It’s the new year and that means new beginnings. New beginnings for MARVEL characters is what 2013 is all about with their new ‘NOW!!’ titles. I’m simply here to tell you where I think MARVEL should take their favorite shield slinger in the upcoming year. 2012 was a busy year for the Star Spangled Avenger. He lead the Avengers to defeat the X-Men, starred in the highest grossing film of the year, emerged as the leader of his team in the ‘Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ cartoon, had his long time writer, Ed Brubaker, finish up his legendary run on the hero, and is now two issues into his brand new series of MARVEL NOW!!
When you think about all of the merchandise that he was apart of and the amount of Avengers books that he has starred in every month, you’ll realize it’s been one of Cap’s biggest years yet! How can Marvel hope to top this? Without a movie coming out it is going to be a hard task to achieve but I have a few ideas that can help keep Cap’s momentum going, in the comics, as we wait until he returns to the big screen in 2014!
Be sure to keep in mind that everything I’m about to mention is purely what I myself would like to see happen to Cap in the comic books. While some of this stuff may be unlikely to happen I still believe that using these ideas could be a great way to keep long time fans of the character, and new comers alike, excited and interested in Cap’s future.
One of the first things I would like to see from MARVEL is a brand new CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE FALCON comic book. Cap is certainly popular enough to carry another book if an appropriate writer is assigned to bring his stories to life. Falcon will be brought to the big screen in just under the next year and a half. Having a book out to let people know who the character is and get familiar with him will get the comic audience even more excited for the upcoming film. Many people may know who The Falcon is but I’m not so sure that a lot of them know his back story. This is the book to do that and this is the time to release this book. Show people why Cap and Falcon are best friends. Explore their crime fighting partnership. Breathe some fresh air into this relationship and make us care even more about these two. When the film does finally come out MARVEL will have a few graphic novels to sell to people who are interested in the character and want to learn more about him. And with MARVEL and DISNEY it’s all about the money, right?
Secondly, let’s bring back the Red Skull’s Skeleton Crew. For those of you who don’t know, The Skeleton Crew was Red Skull’s personal strike team that was led by none other than, the upcoming baddie from the film, Crossbones. They were last seen in the first issue of Ed Brubaker’s run. They were quickly killed off by a brainwashed Bucky Barnes. What I’m picturing is a long, ongoing, story about Crossbones recruiting bad guys to come and work for him and help him to some way bring back to life his beloved boss. You need to amp up Crossbones as a villain. He needs to be shown as even more of a threat than he has been in the past. Tell people stories that will get them excited for the characters that are going to be in the movie.
This next suggestion is going to be a little out there for some of you. I love Captain America stories from the late 80’s through the early 90’s. It was the era where I started my Cap collection from. Almost all of you know of Peggy Carter, a lot of you know about Sharon Carter, but I’m guessing that a large amount of you don’t know much about Wing Head’s love interest from the 90’s, Diamondback. She started out as a villain and soon became Captain America’s ‘Catwoman’ if you will. She slowly started to come over to the good side while trying to impress Cap and today she works as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
While missing through almost all of Ed Brubaker’s run on Cap, she did finally make an appearance in the last two arcs of his stories. She still clearly had feelings for Steve and it seemed there was going to be a love triangle between the two of them and Sharon Carter. It was nice seeing her but what I would really like to see is her go back to how she was portrayed in her early days. Here’s a fun fact for you; Diamondback’s origin is closely tied to Crossbones. In fact. Crossbones’ first appearance was directly tied into a Diamondback story. Bringing her back into the fold would certainly make some long time Cap fans year better.
Let’s move over to Captain America’s Avenging side of the comics. There are already quite a few Avengers books on the stands these days but I’m going to propose one more be added. We have the New Avengers and the Secret Avengers and many other Avengers books but one that we are missing, and one that I would love to see, is a book starring the more classic members of the team. Everybody loves Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Daredevil, but I’m asking Marvel to think about us old school fans for a minute.
Where’s our book? Where’s the book for those of us who want a line up that doesn’t consist of any of the ‘New’ members? Wolverine and Spidey are in a ton of their own books, so why can’t I get ONE comic that focuses on Cap along with the original members and others like Hawkeye, Widow, She-Hulk, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Black Panther, Black Knight, Tigra and those type of traditional characters? I know that a lot of these people are spread out through different Avengers books but I want just one book where it stars ONLY them. Come on Marvel, give us this one.
The final thing that I’m going to ask MARVEL to please do is keep giving us flashback’s to Steve’s childhood. This has been my favorite thing about Rick Remender’s run so far. Seeing Steve’s mom stand up to her abusive husband and teaching him as a young boy not to back away from bullies has been the highlight of the book for me. Seeing his grandfather teach him about not losing hope was another great scene. There might be a ton of action going on in the rest of the book but my favorite parts are the little character moments. Seeing what made Steve become the man that he is today is what I live for from my comics.
As you can tell I am a very opinionated person when it comes to my love for the First Avenger. I am very protective of him and have strong opinions about what I want to see from him. But, alas, I am just one fan and these are simply my ideas of what I want to see from the character.
What about you, though? What do YOU want to see from Captain America in the comics this year? Are you happy with where the character is and where he appears to be going? Sound off below and be sure to follow me at @Wing_Head for more of my biased opinions on Cap!