It looks like Marvel Comics has done it again.  Following his surrender at the end of Civil War, Captain America was shot dead in the pages of Captain America #25 which went on sale yesterday.  In a press release a Marvel spokesperson stated, "The story broke in the Daily News and quickly news spread to other outlets such as CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, and USA Today.  Variety even ran an obituary-style article saluting the fallen comic hero!  And across the country, over 50 radio and television news stations ran stories detailing the passing of the Star-Spangled Avenger."  Captain America was being transported to the location of his public trial for defying the Superhuman Registration Act when shots rang out.

Here's the thing about death in comics.  It never lasts.  For the longest time the rule-of-thumb was, "No one stays dead in comics except Uncle Ben and Bucky."  Well, even Bucky is back from the dead now as The Winter Soldier.  While reading the arc of Captain America where Bucky comes back, I repeated the phrase, "I can't believe that the Winter Soldier is actually Bucky," so many times that, to this day, I can ask my wife who the Winter Soldier is and, after a long sigh of exasperation, she'll say, "Bucky."  Now, Marvel Editor- in-Chief Joe Quesada has stated that he only allows characters to be killed if the death is meaningful, so maybe they won't bring him back in a few months.  But Steve Rogers will be back. 

The problem I have with this death is that he was basically just shot by a villain (Crossbones).  This could have happened at any point during the last 60 years, and it really has nothing to do with Civil War.  If they wanted to tie Cap's death into Civil War, then he should have died in the final issue at the hands of Iron Man.  THAT would have had meaning.  It would have shown Tony Stark's commitment to his beliefs, and it would have affected all the Marvel heroes in a much more serious way.  This death is just bad luck.

Marvel's press release went on to say, "Next week's Civil War: The Confession details the last moments of Captain America's life and this April and May, the ramifications of Cap's death and the responses of Marvel's greatest heroes will be seen in the pages of the five part Fallen Son: Death of Captain America event."