Captain America is a member of HYDRA who murders another super-hero. That will sell comics. I picked up the second to last issue 38 minutes after the local comic store opened. It also should make the walls at Marvel bleed. The ghosts of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby are likely screaming down the halls for the way Steve Rogers has been defiled.
The new Steve Rogers: Captain America truly dishonors the 75-year history of the character in the final pages of the comic. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created Captain America prior to the United States entering World War II. As the Nazis and Imperial Japan waged war on neighboring countries, the United States dug in its heels on staying out of the war. From Senator Gerald Nye and the Neutrality Acts, to college students taking the Oxford Pledge to never defend the United States, to children being sent to American Nazi summer camps, there were many in the United States willing to let the world burn down.
Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created a character that represented the best of America. Simon and Kirby forged Steve Rogers in the hearts of those who knew right from wrong, who believed in hope, and were not afraid to take a stand against evil. Steve Rogers represented the Americans who risked their citizenship to sneak into Canada in order to travel to England to fight in the Battle of Britain; Steve Rogers represented those who enlisted after the attack at Pearl Harbor; and Steve Rogers represented the sacrifice of those who did not come home. The character of Captain America is the personification of the Greatest Generation.
The new Captain America story throws all the nobility of the character out the window. Seeing Captain America murder someone is grossly offensive. The families of Simon and Kirby are owed apologies for this character assassination. Whatever happens with this story arc, let it end quickly.
