Marvel Kills SPOILER in 'Captain America' #700

Captain America celebrated a milestone this week with the release of Captain America #700 and the issue contained a surprising death that fans likely did not see coming.

SPOILERS For Captain America #700 follow.

Captain America #700 concludes the "Out of Time" storyline by writer Mark Waid and artist Chris Samnee. The story began with the nationalist terrorist group Rampart catching Captain Americaand freezing him in a block of ice. Just like when he fell into the icy waters at the end of World War II, Cap became stuck in suspended animation.

Rampart launched nuclear missiles from the same submarine that they used to capture Captain America. The organization took control of the United States after it became a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland. Captain America remained frozen and was propped up as a symbol of Rampart's new order.

Insurgents stole the block of ice, believing it to be just a statue. Captain America thawed out to discover he'd been frozen for years. He took in America's current political and environmental landscape and joined the fight against Rampart and their leader, King Babbington.

Captain America helped lead the rebels to victory, but winning the war proved easier than rebuilding the country and maintaining peace. In need of a new leader, the American rebels elected Captain America as their new king. Cap tried to rebuild, but Babbington had made several shady deals with countries like Russia and Latveria. When Cap refused to honor those deals, these countries began to attack the USA.

Despite being exhausted, Captain America did his best to stem the invasion while rebuilding his country. Bruce Banner managed to recover and restore an old time travel device of Reed Richards' and offered to send Cap back to his own time, but Cap refused. Then a nuclear bomb was set off in New York City and Cap became convinced that he couldn't do enough to set things right.

Cap was sent back in time to just before he was frozen, which was also just before Rampart fired off its first nuke. Cap boarded the submarine and took out most of the Rampart terrorist, but he wasn't in time to stop Babbington from beginning the launch sequence. Captain America did what he had to do, climbing the missiles and sabotaging them so that they exploded, killing him and sinking Rampart's sub.

Captain America may have died, but his past self is still alive and was able to free himself from the ice. Cap has no memory of his time in the future and no knowledge of what happened on the submarine since this version of him never woke up in the future, but Rampart seems to be defeated and that's good enough for him.

Captain America #700 is on sale now.