For those few of you who didn't run out to your local comic book store to pick up Captain America 600 which kicks off the REBORN storyline...it's been all over the news...so the eventual return of Steve Rogers should be no shock. The reason I write this is that while the Death Of Captain America has been a great story this far...I'm kind of sick of the comic book industry killing off major characters & then just having another character pick up their mantle. While this story has been great others not so...& I've yet to see another character take over by putting on the costume & them living up to that character...
Why you ask...because the hero is the man behind the mask NOT the costume...Batman is who he is due to Bruce Wayne's trauma of watching his parents gunned down before his eyes, Captain America due to Steve Rogers risking his life in an experimentation to become a super-solider to fight the Nazi's & he endures by being a man out of time with the values of Greatest Generation living today, Hal Jordan's trauma of witnessing the loss of his father in a test flight is what makes him fearless...etc... If they really want to kill off a character then kill one off that will not kill their sales & let the effects of his actions carry on in future story lines...
To put it in perspective in real life...my Father passed away 5 years ago. In many ways he was a hero to me. He didn't win any wars, invent anything or cure anything...but he lived a good life & had a positive influence on many. He was a good husband, father, friend, co-worker, neighbor etc... maybe if more people were like him we would all be better off. He's gone now. Nobody by putting on his costume which for the most part consisted of his polarized glasses, SuperDad t-shirt, Banana Republic cargo pants, Velcro sneakers with a load of pens & his spyderco knife as his gear...nobody is going to replace him...not I, my brother, uncles, cousins, anyone...yet his influence on our lives is what makes us the men we are today...we carry his mantle by using the lessons he taught us in our daily lives...it's what keeps him alive...
So next time instead of killing off a character just to bring him back & drive sales...kill off a character...keep him dead & let the all the things he did throughout his various story lines have influence on his world & let his actions & deeds provide motivation for his cast of characters...or at the very least never kill off Steve Rogers, Bruce Wayne or Hal Jordan again...
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