Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America

Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America
Cover art for Fallen Son: Death of Captain America – Captain America by John Romita, Jr.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel comics
Format	Limited series
Publication date	June 2007 – August 2007
Number of issues	5
Creative team
Writer(s)	Jeph Loeb
Artist(s)	Leinil Yu Ed McGuinness John Romita Jr. David Finch John Cassaday

Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America is a comic book limited series dealing with various superheroes' reactions to the death of Captain America in the Marvel comics universe after the Civil War.

The five-issue series is written by Jeph Loeb, with Leinil Yu, Ed McGuinness, John Romita Jr., David Finch, and John Cassaday each illustrating one of the issues.

The premise for this limited series was created by J. Michael Straczynski during a Marvel retreat in New York. (The book credits Straczynski with the initial concept.) He suggested the structure of five issues, each based on Elizabeth Kubler Ross' Five Stages of Grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Loeb lobbied hard to write the series, and succeeded, saying that he could draw upon his own experience of having lost his son Sam Loeb. In the Spring Preview issue of Wizard magazine, Loeb said:

When Straczynski [speaks] it’s a little bit like the burning bush and the rest of us are Moses. He held up this yellow pad and said, 'It’s the five stages of grief! Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.' The theme of each issue is represented by a particular Marvel character and also ends with a transition phase leading into the following stage. Denial deals with Wolverine, Anger deals with the two Avengers teams (Mighty Avengers & New Avengers), Captain America himself is dealt with in Bargaining, Spider-Man is the focus of Depression and Iron Man comes under the spotlight in Acceptance.