now Aunt May is laying in the hospital with a gunshot wound to the gut because of it. Maybe they should change the name of the book to "Special Needs Spider-Man" because the way he's acting would make more sense then.

I've followed Spidey the most but there are a ton of other characters out that are slowly being torn apart just to generate a spike in sales. Of course that's all right because if the idea flops they just pretend it never happened.

Wow, talk about creativity. Don't you wish everything in life was that easy? ;D

[bendingoak]

I agree Pittfall. Again, What would Jack Say?

[pitfallharry]

bendingoak said:

I agree Pittfall. Again, What would Jack Say?

Oak, he's probably spinning in his grave.

[bendingoak]

Besides the price tag on comics these day.This is a big reason not to read them anymore. It breaks the heart. I really should stay out of these thread pitfall. I might kill this thread aswell.

[IndyBlues]

Yeah, the price of comics is outrageous, not to mention all the sleepering out of the characters, with multi covers, and crossover madness. You'd have to spend a couple hundred a month to keep up with everything.

I loved it when I was a kid, my old man would give me $5 to go to the 7-11, and I'd come home with about 10 comics, AND a slurpee and snack. Dem were da days.
'Blues

[bendingoak]

I must be getting really old. I only need two dollars to get ten comics.

[Ragingblues]

More news on the death of a superhero....

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287553,00.html
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Captain America Buried at Arlington National Cemetery




NEW YORK — It's a funeral fit for a superhero.

In the drizzling rain at Arlington National Cemetery, thousands of grieving patriots solemnly watch as the pallbearers — Iron Man, the Black Panther, Ben Grimm and Ms. Marvel — carry a casket draped with an American flag.

Yes, folks, Captain America is dead and buried in the latest issue of Marvel Comics' "Fallen Son," due on newsstands the morning after Independence Day. After 66 years of battling villains from Adolf Hitler to the Red Skull, the red, white and blue leader of the Avengers was felled by an assassin's bullet on the steps of a New York federal courthouse.

He was headed to court after refusing to sign the government's Superhero Registration Act, a move that would have revealed his true identity. A sniper who fired from a rooftop was captured as police and Captain America's military escort were left to cope with chaos in the streets.

Captain America Killed Off in Latest Comic But the sniper didn't act alone, and didn't even fire the shot that killed the captain.

Writer Jeph Loeb has been busy working through the stages of grief in his most recent titles. A book centered on Wolverine dealt with denial; one with the Avengers covered anger; and Spider-Man battled depression.

With the story line so relevant to present-day politics, and the timing of the latest issue so precise, it's hard not to think the whole thing is one big slam on the government.

"Part of it grew out of the fact that we are a country that's at war, we are being perceived differently in the world," Loeb said. "He wears the flag and he is assassinated — it's impossible not to have it at least be a metaphor for the complications of present day."

But Loeb says he was working with more personal material: the death of his 17-year-old son from cancer.

"So many people have lost their sons and daughters over the years, for the greater good or to cancer or other horrible things," said Loeb, an executive producer for NBC's "Heroes." "I wanted this to be something people would identify with."

In the final frames of the book, the Falcon delivers a eulogy asking superheroes old and young to stand up and honor Captain America. Loeb did a similar thing at his son's funeral.

"It was this moment where I realized that we were all different, but this boy, my son, made us all connected," he said. "It was powerful."

Captain America, whose secret identity was Steve Rogers, was an early member of the pantheon of comic book heroes that began with Superman in the 1930s.

He landed on newsstands in March 1941, nine months before Pearl Harbor — delivering a punch to Hitler on the cover of his first issue, a sock-in-the-jaw reminder that there was a war on and the United States was not involved.

Since then, Marvel Entertainment Inc., has sold more than 200 million copies of Captain America magazine in 75 countries.

In the most recent story line, he became involved in a superhero "civil war," taking up sides against Iron Man in the registration controversy, climaxed by his arrest and assassination.

Marvel says you never know what will happen. He may make it back from the dead after all, although Loeb says that question isn't really important right now.

"The question is, how does the world continue without this hero?" he said. "If that story of his return gets told further down the line, great. But everyone's still been dealing with his loss.

"They aren't going to wake up and it's a dream, like it's some episode of 'Dallas."




Ken

[pitfallharry]

HA!

I like Loeb and I'm sorry he lost his son but even he can't sit there and say they won't use that "Dallas plot twist" because Marvel's done it before.....so has DC.

Death in comics is a joke mainly because the companies don't have the balls to keep these characters dead and burried.

I remember people gobbling up issues of Superman #75 because it was the issue where he died and they were going to be worth a ton of money down the road.......blah....blah....blah..... I'm willing to bet you could find issues of Superman #75 lining the bottoms of bird cages if you looked hard enough....

Like I said before I give it a year or less.......I don't even think Hawkeye was dead that long...

Oh, and don't even get me started on the X-Men....... ;D

[Tycoonman]

The whole death and resurrection thing strayed me away from comics for the most part. I finally settled on one that has the death thing going on, but it can't be taken seriously at all because The green monster usually dies every issue... Space Ghost Coast To Coast.

Tycoonman