The original Captain America is back.
As revealed during the ABC Captain America: 75 Heroic Years special on Tuesday night, Steve Rogers will return to duty in a new comic book series this spring titled, simply, Captain America: Steve Rogers, which is planned to run parallel to the current Captain America: Sam Wilson series. Both series will be written by Nick Spencer, with art on Steve Rogers by Jesus Saiz.
“Captain America: Steve Rogers and Captain America: Sam Wilson will act as great counter-points to one another,” Spencer said in a press release from Marvel. “If you’re digging the topical, ripped-from-the-headlines approach we’re taking in Sam’s book, we’ve got plenty more of that to come. And if you’re up for a more timeless take, with Captain America facing off against Hydra and his classic rogues gallery, Steve’s book will be just the thing for you.”
Rogers was replaced with much fanfare by Wilson — formerly the superhero known as the Falcon — in October 2014, with the switchover being announced on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. Despite the timeframe, Wilson’s Captain America hasn’t had much chance to fly solo. Thanks to the line wide suspension caused by Marvel’s Secret Wars storyline, the character had only headlined six issues of his own series before it was relaunched as part of the publisher’s All-New All-Different reboot last October.
The move underscores a trend at Marvel to pull double-duty with big name characters. Currently, the publisher has two separate versions of Spider-Man, Wolverine, Thor, Hawkeye and other heroes — including four different members of the X-Men — active in its comic book universe, allowing the publisher to satisfy fans of the classic (inevitably white, straight male) versions while also expanding the diversity on offer, with alternatives in terms of race or gender also available.
Captain America: Steve Rogers will be available in comic book stores and digitally later this year, ahead of the character’s next cinematic outing in May’s Captain America: Civil War.
