The mantle of Captain America is set to once again rest on the shoulders of the original bearer: Steve Rogers. Well, sort of.
Of late, Marvel Comics has been swapping around roles and names with several classic characters. Captain America, the Hulk, and Thor, just to name a few, are all characters we’ve known and loved, but they’re not Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, or, er, Thor Odinson. (That last one is the most confusing of the lot.)
For example, the current Captain America is Sam Wilson, a longtime ally of Steve Rogers who was previously known as the Falcon. A series of events saw the serum which gave Steve his gifts — including his seeming inability to age — drained from his body, and so Rogers passed the shield and the title to Wilson. Since then, Wilson’s been Captain America, and Rogers has been … well, Steve Rogers, but real old.
But Marvel’s announced that Steve Rogers is set to once again don the Captain America moniker in a new series titled Captain America: Steve Rogers from the team of Nick Spencer and Jesus Saiz, with Spencer doing the writing and Saiz doing the art.
But how is it that Steve’s back in fighting shape? “Without spoiling too much of [the upcoming Marvel event] Standoff at this early date,” Nick Spencer states in a Marvel Q&A, “something happens that restores Steve to full vigor, which will obviously greatly impact his own mission and his standing within the Marvel Universe. The biggest part of that? He's Captain America once again.”
Where does that leave Sam Wilson, Steve’s former partner and current Captain America? “It means we'll have two Captain Americas,” Spencer states matter-of-factly. “When Steve handed the shield to Sam, it didn’t come with any caveats. It’s his. Steve respects and admires what his old partner is doing, and wants him to carry on. There are enough problems out there, and enough bad guys, to keep both of them busy.”
Both Wilson and Rogers will be fighting the bad guys, but Rogers will mostly focus on the classic bad guys at Hydra. It’s also not shocking that Rogers would come back to fighting form. Characters regularly are defeated in some way or change somehow before shockingly returning to life. Sometimes literally.
Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 is set to release this spring.
