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March 08, 2007
Captain America Dead?
 |
| ABC News reported yesterday that Marvel
Comics superhero Captain
America would be killed in the latest edition
of the Captain America comic
book. "It ends a long run for the stars-and-stripes-wearing character, created in 1941. Over the years, some 210 million copies of Captain America comic books, published by New York-based Marvel Entertainment Inc., have been sold in 75 countries." The fact that this made the news is pretty amazing. It shows that these characters have become household names. There are probably a half dozen comic titles that feature the Captain America character, not all of which will quit using him (example: the Ultimates). There is also a movie in the works scheduled for release in 2009. And of course characters in this media are killed off and resurrected at will. The depth of storylines and characters this genre has produced over many decades is staggering. I grew up reading Marvel comics. Both of my older brothers read them as well. This left me with a pretty large and diverse library of comics, a lot of which I still have. As I got older the stories aged as well. The comics became more graphic and addressed adult topics. My favorite superhero, Iron Man, was written as an alcoholic superhero shortly after I quit following comic books. Not the best story arc for little kids, but it showed the storylines were aging with the audience. Iron Man is also being made into a movie to be released in 2008 (with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges, "the Dude" from Tron). For people like me that enjoyed superhero comics as a kid these are good times. Captain America's death follows years of few original ideas coming from Hollywood. Marvel's many comics are a natural crutch for an industry heavy on technology but light on creativity. The characters also come with a built in audience. I've already seen Spider Man, X-Men, Daredevil, Elektra, Punisher, The Hulk, Ghostrider, Fantastic Four, and Blade be made into movies. I expect to see many more childhood heroes grace the silver screen, and it's nice to know Captain America will be one of them. |
Posted by Lon at March 8, 2007 12:00 AM
Comments
He's not dead. He's just hiding from the paparazzi, disguised as a mild mannered electronics engineer in Chico.
Now he's trying to see if they fell for it.
Posted by: Gregg Payne at March 8, 2007 03:09 PM