So remember that rumor story we ran a while ago? The one where Captain America gets a June relaunch? It was originally seen over at Bleeding Cool, but when it wasn’t announced at C2E2 we kind of shrugged it off. Oops!
The NY Daily News is reporting the “exclusive” news of Captain America reverting back to #1 in June (and when another site beats you to the punch, let alone a second site who reports information from that first site, it’s not really exclusive). The fun bit of new information is that the art will be done by Steve McNiven, whom you might remember from a little event called Civil War (let alone two other Mark Millar stories). This will admittedly be a big change in the book’s artistic style, given that Brubaker has been working artists that give the book a very gritty and dark look (especially with Steve Epting), and McNiven stories tend to be much more bright and refined, even when the scene takes place in the dark. Still, McNiven is an A-List artist, so it should be interesting to see the interiors.
One can assume that Captain America going back into his original costume is a result of Fear Itself and that big ol’ Captain America: The First Avenger film being released a month later. The article from the NY Daily News does not really get into what to expect from the upcoming series at all, so I suppose it’s safe to say that Marvel is attempting to keep that aspect under wraps for now. However, one thing we can provide that might be interesting to speculate on is the solicit for the “last” issue of Captain America, #619:
The events of Fear Itself collide as our two stories reach their stunning conclusion. From his cold Russian prison cell, Bucky makes a decision that will change his life forever. And in the Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier back-up, the first repercussions of Bucky’s actions may destroy everything Steve has worked so hard for. It’s the stunning conclusion you won’t believe!
So yes. Whatever this is, it’s related to Fear Itself, so you can assume Marvel is going to capitalize on any new fans that come to Captain America to also promote Fear Itself, which makes 100% sense.
For three covers, including the full McNiven cover, take a look behind the cut.
(via source)
