Captain America - Review

Captain America 1

I am a huge admirer of Brubaker, and he’s done a lot of his best work with Cap, so I had high hopes for this, but I am slightly deflated after reading it. It does a great job of introducing the essentials of the character, thankfully eschewing a millionth showing of the origin, but flashing back to WWII, showing him with the Avengers, bringing in Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan and Sharon Carter, giving him some action as Steve Rogers and finally as Cap.

All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes 1

This strikes me as a total disaster area of a comic. First, purge your mind of any previous knowledge of the All-Winners Squad, more or less the same as the Invaders: this lot has no Torch (though is that supposed to be him on the cover?) or Sub-Mariner or Whizzer, though it does have Cap and Bucky. We see them from 1944 in mostly army uniform with a bunch of other soldiers who wear masks.

Essential Captain America 6

My god the slump in standards some way into this is painful. I’m not sure I can think of another Essential volume where it’s so precipitous.

Captain America 615.1

This is certainly the best of the .1 issues I’ve seen so far, which actually isn’t saying much. It tells a story, complete in one issue, which along the way tells us where Steve Rogers is right now, and sets up a key emotional theme for the immediate future.

Captain America & Crossbones 1

I am thoroughly sick of these pointless one-shot comics from Marvel – though despite saying ‘ONE-SHOT’ on the cover, there is a ‘next issue’ ad at the end, that being for Cap & Batrock, who apparently has a ‘k’ now. I know there’s a Cap movie this summer, so I figured that that must feature Crossbones, but not according to the IMDB cast list, so I’m at a loss to know why this comic exists.

Ultimate Captain America 1

This seemed a good randomish pick this week: I like most of the Ultimate line, and Aaron seems to be building a reputation, so I’d meant to try him. He confuses the hell out of me, to be honest.

Captain America: Patriot 1 & 2

At last, a ‘retcon’ that gets it right, not in the tired, “Everything you knew is a lie!” sense, nor the painfully Roy-Thomas “Why did Captain Turnip’s mask switch from full-face to half-face in 1943?” sense (Some people just own more than one hat, Roy…), but in a way that puts heart, rather than obsessive history or hollow spectacle, at the core of the narrative.