Diesel launches Only the Brave Captain America fragrance

Well, Parliament has wound up for the summer and it's time for the traditional 'silly season' of stories, as the news media scrabble for stories to fill both print and electronic pages.

We just didn't think things would start here in comics world with the launch of a superhero fragrance.

Still, you've got to admire DIESEL, who have created this "new and utterly cool limited edition fragrance" Only The Brave: Captain America Edition. It's a sign of great faith in the potential popularity of the upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger film, which was partly shot in the UK - and the enduring appeal of the good Captain himself, discussed here on USA Today.

Still, we have to say the PR hype for this new license is a bit OTT. Created to celebrate the release of Captain America: The First Avenger, we're told this fragrance "signifies the ultimate encounter between the most iconic men’s fragrance and the most legendary superhero".

Our astonishment aside, you can't knock the product design - ace British comics artist Bryan Hitch designed the comic box the fragrance comes in and, in celebration of this momentous occasion, the Only The Brave fist will don Captain America’s iconic shield in a pop style: strong, fun, arty – heroic!

Yes, it's gloriously daft. But hey, it's clearly been done in style.

Chris Evans Cast as Captain America?

The Hollywood Reporter is suggesting that actor Chris Evans has been cast as Captain American in the upcoming film featuring the famous Marvel character. (This does not of course refer to the Radio 2 DJ of the same name, the former husband of Doctor Who star Billie Piper!). Both Marvel and representatives of the actor have so far refused to comment. Evans of course stared as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch in the two recent Fantastic Four movies.

It is planned that the Captain American film will be shot in Britain and is set to be called The First Avenger: Captain America. An Avengers movie is due in 2012.

Meanwhile, there are story developments aplenty for Captain America in Panini UK' s Marvel Legends title.....

Weird Crime Stories

It seems the bad year for Captain America just got that little bit worse. 6 News, a Florida TV station is reporting that a Central Florida doctor has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman during a costume party while he was dressed as the super hero Captain America.

Raymond Adamcik was arrested Saturday night at the On Tape Café and Lounge and booked at the Melbourne Police Department while still wearing blue tights and a Captain America head gear.

I imagine the man involved might well be heading not just for jail on assault charges, if found guilty, but perhaps even copyright violation from Marvel.

Zombie Captain America

Thought you might appreciate this April Fool story Forbidden Planet's Kenny Penman spotted via a German comics news site: a new Marvel book starring a zombie Captain America, drawn by Charlie Adlard... although given the popularity of zombies right now (it's all John Reppion's fault), perhaps Marvel and Image really are working on such a title.

Captain America

I think Adam Rogers over on Wired's Blog Network neatly sums up my similar feelings (aside from how the character has best been handled in the past) on recent developments

Hey, if you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm not going to spoil your amazing ability to ignore some 500 + news articles online about the end of Marvel's Civil War series, or the many newspaper articles (such as Newsweek's interview with Stan Lee on events), with even Britain's Sun newspaper joining in.

... but if this proposed film comes off, I doubt the events of Captain America #25 will be permanent...