New York – In the drizzling rain at Arlington National Cemetery, thousands solemnly watch as the pall bearers – Iron Man, the Black Panther, Ben Grimm and Ms. Marvel – carry a casket draped with an American flag.
Yes, folks, Captain America is dead and buried in the latest issue of Marvel Comics, due on newsstands the morning after Independence Day.
After 66 years of battling villains from Adolf Hitler to the Red Skull, the red, white and blue leader of the Avengers was felled by an assassin’s bullet on the steps of a New York courthouse.
He was headed to court after refusing to sign the Superhero Registration Act, a move that would have revealed his true identity. A sniper was captured as authorities were left to cope with chaos in the streets.
But the sniper didn’t act alone and didn’t even fire the fatal shot.
With the story line so relevant to present-day politics, and the timing of the latest issue so precise, it’s hard not to think the whole thing is one big slam on the government.
Writer Jeph Loeb says he was working with personal material: the death of his 17-year-old son from cancer.
More than 200 million copies of Captain America have been sold in 75 countries since the debut in March 1941.
