If you've been reading Marvel comics for the last couple of years you'll know that Steve Rogers; Captain America, is dead. In fact even if you don't read comics at all it was pretty hard to miss the media storm that surrounded the death of this Amrerican fictional hero. Now it seems as though he may be coming back. Of course this is just rumour at the moment spurred on by the following teaser promo that has been running in a lot of the Marvel comics.

I was totally sucked in by the hype of the whole Death of Captain America story and although I'd never looked at a 'Cap' book before I started reading Ed Brubaker's run on the title. The death wasn't the only thing that pulled me in, Cap had played a vital role in the summer event Civil War that had preceeded this story and had become quite attached to Steve Rogers. Brubaker has managed to keep the Captain America book going very well without Steve in the suit, first with just the supporting characters of Cap's world like Falcon and Sharon Carter and now with the 'new cap' as played by the Winter Soldier AKA Cap's former sidekick Bucky Barnes. He's made Bucky into his own Captain America, a man that has been able to step out of the shadow of Steve Rogers and do his things his way whilst still staying true to the spirit of the icon.

Now it seems as though this may all be about to end with the possible return of Steve Rogers and I really don't know how I feel about it. First of all I need to say this is by far and away not a certain thing, the teaser is very purposely ambiguous and may turn ou to have nothing to do with Steve Rogers at all. Regardless of that it has done two things 1) Got me intersted and excited for the book, something I'll definitely be buying and 2) Made me really consider whether we need Steve Rogers to return?
That's right I said it, do we need Steve Rogers and would a return now be the best thing for the character?

Follow up:

Any return of an important and popular character will sell books, Fact. If Reborn is really the return of Steve Rogers to the Marvel Universe it will sell-out, Fact. These things would make the publishers happy and probably a large contingent of the fanbase too, especially as everyone seems so concerned with the number of books that are selling each month rather than the number of good stories each month. Normally I'd be in their number, heralding the return of a true icon but I have a problem, I like Bucky Barnes as the new Cap. He's added something a little different and because of the way Ed Brubaker writes stories we're only just seeing now the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this character in his new role. Sure the return of Steve and inevitable showdown between him and Bucky would be super cool but we can still have that in a few years when we've had a bit more time with Bucky and grown even more attached to him.

Of course this is probably all just a clever marketing ploy by those Marvel marketing wizards and it has absolutely nothing to do with Steve Rogers' return at all. Either way I still stand by this, let Bucky Barnes be Captain America for a little while longer; he's earned it.