Marvel's Captain America fights new foe: suicide

[January 13, 2011]  PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Captain America's latest foe is deadlier than the Red Skull: suicide.

The character armed with his trademark shield faces off against suicide in a new story that publisher Marvel Entertainment has released Wednesday for free through its website and app.

The toll-free hotline for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is featured in the work, too.

Entitled "Captain America: A Little Help," the 11-page story is written by psychologist Tim Ursiny, and illustrated by Nick Dragotta. In it, a despondent youth is poised to jump off a building when he spies Captain America facing a bevy of villains on a nearby roof. The fracas keeps him from going over the edge, literally and figuratively.

There is no dialogue, save for the end, which ends with the boy both saving the hero and, in the process, himself.

[Associated Press]

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