Captain America‘s old, insanely old by real life reckoning, sidekick will be the new Captain America. This is the first decision regarding one of Marvel’s flagship characters that makes sense this year.
I’m looking forward to more good storytelling and sense-making from you Marvel.
Right. Bucky Barnes, Bucky was put in suspended animation by the evil Russians (back when they were evil) and stayed that way for the better part of 60 years.
“So he’s probably in his late 20s right now,” jokes Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada, who decided to promote him to Captain America.
Rogers’ old sidekick had already returned to the Marvel pantheon of heroes some time back as the rugged Winter Soldier, redeeming himself for the years he’d spent under the control of the bad guys, who would occasionally thaw him out for evil deeds.
“We were toying with the idea of someone new taking over the mantle of Captain America,” Quesada said by phone from his New York office. “But we kept coming back to Bucky. Not only because he seemed such an obvious choice but especially because of the fact that when we brought him back as the Winter Soldier he was so incredibly popular.”
It’s funny that the first place I heard about Cap’s replacement is through Stephen Colbert’s interview with Joe Quesada late last night. Guess I need to put a foot back on the mainstream comics web-line so I know when the big stuff’s about to go down. When you get caught unawares, you get stung and ate.
It appears Bucky won’t gulp down any super soldier serum. Which is good. No need for him to be a clone of Steve Rogers. Bucky apparently morphed himself into a gym rat these past few years, bulked up his special operations knowledge, and carries a gun.(We’ll save the cultural comparsions of the social times each Captain America was born for another post.)
I must admit, a lot of the stuff about Bucky’s history I had no idea about. I tended to hang out towards the mutant/cosmic adventure/magical borroughs of the Mighty Marvel-verse. That is when capes ruled my subcription box. Nowdays my box holds its fair share of independant books along with an issue or two of Marvel or DC.
Quesada says he isn’t worried, however, adding that killing off Captain America last year seemed to give him new life with readers. The editor was taken aback when newspapers even carried obituaries on the character.
“Not since the 1940s have we seen Cap being this popular,” he said.
Has anyone else noticed that it’s become a running gag for Colbert’s guests to remark on how much he really needs his writers back? I’ll be damned if those moments aren’t the funniest parts of the show. They seem to crack-up/annoy Colbert the most.
(Thanks to Myway news and 7d for sharing Myway News. Image courtesy of “please don’t sure me I’m just a poor player on the internet” Marvel.com)
