Who Will Be Marvel's New Captain America?

Earlier this week, Marvel Comics teased that we would see a new Captain America -- and while they didn't actually reveal who that character would be, they apparently intend to drop that knowledge sometime between now and Comic Con International: San Diego.

There are basically two major schools of thought on this online, as far as we can tell: fans who believe the new Captain America will be Sam Wilson, or those who believe it will be Ian, Captain America's adoptive son from Dimension Z.

Both of those are supported by some pretty solid theories, but at the end of the day they are, of course, not the only possible options.

"Steve is in a spot where he's still determined to serve, and he's still determined to have a positive influence on the world around him," Remender said. "He wants to work to defend his nation and his world, but he's left in a physical state of not being able to perform. The choices he has before him as to who he's going to select as his replacement seem very simple at this point—it's a short list—but we're revealing a number of characters in #23 who've been gone for a while, that decision gets a little trickier. Steve hasn't had a lot of time to concern himself with these things. Literally a day after the Iron Nail debacle when he lost the Super Soldier Serum and rapidly aged to the physical age he would have been had he never been frozen, he's forced to make some hard decisions."

We've assembled a brief list of suspects, listed last to first in terms of likelihood:

Red Skull

Given the fact that Captain America's biology has been a part of the Red Skull's matrix for years now, it's arguably surprising that we've never seen them make a serious run at doing something like making the Skull a hero for more than a few issues.

During the opening chapter of Mark Waid and Ron Garney's classic Captain America run, Skull and Sharon Carter joined Captain America in a mission where the common enemy briefly united them -- but even then, Skull couldn't stay "good" for long and tried to use the Cosmic Cube for his own ends the first chance he got.

If AXIS wasn't already being promoted, we'd think this was more of a likelihood. After all, Remender over in Uncanny Avengers has been building something big for the Skull for quite some time, and it would stand to reason that having Captain America going through massive upheaval just as that's coming to a head, the Skull would be close by. That we've seen him dressed in the Onslaught uniform in just a few short months, though, kind of takes the wind out of any notion that he could be -- even temporarily -- Captain America.

USAgent

The '90s nostalgia at both Marvel and DC has a strong pull these days; an Age of Apocalypse ongoing series isn't that far in our rear-view mirror and Remender is already using plot threads from Onslaught to feed into the next big thing. Spider-Man 2099 has his own series again, and there's been an increased focus on Venom, Carnage and Scarlet Spider.

And so it is that we're reminded that USAgent once stood in for Captain America briefly, and that it's basically the defining element of his character to this day.

Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier

This one kind of went out the window earlier this week when we saw that Bucky Barnes, The Winter Soldier will get his own series from Ales Kot and Marco Rudy.

Nevertheless, if the replacement Cap were to be short-lived and self-contained in the Captain America title, it wouldn't be totally outside the realm of believability that Cap's onetime partner, onetime replacement should step in to be Cap again for a while when the need arose.

That he's playing a major role in Original Sin is arguably an even more compelling reason to think Marvel has big plans for him.

Arguably the biggest argument against it, though, is that it would tread no new ground.

Ian

Captain America's "adopted son" from Dimension Z is the odds-on favorite for a lot of people. Stolen from Zola and protected against experimentation, Ian has been seen sporting the "Nomad" look above and, arguably most important, he's a new creation, tied deeply to Captain America's Marvel NOW! mythology without having to really grab from anything else.

But many fans see in him for Remender what Bucky provided for Brubaker; a kind of Mary Sue character that allows the writer to make a lasting contribution to the character's history than you're likely to do just by creating a new villain.

Sam Wilson

Captain America's on-again, off-again partner for years, Sam Wilson is a widely respected member of the military and The Avengers. He's also, as far as anybody can tell, the Captain America featured on the cover above. Set eight months in the future, Avengers #35 will apparently see a person of color settled comfortably into the role of Captain America and working beside an ancient Steve Rogers.

His build, hair and goggles all scream Falcon...but what if this future turns out not to be real, or not to be the "real" one? That's the biggest argument against this being a slam-dunk.