Right now, there’s only one Captain America flying through the skies of Marvel’s mainline comic-book universe. But later this year, the original super-soldier will be back in the red, white and blue. And don’t worry about current shield-wielder Sam Wilson; he’ll sticking around. That’s right: two Caps at the same time.
This news coincided with a TV special on ABC in the US yesterday celebrating the 75th anniversary of Captain America. The upcoming series will be titled Captain America: Steve Rogers and an interview on Marvel’s official site with writer Nick Spencer and artist Jesus Saiz states that the two Captain Americas will be operating independently of each other and pursuing different agendas:
It means we’ll have two Captain Americas. When Steve handed the shield to Sam, it didn’t come with any caveats. It’s his. Steve respects and admires what his old partner is doing, and wants him to carry on. There are enough problems out there, and enough bad guys, to keep both of them busy. They will have very different missions; Sam will continue fighting the battles no one else will go near, while Steve is faced with a resurgent threat from his past: Hydra is back, and stronger than ever.
For me, it’s great, because I get to tell two very different kinds of Captain America stories. If you’re liking what we’re doing in CAPTAIN AMERICA: SAM WILSON, with a more topical, of-the-moment take, we’ve got a lot more of that coming your way; but if you’re looking for that classic, timeless version, the one that’s steeped in the Greatest Generation with Cap fighting the face of true evil, now we’ve got that for you as well. I think they will complement each other nicely.
Right now, I like this move for the reasons Spencer cites above. Sam isn’t getting kicked off a prestigious mantle; instead, Marvel editorial is apparently giving Spencer leeway to re-envision how two characters embody the role of Marvel’s foremost patriotic hero. There have been many storylines where two Captain Americas existed simultaneously, but plots where one of them hasn’t been evil or time-shifted are rare.
Steve will be sporting both a new costume and a new shield, while Sam keeps the original circular weapon. More details about the changes are available at Marvel.com.
Comments
11 responses to “The Original Captain America Is Coming Back”
Thank god. Was getting sick of old, octogenarian Steve Rogers
Are we really getting Cap back? Or will it simply be the current cynical, bitter and kind of jocky Steve Rogers donning a costume? More than seeing Rogers back in blue and red, I want to see him back to being humble, compassionate and, I guess, nice.
Man this is why I can’t stand this kind of shit these days. We all know these changes are just temporary and will revert back to the norm, the writers say it’s about doing different things with the character but it’s just sales and marketing. Oh wow ANOTHER first issue to collect Omfg. I mean one could argue that in recent years captain America has been plenty exciting, great tense stuff by Brubaker, and we had such great stuff from remender, spending a decade in zemos world whilst fostering a son….plenty of character development there one would argue. The same goes for batman…oh and hey wolverine is dead everybody awwww so sad….but hey guess what? We r just gonna bring an alternate ( and coincidentally one of the most popular iterations ever) universe Logan into the regular continuity so marvel can have their cake and eat it too. Man sorry for the rant, I love comics but as I get older image and vertigo stuff just does it for me so much more. Self contained and focused stories. And damn Evan, I love the marvel u as mich as any comics geek, but a little criticism of their direction or decisions would be nice!
Agreed…
Honestly “two Captain Americas” my butt… it’s been tried before *cough*USAgent*cough* and we all know it always ends up w/ Roger back as being main Cap and the other guy either fading into obscurity or back to being themselves
Yup! How about focusing on making some exciting new characters marvel
Two? I guess you haven’t heard the news about Bucky…
USAgent, Bucky-Cap, Battlestar, 40s Black Cap (not sure if he’s canon or not), Patriot, 50s evil Cap…
The last time Marvel let a character actually supplant an older one was the 60s, with the Human Torches. Even then, he came back and disappeared twice via retcon.
40s Black Cap is Canon. Patriot, one of the Young Avengers was his grandson
Ah – can only remember seeing Patriot in crossovers, so I missed that backstory.
Check out the 2004ish Captain America run. I think it’s the Winter Soldier retcon backstory and it has the history on a lot of Cap’s old buddies!
Big surprise? Marvel do this every few years where they put new personalities behind old characters to shake things up and then bring the original character back. How many times has Cap died now? And xavier as well?