In March of last year, Marvel Comics killed off Captain America (see our article announcing the death). If you missed it, Marvel is making the death issue, Captain America #25 available as a free download (see this page) until 11 February.
Now comes word that he’s making a comeback. Captain America #34, by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting, is now available.
Warning: spoilers ahead.
Steve Rogers, the secret identity of Captain America, is still dead in Arlington National Cemetery, but his 1940s sidekick, Bucky Barnes, has taken up the shield and uniform. Barnes hasn’t any superpowers, but he’s bulked up, trained, and become a master of special operations. And don’t worry about the age issue (he isn’t in his 80s): Barnes was put in suspended animation by the then-evil Russians, and kept on ice for more of the last 60 years (except for occasional thaws for evil deeds). Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada notes that Barnes is “probably in his late 20s right now.”
As for the promotion, from sidekick to Cap, Quesada says “We were toying with the idea of someone new taking over the mantle of Captain America, but we kept coming back to Bucky. Not only because he seemed such an obvious choice, but especially because of the fact that when we brought him back as the Winter Soldier he was so incredibly popular.”