Captain America #15 – Review

by Rick Remender (Writer), Carlos Pacheco, Mariano Taibo (Artists), Rachelle Rosenberg, Rain Beredo, Val Staples (Colorists)

The Story: After the capture of Nuke, Steve Rogers and Marcus Johnson tries to reason with him and understand why all of this happened. Unfortunately, the Iron Nail has other plans.

The Review: We never set out to buy bad comics. Unless someone has some clear enjoyment of really atrocious piece of sequential arts, enthusiasts of this specific art form are always on the lookout for something enjoyable, something a certain level of quality that is always subjective to every specific reader. Looking for familiarity, authors that have impressed us or subjects that interest us, there is always the search for quality and the hope that each subsequent issues in a series turns out to be a good.

It is with that general sentiment that I continued to read Captain America, despite the fact that the arc set after the pretty solid first 10 issues wasn’t nearly as good as the big sci-fi story that opened things up. Rick Remender is usually a writer that is able to bring quality to what he does and Carlos Pacheco is a solid artist, yet there was something missing. With the madness that was imprinted in the story now gone and not replaced, the story in general lost a bit of its luster, which made my patience become a bit thin after a while.

Fortunately, things began to get a bit better in the latest issue, with things staying consistent in terms of quality. With this issue, Remender provides for a couple of neat developments and explanations for some of the concepts he introduced, giving a bit more to his story and the potential direction of the title in doing so.

The first thing he does right here is deepen and actually cement his handle on characterization, with characters like Steve Rogers, Nuke and even the Iron Nail being a tad more defined and interesting in this issue. Giving a more nuanced approach to both Nuke and the Iron Nail, they become more interesting as not everything is as black and white around them, with the motivations and actions of the Iron Nail gaining a bit in credibility thanks to his manifesto, or the fact that Nuke tried to mimic Captain America in his own way in Viet-Nam makes their general action and reactions either a bit more tragic or much more understandable.

Captain America #14 – Review

by Rick Remender (Writer), Carlos Pacheco, Mariano Taibo (Artists), Dean White (Colorist)

The Story: Captain America and the Falcon finish the fight against Nuke as complications sets in.

The Review: This may come off as perhaps cheap or biased, but this present arc of Captain America hasn’t exactly told the most exciting adventure starring the sentinel of liberty. While the huge story featuring Dimension Z and all that crazy sci-fi was pretty fun, it did leave some kind of expectation that this arc wasn’t exactly able to fulfill. It makes sense as far as character development and story progression goes, but this whole arc lacked something. This may be something logical and it could potentially lead to something great, but a depressive Steve Rogers that is pushed to action did not make for something that made readers anticipate what would happen next.

In small ways, though, this issue did put forth a lot of elements that pumped up the excitement as well as the story forward. Thanks to several scenes featuring some strengths of Remender, this book may very well be on the verge of rising up, just like its titular character could end up doing in his adventures.

One of the key component of this renewed energy would be the high amount of action, as the fight between Captain America, Falcon and Nuke push things forward as we get to see a reinvigorated Steve Rogers. Pushing forth once more that Cap may very well be more at ease when dealing with immediate problems, Remender use the action to push the story forward without slowing neither down. Thanks to some small exchanges and a good deal of fisticuffs, the story gets a bit more centered on its main character without diminishing the effects of Nuke and those who were manipulating him. It’s brutal at times, but it is efficient nonetheless.

Captain America #13 – Review

by Rick Remender (Writer), Nic Klein (Artist), Dean White (Colorist)

The Story: The past of the Iron Nail is known to us, as Captain America is sent against Nuke, with Falcon in tow.

The Review: Inconsistency is a killer. Many readers, including me, always expect the best when it comes to books, characters and the like, with each having a certain vision of how things could be done. With this in consideration, writers have to play up with expectations, but also exceed or subvert them, creating something better in the process. However, long form stories need these things in a constant manner, which can be achieved through characterization, action or the story itself. If a bunch of issues begins to feel predictable or simply weak, it can lead to disinterest as the quality drops.

This series had an unfortunate down with the previous issue, who tried to present new ideas yet didn’t do much to insert originality into them. The plot was a bit jumpy too, yet Remender did seem to have plans. With a fill-in artist and those elements now inserted in his narrative, does Remender put his series back on track?

It does seem that the previous issue was a one-time deal, as Remender picks up on some of his newly introduced elements and deepens them. The Iron Nail is one of them as the readers are shown a flashback featuring him as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., providing more complexity for the character while Remender plays with a few older ideas, some of them being more akin to Steranko era’s Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., albeit in a more sinister way. Putting some more background while providing context to Ran Shen, he becomes a bit more interesting as some other players are also introduced in his story, one that the fill-in artist is definitely in touch with. It also provide a neat contrast with the latter part of the book, with plenty of dark secrets and spy action.
The other part of the book focus a bit more on Steve Rogers, with the Falcon and Jet Black getting a good deal of interaction and characterization before the meatier part of the book. The way Remender shows the importance of Captain America as a positive representation of America in this scene, combined with the concern Sam Wilson has for Steve and the way Jet Black analyze the whole thing makes for some nice moments. It’s bit on the short side, though, as the rest of the issue is dedicated to something else.

Captain America #12 – Review

by Rick Remender (Writer), Carlos Pacheco, Klaus Janson (Artists), Dean White, Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorists)

The Story: Falcon comes and try to bring the old Captain America back as Nuke goes full-psycho with the help of a new ally.

The Review: Continuous stories are always challenging for writers. Not only do every chapters need to follow the others without destroying the narrative pacing and the elements that hold the whole thing together, but it needs to continue the development of the characters and the themes in a natural and progressive way. It may seem obvious, yet not all writers are able to satisfy all of these criteria’s, creating some stories that can feel a bit awkward to read.

This issue of Captain America, unfortunately, feels a bit like this kind of reading experience, as there are some very sound ideas, yet not everything connect in way that makes for a satisfying issue. As is usual for Rick Remender, there are many ideas and some executions of them that are rather interesting to follow as it’s fun to see him implement newer elements. Where it fails a bit, though, is the fact that he doesn’t implement them in any way that connects everything seamlessly together.

One of the new creation of Remender is a character that has been named the Iron Nail in interviews, as the writer gives us his origin story and his motivations. While some of the ideas on the page here are quite connected to what readers might expect from a capes comic, there isn’t much revealed here to render him interesting enough for readers to get immediately invested in him yet. While getting his powers from an ancestral dragon and wishing to be as he says ”a nail in the heart of the west itself” do make him a concept that could be goofy in a rather neat way, the characters is introduced then almost thrown away for the rest of the issue, with the exception of one major reveal near the end.

Captain America #11 – Review

Rick Remender (Writer) Carlos Pacheco, Klaus Janson (Artists), Dean White (Colorist)

The Story: Returning to present-day America, both Steve and Jet needs to adjust themselves a bit after all these crazy sci-fi adventures.

The Review: ”Bold new direction” are words that many readers are used to hear in the past few years. Whenever a new creative team, or at least a new writer comes in for the ride, those words, or at least synonyms, are pronounced, but aren’t always exactly respected in ways that actually live up to the ”bold” part of the statement.

Rick Remender, however, really went there as he picked up the title from Ed Brubaker, moving away from the espionage corner to something more akin to Jack Kirby: crazy sci-fi. The adventure of Steve Rogers in Dimension Z were a far cry to the political and world-war II inspired stories that preceded them, which did cement the fact that this was an actual new take on the character. However, now that the first mega-arc has concluded, where will Remender go with the character?

This issue do try to answer that question, giving a slower pace with more character moments in order to counteract the high-octane action and ideas that permeated the previous chapter. Remender takes a lot more time with Steve and Rogers, showing how they react to both old and new encounters with Steve being healed by Bruce Banner and Hank Pym, while Jet Black gets interrogated by Marcus Johnson. The weariness of Steve and the impetuous attitude of Jet comes off as natural to their characters, considering what they went through.

Thunderbolts #143 – Review

By Jeff Parker (writer), Miguel Sepulveda (artist), Frank Martin (colorist)

The Story: Asgard lies in ruins as Norman Osborn’s own empire falls to pieces around him. With the assembled might of Marvel’s heroes poised to emerge victorious, Osborn’s team of covert operatives must decide whether to go down fighting or betray their boss for a greater good.

The Good: This version of the Thunderbolts comes to a satisfying conclusion while paving the way for what I genuinely hope will be a weirder and more interesting team roster. As soon as I’d read that the likes of Crossbones, Juggernaut, and the god damned Man-Thing would join the new Thunderbolts, well, this current team became a lot less interesting. But at least they went out on a high note, attempting a Dirty Dozen kind of mission to steal the Spear of Odin with the kind of reckless bravado that only a band of villains with nothing to lose can successfully pull off. I like that kind of attitude, especially when Parker complicates things by making Paladin, Ant-Man, and Ghost realize they do have something to lose and that maybe some ideals are worth fighting for after all. There’s a tense and frenzied atmosphere in this issue, a desperate sense that these villains know the battle is lost and that all they can do now is scurry about and claw at each other like drowning rats as they fight for survival. Parker did an admirable job pacing this issue and choreographing every fight for maximum impact, and when smoke clears and the dust settles from those battles, and we’re left with those great splash pages of Cage and Jessica looking out over The Raft, damn it all if it didn’t make me excited for the Heroic Age to arrive!