Marvel teased an all-new Captain America. Today writer Rick Remender shares details on the new role for Steve Rogers and more on the hero who will carry the shield.
The Super Soldier Serum is out of Rogers body and he’s now a frail man who looks and feels his actual age. Rogers is physically weaker than ever while the Red Skull is more powerful than ever (after stealing Professor X’s brain in Uncanny Avengers.)
A hero will rise in Captain America #25 this fall in the March to AXIS.
“This is the final bit of story that we started off in CAPTAIN AMERICA #1 with the opening of Dimension Z,” Remender tells Marvel.com “Beyond that we’ve also got a nice tie-in to AXIS. Zola and Red Skull have been in cahoots, Red Skull having been a consciousness saved by Zola and then given a new body. Now we’ve reached the payout. The issue itself is just bombastic action. It’s Steve Rogers doing his very best to deal with a huge escalation in Zola’s war against the Avengers and mankind. There are a number of guest stars in it. We’ve got Iron Man and Hulk and Thor doing what they can to stave off Zola and his invading armies.
“We’ve also got the return of a few surprise characters we haven’t seen in a while. We’ve got a betrayal of a cast member and we’ve got the reveal of the new Captain America.”
But as the writer points out this is not the end of Rogers as a hero.
“Steve is in a spot where he’s still determined to serve, and he’s still determined to have a positive influence on the world around him,” Remender explained. “He wants to work to defend his nation and his world, but he’s left in a physical state of not being able to perform. The choices he has before him as to who he’s going to select as his replacement seem very simple at this point—it’s a short list—but we’re revealing a number of characters in #23 who’ve been gone for a while, that decision gets a little trickier. Steve hasn’t had a lot of time to concern himself with these things. Literally a day after the Iron Nail debacle when he lost the Super Soldier Serum and rapidly aged to the physical age he would have been had he never been frozen, he’s forced to make some hard decisions.”
“He’s a man in his 90s now without the frame or physical strength, but that doesn’t mean he’s out of the fight. He’s basically orchestrating things and playing tactician, fighting against Zola, using his friends in the Avengers to try and do so. He’s waging a war from a room rather than the front lines, which is new for Steve. There might be some shuffle boarding in his future. I do like the idea of giving Steve a bit of a break once the new Cap steps up and takes the mantle for a while. Steve’s going to continue to play a role in the series as mentor and tactician and eye in the sky, running ops and things. He’s got all of his faculties and is still the super soldier he earned the right to be called; he just lacks the physical form.”
Watch for the big reveal of who will carry the shield soon. The new star-spangled hero arrives in Captain America #25, part of the March to AXIS and the big war with the Red Onslaught.
By Editor