March
7 Captain America is what??

Yes, it's apparently true that Captain America, who has been fighting on behalf of the U.S.A. since 1941, has died.

BUT ...

A close reading shows that there's only about a thousand ways for Marvel to get out of this, and they surely will as soon as the Cap movie starts to get off the ground. Remember, Steve Rogers has given up the role of Captain America before, once in the 1970s when he took on the identity of Nomad for a while, and again in the late 1980s, when the president asked for his resignation and Rogers became "The Captain" while John Walker donned the familiar garb of Captain America. Both changes were relatively short-lived, with Rogers returning, and based on what we see in Cap #25, this too shall pass.

This issue begins after Civil War #7, in which Cap surrendered and gave up his opposition to Iron Man's Superhero Registration Act. In this issue, he's being escorted from an armored vehicle into a courthouse by U.S. Marshals. Cap spots a sniper's laser sight on the back of one of the marshals and nudges the marshal out of the way. Cap is hit by the sniper's bullet, though the angle is obscure about where Rogers is hit. It could be through his neck, it could be a simple shoulder wound. He's wearing chain mail anyway.

 

In the confusion. Sharon Carter (Agent 13 of SHIELD) and Bucky rush to Cap's aid. A gun is held close to Cap's stomach, we see his shock as three "Blam" sound effects mark the firing of the gun and he falls, bloody to the courthouse steps. But he's still alive!

 

Cap's rushed off to medical care while Bucky and Falcon look for the shooter. Cap gets to the hospital and is still talking to Carter, who takes a break and is approached by a mystery woman who brings a message from Doctor Faustus: "Remember." Suddenly, Carter remembers that it was she who put the gun to Cap's gut and pulled the trigger, though she only is shown firing the gun once, not three times.

Then we cut to two panels showing Cap's body covered by a sheet (though his face can be seen in one panel with one eye open) and his hand hanging over the edge of the gurney.

Now whether Carter's memory is correct or an implant of some kind isn't clear, but it obviously could go either way. We also don't "see" Cap die in panel. And despite three shots to the gut, such wounds are (at least in most adventure fiction) the type that kill you slowly and painfully, thus making Rogers' off-panel expiration suspect at the very least.

Then there's the odd tidbit in Civil War: The Initiative #1, in which Ms. Marvel tries to talk Spider-Woman into re-joining the Avengers. Spider-Woman says Cap's dead, but Ms. Marvel says he's not. "He's tucked away on the raft. No one knows. No One. They're trying to save his life even as we speak." Again, it's possible this happens in the middle of the events of Cap #25, or Ms. Marvel just misspoke or got her facts wrong, but with a good three panels devoted to that part of the conversation, it definitely raises some questions.

All that said, the issue is a pretty good read. But for all the hubbub about the death of Cap, there's nothing in this issue that can't be undone especially by the loose standards of comic books. We saw Superman die on panel fighting Doomsday and he's back. Bullseye shoved Elektra's sai right through her heart (though not through her costume) and she's back. And most famously of all Phoenix disintegrated herself with an alien weapon only to be turn out to not actually be Jean Grey (don't worry if that sentence doesn't make sense ... ). So media attention aside, the death of Captain America should be taken with at the very least a grain of salt.

What will matter is how Marvel handles the aftermath of the death. The story in which Superman died was not much to write home about, but the year's worth of stories that came afterward are in many ways an underrated classic. We'll see how Marvel handles this, who if anyone picks up the shield and what effect it'll have on the Marvel Universe in the wake of Civil War. If Marvel tells that story well, then it will all that much more interesting when Rogers eventually comes back.