March 9, 2007 – CAPTAIN AMERICA IS DEAD. It’s a powerful headline, even for those who have never picked up a Marvel comic book and don’t know “The Sentinel of Liberty” from “The Scarlet Swashbuckler.” Fans and novices alike have been struck by the poignancy of the image on the pages of the comic book, released Wednesday: a patriotic do-gooder with a bullet piercing his burly, red-white-and-blue torso.
Sure, he’s just a made-up character. But it’s hard to avoid reading today’s reality into the death of someone whose surname is “America” and who walks around in a spandex flag. From the first issue in 1941, in which the title character battles Adolf Hitler, “Captain America” has put a fantastical sheen on the nation’s very real troubles. And in Marvel’s recent “Civil War” mini-series, Captain America plays a starring role in a storyline that raised timely questions about individual rights versus national security. In the seven-book series that wrapped up last month, the Cap leads an underground resistance against the Superhuman Registration Act, a law that is widely regarded as an allegory for the Patriot Act, which required all superheroes to register their true identity with the federal government. In the end, struck by the damage that his movement was doing to American civilians, he surrenders. The series’s plotline carries over into the 25th issue of the Captain America comic: the icon is gunned down while on his way to the courtroom to face charges for his role in the civil war.Tags: msnbc.msn.com/newsweek
