Well I'll try to steer this back out of political waters and just state that I do think that Captain America's death was marvel weaving current events in one way or another into a Captain America story. Not just a random way to kill off a character to be dark and hip, if he really is dead, retiring or just currently lost. Who knows perhaps it is a tie-in to the fact that soon there won't be any more WW2 generation left around.

At any rate it makes more sense to me than killing the Hulk. Especially if you are going to leave the chance of bringing him back as well.

I will say that generally I don't like an onslaught of character deaths just to shake things up. I've liked Avengers Initiative so far including the death and even cloning of MVP, but with rumors of more deaths to come I do wish these events and the subsequent resurrections were kept to a minimum.

But Frodo isn't the hero. Frodo was entrusted to a grave task and he FAILED!
In the end, the Ring got him and it was happy circumstance that Gollum was clumsy when he was happy!
When Sam briefly wore the Ring he resisted the Ring. A lot better than mopey Frodo
Sam hung on after Frodo collapsed. He supported his friend and even started on finishing the quest his master had begun*. Without any misplaced sympathy for a handy Sociopath! (that would be Gollum). He went back to rescue his friend when he discovered that Frodo had not been killed by Shelob

Sam was, IMO, the true hero. He fought for a better world and actually got it. Frodo was emo before there was a word for it

* Yes, master. In the movie Sam became more of Frodo's friend but in the book it is a quintessential master-servant relationship. I actually was disappointed that they did n9ot dwell longer on Sam's time as the ring-bearer. That part was the defining moment of Sam's simple, decent nature
Gandalf made the smart move in allowing Sam to be Frodo's assistant

You should read the parody of the LOTR. It's called "Bored Of The Rings", it was written back in the early 70's, I believe.
It's hilarious in a number of respects, but it does show some interesting insights to the relationships of some of the chars we dont' see so much of in the actual books or movies (including the cartoons)