Mon Jan 28, 2008 — by Rick Marshall

Captain America Returns... With a Gun!

You can't stop the coverage, you can only hope to contain it!

The Merry Marvel Marketing Machine is firing on all cylinders once again, with coverage of this week's return of Captain America (in the pages of Captain America #34) planned for every television channel, radio station, newspaper, mailing list and telephone pole on this planet and, quite possibly, a few others.

What's that, you say? It's not actually Captain America who's returning, but his formerly deceased sidekick, Bucky Barnes, who has thrown away Cap's shield in favor of a gun? You say he's sporting a cybernetic arm and a bad attitude instead of a body full of super-soldier serum and some good ol' American pride? And he's not even wearing Cap's old costume?

Well, I refuse to hear another word about it, Mr. HatesAmerica. Instead, I'm going to put my hands over my ears, hum The Star-Spangled Banner and provide you with a heaping helping of Captain America coverage, in the form of the links below. Remember: They go great with apple pie!

• Just as they did with the news of Captain America's death, The Daily News broke the story of Cap's return this morning. According to Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada, the death of Cap and subsequent promotion of his former sidekick is "just an experiment."

Current series writer Ed Brubaker addressed the whole gun-toting hero issue, explaining, "people forget that Captain America carried a gun a lot in World War II. Every three covers there was a shot of Captain America with a machine gun or a flamethrower - or an atom bomb."

The Daily News also coaxed some hints about the future of Steve Rogers, the former Captain America, from Quesada in this excerpt:

Quesada admits Rogers, the scrawny kid from the lower East Side who was injected with Super Soldier serum and turned into one of the most recognizable characters in pop culture, may yet return.

• According to various reports, NPR will discuss the return of Captain America - and his gun - on an upcoming broadcast of their morning news digest, Morning Edition. Ed Brubaker is expected to provide some thoughts on the new-look hero. At the time of this article, however, the interview is not listed on NPR's current or upcoming schedule.

• The Colbert Report will host Quesada once again Tuesday evening, with the Marvel EiC dropping by to chat with host Stephen Colbert about all things Cap. Last time Quesada made an appearance, he gave Captain America's shield to Colbert. Will he try to take it back? Will he even make it past the picket line? Tune in at 11:30 PM on Comedy Central and find out, true believers!

• Newsarama got into the mix with a long Ed Brubaker interview that touched upon the revivification of Bucky, his evolution from sidekick to main man and life in a post-Cap world:

Yeah, but I had no clue until I wrote issue #26 or #27 that Bucky was actually going to end up taking the mantle. It didn't occur to me that it was the next evolution of where Bucky was going. I knew all along that we would also have a redemption of Bucky storyline. So once I realized how big this story was getting, I realized I needed someone back in the costume with the shield eventually. And Bucky fit so perfectly into that. It all came together.

But until then, I was like, I'm pretty happy not having a Captain America for nine months. I think it was pretty shocking that we were able to sell that many copies of a book called Captain America without anybody in Captain America's outfit.

• And finally, over at Comics Should Be Good, the latest installment of "Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed" was an all-Bucky affair, casting the spotlight on various rumors related to the former sidekick.

Was Bucky's return originally planned for an issue much earlier in the series? Did concerns over a racial slur in the Marvel editorial office prompt a name-change in Bucky's past?

It's good ol' American journalism, folks. Check it out... or the terrorists win.

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