It has become legend: the Rob Liefeld Captain America promotional art for “Heroes Reborn” – a stunt that would see Liefeld, Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio returning to Marvel for a limited run of on the Avengers and Fantastic Four characters following their move to found Image. And the result was a picture of Captain America that has echoed down through the ages as one of the most unfortunate pieces of comics art ever made. 

And now you can own it. 

Heritage Auctions will be putting it up for auction at the end of November – and will be displaying it at New York Comic Con next week.

We expect there to be a line to view this piece similar to when the Mona Lisa or Vermeer toured the United States.  

While the piece was immediately mocked upon its arrival back in 1996, it has become a famed meme in the time since, with many attempts at explaining the anatomy, or parodying the image. 

One internet denizen, @BossLogic, mocked up what the Chris Evans Captain America would like in the MCU if he had the same anatomy as Heroes Reborn Cap. 

Liefeld himself recently took a good natured swipe at himself with a Falcon variant cover coming out from What Not that will be at – yes, New York Comic Con. 

Of the image’s origin he told ComicBook.com:

 “I just wanted to draw a big, bold Captain America. Here’s the deal: They blew that up at the Heroes Reborn conference in New York City at Marvel Comics. Jim Lee and myself flew out to New York. That was the image and people kept saying ‘Oh, look at that Captain America.’ I didn’t hear anything negative about that image until the 2000s. It was like somebody decided, ‘I’ll meme it. I’ll do it!’ I don’t mind it either. It doesn’t shake, rattle or roll me.”

When Liefeld says it doesn’t shake, rattle or roll him, he isn’t kidding. He began his 30th anniversary retrospective panel at NYCC 2021 with “The internet tell me that I suck, but I don’t suck.” Liefeld doesn’t run from the infamous Captain America image. He devoted a full episode of his podcast, Robservations, about it.

While the unlikely anatomy of of the original has been mercilessly mocked over the years, one tumblr user suggested that it was based on actual bodybuilder poses, just applied a bit wrong:

While the Captain America image caused much angst when it was originally delivered, in the time since it’s become part of comic book history. We’re sure it will draw some lively bidding during its run at Heritage! Possibly even setting a record for Liefeld art? Who knows! You might need to break open a few trust funds for this one. 

–Additional reporting by Heidi MacDonald

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