New, armed Captain America arrives

Cap’s back.

Nearly a year ago, Steve “Captain America” Rogers was gunned down in the pages of Marvel Comics’ “Captain America” No. 25. In issue No. 34, arriving in comic book shops today, a new Captain America rises.

The man behind the mask is Bucky Barnes, who was Captain America’s partner in World War II. Bucky was long thought to have died in an explosion during the war. But writer Ed Brubaker brought him back from the dead a couple of years ago, revealing that the Russians had found Bucky, revived him and brainwashed him to become a political assassin called the Winter Soldier. In between missions, Bucky was kept in stasis — which explains why he’s not old enough to need a walker by now. (Steve Rogers, meanwhile, stayed young by being frozen in a block of ice for decades.)

With Captain America’s help, Bucky eventually rejected his brainwashing and has been trying to redeem himself ever since. Now he’s assuming the role of Captain America — but a darker, edgier Cap, armed not just with a shield, but a knife and gun.

“Part of the whole new Cap is taking a guy who isn’t Steve Rogers, who had a different upbringing, and putting him into that place,” Brubaker said in an interview with The Gazette two months ago, when it was known that a new Captain America was in the works. “It’s like how do you fill those shoes and can you? And what does wearing that costume do for you?”