For those of (like me) who though that the reveal that it was not a clone and was not Steve Rogers but it was actually the ‘other’ Captain America from the 1950′s that met Sharon Carter deep in AIM“s lair came out of nowhere… you too were fooled. Apparently writer Ed Brubaker has been planning this whole thing from the beginning and it all stems back to one of the first comic books he bought.
Ed told Marvel Insider more:
“He’s always been part of my plan. [Laughs] He’s in my original pitch. The first issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA that I ever read I bought when I was about five years old and living on a military base in Gitmo. When I got my first allowance—like the first week I was ever given allowance—it was 50 cents. I remember going down and buying two comic books and a candy bar. I bought CAPTAIN AMERICA v1 #156 [the final showdown between Rogers and the returned '50s Cap] and MARVEL PREMIERE #15 which is the second appearance of Iron Fist. I still have the [CAPTAIN AMERICA] issue. I’ve bought this issue like five times, and I’ve never paid more than cover price for it, which is 20 cents.”
“So he was always a character that I thought was this really cool, twisted character. And I really hated the way that they killed him off. They killed him off in the same story arc that they killed Sharon Carter in, and Mark Waid [later] brought Sharon Carter back, and I read the series where he died a couple of times and I thought, “You know, you never actually see him die. He just lights himself on fire and screams, and then you never see him again. In comics, that could mean severe burns.” [Laughs] And if you’ve got the super soldier serum—and it’s the messed up version that he got that makes him stronger and crazy—then I could see Doctor Faustus having saved the body somehow and storing it away in stasis so he could heal.
“So it was always part of my plan. And [Executive Editor Tom] Brevoort and I have talked about this. He’s the “what could have been” version [of Captain America]. The worst case scenario version.”
Honestly, I am still in awe at the level of greatness that this monthly comic has achieved. After many false starts and mis-steps, Captain America is perhaps the best comic that Marvel is publishing. I shake my head in awe every month that I, an educated man, am eagerly looking forward to the next issue of this comic.
It’s that good. From this interview it sounds like it’s just going to get better.
Recommended:
Captain America by Ed Brubaker Omnibus, Vol. 1
The Death of Captain America, Vol. 1
The Death of Captain America, Vol. 2
Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America
