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Captain America slain by sniper!

by Dave Ward | March 7, 2007 at 05:58 pm | 640 views | add comment

Marvel Comics superhero Captain America is killed by a sniper in the latest issue of his eponymous comic book. Captain America #25 went on sale today.

The death of the superhero is certain to raise some controversy, and not only among comic book geeks.

Series writer Ed Brubaker - who grew up reading Captain America comics while his father, a naval intelligence officer, was stationed on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - said it wasn't easy to kill off the character. The 40-year-old, however, wanted to explore what the hero meant to the country in these polarized times.

"What I found is that all the really hard-core left-wing fans want Cap to be standing out on and giving speeches on the streetcorner against the Bush administration, and all the really right-wing [fans] all want him to be over in the streets of Baghdad, punching out Saddam," Brubaker said.

Comic book deaths, however, are rarely final. Marvel's archrival, DC Comics, provoked a media frenzy when it killed off Superman in 1993, only to reanimate its prize creation a year later.