Clearing my throat (ahem): "Oh no! Captain America is dead!"
from Captain America and Bucky #627 (Marvel, April 2012), co-plot by Ed Brubaker, co-plot and script by James Asmus; pencils, inks, and colors by Francesco Francavilla; letters by Joe Caramagna
Here's the plot twist! That ain't Steve Rogers! Nor is that James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes! No, it's actually William Naslund and Fred Davis, Captain America II and Bucky II! What, legacy heroes in '45 already?!?
from What If...? (1977 series) #4 (Marvel, August 1977), co-script by Roy Thomas; Frank Robbins, co-script and breakdowns by Frank Robbins, finishes by Frank Springer, colors by George Roussos, letters by Joe Rosen and John Costanza
They assumed the IDs of Cap 'n' Bucky in 1945 following the icy disappearances of Steve and Bucky, but on October 4, 1946...
Let's roll out Captain America III (Jeff Mace aka The Patriot), because Captain America II is dead already and lyin' cold on the floor! (I don't know who keeps bringing them in here.)
And as the Kennedys waft slowly in the wind above them, Cap III takes the body of Cap II over the the Captain America Memorial Cemetary. Lots of graves dug quickly, but it's got a revolving door.
And it all happened...TODAY IN COMICS HISTORY! Roy Thomas, we salute you!
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2 comments:
I’m feeling déjà vu on this correction for some reason, but that’s Harry Truman and not FDR.
Anyway, I had a deep love for The Invaders, which I might’ve shared here before, and that included a fascination with this issue of What If?. 7-year-old Blam was quite affected by Spirit of ’76’s death and Patriot’s brief eulogy of him as the brave man who’d taken up the mantle of Captain America. (The scene of Hitler getting burned alive freaked me out as well, but I recall even at that young age having a sense of just how massively pathetic it was for Hitler to ask his aide to tell the world he shot himself and deny what he felt was the greater indignity of dying at Torch’s hands.) Oddly, I didn’t realize until rereading it recently to follow along with an acquaintance’s blog that Patriot taking over for Spirit of ’76 was purely a plot twist and not a necessary part of the continuity patch explaining Captain America’s continued exploits during the years Steve Rogers was known to be out of the picture. Yet it’s not like they break down neatly between, say, the All-Winners Squad era and the post-Bucky / Golden Girl / Weird Tales run at the end of Captain America Comics, so the retcon was arguably a needless complication.
You're right again, Blam! The previous time I messed this up was on a post about a Secret Origins or maybe post-war All-Star Squadron tale, and I oughta've remembered it. Corrected, with thanks!
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