Shocking event for Captain America

From Larry Holmes, Jonathan O’Beirne
and Glenn Perreira
CNN

Editor’s Note: The following story reveals information about the Marvel Comics’ “Civil War” storyline and a key character. If you’d rather not know, stop reading now.

NEW YORK (CNN) — He fought and triumphed over Hitler, Tojo, international Communism and a host of supervillains, but he could not dodge a sniper’s bullet.

Comic book hero Captain America is dead.

After close to 60 years in print, Marvel Comics has killed off Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, one of its most famous and beloved superheroes amid an already controversial story line, “Civil War,” which is pitting the heroes of Marvel’s universe against one another.

In the comic series, Rogers was to stand trial for defying a superhero registration law passed after a hero’s tragic mistake causes a 9/11-like event.

Steve Rogers eventually surrenders to police. He is later mortally wounded as he climbs the courthouse steps. (Watch the story of an American heroVideo)

Marvel says the comic story line was intentionally written as an allegory to current real-life issues like the Patriot Act, the War on Terror and the September 11 attacks.

“Every child knew about 9/11,” says Dan Buckley, president of Marvel Comics. “If [he] could see a TV he knew what 9/11 was. The other similarities [to] things going on are just part of storytelling.”

It was a violent and strange end for an American hero.

Captain America first appeared in 1941, just as the United States entered World War II. He was a symbol of American strength and resolve in fighting the Axis powers, and later Communism.

As originally conceived by creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Rogers was a man born before the Great Depression in a very different America. He disappeared after the war and reappeared only recently in the Marvel timeline. For a superhero many thought perfect, it was perhaps a fatal flaw for “Cap,” as he became known.

“He hasn’t been living in the modern world and the world does move,” says Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada.

Quesada said he wanted to readers find their own meaning in Cap’s end.

“There is a lot to be read in there. But I’m not one who is going to tell people, this is what you should read into it, because I could look into it and read several different types of messages,” he told CNN.

The character’s death came as a blow to co-creator Simon, the Associated Press reported.

“We really need him now,” Simon, 93, told The AP.

Still, one has to wonder: Is Captain America really dead? Comic book characters have routinely died, only to be resurrected when necessary to storylines.

Joe Quesada agrees — but said times are different now.

“There was period in comics where characters would just die and then be resurrected. And the death had very little meaning and the resurrection had very little meaning,” he said. “All I ask of my writers is if you’re going to kill a character off, please let that death have some meaning in the overall scope of things.”

Besides, he said, there are other important questions left unanswered.

“What happens with the costume? And what happens to the characters that are friends and enemies of Cap?” Quesada said with a smile. “You’re going to have to read the books to find out.”

Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

Report: Captain America dies on the page

Wed Mar 7, 2:41 PM ET

Captain America has undertaken his last mission — at least for now.

The venerable superhero is killed in the issue of his namesake comic that hit stands Wednesday, the New York Daily News reported. On the new edition’s pages, a sniper shoots down the shield-wielding hero as he leaves a courthouse.

It ends a long run for the stars-and-stripes-wearing character, created in 1941. Over the years, some 210 million copies of Captain America comic books, published by New York-based Marvel Entertainment Inc., have been sold in 75 countries.

But resurrections are not unknown in the world of comics, and Marvel Entertainment Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada said a Captain America comeback wasn’t impossible.

Still, the character’s death came as a blow to co-creator Joe Simon.

“We really need him now,” said Simon, 93, who worked with artist Jack Kirby to devise Captain America as a foe for Adolf Hitler.

The superhero was spawned when a scrawny arts student named Steve Rogers, ineligible for the army because of his poor health but eager to serve his country, agreed to a “Super Soldier Serum” injection. The substance made him a paragon of physical perfection, armed only with his shield, his strength, his smarts and a command of martial arts.

In the comic-book universe, death is not always final. But even if Captain America turns out to have met his end in print, he may not disappear entirely: Marvel is developing a Captain America movie.