I’m with you on your theory though. I just wanted another excuse to bastardize the title Countdown.

If they could bring back Superman from the dead they can sure as shit tear Bruce away from his golf clubs and afternoon dinner at Dennys. Is Doomsday his retirement financial planning advisor?

As for the other titles being cancelled - I'm kind of glad. The title line has been getting way too bloated over the past few years. If our troubling economy means less books, but more quality - HUZZAH!!!!

Retires. Hence my Dennys comment in the earlier post.

Also, it's Guardians of the Universe. The Guardians of the Galaxy are over at Marvel and include a raccoon. You really were huffing, weren't you?

My reason is that Bucky died in war. And not a fake comic book war (War of the Gods, Kree-Skrull War, etc.) but a real, honest to God war where millions of other people died. Real soldiers who died in war don’t come back. That is what made Bucky so great; he was a symbol of all those young men lost way before their prime die in war. It made sense why after he was unfrozen Cap would have such a dislike for war, and even for killing in general.

I was in the army, but luckily I never saw any combat or had to even fear being sent into conflict, unlike today. Still, you wonder how one would react if one of your close buddies died, especially after seeing a bunch of shit together and backing each other up. When I was a kid, I accompanied my dad when he met some of his Korean War buddies and they would shoot the shit. Sooner or later, someone would mention a funny story regarding some guy in their squad or platoon, than it would dawn on everyone there that he had died not long after that story, and this would be followed by an uncomfortable silence until someone finally changed the subject.

I guess it is a generation gap and a kind of disconnect we all have with war. Very few of us are serving or know someone who is serving and lost a love one. Hell, I was in the army and I don’t know a damn thing about lost and sacrifice. But to see Bucky go from a tragic dead war hero into just another comic book character that has returned from the dead just doesn’t feel right to me.

But that is just my opinion.

Although I will concede that Bucky’s resurrection for the most part works. I think one of the reasons is that enough years has passed between WWII and now. When Cap was unfrozen, on about 19 years had passed since the end of the War, so it was easy to understand how Cap could be depressed over Bucky’s early death; he would have only been about 37 years old and had a wife, family, living the American Dream he fought for. Nowadays, he would be nearing 80 and his life would be coming to a close no matter what, if he were even still alive.

I also remember when Marvel used to say that the ones who would never come back were Bucky, Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy, The Green Goblin, and Jean Grey. Seems every year that list is getting less and less. The fact is that certain characters were much more poignant and important in death than in life, and any attempt at resurrecting them seems to diminish them. I can’t help but still wish that the Green Goblin and Jean Grey had never been brought back. I just hope Marvel doesn’t make me want to add Bucky to that list.

As for Ultimate Captain America, I am not going to say you are wrong because obviously your experiences with military men and veterans of WWII are different than mine. But my ultimate point (no pun intended) was why is that every ex-vet or currently enlisted soldier in the Marvel Universe treated as a complete reject, nutcase, asshole or villain? Or who was not betrayed by their government or crippled/mentally damaged by their war experiences?

And than there is the fact that all commanding officers are treated as completely fascist, power mad individuals (think Ryker in the Hulk comics some years ago, or any general in Supreme Powers). Even supposedly “good” guys like Nick Fury are treated as manipulative or willing to abuse power. I mean, think of the last time you saw a comic where a general in one of the branches of the armed forces was treated as being a good guy and not as power-mad or nationalistic asshole.

I am not some jingoistic, rightwing nut who loves war - I was against the invasion of Iraq from the get go - but I was in the army and I know that a lot of soldier, including many of the commanding officers, who are moral people who feel that obeying the rules of law and the moral code of the uniform in more important that obeying their commanding officers. Sure there are assholes in the military, just like in the rest of the world, but does everybody from the armed forces have to be depicted as a jerk or that being a soldier was the worst decision they have ever made? I find Marvel not to be anti-war but anti-soldier, as if they can’t imagine that any good, normal, conscientious person would ever put on a uniform.