Captain America: Reborn #5 – Review

by Ed Brubaker (writer), Bryan Hitch & Butch Guice (art), Paul Mounts (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: It’s Cap vs. Buckycap as Steve finds himself trapped in the Red Skull’s mind.

What’s Good: It feels as though Brubaker has gone old school this month with his dialogue, with plenty of cheesecake to go around.  While some may find this unbearable, I found that it added good, clean fun to a comic that has been pretty dark thus far.  Red Skull in particular is nothing short of an old fashioned, cackling villain, letting loose twice with trademark villainous laughter.  At one point, he even goes through the classic bad guy routine of telling one of the heroes his entire plan, in detail.  It’s wonderful stuff, and it’s clear that it’s intentional on Brubaker’s part, as he writes the book very much in the spirit of the Captain America comics of yesteryear with his signature dash of pulp-awareness.  There are some lines that are just so kooky, it’s hard not to smile.

Captain America: Reborn #4 – Review

by Ed Brubaker (writer), Bryan Hitch & Butch Guice (art), Paul Mounts (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Welcome back Steve Rogers….maybe?  Sort of?

What’s Good: Over the course of my reviews of Reborn, I’ve repeatedly stated that the comic is better the more it focuses on Rogers, as I’ve thus far found most of the present day portions to be relatively dry.  This month bucks that trend, as while much of the comic is in the present, I nonetheless found myself interested.  This is largely thanks to Brubaker bringing in the villains.

With Doom, Red Skull, and their henchman stomping about, getting their way, and generally acting like the cackling, arrogant villains that they are, these present day portions have a vitality that they’ve lacked through much of Reborn.  It’s always fun to see some of the Marvel Universe’s bad guy power players in the same room at once and Skull and Doom have long been two of the most bombastic of the lot.  Better still, their direct involvement in Reborn provides the miniseries with the specific, pointed adversaries needed to add fuel to the narrative’s conflict; they’re more tightly linked and unique to this struggle over Rogers, as opposed to Osborn, who is everybody’s bad guy these days.

Meanwhile, Rogers’ portions continue to be strong, channeling that sense of torment and entrapment that’s worked so well thus far.  Though it’s still scaled back from, say, issue 2, that doesn’t mean that what’s here isn’t enjoyable.

Overall, this feels just as a blockbuster, widescreen mainstream comic should.  It’s got action, it’s big, it’s loud, and it has those diabolical villains, all of it leading to a great ending that’s sure to leave you hankering for issue five.

Hitch and Guice’s work on art once again works fairly well, magically channeling much of the style and spirit of the late 80s, early 90s while nonetheless retaining that layer of modern gloss and polish.  The Cap flashback scenes are especially fantastic, with one rainy WWII-era scene being an absolutely gorgeous reflection of the misery it’s meant to reflect.

What’s Not So Good: Despite this being and generally good-looking book, I couldn’t help but feel the artwork to be a little inconsistent in style and execution.  Several panels look to be drawn by different hands, and it can be a little weird.  With the art already meant to shift to accommodate the flashbacks, these inconsistencies only help the make the book feel a little chaotic at times in terms of style.

I also felt that while the villains were great, the scenes with Richards, Pym, and Vision felt a bit weaker.  They’re just not as interesting as they could’ve been and barring one hypothesis by Richards, it just perpetually feels like they’re one step behind the comic and the reader.

Conclusion: Despite its underwhelming start, Brubaker has really turned Reborn around.

Grade: B+

-Alex Evans

 

Captain America: Reborn #3

by Ed Brubaker (writer), Bryan Hitch & Butch Guice (art), Paul Mounts (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Bucky and Falcon battle the Thunderbolts, Cap’s glass coffin is exhumed, an old “friend” returns, and Cap battles skrulls in space… again.

What’s Good: From the haunting first page, to the contents of Cap’s coffin, the time traveling plot of this miniseries is once again handled surprisingly well, maintaining a surreal feel throughout.  I especially liked Cap’s method of getting a message to his friends in the present day, which was a definite “why didn’t I think of that” moment.  Once again, it’s great when Cap “breaks character” and discusses his time traveling dilemma with a person from his past, as there’s always this intangible sense of excitement when he does.

Seeing Cap having to re-experience his battles in the Kree-Skrull War was also rather neat, and had a totally different effect from last month’s tragic reiteration of Cap’s origins.  This really did feel like a 70s-era space-based Avengers comic repackaged under a modern lens, and it felt utterly bizarre.  The clash of a past comic under modern artwork was jarring, which I suppose was appropriate, given that this miniseries is about a wrongful collision of past and present.

Though I suppose it was inevitable, the ending of this month’s issue still had a definite impact.  Seeing the return of an old character, one that I’m sure I’m not the only fan of, is never a bad thing.  I’m also all in favour of the character’s new appearance.  It’s very 60s sci-fi, as though it lept off the pages of Brubaker’s Incognito.

Art-wise, you get more of the high-standard you’d expect from Hitch and Guice: an incredible level of detail, excellent shading, and an impossible work-ethic.  I especially enjoyed the team’s depictions of high-altitude flight, which were bright, rosy, and gorgeous.  Hitch and Guise also let loose with the splashes and double-page spreads this month, making some truly iconic work, here.  One particular spread of Namor will certainly elicit its fair share of reader profanities.

What’s Not So Good: Unfortunately, this month’s issue takes a step back from much of what made last month’s such a step up in quality.  The present day portions are still less engaging than Steve’s scenes, but while last month chose to focus more on Rogers, this month spends more time with his present-day friends.  As a result, the issue just feels a bit more bland.

And when we do get Steve, there just isn’t the same level of introspection.  The sense of loss, tragedy, and helplessness just isn’t as poignant.  Instead of the monologues regarding his torment that made #2 so great, we instead just get a barrage of admittedly impressive spreads and splashes.  Brubaker seems to have decided to go heavier on the action side with Steve this month, and the result is a lot lighter.  There just isn’t the same level of gravitas and emotional weight, making the entire comic suffer.

Also, readers of that monthly comic will be quick to notice that Brubaker’s Thunderbolts sound nothing like Diggle’s.  For instance, Ghost sounds like the leader of the team, which is just downright wrong.

Finally, while Hitch and Guice’s artwork is unbelievable, their panel layouts are not.  For some reason, they’ve gone totally wild with the wide panels (widescreen shots) this month.  It’s an almost non-stop barrage that’s repetitive, uninspired, and just annoying.

Conclusion: Fairly good and still better than issue #1, but a step down from last month.

Grade: B –

-Alex Evans

Captain America: Reborn #2 – Review

by Ed Brubaker (writer), Bryan Hitch (art), Butch Guice (art), Paul Mounts (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Looking for answers, Cap is forced to relive his most painful moment as he stumbles through time.  Meanwhile, Bucky Cap and Black Widow meet Norman.

What’s Good: It was hard not to groan at “Steve Rogers: Lost in Time” last month; the concept is cringe-inducing.  Yet this month, Brubaker actually making the most of the concept, manages to pull attention away from the lameness of the concept by focusing on the torturous nature of Steve’s current time-hopping existence, as he is forced to relive a particularly awful moment of his life.  Brubaker successfully puts across Steve as imprisoned and tormented by his past, managing to turn a cheesy concept into effective emotional drama.  Those who found last month a little slow will also be happy to know that this month also brings the action, Dark Reign-style and WWII-style.

Brubaker also gives the initially hair-brained “lost in time” concept some much needed nuance and some even bigger questions.  Steve goes through the old “I can’t change anything without risking the future” time travel dilemma. However, it’s effective in that this difficulty grows to be the lock on Steve’s jailcell, forcing him to not only endure a horrid event from his life again, but allow it. The divide between Steve’s narration and Steve’s physical presence only augments this effect.  Also, the question of Steve being unconsciously in control of his time jumps is also intriguing to say the least.

As is probably expected, Hitch’s art is a thing of beauty, hyper-detailed as we’ve come to expect from him. What’s most impressive is how the art shifts in style between depictions of Steve’s WWII past and the current day Dark Reign.  Of course, this is thanks in no small part to Paul Mounts’ work on colors.  Where the WWII bits are brighter and colored in earth tones, the present day is all shadows, blues, and blacks.  Hitch and his team do a better job of depicting the mood of Dark Reign than a hundred tie-ins could ever hope to.  The art alone creates Dark Reign as a very distinctive, and very malevolent, time.

What’s Not So Good: Perhaps it’s only fitting that a book about Steve Rogers’ return leads to the “lost in time” portions featuring Steve Rogers being head and shoulders above the rest of the book.  Whether it’s Rogers’ narration or the emotional impact of his entrapment and suffering, it’s just far more enjoyable than the present day segments.  While the Dark Reign segments aren’t at all bad, the Steve Rogers bits are simply so good that I found myself often just turning pages waiting for another Rogers scene.

Conclusion: Cap fans can rest easy; this might just end up being pretty good.  An action-packed, emotional ride and hopefully a sign of things to come.

Grade: B+

-Alex Evans

Captain America # 600 – Review

By Ed Brubaker, Roger Stern, Mark Waid (writers), Alex Ross, Dale Eaglesham, Butch Guice, Howard Chaykin, Rafael Albuquerque, David Aja, Mitch Breitweiser, and Kalman Andrasofszky (art), Frank D’Armata, Edgar Delgado, Matt Hollingsworth, Paul Mounts, Marte Gracia and Mitch Breitweiser (colors)

The Story: Everything you knew about the death of Captain America is wrong. On the eve of the one-year anniversary of that fateful day, Sharon follows a path built by fractured memories to discover a game-changing clue in Steve’s death. On the other side of town, while heading towards the memorial at Central Park, the Patriot meets a new hero from a different world, or at least she says, who has a particularly strong connection to both Bucky and Steve. Also attending the memorial is Bucky and the new avengers where they get a swift punch in the gut from Osborn, but not in the way you think.

What’s Good: Brubaker goes back to his mastery of spinning a mystery, crime noir story by starting with revisiting the first piece of evidence at any murder scene. From there, he weaves in hints of upcoming story-plots, centered around The Grand Director and this new, alien character, but then comes back to main issue at hand — Steve’s return. Most interesting is the surprise return of the Red Skull who we knew was out there somewhere, so don’t worry, I didn’t spoil anything here as its what he says that is the big reveal.

For me, it’s not just that Cap is back, but rather the whole series is back. I’ve felt that since Bucky became full-time Cap this story has been running on fumes and that all though it is extremely well written, it seemed like Brubaker was killing time or playing it safe. And this issue confirms my suspicions as all the dynamics, tone, feel, and even characters are back to where this series was at around issue 25. I’m no fan of Bucky being Cap at all, but who knows, the fact that this new direction is in full force and Cap is back, maybe it will retroactively sweeten Bucky’s roll for me? Also, there is a nice little vignette involving Crossbones and Sin that is sweet and yet so, so disturbing.

There is a team of artists on this book and I found each one of their parts to be executed to near perfection. My favorite was the art on the Red Skull tale, where the ultra-villain’s flash backs and current state were equally intense, his power and plans foreboding.

What’s Not So Good: As with all annual’s or event comics, like this “hundredth” issue, this pamphlet is a mixed bag as far as price. I’m not sure with the entire buzz and greatness imbued in Brubaker’s main tale, there was little worth reading in the smaller tales by Stern, Waid, and Lee. Waid’s didn’t make sense at all in the current marvel Universe as we see Tony Stark poised behind a desk with an assistant. Perhaps those that follow the Captain America Universe very tightly will have nostalgic feeling towards what these tales were about, but I didn’t and rather have had the extra cash to put towards another comic this week. I mean this comic was $5.30! That’s half of a decent trade. Tossing in these throwaway tales and cover gallery doesn’t justify the price point for me. I’m sure some collectors are happy with this and for them Marvel should offer two choices: a collector’s edition, like this issue, or a regular edition, with just Brubaker’s tale.

I think it is a fair critique to say that despite all the artists doing a yeoman’s job on their given task, the overall aesthetic feel for Brubaker’s main tale is jaded at best. Having Chaykin follow Guice next is like using a sponge instead of sandpaper. When I returned to the normal visual feel of Captain America at the end of the story, it felt like I was reading several other comics in between. Besides showcasing Marvel’s talent, there was nothing gained by using such radical art styles on one story. In fact, this decision hurt the book.

I know that Captain America has a rich history of team-ups, so I will wait and see how this eventual team-up between the Grand Director and this alien girl goes, but for now, I’m not sure that the Captain America mythos needs another partnership or anymore characters. Especially with the Skull and Steve returning.

Conclusion: Because of Captain America # 600, Reborn is by far the most anticipated event for me. This is the upcoming project helmed by Brubaker and Hitch that continues what was laid out here. I didn’t think anything could dampen the excitement around Blackest Night, but Steve’s return does. Most surprisingly, I am not pessimistic about how Steve’s resurrection will be handled as I have great faith in Brubaker and his talents, especially with crafting a good old-fashioned murder (or not) mystery. Brubaker’s story is an easy A, but with all the mishandled art oversight and expensive fluff stories, I have to give Captain America #600 an…

Grade: B

-Rob G.

Rob G’s Wish Comes True – Cap Is Back!

Well, if you’ve read my review from a while back, you know I’ve been wishing upon a star, specifically a certain star on a certain iconic shield, for Steve Rogers’ return. Now, according to Marvel.com the real Cap is coming back. Great news! Not to mention Ed Brubaker will be penning this tale and Bryan Hitch is on pencils.

Let’s be clear: nothing is for certain. Who knows if Bucky will turn-in the shield? Who knows if Steve will even stick around? Who knows if  Norman Osborn will shoot the Red Skull and then become master of the universe? Who knows if Sharon will give birth to a baby clone of Steve, hopped up on Super Solider serum, that grows a year in a day? But anyway, check out the full story here.

So, what do you think about Steve’s imminent return? And make sure to check back on Tuesday afternoon for WCBR’s review of Captain America #600 where Steve’s resurrection begins!