Weekly Comic Book Review

By Ed Brubaker (writer)Bryan Hitch (pencils) Butch Guice (inks) Paul Mounts (colors)

The Story: Bucky and Widow raid a H.A.M.M.E.R. carrier searching for the remains of Zola and the Red Skull’s lab to find evidence that will shed light on Steve Roger’s status. Is he alive or not? Meanwhile, Sharon Carter, the Vision, and the Falcon meet Hank Pym so that he can analyze the “murder weapon” Sharon used to “kill” Steve. Do you “get” what I’m “saying” with the “scare-quotes”?

What’s Good: Did you love Bryan Hitch on Ultimates– especially his WW2 scenes featuring Cap? Well, here you get to see a lot more of that. As usual, his outing here is stupendous and this book is complete eye-candy, especially if you’re a Hitch fan.

As for the writing, Ed Brubaker tells a complete story. All the dynamics that make a comic book high quality are in place here. You have great action, pacing, and dialogue. The mechanics are good. Also, this whole mini is about the return of Steve Rogers and for that I am a bit beholden to this series. That being said, there is a ton to be upset about here, so let me get to that.

What’s Not So Good: Trust me, I hate to say this, but as it stands now, Steve’s return is a major, major disappointment. I am stunned with the shoddiness and lack of creativity on the mechanics and back story to Steve’s “death” and how his return will be orchestrated. I am completely under-whelmed.

We have a no spoiler policy here at WCBR and we won’t betray that, especially for an event this big, but let me say this: Marvel has “Captain America Reborn” going on now while DC is currently running “Batman Reborn.” BOTH of these A-list characters’ “death” involves some type of temporal distortion or conundrum. Let me ask: How is that possible and what does it say about the industry as a whole?

Marvel couldn’t find a bigger cheerleader for this endeavor to bring Steve back than me. But it is impossible for me to gloss over the flaws here. First of all, what happened to all the mystery and the detective story Brubaker spun in CA #600? Inexplicably, we went from having a hard-boiled mystery to Zola spilling out all the details to Norman Osborn about what really happened to Steve and where he is. What’s the point in watching the good guys figure out what happened to Steve when we already know?

I read in an interview that Brubaker originally had in mind that Steve’s absence would only be an issue, but the editors decided to let it play out longer. Well, Brubaker was right. If this is the story of Steve’s apparent death and return, then there was no point in keeping it going this long. The story is not compelling enough to hold together the fake magnitude created by the Death of Character America.

Conclusion: I realize that there are still five more issues in this mini, but as it stands now, this tank is empty. It’s like the reverse plot of Invaders/ Avengers. I can’t fathom why everything is spelled out and if it was done differently it might just work. Might.

I have to give the creative team here that something big will happen later on this series, something of actual importance. Because right now it looks like the cards are shown and it is a losing hand. The only thing that saves this issue from a D or lower is the fantastic art.

Grade: C-

-Rob G.

Filed under: Marvel Comics, Other, Reviews Tagged: | Bryan Hitch, Butch Guice, Captain America, Captain America Reborn, Captain America Reborn #1, Captain America Reborn #1- Review, Comic Book Reviews, comic books, Ed Brubaker, Marvel Comics, Marvel Reviews, Paul Mounts, Weekly Comic Book Review, Weekly Comic Reviews