Apologies in advance, because I'm about to rant kind of a lot.
Whoever's idea it was, I've lost all respect for him, because it is/was a cheap attempt to get attention via shock value, and even halfway decent porn is above that. I guess death is slightly less horribly offensive than being depowered, but both are unnecessary and an insult to fans and to Marvel's own (nearly)seventy-year history.
Regardless, what I'm really angry at Brubaker over is the last year or so of Captain America comics, especially replacing Steve with Bucky and making Sharon Carter a brainwashed, pregnant victim. Replacing Steve with Bucky as if he were disposable was certainly Brubaker's idea, and the last year's worth of the comic itself reads as if Brubaker killed off Steve of his own volition solely so that he could replace him with his own Mary Sue. That, and the way he jerked readers around for months, taunting them with hints that he was going to bring Steve back (which is the only thing fans really want from the title, and we/they haven't been shy about saying so so he has to know it) only to pull a bait and switch with Fake!Cap guy... That was the last straw for me. I don't like it when I can sense that an author's deliberately setting me up for disappointment while congratulating themselves over how clever they are.
If they had simply done the respectful thing and ended the title completely upon Steve's death, I'd have much less of a problem with it -- I'd be upset, but not so angry that just talking about it makes me feel sick. They could even have given Bucky his own Winter Soldier title, if Brubaker couldn't bear the idea of not getting to write something where his Mary Sue was the star of the show (hell, if they'd done that, I would have read it and liked it. I liked Winter Soldier!Bucky before Brubaker put him in Steve's costume).
And I'm going to have to end the conversation about Steve & Brubaker, etc. now, at least in saraid's comments, because I truly can't discuss current canon and especially Captain America without getting honest-to-god hysterical, even after all this time, and I don't want to hijack her journal for (more of) my own violent ranting. Seriously, I've been defriended by people over this subject. I am. Not. Rational. About it.
Re: From what I've gathered, the mandate for Cap's death wasn't Brubaker's idea
Whoever's idea it was, I've lost all respect for him, because it is/was a cheap attempt to get attention via shock value, and even halfway decent porn is above that. I guess death is slightly less horribly offensive than being depowered, but both are unnecessary and an insult to fans and to Marvel's own (nearly)seventy-year history.
Regardless, what I'm really angry at Brubaker over is the last year or so of Captain America comics, especially replacing Steve with Bucky and making Sharon Carter a brainwashed, pregnant victim. Replacing Steve with Bucky as if he were disposable was certainly Brubaker's idea, and the last year's worth of the comic itself reads as if Brubaker killed off Steve of his own volition solely so that he could replace him with his own Mary Sue. That, and the way he jerked readers around for months, taunting them with hints that he was going to bring Steve back (which is the only thing fans really want from the title, and we/they haven't been shy about saying so so he has to know it) only to pull a bait and switch with Fake!Cap guy... That was the last straw for me. I don't like it when I can sense that an author's deliberately setting me up for disappointment while congratulating themselves over how clever they are.
If they had simply done the respectful thing and ended the title completely upon Steve's death, I'd have much less of a problem with it -- I'd be upset, but not so angry that just talking about it makes me feel sick. They could even have given Bucky his own Winter Soldier title, if Brubaker couldn't bear the idea of not getting to write something where his Mary Sue was the star of the show (hell, if they'd done that, I would have read it and liked it. I liked Winter Soldier!Bucky before Brubaker put him in Steve's costume).
And I'm going to have to end the conversation about Steve & Brubaker, etc. now, at least in