If by some phenomenon you haven’t already discovered that Steve Rogers is coming back (if you have to be told who that is, just stop reading this article right now!) first stop trade waiting and second, fear not, for I come not to praise Steve Rogers but to bury him. Whether or not you want him back, face it, get ready for the return of Steve and embrace change….again….for real….
Practically almost everything that can be said has already, but I’ll still give in my 2¢. Like a lot of fans, I’m not too big about companies killing off characters when they’ve pretty much run out of ideas for the character. Reign of the Supermen comes to mind, a nostalgic favorite of a certain Phil Molnar, or so I’ve heard. But unlike the death of Supermen, the death of Cap meant something for so many reasons. For one thing, if your hero is murdered, it has to be done by a villain with whom he has real history like a Red Skull or Lex Luthor as opposed to some walking Doomsday creation. Plus, killing an American icon as big as Captain America had real resonance with what was going on in the country at the time. The Bush Administration and two wars comes to mind. The long and short of it - reading Captain America #25 really meant something.
As Joe Quesada and other editors at Marvel have already stated, Steve Rogers was 
always coming back, it was only a matter of how long. It’s just unfortunate that the past few years have had their share of quite a few character resurrections (including Bucky) and this year in particular DC saw both the return of Barry Allen (the original Silver Age Flash) as well as a new Batman and Robin.
What’s been most surprising, since Rogers has been out of uniform, is how the new Bucky Cap has been almost universally embraced by fans. For readers who had been following Ed Brubaker’s run from the beginning, it just felt organic and the natural progression of the character. I think Mark Waid said it best in explaining why Wally West is his favorite Flash in that very few sidekicks actually fulfill the duty of taking over their mentor’s role, and now Bucky can finally be added to that list.
Of course, as some creators have already teased, just because Steve Rogers is coming back, let’s not assume he’s going to going put on the uniform again. I personally prefer Bucky because of the Mark Waid thing and because being Captain America means something as a path to redemption and gives him a purpose in the Marvel Universe. If Steve isn’t Cap, I have no idea what else he could be or do. Perhaps roam the earth like Cain in Kung Fu Nomad style, but it’s been done before. With so many different Captain America characters like the 50’s Cap, Bucky Cap, Rikki Barnes, Patriot, I just hope we don’t wind up with another Reign of the Captains or Battle for the Shield event.
Still, Marvel hasn’t let me down before so I’m eager to see what they have in store.
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