A few months ago, I suggested that Steve Rogers could be killed off fairly easily, without too much fanfare and little damage to the iconicity of Captain America. I was right. Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier and former sidekick of the Captain, took on the mantle after Rogers’ public assassination. Bucky’s run as Captain America has been pretty good: he tackles all the same baddies that Rogers did and without Rogers’ enhanced strength, endurance, and stamina thanks to the Super Soldier Formula. Bucky’s psychological composition is so different from Rogers that you can’t wait to see how he will perform and live up to the expectations of the uniform. So I wonder: why bring back Steve Rogers, at all? Is there something more that needs to be said about Rogers, something more he needs to accomplish?
I know that comic heroes never truly die. When rumors of Batman’s death spread as the climatic issues of the Final Crisis approached, I speculated that icons of Batman’s stature could never be killed off. But I also believed that an alter ego as prominent and layered as Bruce Wayne could not be killed either. Since the world needed a ‘Batman’, just as it needed a Superman, Flash, and Green Lantern, it made complete sense that a successor would be named to the costume. The whole Battle for the Cowl business was clever advertising, but no one doubted that Dick Grayson wouldn’t inherit the cape and cowl. The worthiest character is typically the former sidekick. Both Captain America and Batman titles followed this formula. In the coming months, we will probably see Dick Grayson as Batman feel his way through the DC Universe making a name for himself, trying to live up to this tremendous legacy. And then Bruce Wayne will return. He will because he must. The cosmic circle of revival in comics dictates that a hero never dies forever. Flash returned. Superman returned. Thor returned. Some are gods, some are aliens, some are human, and all are alive and well.
So, Rogers will return. Thanks to some time-space technology Captain America is stuck in time and because we know this, he will come back. But does he have to? Did any of these heroes have to return? Bringing back one or two of them…okay. But, not each and every single one of them. C and D-list heroes (or villains) don’t count because they were meant to be expendable. They are like the filler pages in binders that can be ripped out and replaced. But some characters are the binders, the glue that holds an entire universe’s continuity together. Bruce Wayne as Batman will make that return. I can see how they have made a case for Barry Allen as Flash and even Hal Jordan as Green Lantern. Can we say the same of Steve Rogers?
A few weeks ago, I happened past an episode of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” where the 50,000 question was something like, “which alter ego of Steve Rogers, who was killed in 2007, will make his return this year?” The contestant got it wrong. There’s a reason that was a 50K question. It’s because Steve Rogers does not have the fame of a Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker, or Clark Kent. Sure, movies help. But, Captain America had one of those. TV shows? Done that. Didn’t help. For some reason, the iconic Captain has not garnered the public recognition that these other characters have achieved. At the end of the day, do we need Steve Rogers? I think not, but I hope I come to appreciate why he is returning more than I care that he is returning.
Thanks Bill for the comment. I will follow up on that book you mentioned.
For sure, the author is hitting on the key point that comics are a reflection of the world. My argument is that we get enough of the world. Comics are our outlet for fantasy. When things were ultra violent, comics gave kids hope becuase their heroes defied the times. I thought the original Freedom Fighters set in the perpetual World War II universe were great because they focused on a period and gave a glimmer of “let em have it attitude”. I contend that instead of merely reflecting what occurs in the world and reinterpreting it, comics might want to try offering solutions or alternatives that ignite our hope and perhaps courage to make a difference in the real world. I know that is not easy, but a sprinkle of creators trying it is all that is really needed.
Anyone?
Interesting read. I agree with you to an extent. I personally find the fact that heroes are dying and coming back (and really, for me it extends to the villains too) sort of cheapens the mainstream comic experience for me, which is why I tend to avoid the mainstream stuff. If you can bring back any character you kill through some series of similar planets in alternate dimensions or scientific anomalies, then what is the point? Nothing that ever happens in the comic has any weight anymore, because it can all be undone.
I think the more interesting thing than bringing them back though is why they are dying in the first play. I recently read some of a book called Secret Identity Crisis, and talked to its author, a professor from the Chicago area. He argues how comics are a reflection of the climate. His book mostly deals with the Cold War period, but we talked specifically about current trends, and how these big arcs are seeing the heroes die, and the villains running things, at least temporarily. He said it reflects the fact that as a society we’ve lost faith in ourselves because of what is going on in the world. Things are so bleak that our iconic heroes aren’t even coming through anymore. That said, trends change, and I think in that vein, people need to see Steve Rogers rise as Captain America again. Not because he’s necessarily any better than Bucky, but because he’s the original and we rooted for him and maybe can’t afford to see him down and out for good.