MIKE JOZIC: Almost a year and a half after leaving Captain America, you're back writing the book. What were the circumstances surrounding your initial departure from the title?

MARK WAID: Easy. The higher-ups at Marvel--guys no longer there--had made a deal with Rob Liefeld to do the book even before they hired me and Ron. We didn't know that, of course, at the time--and, in retrospect, it's good we didn't, because I wouldn't have taken the job and thus it wouldn't have been mine to reclaim.

JOZIC: Was it an amicable split?

WAID: Nope. But, again, I hold no one currently working for Marvel responsible.

JOZIC: How was it that you were approached/asked to return to writing Cap and does it feel good to be back?

WAID: When it became apparent that the Heroes Reborn deal would last only one year and that Rob's sales were plummetting, Marvel began to talk with Ron and myself about the possibility of returning. We were reticent on a couple of counts; first, they needed to find a way of $moothing out hurt feeling$; second, we were nervous about competing with our previous run. But we conquered all that, and Ron's doing the work of his career. I'm having a blast. I can always tell how much fun I'm having by how quickly the plots and dialogue come to me, and working with Ron makes them come easy.

JOZIC: I've read that you don't intend to continue where the first run left off. Why the decision to switch gears, and what sorts of things do you have planned for the character and the series?

WAID: Switching gears comes from having a decent amount of time to re-think the character and what might have been missing from the last run. We've decided that we can take advantage of Cap's temporary absence from the Marvel Universe by parallelling it to his absence after WWII. Once more, he's returned to a world different from the one he left, however marginally, and when you add to that the fact that he has vague memories of the HR-world, he's begun to question his purpose. Oh, he still believes in doing what he does, but people ask me the same question all the time: on the cusp of a new millennium, what does Cap stand for? What American Dream is he championing?

He's the symbol of the American people; what exactly does that mean? To be honest, I'm not sure--but I don't think Cap is, either, and we're going to run with that. He's decided that rather than wait around and wait for Cobra and Mr. Hyde to strike, he wants to be more proactive in making America a better place to live. But what does that mean? How does that translate into action? These are the questions he dealt with early in his career, and now they're coming up again--and we'll discover the answers together, he and I.

JOZIC: For a short time, Sharon Carter played a pretty big role in Cap's life. Will we be seeing this character again, or was #454, in essence, "The Last Sharon Carter Story"?

WAID: Oh, she'll be back. A bitter cynic is the perfect foil to Captain America. Plus, I've discovered that it's difficult to write a good Cap story without someone at his elbow watching his latest risky stunt and screaming, "ARE YOU CRAZY?"

JOZIC: What are your thoughts/feelings on the whole Heroes Reborn thing, and in particular, the Captain America relaunch?

WAID: To be perfectly honest, I never read past the first couple of issues. Personally, paranoid "The U.S. Government Is An Evil Force" stories bore me to tears. Yeah, it is an evil force......but it's become such a cliche.

JOZIC: There's been a lot of debate surrounding the post-Heroes Return titles starting up with number ones again. Captain America was so close to the #500th issue milestone that very few titles can boast, and now, thanks to the new post-Heroes Return numbering system, that milestone is another 40 odd years off. Has something more than a number been lost here, or are we, as fans, just waxing nostalgic?

Thoughts?

WAID: Kurt Busiek put it best. While we all prefer the old numbering on a personal level, we have to be realistic about the realities of a seriously ailing marketplace. It's not fair, it's not right, but it's as close to fact as it gets that if we put #455 on the cover, there will be young readers who won't pick up the book--but if we put #1 on the cover, no one won't pick it up based solely on that. And as sickly as the industry is, our first priority is to get as many copies into the hands of as many potential readers as possible.

JOZIC: I've heard rumours of a Captain America/Citizen V project. Has this been given the green light, and if so, will you be involved in the project?

WAID: Heck, let Kurt run with it. That's my feeling.

JOZIC: You make your living writing two of your favourite comic book characters - The Flash for D.C., and Captain America for Marvel. You control each characters destinies, and with each issue, add to their respective "mythologies" which, in time, may live on when you're long gone.

Is this heaven?

WAID: Yeah, and I get to play God. I have a great job.