Rating: ****

This month’s “Captain America” hits the stands this week as the announcement is made that Steve Rogers is returning as Captain America in the mini-series “Captain America: Reborn”. As we all know Steve Rogers was shot and killed by a brainwashed Sharon Carter in “Captain America” (Vol.5) #25. Cap’s long thought dead partner James “Bucky” Buchanan Barnes assumed the role of Captain America in issue #34 of the same series. There are numerous stories in this extra-sized issue of #600, but it is the main story of the book that sets the table for “Reborn” and the return of Rogers as Captain America.

The main story takes place on the one year anniversary of Steve Rogers’ assassination and focuses on all of the supporting players that we’ve seen in Captain America life: Sharon Carter, Bucky, Falcon, Patriot, etc. The story goes from character-to-character and each one has their own little tale. Sharon is remembering the events of the day she pulled the trigger and she remembers handing the gun off to some man. Sharon enters the home of that man and discovers that like her, he was brainwashed on the day of the assassination. After shooting Steve, Sharon unconsciously handed the gun off to the man. She finds the gun and takes off.

One of the characters that is shown in this story is Rikki Barnes the female Bucky that Cap teamed up with during the “Heroes Reborn” series. She has traveled over to the 616 Marvel Universe and aligns herself Eli Bradley The Patriot from the Young Avengers. I like that Marvel has decided to bring this character over into the 616 universe, however things are getting a bit crowded with Cap’s supporting cast. Hopefully writer Ed Brubaker can juggle them all.  Still I welcome the character and see potential.  Maybe they can pair up Rikki and Eli in a relationship.

With the one year anniversary of Captain America’s assassination, the people of New York plan to gather to remember him with a vigil in Central Park. Falcon and the non-registered Avengers plan on attending the vigil which is threatened with being shut down by Norman Osborn’s HAMMER organization. Osborn doesn’t shut it down, but uses it instead to paint himself in a positive light with the public.

Cap was considered a traitor when he died because he refused to register as a super-hero with the government during the Civil War, but the people of America still look at him as an American hero. Instead of branding Cap as a traitor, Osborn stands in front of the crowd along with his Dark Avenger Ms Marvel and the Sentry. One thing that upset me with this scene was when Osborn said, “I’m sure the Left want you to think I didn’t respect Captain America and what he stood for… but it’s simply not true.” Is Cap writer Ed Brubaker insinuating that Osborn and his beliefs and tactics are right wing? I’m sorry, I consider myself a right winger; a conservative and a character like Norman Osborn doesn’t represent what we on the right believe. Whatever the case, I’m not going to rant about this here, this is about Captain America.

The story ends with the non-registered Avengers listening to Osborn as Sharon Carter joins them. She tells Bucky that she thinks there is still a way to save Steve and we end there. The gun that Sharon retrieved was not a regular gun with bullets. Could this gun have been a gun that simulated death? Could the gun have been simply a stunning weapon that put Steve in some sort of comma? Steve’s body was sent to the bottom of the ocean in “Fallen Son”. Maybe the Red Skull recovered his body and his holding Steve prisoner for some future plot. I guess we’ll find out in “Reborn.”

This was a very good issue and is a good jump on point for readers who haven’t been following Cap since his death. The remaining stories were pretty good. The next story in the issue focused on Steve’s ex-girlfriend Bernie Rosenthal. A character I had completely forgot about since my days of reading Cap in the 80s. Another story focuses on a Captain America collector who sells off his collection. A secret female bidder bids on Cap’s original Avengers id card. The woman is not the buyer, but instead purchased it for her boss…Tony Stark aka Iron Man. Did Tony do this for sentimental reasons or does he have a plan.  The final story is a reprint of a Stan Lee story from Timely Comics’ “Captain America Comics” #16 from July of 1942.

I was shocked when I heard the news that Steve was coming back in “Reborn”. I thought “Reborn” would be another tease that Marvel would put out in the same way we saw them do when they advertised the “Avengers/Invaders” mini-series to make it look like Steve maybe coming back. I’m pumped up about Steve’s return and look forward to seeing how the story unfolds. Welcome back, Steve.