In the upcoming Heroic Age, James "Bucky" Barnes will hold on to the mantle of Captain America while Steve Rogers has been appointed as America's 'Top Cop' succeeding Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Tony Stark and Norman Osborn. The artist, who's best known for his painted work that often graces many of Marvel's comic book covers each month, has talked to IGN about the process of coming up with a brand new look for Steve Rogers!
"With Steve, I know there were a lot of people involved, from Joe Quesada to Ed to Brian Bendis to Tom Brevoort and so on. So everyone had some ideas on what they wanted. They came with a general idea – something modern and Nick Fury-ish, S.H.I.E.L.D-ish but with kind of a Special Ops or G.I. Joe-ish influence. But at the same time something that still had some recognizable symbols from the old Captain America costume. So that was my initial stuff to go with."
"I wanted to give Marvel a wide range of ideas with this first pass. Actually what was funny was we nailed it with just the second round. They just wanted a few tweaks in there. So there was a lot of luck on my side that I didn't have to redo this over and over again."
"I just took a good look at what the original Captain America costume looked like. I took a look at what Nick Fury's costume looked like. And I then tried to break it down from there. I tried to reduce stuff, remove symbols and so on, to make them more like emblems on a uniform. I also tried to reduce and move the stripes that were such an iconic part of the Captain America uniform. I realized I can get rid of some reds and still keep the general appeal of Cap alive."
"It just got simplified more and more to the point where it was more of a uniform suit, and people liked that."