Good Guy With a Gun: A Superhero For the Times

"To me, I'm telling a story," he says. "The idea that he has a gun really grows out of who it is that's in the suit. But that's how symbolism works. Some people see [the image on the Web site] and go 'Oh, my God.' "

John Hefner, an employee at Big Planet Comics in Georgetown, was one of them.

"It's not true to the spirit of the character and it's a rather cynical and shocking idea to have it be this way to represent the times we live in," Hefner says. "Superheroes are fantasy in the first place. They're myth and metaphor, and when you try to mix true reality in there, the absurdity is inherent in the character."

But that doesn't mean Hefner isn't going to stop being a fan.

"[Ed] Brubaker has been doing an excellent job on Captain America," he says. "I thought Cap's death was moving and powerful, and I think he has a plan for this [new] Captain America and the gun and everything. Everything goes back to the status quo. The real Cap will be back someday. He won't have the gun forever."

Alex Ross, one of the industry's most popular artists and the designer of the Captain's new suit, was watching a 1944 movie serial in which he saw the superhero carrying a gun. He didn't see a problem with giving the character a gun, as long as the person under the mask wouldn't turn out to be a resurrected Rogers. (The new character's identity will be revealed in January, Marvel says.)

"I think that's one of those bold things meant to be symbolic of this new design," Ross says.

Despite the 21st-century appeal, the new suit is actually a tribute to the past. Ross's inspiration for Captain America's triangular chest plate (which will deflect bullets) was Cap's original shield that he debuted in the first issue in 1941.

Tom Brevoort, executive editor for Marvel Comics, who oversaw Marvel's epic about civil war among the superheroes, compares the new Captain America to the persona of a police officer or FBI agent.

"Police officers and the military, those guys are authorized in particular circumstances to use deadly force if necessary," he says. "The job of a soldier is to safeguard the populace, the nation, the innocent."

But, he adds, he hopes the attention surrounding the new Captain America won't center on the fact that he's armed.

"The actual content of the story won't just be about the gun," he says. "We knew it was a provocative symbol to put a firearm in Cap's hand. That choice wasn't made in ignorance. . . . When people read the story, they'll get a broader view of what our new Cap is about and hopefully he represents American ideals the same way Steve Rogers did in the past."