Thomas Fortenberry

I just don’t understand. Why oh why did they have to go and kill Captain America? I mean, come on, he even surived World War II and aging itself, in suspended hypernation. So how can they go and kill him now? Boohoo, weep, moan.

“O Captain! Our Captain!” is a good interview about how and why this occurs.

CAPTAIN AMERICA IS DEAD. It’s a powerful headline, even for those who have never picked up a Marvel comic book and don’t know “The Sentinel of Liberty” from “The Scarlet Swashbuckler.” Fans and novices alike have been struck by the poignancy of the image on the pages of the comic book, released Wednesday: a patriotic do-gooder with a bullet piercing his burly, red-white-and-blue torso.

Sure, he’s just a made-up character. But it’s hard to avoid reading today’s reality into the death of someone whose surname is “America” and who walks around in a spandex flag. From the first issue in 1941, in which the title character battles Adolf Hitler, “Captain America” has put a fantastical sheen on the nation’s very real troubles. And in Marvel’s recent “Civil War” mini-series, Captain America plays a starring role in a storyline that raised timely questions about individual rights versus national security. In the seven-book series that wrapped up last month, the Cap leads an underground resistance against the Superhuman Registration Act, a law that is widely regarded as an allegory for the Patriot Act, which required all superheroes to register their true identity with the federal government. In the end, struck by the damage that his movement was doing to American civilians, he surrenders. The series’s plotline carries over into the 25th issue of the Captain America comic: the icon is gunned down while on his way to the courtroom to face charges for his role in the civil war.

So what are we to make of it all? What does the murder of a flag-clad superhero say about patriotism?

It says a lot. The fact that the sentinel of liberty is first outlawed, then hunted by his very own government, which he has spent a double-lifetime defending, during the extremely well-written Civil War, and then brought to trial where he is gunned down by John Q. Public is, well, so realistic and fitting it is a crying shame. This hits way too close to home.

NEWSWEEK: The “Civil War” comic mini-series that wrapped up last month touches on some pretty hot political issues. Were you at all nervous about delving into that?

JOE QUESADA: The Marvel universe is always at its best when we are reflecting the world around ourselves. “Captain America” was created right around the time of World War II, he fought Adolph Hitler, he sold war bonds; then in the ’60s when you look at the cold war and the fear that we had of the atom but also the promise of the atom, and you get characters like the Hulk, who comes out of a gamma-bomb explosion, and Spider-Man, who is bitten by an irradiated spider. Then there’s Vietnam, and Tony Stark is a guy who’s building weapons for the war in Asia and happens to get crippled there and become Iron Man–all these things really stem from comics being a product of their time. So when we were thinking of the story of “Civil War,” there was absolutely no resistance on our part to do it because we just knew it was one of those great ideas that we had to go forward with.

I understand the storyline and the reason it is necessary. It is just too tragic. I am sure the criminal mastermind behind the scenes will turn out to be the Red Skull or some other supervillain nemesis, but that can never negate the worldview that has led up to this moment. The entire charged atmosphere surrounding the recent past is…well, surreal and horrific. It is so only because it is reflecting real life, which makes it more horrible than any fantasy could ever have been.

I hope that Cap gets an unfair shake in the end and is resurrected a la Superman after his murder or, well, like Captain America after World War II. He is simply too vital a character to the American psyche now. I have been reseraching and writing a book on The American Hero the past few years, and doing a lot of explorations of modern American mythology. Captain America is dead-center in that mythos these days, and has been since World War II. People don’t realize quite how enduring and endearing he is, but if you look back at the legacy of everything he has done and stood for, battling Nazis and even selling War Bonds down to standing tall during the Civil Rights Era having african-american hero the Falcon as his modern partner to this latest defense against uber-patriotic tyranny, Captain has always been at the epicenter of the defense of liberty, justice, and freedom for all. He has become a very real symbol of America.

It is a deep loss for the nation and a great tragedy that Captain America has died. It will be a greater one if America does not heed the call to join the battle which he was leading and stand up to defend all of our rights. Captain America should not die in vain. Better yet, if he is resurrected, make him proud with an honest homecoming to an honest nation. What a sad ending if he dies for nothing, or worse is brought back to life to fight for the nothing which none of us cared enough to fight against losing.

Captain America’s death can be heroic or pathetic. The choice is ours.

See also:

The (Alleged) Death of Captain America.

There are very few names that the average person would recognize in terms of superheroism, and Captain America is one of them, because he’s OUR guy. He’s not from space like Superman, he’s not a jerk like Batman, he doesn’t turn green and huge and he doesn’t shoot sticky webs and have ultrahuman agility. He was a scrawny nerd who beefed up and fought for the right of scrawny nerds to be scrawny nerds, or whatever you wanted to be free to be. And he’s named after where we live.

ABC News: “What the Death of Captain America Really Means.”

You’re not crazy if you think Captain America’s struggle parallels the debates over the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, the Bush domestic surveillance program and other controversial programs in the post-Sept. 11 world.

CBS News: “Fans: Captain America Died For His Ideals.” “Because now, maybe more than ever, America needs its heroes.”

Stephen Colbert on the Death of Captain America “First they came for the X-Men…”