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I didn’t’ see it coming. I didn’t predict it was going to happen, but it did. Steve Rogers - aka Captain America - has been shot and has passed on. No one is suppose to stay dead in comics, but I take no comfort in that. He might be back tomorrow, but I live in today and that’s when he died.

Captain America began his career in the 1940’s under Timely’s Comics, a precursor to Marvel Comics. He wore red, white, and blue and had a shield that became his weapon of choice, ultimately his signature symbol. Starting out as a young man unfit to serve in the military, Steve Rogers volunteered for “Project: Rebirth”. Under the care of military scientists Rogers was given the Super-Soldier formula that made him the pinnacle of human efficiency, with enhanced muscles, reflexes, stamina, etc. He fought the Nazi’s and the Communists and then fell into a block of ice for a few years. Physically and metaphorically he was America’s hero. “Cap,” as he would eventually be called, awoke in a time not like his own but he still kept the symbol of Captain America and he continued to fight for the espoused ideals of the United States. You can try to sum up Captain America just as propaganda perpetuated over time, but that’s too simple and doesn’t do justice to an icon.

In the 80’s Captain America considered running for president. While he would be almost assured of victory, and would undoubtedly gain political power that matched his physical skills, Steve Rogers knew that as Captain America he could serve people better by being a hero than being a President. He knew that Captain America inspired more goodness as a symbol for the ideal dream and hope of America; a place where freedom was possible, justice was done, and hope can never die. He couldn’t be those things to everyone as a politician but he could if he was a hero.

The death of comic characters is not uncommon, and I doubt many find the temporary or permanent loss of characters very shocking.  So, why all the attention on Captain America? Is it that Captain America represents all the best that America could be? It does seem Steve Rogers wanted to be a living embodiment of the American Dream. What happens when that dream dies? Are we left in a cold reality instead of a better hope for tomorrow? Maybe his death is a wake up call on how fragile any dream can be. Even a dream we believe in whole-heartedly – the kind for which some are willing to die.  Since I presume most of my readers are in the United States, I pose these questions about a character who was created to represent some of the best ideas of our society.

Steve Rogers is dead, but the symbol of Captain America will go on. As long as there is hope in a better America there will be a Captain America to give it a form. Captain America will always be the best of who we are because that’s what Heroes should be: the best. If you have a chance, go read the poem “O Captain! My Captain” by Walt Whitman. It won’t disappoint. To those who own issue 25 of Captain America, watch out for those bent corners.