MARVEL TO REMAKE THOR, CAPTAIN AMERICA — EXCEPT IN MOVIES

One day after it announced that a woman would be taking over the role of Avengers superhero Thor, Marvel said that an African-American character will become Captain America. The publisher said on its website that Captain America’s alter ego Steve Rogers will step down after discovering that he has markedly aged and lost his strength (that came from injections of "super soldier serum.") However, Marvel said, the changes will not affect the casting of those characters in the movie versions about their exploits. Chris Hemsworth, who is male, will continue playing Thor, and Chris Evans, who is white, will continue playing Captain America. In a lengthy explanation of the comic-book changes, Marvel writer Rick Remender commented, "I think that it’s important with these stories to do things that are natural and make sense and have an inherent logic to the universe, but are also constantly shifting and exciting, keeping the drama high. In order to do that it really comes down to creating new dynamics."