I Love You, The Check’s In The Mail, and a Marvel Character is Dead: Bucky’s New Book

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We’ve talked a lot here at Crisis On Infinite Midlives about the formula of event comics: new costumes, giant battles, and the death of at least one character. Some creator boasting that the event is so big it will “change everything” and will “break the Internet in half” remains optional. For now. Rob Liefeld still has to submissively piddle at the end of each event. Rumor is it’s in his contract, along with the whole “coprophagia” clause. But this is no time to be making up stories about Liefeld, this is serious business. We’re talking about death here.

One of the two big deaths in Marvel’s Fear Itself event was the death of Bucky, Captain America’s old World War II sidekick who took over Cap’s mantle after Steve Rogers was killed in (say it with me!) a big crossover event in 2007. Bucky, who was also killed during World War II, was the victim of the new Red Skull, who tore his arm off… probably at the direct order of Joe Quesada, who figured out that it would probably be a bad idea to have a different guy as Captain America in the comics than in the multi-million dollar blockbuster movie of the same name. He apparently realized this several months after the movie was released, and several years after most of us understood that “Bucky Cap” sounds like euphemism for some kind of French Tickler-type device, but that’s not important right now.

What’s important is that Bucky is dead. He is bereft of life. He rests in peace. His metabolic processes are now history. He’s kicked the bucket. He is an ex-Bucky. And he’s been an ex-Bucky twice. That’s pretty final. Right?

Sure it is. This is Marvel we’re talking about:

I couldn’t be happier that I no longer have to keep this a secret… Bucky’s coming back to life is known to maybe three or four people—Cap, Nick, and Black Widow—and it kind of has to stay that way, because otherwise his past catches up with him again…

Apparently Bucky’s return to life is detailed in Fear Itself #7.1: Captain America, which has been resting comfortably on the Crisis On Infinite Midlives “read eventually, maybe” pile and which now has to be reluctantly shoveled into our “review” pile. But either way, Winter Soldier #1 is gonna show a new direction for Bucky… even though by rights that direction should be over one foot, down six:

Brubaker added that Bucky will “have to go on these covert missions without outing himself,” and will confront people who “will shit their pants, recognizing him and realizing he’s not dead.”

Calling Rob Liefeld! Cleanup on aisle 616!

Seriously, though: what we’re seeing here is a new record for a comic company: killing and resurrecting a character in literally about 90 days. Hell, even DC took a year or so to bring back Batman, and that was fucking Batman. It’s a new low in cheapening death as a plot device in comics, which was pretty cheap to begin with. But thankfully, this is a one-off. Marvel certainly wouldn’t try for a quickie resurrection as a chintzy way to boost readership more than once in a year, right?

What’s that, teaser image from Fantastic Four #600?

Human Torch. Awesome. I’m guessing we can stay on the edge of our seats for 2012’s rumored new book: The Whacky Adventures of Uncle Ben! I hear it’s gonna be drawn by Rob Liefeld!