With little warning to retailers, your local comic shop awoke the morning of April 14th to the loud ‘airhorn’-like announcement of the death of a beloved Marvel character. Some managed to up their orders on Captain America #25 in time, others floundered under the public pressure of a book only few were expecting to be on major news outlets.

To be honest, the now infamous ‘Death of Captain America’ obviously should have been broadcast live with news makers drawing attention to the demise of such an iconic character. It brought in business, called attention to the fantastic recent run on the title by Ed Brubaker and got Civil War into a few more hands. All in all a win for our team, just one I’m sure comic shop owners wished they’d been a little more prepared for.

This preparation can be both a blessing and a curse; at my store, we got advance word that a particular issue of Amazing Spider-Man would be a major sensation when it turned out that it was either the wrong issue or the wrong intel, leaving us with extra copies making some wonderful shelf decoration.

But never fear, True Believers! A recent reveal on the Diamond retailer’s website gave some warning regarding the last issue of the Fallen Son: the Death of Captain America mini-series. Now, I discounted this whole thing due to some so-so stories (though I’ll fully admit that the ‘Captain America’ issue was pretty good), but sources say that the last in the set staring Iron Man is sure ot be one of those highly publicized media events. There are threats of just as much media attention to this as there were to such hits as the reveal of Batwoman’s sexual orientation or, dare I say, the death of Cap itself.

A lot to live up to, right? A little uncertain, I approach this as I would anything else: with a million and one theories. Play along at home!

1. 1) Tony Stark is a Skrull

It’s the first one that came to mind. Hrm, maybe Marvel was right that New Avengers #31 really would be the most important comic of the year! Should Tony Stark turn out to be not of this world, this would change a lot of Civil War as we know it, explain a lot of behavioral inconsistencies and put the hero vs. hero contact into a whole new light. As of New Avengers: Illuminati #1 and Bendis’s hints, the Skrulls have been infiltrating Earth and what better way than to take over one of the Illuminati themselves. Also, I personally know of several fans who would like to know that the man who cloned Thor into a remotely controlled cyborg soldier wasn’t really the cool exec with a heart of steel.

The bad news is that this is probably the least likely. If this is going to really get media attention, no one’s going to take the time to explain what a Skrull is to CNN. It would be a pretty big cop out to blame the War on an alien invasion and after all the hard work that they put into the storyline? Not going to happen.

But it’s fun to think about.

2. 2) Tony Stark attempts to use the Reality Gem to fix everythingAlso from the pages of New Avengers: Illuminati, the second issue showed the rather madcap idea of giving each member of the shady organization their very own little mega powerful cosmic gem. Tony Stark just so happens to be in possession of “the most powerful, and most difficult to use” gem of them all. Keep in mind how much Tony speaks of himself as a ‘futurist’ and how, in Civil War: the Confession, he wants to see a dark future he glimpsed of an impending future where heroes would fight heroes (who knew!) avoided. Now, if you had this little piece of infinite cosmic power and your best efforts really weren’t going the way you had intended and the mire of it all was dragging you down… the Reality Gem would be a rather tempting idea.

   Just think of all the possibilities. Now, wiping away Civil War would be a really bad idea. Also, a resurrection of Steve Rogers would be way too soon and undermine the fine work Brubaker’s putting together in the Cap title. And again, why would major media outlets care about the balance of a fictional universe?

3. 3) Tony Stark gives the Captain America mantle to Isaiah Bradley

This is where my money’s going.

Iron Man has expressed within the Fallen Son series the need for a Captain America, some representation of the best of the country to stand for our truth, justice… all that stuff. There had been some effort in the past to use the Truth mini-series for some major impact, none of it sticking too well (though the Young Avenger, Elijah ‘Patriot’ Bradley is his nephew). Bringing in someone, while controversial, who wants to do the right thing and has the heroic clout to pull it off would not only fill the role missing in the Marvel Universe, but might even heal some part of the damage done by the original Super Soldier testing program by acknowledging it incredibly publicly.

Sadly, Isaiah Bradley’s condition has deteriorated over the years, leaving him in a wheelchair as last seen at Black Panther’s wedding and apparently in a simple mental state. The likelihood of them passing the mantle on to him seems slim, but I still wouldn’t put it past the House of Ideas. Either a revive of the character or perhaps even handing the shield to Patriot or Josiah X, Bradley’s test-tube son created by the Weapon Plus project (and a really radical move), this reveal would certainly hit news organizations like an atom bomb.

But again, this is all conjecture; in a world where anything can happen, you’re pretty much left at the mercy of the publisher and holding on tight for the next wild ride.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Marvel, News & Views, The Fifth Color, Version 1.0 Blog@. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.