If you want to avoid possible spoilers for Captain America #21, then you might want to stop reading this post. And stay away from Twitter, because I’m sure it’s bound to generate some conversation.
Over the weekend, Marvel was teasing the image above with “Who will be Marvel comics’ NEW #CaptainAmerica? Learn more this Monday on Marvel.com! #4thOfJuly,” and we have to wonder who will be taking up the shield now that Steve is down.
“What happened to Steve Rogers,” some of you might be asking? Cap is dead. Long live the new Cap. Under current writer Rick Remender (Fear Agent, Uncanny X-Force), Cap gets the Super Soldier serum which has kept him alive all of these decades drained out of him in a fight with bad guy the Iron Nail who’s also spent the last few months ruining Cap’s reputation with the world. With the effects of the serum reversed, Rogers began to deteriorate rapidly, trapping him in the body of an old man. With both the Red Skull and Arnim Zola out there causing trouble again, who will be the new Cap?
Marvel is promising an answer today, but the clues might be in a recent interview with the book’s writer, Rick Remender.
Speaking with Comic Book Resources, Remender confirmed that Rogers would no longer be in the field as Captain America, leaving the gig open to another character. The book’s next arc, “The Tomorrow Soldier,” will start introducing long-term plots and plans by Skull and Zola while also heavily featuring Jet Black and Falcon – although Remender warns that who you think might be the new Captain could all be clever misdirection:
“Readers will find out the answer to that question in issue #25. We’re throwing some misdirects out there so people think they know who it is, but by the time you get to issue #23 you’ll have a good guess of who the top three contenders are for this spot. The way we actually end up solving the problem, though, I hope is unexpected and is something that keeps people excited. For me it breathes new life into the book and is an entirely different angle that I’m incredibly excited to be writing. So hopefully people will enjoy it.”
My guess: we’re going to see multiple Captains America with Jet Black and Falcon sharing the role (somehow). Co-Captains, if you will. Jet, the daughter of Arnim Zola, has the powers and combat skills to fill the role, while Sam/Falcon has years of tactical skills and leadership. I wouldn’t be surprised if Marvel/Remender tapped both characters for the gig.
I suppose we’ll find out as some of the hints becomes clearer in August’s Captain America #23.
[Source: Comic Book Resources, Entertainment Weekly]
Capman Beyond
It will be Falcon because that is the hip and diverse thing to do guys!
what about Josiah X?
I hope it’s wolverine!!!!!
cap’s been dead before, aka Civil War, which is still my top 3 of all time great cross-overs.
Hence me thinks he’s going to come back, bigger and badder than before.
I thought this had been announced already? It’s Sam Wilson. I swear I read this like a week ago.
No one stays dead in comics. Except for Buc— oh wait… yeah no one. Hey, wait, is Aunt May still dead?
Agent Coulson is the new Cap!
Theyre only doing this so they can make a black man Captain America. Marvel figures we can have a black president, a black spiderman and even a black Johnny Storm…why not make the symbol of american comics black too… I say fail!!!!
Dude we JUST did this story. Yeesh. Just give it to Falcon or something. I don’t care.
sigh. i too am glad i don’t read comics much anymore. let’s see…Colossus dead..nope. Spidey dead…nope. Cap dead…nope. Reed Richards dead…nope Jean Grey dead…nope. and the list goes on and on. so this time the twist is Cap lost the super soldier serum? you mean like Magneto removed the adamantium from Wolverine??? whoever they have “replace” Cap will be temporary until
and the most “dire and needed” time Steve Rogers get the serum back on more likely his body ,after having the serum and being bathed in the vita rays will simply renew the serum that has bonded with his cells. just takes a while.
No no no, they’ll keep Steve out until the next Avengers/Cap movie when he will be miraculously returned to former glory as Cap.
its probably Ian Zola
This is why I don’t read comics much anymore. When will these idiot writers realize that the Super Hero isn’t the costume…he just wears it.
Exactly! The suit is just a suit. It’s that person under it that makes things compelling. A new person under it means a reader has to somehow relate to this person, empathize with them, feel for them. For older readers, that’s a n uphill battle. For new readers, not so much, but it’s the older readers that have been supporting your stories all these years.
How about Warpath/Thunderbird?
Too bloodthirsty with the ties to the black-ops X-Force, aside from being a mutant. If people were worried finding out about Bucky’s past would become a problem when he was Cap… 🙂
This is horrendous. Like why are we doing this again?
Let’s just shake up the universe, shall we? Let’s kill off Prof X, kill off Steve Rogers (again)…hey, how about we make Tony Stark a teenager!!
Wait…what? That happened already? Drat.
Well, and with Original Sin you have situations with Uatu and Nick Fury at a BARE minimum. Perhaps these are signs that Marvel is looking to make changes at a scale that even they can’t just “undo” a few months later. Oh, and keep in mind Wolverine has no healing factor and they’re announcing he’s going to die in 2 – 3 months.
“die”
Freaking Clint Barton! The last time it was perfect since he wasn’t Hawkeye anyway, recently back from the dead himself as Ronin. He can lead, the has the accuracy and training, and he has always had something to prove to Cap specifically. Would love to see him take it up, though recently they’ve been more content to ruin his life/make him look like an absolute mess.
Though she’s been discarded relatively and was never a major character Mockingbird could also be used. She was injected with a variant of the super soldier serum prolonging Nick Fury’s life to save her a while back and was disappointed it went nowhere.
Maybe it will be Patriot from Young Avengers?
Young Avengers went down pretty hard and Patriot really seemed done with it all even before that. Would be quite an effort to get him back into place as someone who could handle it all and his physique would be all wrong against expectations. If they wanted to have a “black” Cap Falcon would be a far more known and appropriate change.
Still think the most likely is the suggestion of Ian, Cap’s “son” from Dimension Z. If he ended up lagging there and fighting the good fight after Cap left he could easily show up now battle-hardened as an adult and instilled with Cap’s mentality. Almost a slam dunk typing it, a way to have a “new” Cap who is very similar to the old and lacking in baggage since he has only existed out there for about a year.
I really hate what Remender has done with this book so far.
they killed Steve agian? why? it was a big deal when they did it 10yrs ago now its just, “meh” theyll bring him back again and kill him 4 more times in the next few decades
They seem to have de-powered him. Had the Super Soldier formula stop working.
Has it really been 10 years since that story? Yikes…
It’s only been a few years since the assassination of Rogers, followed by Bucky taking over/Steve Rogers Director of SHIELD. Is it really time to do this again?!
Just drop Bucky back in the role and then bang your head against a wall wondering why they’re doing this.
I thought Cap (Steve Rogers) died at the end of Civil War?
Nope. That was a Magic Time Bullet or something.
I liked this idea more when it was called “Battle for the Cowl”.
“Battle for the Cowl” and the last “Who is the “new cap” story-line happened at basically the same time. Are they REALLY so low on ideas we’re doing this again? *bangs head on desk*