Cap and Bucky is Dead, Long Live Cap and Hawkeye

One of my favorite comics from Marvel in 2011 was Captain America and Bucky. It gave us further insight to Steve and Bucky's relationship as partners – and later, enemies – and also gave Bucky a starring vehicle after Steve Rogers retook the mantle of Cap. But with Ed Brubaker's Winter Soldier launching in February, Marvel felt it was time to shakeup Captain America and Bucky once again, this time dropping Bucky entirely.

The revamped series will now take on a team-up format, with Captain America as the mainstay and a bevy of characters filling the other slot. Starting with Captain America and Hawkeye in issue #629 in April, incoming writer Cullen Bunn and artist Alessandro Vitti will be kickstarting a new approach to the series akin to Marvel's own Avenging Spider-Man – existing somewhat in a bubble and being relatively free of the current goings on of the main Marvel Universe. If that doesn't excite you, Bunn offered up this nugget: "Captain America and Hawkeye go out and fight a bunch of dinosaurs." Sold yet?

"We've got a Captain America and Hawkeye story for four issues, and then the cast changes and it's Captain America and another character," explained Bunn. "The book is going to be a number of arcs and also some one-and-done issues featuring Captain America and a number of other characters from the Marvel Universe."

He continued, "It's definitely a different type of story than Cap and Bucky. It's more of a high-octane action story; a little more light-hearted. I really want these stories to be a lot of fun, so that's what I'm really going for."

Bunn mentioned that there are definitely more obscure characters he'd like to see Cap team with, in addition to his more traditional Avengers teammates. "Captain America touches on all these different characters of the Marvel Universe, so there's just limitless possibilities, really. I know a few characters that are going to join the roster initially – I can't name all of them because I haven't gotten approval on all of the characters that I've thrown out there that I think would make great team-ups – but there is going to be Captain America and Iron Man and Captain America and Black Widow. Those characters have a history with each other."

"But there are definitely going to be some non-Avengers in that mix. I think some of them will really surprise people when we get to that point," he added. The Iron Man team-up will happen directly after the Hawkeye arc concludes.

Marvel made no qualms about offering Captain America and Hawkeye as the sort of series that will hopefully attract fans of the upcoming Avengers movie this summer.

Excited for Cap and Bucky's new direction? Sound off in the comments below!

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