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That's right, ladies and gents, Steve Rogers is set to return to the Marvel Universe once again.

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IGN Comics: Tom, let's start with the basic concept of Captain America Reborn. Fans know the series is obviously about the return of Steve Rogers. What else are you able to say about the project at this point?

Tom Brevoort: Well… -laughs- It's written by Ed Brubaker with art by Bryan Hitch and Butch Guice. It's five issues. It comes out July 1. And the first seeds for it are in Captain America #600, which is on sale today.

IGN Comics: Okay, cool. You mentioned both Bryan Hitch and Butch Guice. What's the artistic structure for the project then? Are they alternating issues or do they weave their styles throughout the mini-series?

Brevoort: Well Butch is inking Hitch. But there's the understanding that if Bryan were to fall behind, then Butch could step in and do some penciling as well. So he gives us a certain amount of security that the issues can come out when they need to come out. But assuming everything goes to plan, he's there to ink and embellish everything that Bryan is doing. It's been a pretty successful combination.

IGN Comics: I wanted to get into the planning of Steve's return. It's my understanding that this had been planned since his death, correct?

Brevoort: Yes.

IGN Comics: Did you guys always have this planned to start after about 25 issues or was it more flexible than that?

Brevoort: Oh, not at all. Not at all. In fact, not to cast things onto him, but I think Ed was so fearful of going into this segment, to run the book without the lead character, that initially Ed was saying, "Oh, yeah, I'll bring him back by issue #30." And we all kind of smiled and went along for the moment and let him have his fantasies, knowing and hoping that this would be a much bigger deal and that we wouldn't be able to do it that quickly.

But the exact timing has sort of been fluid as things went along. It just seemed like the time is right, that the amount of time that has gone by has been sufficient to make this all work. But the specifics of how, why and where Steve is – all of that was set up, not only in Captain America #25, but even before that. So this has been a piece that has been building since about 2006. It's always just been a question of when we're moving into that phase of the story. Certainly people reacted much more positively to the idea of a Captain America series without Captain America than Ed had thought at first. Certainly everyone… well, most people, have embraced Bucky Barnes as Captain America as well. So there hasn't been any particular rush to get to this point, but we always knew we'd hit it sooner or later.

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IGN Comics: So I guess that brings up the question… you know, Bucky has been so well-received by the fans… was there ever the thought that Steve is better off dead?

Brevoort: Um, no, no serious thought. This was the plan all along. The setup was all there. Once you get through Reborn, you'll say, "Oh, that was such and such sequence from this issue. And that's what that was about. There's that piece over there."

The most we would have done was extend the term of Bucky's Cap-hood. But inevitably, eventually we were always going to get to where we are going now. That being said, there's nothing that necessarily says that there isn't room enough for two Captain Americas – or even that Steve will come back and be Captain America. There's plenty of story left to be told and it doesn't mean that we're going to be strapping Bucky to a flying bomb or anything.

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IGN Comics: Captain America #600 lays on the hints pretty thick. I mean there are repeated instances where the characters almost flat-out tell the reader "you don't know what happened." Before that it seemed like you guys were avoiding laying out too many hints. Was that an effort to keep people focused on Bucky rather than having them continuously thinking about Steve?

Brevoort: Definitely so. Ultimately we did our groundwork in Captain America #25 and earlier. Though every time we get back to Sharon, we see stuff. And there have been times over the course of the past year and a half that have maybe been clues that people haven't really realized. But when we got to the point where Bucky was Captain America, our mission statement became "make him Captain America." Make people love him as Captain America. Make people invested in him. And that's definitely a tough thing to do if not only the shadow of Steve as a figure is looming over him, but the figure of Steve as a guy knocking on the door, returning any time now, is also there.

That being said, Ed's been very diligent about dropping bits of information and the seeds and dots to build the story where it needs to go next. And that's been all during that period. Once you get into Reborn #1, and beyond, you'll start to see the pattern emerge. You'll start to say "Aha! That's what that was all about!"

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IGN Comics: Will we see Reborn reflecting Dark Reign? Will Norman Osborn have a heavy influence on the storyline?

Brevoort: Umm, I wouldn't say a heavy influence, but there's definitely an influence. Reborn happens now. It happens today. So Norman plays a role. You'll see the Dark Avengers. You'll see some of the Mighty Avengers. You'll see Dr. Doom. There will be a wide range of characters during the course of Reborn. So yeah, Norman is running the show and he and his guys will play a role.

IGN Comics: In terms of impacting other titles, will it be once Reborn concludes we'll see other books reflect that story or will we start to see an immediate impact throughout other books?

Brevoort: Well there are no tie-ins to Reborn. Through the course of those five issues, that will be entirely in Reborn. Throughout that you'll see impact on various characters, but it's really once Reborn is over that you'll see those effects wider in the Marvel Universe.