Here is an archive of all the past top five lists I've done over the years.
Next week sees the release of Steve Rogers: Captain America #1, celebrating Steve Rogers' return to action as Captain America. Let's take a look, then, at how this recent example of Steve retiring his Captain America identity and then returning as Captain America ranks among the other times that Steve has pulled this off!
HONORABLE MENTION
The very first time we saw Cap pull this off was in Tales of Suspense #95 (by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott), where Steve decides that he wants to settle down with Agent 13 (he doesn't even know her name yet!!!)...
And after a battle, that's just what he declares...
The world is shocked, to say the least...
Oddly enough, the story wraps up the very next issue. First, Lee establishes that there are a bunch of other guys trying to pick up Steve's slack...
Steve saves one of their lives, and then Nick Fury gets Steve to return to being Cap in one of the simplest arguments in comic book history...
5. Steve Rogers...exile from America?!?
When Mark Waid and Ron Garney took over Captain America with #444, Cap was seemingly dead, a victim of his own Super Soldier Serum. However, Waid reveals that the Red Skull revived him so that Cap could aid the Skull in stopping Adolf Hitler, who had taken control of a Cosmic Cube. Cap agrees to go along with the Skull because of the greater danger of Hitler and the Cube, but in the process, Cap has to go up against the U.S. military...
A few issues later, Cap's actions come back to haunt him as his seemingly treasonous actions are examined by President Bill Clinton. Making matters worse is that some privileged info that only Clinton and Cap knew was leaked. Clinton and the U.S. Government have to think that perhaps Cap traded that info in exchange for the Skull saving his life. This leads to Clinton stripping Steve of his U.S. citizenship...
Cap works with Sharon Carter to clear his name, but he can't be Captain America, so instead...
Cap ultimately saves the day (as is his wont) and even ends up dressing as Captain America (using a knockoff version of his original costume after his new costume is ruined) and proves that Machinesmith stole the info from Cap's head while Cap was being cured by the Skull...
4. Super Soldier Serum...defunct!
In Captain America #21 (by Rick Remender, Nic Klein and Dean White), Captain America is fighting the evil Iron Nail, and to save the day, Cap has to leave himself vulnerable to Nail's freaky parasitic tentacles, which neutralized the effects of the Super Soldier Serum in Cap's system...
Four issues later (by Remender and Carlos Pacheco and Mariano Taibo), Steve officially announces his retirement and Sam Wilson taking over for him as Cap...
Just recently, in Sam Wilson: Captain America #7 (by Nick Spencer and Daniel Acuna), old man Steve, who is the leader of the Uncanny Avengers, got caught up in a conspiracy by SHIELD where they were using Kobik, a sentient Cosmic Cube, to basically brainwash large amounts of supervillains into living idyllic small town lives. This whole thing came crashing down on SHIELD's head, of course, and Steve ended up getting into a fight with Crossbones. Luckily, Kobik reached out to Steve and offered him a second chance...
He just recently took the official name and costume back in one of Marvel's two Free Comic Book Day offerings from this year (by Nick Spencer and Jesus Saiz)...
Go to the next page for the top three!
3. Cap...lost in time!
Cap was thought dead after being seemingly shot in 2007's Captain America #25. However, he was actually lost in time. When he returns, he decides in the 2009 one-shot Who Will Wield the Shield? that his replacement (his old partner James "Bucky" Barnes) should remain in the role...
I don't know if they ever make it clear what Steve saw exactly.
Anyhow, later in the issue, Steve meets with President Obama (Steve needed to get pardoned for going against the U.S. Government during the Civil War storyline)
Steve then becomes Commander Rogers, head of all superheroes in the United States. Here is his costume (he wore this costume when he got old, as well)...
During Fear Itself, though (by Matt Fraction, Stuart Immonen and Wade Von Grawbadger), BuckyCap is seemingly killed, and in Fear Itself #4, Steve has to return to his old job...
(Luckily, Bucky managed to survive though Nick Fury's Infinity Formula and a lot of surgery).
2. Cap tells the government to talk to the hand
In Captain America #332 (by Mark Gruenwald, Tom Morgan and Bob McLeod), a group called the Commission gives Steve an ultimatum...
Steve basically tells them to take their shield and shove it.
A few issues after following the adventures of the NEW Captain America (the hero now known as USAgent), Steve's friends catch up with him and he decides to get back into being a hero...
He's now just the Captain...
The Commission turns out to have been manipulated by the Red Skull. Steve and the new Captain America stop him (mostly Steve) and the Commission offers him the job back without having to work for them directly. He turns them down, choosing to be his own man instead. The new Captain America, though, changes his mind...
1. Cap becomes a nomad...literally
Following the Secret Empire storyline, Cap was in a bad place. Not only did the Secret Empire succeed in turning many Americans against Cap through a smear campaign, but Cap learned that the head of the Secret Empire was actually the President of the United States, who kills himself in front of Cap. The next issue, Captain America #176 (by Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema), we see how much this freaked Cap out...
A couple of issues later, Steve decides to adopt a NEW identity instead of Captain America...
However, roughly six issues later, the fellow who took over as Captain America after Steve is brutally murdered by the Red Skull. Steve is moved to action...
That's the top five! Agree? Disagree? Let me know!