Oh Captain, My Captain.

As everyone has heard by now, Captain America has met his demise via the sharp-shooting of a sniper (no, not Dick Cheney as some would have you believe.) I spent a good portion of yesterday surfing the net so I could bring you the most enlightened views on this catastrophe, but what can I say? They shot and killed him and sold out one issue of his monthly book.

You can read many more eloquent posts on the subject by seeking the opinions of the comic bloggers out there such as Bully, Mike Sterling or a guy who usually writes about DC of the 60's at Silver Age Comics. If you need a daily dose of Comics madness, either of these sites will give you your fix and then link from there to overdose.

I read several articles full of misinformation and opinion but they all seem to point to the inevitable...is he really dead or will he come back?


The Yahoo article is actually fairly well written and uses a still from the iconic comic itself. I think the author may actually have read a Cap or two in his life. They do mention that Cap Am hasn't taken Hollywood by storm, and that's true. (The Serial of the 40's (below), the Cartoon of the 60's (stay tuned) or the TV movies of the 70's (check this earlier post out) cannot really be considered by storm.)



You know that this Sympatico article was written by a guy who has never read a comic for it starts off with "Holy Homicide, Batman!" (Don't get me started on how wrong that statement is.) The picture they use is from some book called "The Ultimates" which places the characters out of continuity, nowhere near connected to the current storyline. Only read if you're really interested.








This quote, "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." in this fairly pedantic CTV article is the best thing in it. I've read few stories that have mentioned the creators and it's nice to see that someone sought out one of the surviving geniuses behind the mythos.

My next post will feature a ton of propaganda covers from the 40's, most with a witty(?) caption. But I wanted to end this post with an anecdote from my youth. When my siblings and I watched the Marvel Superheroes show in the 60's (yes I am that old), his cartoon was my personal favourite. Here are the original lyrics to his theme song, but I have a challenge to you. Do what we did as kids and substitute the word "panty" for the word "mighty" and then listen to the theme song. I swear you will never hear the tune quite the same way again.

"Captain America"
When Captain America throws his mighty shield
All those who chose to oppose his shield must yield
If he's led to a fight and a duel is due
Then the red and the white and the blue'll come through
When Captain America throws his mighty shield!

Did you know the Canadian connection to our dear Captain? Well, this group of cartoons was produced in Toronto, with primarily Canadian voices. Ralph Bakshi had his hand in this as he did in the Spiderman show of the same era. To listen to lots more cartoon themes, click here.

Steve Rogers, Rest in Peace.