One of the most shocking parts of Civil War - a series that dealt mainly in shocks, from the reveal that Thor had been cloned to Spider-Man revealing his identity to the world - was the climactic battle which saw Captain America lead his group of rebels who opposed the government's Superhuman Registration Act against the might of advocate Iron Man's own troops. Cap's Secret Avengers lose out, and Steve Rogers is placed under arrest, only to be assassinated on the steps of the very court he was about to be tried in. Whilst his old sidekick Bucky took up Cap's mantle when it looked like he might be gone for good (he wasn't, of course, this is comic books), the identity of Steve Rogers' killer wasn't revealed until much later. In a stupid twist that nobody saw coming because it made exactly zero sense, the person who pulled the trigger turned out to be Sharon Carter; SHIELD agent, niece of Cap's WWII girlfriend Peggy Carter, and current girlfriend of Cap herself. Well, right up until the moment she killed him. Luckily she doesn't have to feel guilty about her part in the Death of Captain America, because Sharon didn't even want to do it. She had been brainwashed by supervillain Dr Faustus, of course! Eventually she manages to shake the hypnotic suggestion and sets about bringing Rogers back from the dead, coming up against opposition in the form of Norman Osborn, who planned to swap brains with the hero and thus become more popular because that's the only thing more boneheaded than Sharon Carter being the one who killed Cap.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
