Captain America #25

Apr 2007 · Marvel · 3.99 USD; 4.75 CAD

📊 ~290,497 copies sold its debut month

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“The Death of the Dream: Part One”

★ Death — Death of Captain America (Steve Rogers)

About this Issue

Captain America #25 stands as one of the most culturally resonant single issues of the 2000s: it is the issue in which Steve Rogers is assassinated on the steps of a federal courthouse, the direct narrative consequence of Marvel's 'Civil War' crossover and the culmination of Ed Brubaker's long-form thriller plotting on the title. The death of a founding Marvel hero broke cleanly out of the comics page and into the mainstream press — The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times both eulogized Rogers, treating the event as a genuine cultural moment rather than a publishing stunt. The issue also seeds the entire 'legacy hero' arc that would define the Captain America title for the next several years, with Bucky Barnes's path toward taking up the shield beginning in its final pages. Its subtitle — 'The Death of the Dream' — frames the assassination as political allegory, connecting mid-2000s anxieties about civil liberties and the post-9/11 national mood directly to the character's core mythology.

In "The Death of the Dream: Part One," Captain America—now under the weight of the Superhuman Registration Act—faces a grim turn as he is taken into custody. As he's being transferred to the courthouse, the iconic hero is fatally shot on the steps, marking a shocking and pivotal moment in the series. Written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Steve Epting, with colors by Frank D'Armata and letters by VC's Joe Caramagna, the issue's cover by Steve Epting captures the moment with haunting precision.

writer Ed Brubaker · artist, inker Steve Epting · colorist Frank D'Armata · letterer VC's Joe Caramagna · cover Steve Epting

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $12

CGC 9.8 · 3903 in census $72

CGC 9.6 · 517 in census $43

CGC 9.4 · 186 in census $39

CGC 9.2 · 78 in census $29*

CGC 9.0 · 33 in census $25*

CGC 8.5 · 33 in census $21*

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CGC 8.0 · 13 in census $21*

CGC 7.5 · 6 in census $20*

CGC 7.0 none in existence

CGC 6.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 6.0 none in existence

CGC 5.5 · 1 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

Ed Brubaker, who had been building toward this event since his first issue in 2005, constructed the assassination as the payoff of threads he wove through the Winter Soldier arc and the Civil War crossover — making the death feel earned within the ongoing serial rather than editorially imposed. The issue is an oversized 48-page installment, which Marvel treated as an event in its own right; demand at comic shops caused immediate sell-outs and prompted Marvel to rush out a second printing as well as a 'Director's Cut' edition featuring script pages, pencil art, and commentary on the media reaction. Editor Tom Brevoort shepherded the issue through a period when Marvel's event publishing was at its commercial peak, and the co-conspirator structure of the assassination — Crossbones as the sniper diversion, a brainwashed Sharon Carter delivering the actual killing shots under Doctor Faustus's control — was deliberately withheld from the issue's final pages, keeping the true perpetrator a mystery to be unspooled across the arc.

Trivia · 8 facts

Written by Ed Brubaker, penciled and inked by Steve Epting, colored by Frank D'Armata, lettered by Joe Caramagna; edited by Tom Brevoort — the same core creative team that had been on the series since issue #1 (2005).
Cover-dated April 2007, on sale March 7, 2007; part of Captain America Vol. 5, the ongoing series that ran January 2005 through August 2011.
Depicts the assassination of Steve Rogers on the steps of a New York federal courthouse: Crossbones fires a sniper shot from a nearby building while a Doctor Faustus-brainwashed Sharon Carter (Agent 13) delivers the point-blank killing shots — a reveal withheld until the issue's closing pages.
Serves as the opening chapter of the eighteen-issue arc 'The Death of Captain America' (issues #25–42), subtitled 'The Death of the Dream', which runs through September 2008 and also spawned the companion miniseries Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America (five issues, June–October 2007).
The death was covered by mainstream outlets including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and ABC News — an unusual degree of general-press attention for a single comic book issue.
Marvel published a 'Director's Cut' variant of the issue featuring script pages, pencil art, and commentary on the media reception; a Wizard World Los Angeles exclusive variant with a John Cassaday cover was also produced.
The story arc sets in motion Bucky Barnes (the Winter Soldier) assuming the Captain America mantle, which occurs in issue #34, making this issue the narrative origin point of the Bucky-Cap era.
Collected in Captain America: The Death of Captain America Vol. 1 – The Death of the Dream (hardcover, November 2007; paperback, June 2008), the Death of Captain America Omnibus (December 2009), and the Captain America Modern Era Epic Collection Vol. 2: Death of the Dream (2024), among other formats.