Captain America #14 – Review

by Ed Brubaker (writer), Patrick Zircher & Mike Deodato (artists), Paul Mounts (colorist), and Joe Caramagna (letterer)

The Story: Captain America tries to put down Scourge, not knowing that it’s an old friend under the mask.

The Review:  Who the hell is D-Man and why should I care?

I suspect that’ll be the reaction of most readers to this issue.  Brubaker never tells us who exactly D-Man is, what the nature the nature of his friendship with Cap is, or why we should feel even remotely attached the character (who, thank you Comic Vine, has only appeared twice in Brubaker’s 8 year run).  For some reason, Brubaker has decided that it would make good sense to write an issue, and by extension an entire story-arc, that was contingent on a reader’s being familiar with Mark Gruenwald’s run on Captain America 20 years ago.   Unless a reader has working knowledge of those early 90s stories, he or she is going to be totally in the dark about why D-Man is important.

The result is an issue that I can’t help but feel apathetic about.  Brubaker hasn’t given us a reason to care about D-Man or his fate and never really even seemed to try to.  The HYDRA elements were never explored.  Worse still, this entire issue is basically just one extended punch-up between  Cap and Scourge.  Making the issue feel even more phoned in is the fact that said punch-up ends up being yet another return to the tired old “mind control” comic book trope.  I half expected Steve to cry out to D-Man to “fight it.”  As talented a writer as Brubaker is, it really didn’t seem like he was trying very hard here.  D-Man’s motivations and insane rambling were entirely vapid and trite and we were basically just given a bunch of pages of punching.  And when the tragic ending strikes, who cares?  Maybe those two readers who fell asleep last night hugging onto their twenty-year-old Gruenwald comics, but that’s about it.

Captain America #12 – Review

by Ed Brubaker (writer), Patrick Zircher (art), Paul Mounts (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: The identity of Scourge, and the man pulling his strings, are revealed.

The Review:  With this second issue, this arc is really starting to seem a like a “righting of the ship” of Captain America since the relaunch.  Really, it feels like Brubaker going back to doing what he does best with Cap and much of what’s made his run such a wild success.  What with HYDRA looming in the background, undercover villains, and secrets aplenty, this is a return by Brubaker to that cloak-and-dagger, espionage style that has served him so well in past Cap runs.  The old school, more bombastic, though perhaps generic, superheroics of the last couple of arcs has been abandoned for a more grounded, shadowy, winding comic that is much more in line with the best loved Brubaker Cap comics.  It’s a story of a serial killer and government secrets, not a time-travel hullabaloo and, as such, it’s much more in Brubaker’s wheelhouse and this comic is slowly but surely feeling revitalized as a result.

Patrick Zircher’s art also recalls the prime of Brubaker’s run, as his idea of a Captain America comic clearly falls in line with the aesthetic Steve Epting established for Captain America.  Zircher’s work is also shadowy with a constant sense of tension and mystery and thus, it falls perfectly in line with Brubaker’s script.

My main criticism of the previous issue was that the plot was overly basic.  This is somewhat addressed this issue, as Brubaker does complicate things a bit.  Rather than have it simply be a case of HYDRA manipulating and pulling the new Scourge’s strings, Brubaker instead inserts a “middle man” between the two, a character with significant name value but who certainly isn’t someone you’d expect to see in a  Captain America comic, which piques interest significantly, particularly given that his being a pawn of HYDRA seems not to be his choice.  Overall, Brubaker does a good job this issue in giving us clear answers that only lead to more questions.

Captain America #11 – Review

by Ed Brubaker (writer), Patrick Zircher (art), Paul Mounts (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Someone’s leaking SHIELD intel to a vigilante who’s taken to killing reformed criminals in SHIELD’s witness protection program.

The Review:  As another arc of the relaunched Captain America begins, the same problem rears its head again.  Put simply, the story here is far from high concept.  In fact, it’s pretty unoriginal and unimaginative.  At surface level, it’s another story about a Punisher type villain, this time Scourge, who’s KILLING the bad guys and, as such, the heroes have to stop him.  It’s just an extremely basic, familiar premise, much as the core concept behind last arc’s plot (Steve loses his powers) was also extremely basic.  I’m not sure if this is a sign that Brubaker is running out of steam for Cap, but it’s a bit disconcerting how simple the core plot is.

It’s not all bad news however; while the plot may be familiar, there are enough elements and mysteries to it to keep you reading.  The identity of Scourge is completely up in the air and unknown and Brubaker also lets us know that HYDRA is, somehow, involved, but literally tells us no more than some yelling “HAIL HYDRA.”  At the very least, these teases will keep you going and keep you interested in what would otherwise be a fairly by the numbers plot.

Moreover, I’ll admit to being a sucker for “superheroes do detective-work” storylines.  Hell, Batman made a career of it.  There’s always something smart and extremely down to earth about these sorts of stories that I appreciate.  Cap isn’t battling cosmic entities here, nor is he protecting or avenging the deaths of any big name heroes.  Rather, Scourge is killing former criminals under SHIELD’s protection, guys who are either random AIM thugs or D-list, forgotten villains.  The result is a story that feels much smaller, more contained, and hence more focused.  There’s a sense in which the heroes have to put their brains to work here.  There’s also a great scene where Diamondback and Dum Dum visit a crime scene that had a very “Gotham Central” vibe to it.  There’s something innately satisfying about seeing superheroes, particularly in plain clothes, visiting a crime scene, exercising jurisdiction, and looking for clues.  At the very least, it makes for something a little different.

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!

Thunderbolts #138 – Review

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

The Story: The Thunderbolts, having more than a few lunatics on the team, have a problem. The satisfaction of victory over Power Man and Iron Fist was snatched from them last issue. They’ve had nothing to do since then. So somebody prods at Mr. X, which causes him to escape from their HQ. The Thunderbolts follow him to the Colombia-Venezuela border.

What’s Good: Sepulveda provides some very fine artwork for this issue. In terms of setting, there are lots of moody, cloudy effects, dreamscapes, and a whole lot of Venezuelan jungle. The art communicated most of what it needed to for keeping the story moving too (although I wondered from time to time if Ant-Man was flying under the influence). There’s a lot of dynamic action here that’s fun to watch. Sepulveda also has a multiple image effect to show Mr. X’s speed, which was effective. And the FARC guerrillas and their equipment were authentic, down to the rubber boots that they wear instead of combats. He’s obviously done his research.

The story was serviceable. It was actually a variation on a classic Marvel theme: good guys fighting each other until something bigger forces them to unite. In this case, it’s villain on villain action. This series has been pointing at the fractures in the team for quite some time and it’s fun to watch the effects the petty betrayals have. The dialogue was excellent.

What’s Not So Good: While the Thunderbolts creative team has been good in showing the little splits between team members, nothing definitive is happening, so I’m starting to wonder if this low-level bubbling of personalities will ever actually lead to anything. It seems that every issue, somebody talks about killing someone else and then the following issue, they’re back to their base level of animosity. And on that score, in six months time, some readers may wonder why this issue was important. It’s not character study. It’s not driving a new arc. It’s just shooting and blowing stuff up, which works for some. The danger with an issue like this is that it doesn’t continue any momentum from the previous issue, nor does it launch the next issue with any momentum either. Making that slightly worse is the fact that I didn’t feel much was at stake. If none of the T-bolts are going to do anything serious to one another, and the FARC is a pretty unmenacing antagonist, there’s not much left to worry about. (Unless you think that a platoon of spottily trained guys with hand weapons is going to pose a genuine threat to the Thunderbolts – FARC aren’t the Hulk-Busters, Cape killers or even a properly equipped modern army.)  That makes it easy to say that this is not a critical issue for collectors.

For the purposes of nit-picking (can’t nerd out without nit-picking, right?), odds are long that FARC guerrillas would be skirmishing with Venezuelan forces, but that’s just nit-picking.

Conclusion: If you like to watch your favorite villains pretending to be heroes and shooting and beating each other, this issue is for you. Otherwise, nothing much changes in the Thunderbolts universe, so if you need to skip an issue, it shouldn’t affect how you read next one.

Grade: C

-DS Arsenault

 

Thunderbolts #137 – Review

by Rick Remender (Writer), Mahmud A. Asrar (Pencils), Rebecca Buchman (Inks), and Bruno Hang (Colorist)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: With Jeff Parker due to take over the Thunderbolts series soon, I’m not entirely surprised to see a one-and-done story filling the space in between creative teams. It’s not such a bad thing as long as the filler stuff is entertaining.

The Story: Norman Osborn has unfinished business with Luke Cage. So what’s Osborn do? He abducts Cage’s best friend, Danny Rand (A.K.A. Iron Fist), in order to use him to take out Cage.

What’s Good: Before diving into Thunderbolts #137, you should be aware that the comic is as much about Norman Osborn’s team as it is about the friendship that exists between Luke Cage and Danny Rand. That’s not a bad thing at all though because Rick Remender’s script definitely delivers the goods. Not only does it do justice to what Andy Diggle has built up over the last few months as far as the overall Thunderbolts dynamic is concerned, but it’s got satisfying action beats and a number of nice character moments as well.

I’ve got to say that I’m extremely impressed by how smoothly Remender slides into his role as a Thunderbolts writer (I’d be pretty happy if he took over the series after Jeff Parker to be honest). By wisely choosing Ghost (the wild card) and Ant-Man (the outsider) as his focal points, Remender is able to effortlessly capture what makes the team such a ticking time-bomb. From Osborn’s plan to Mister X’s taste for violence, Remender’s story reads as though the writer has been on the series for quite some time.

Luke Cage and Danny Rand are, thankfully, handled with just as much care as the Thunderbolts are. While the “brain-washed best friend” plot isn’t anything new, Remender throws in a lot of effective character work to make up for any complaints one might have regarding originality. There’s a lot of history between Cage and Rand and writer uses that to full effect throughout the latest issue of Thunderbolts. Most of the dialogue between the two characters (when Rand isn’t being controlled by Osborn) is a mix of fun banter and personal exchanges that really drives home the point that Cage and Rand are tight.

The artwork in Thunderbolts #137 is solid, though mostly unspectacular. The action is easily the highlight thanks to the way Mahmud A. Asrar stresses the impact of every punch and kick. The action looks painful and that goes a long way towards driving home just how deadly Iron Fist and Luke Cage can be.

What’s Not So Good: I already mentioned how generic the plot of Thunderbolts #137 is, so the only other thing left to talk about is how disappointed I am by the artwork. I’m a big fan of Mahmud A. Asrar’s art for the Dynamo 5 series, so I had pretty high expectations when I saw his name on the cover of an issue of one of my favorite series. Unfortunately, it turns out that Asrar’s style is better suited for colorful, more traditional superheroes than it is for the gritty, brutal characters featured in Thunderbolts. While Asrar’s work is in no way bad, it is underwhelming considering what some of his other comic art looks like.

Conclusion: Art issues aside, Thunderbolts #137 is a great one-and-done story about some of the more underappreciated characters of the Marvel Universe.

Grade: B

-Kyle Posluszny

Thunderbolts #136 – Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Pop Mahn & Carlos Rodriguez (art), Frank Martin & Rain Beredo (colors), and Albert Deschesne (letters)

The Story: Black Widow and Songbird find themselves in a bad spot, as a divide begins to form between the Thunderbolts.

What’s Good: It’s really quite tragic that in Diggle’s final issue,  the team finally feels fully established, with its members feeling legitimate and competent.  Each character is fully defined, and I found myself caring about each and every one of them.  The bad guys on the team felt like nasty, powerful adversaries, while I was firmly cheering for the good guys on the team.   While Ghost has been awesome for some time, Headsman is now very lovable in his own right, Paladin gives off a twisted Scott Summers feel, Ant-Man is in intriguing character that’ll be trouble later on, and Mr. X is the evil, all-powerful badass that he should be.

All of this comes courtesy of the team breaking apart early on in the issue, which allows each character to shine in his own right.  It fully manifests the sort of bizarre team dynamic that should define the Thunderbolts;  Diggle spends much of the issue with half of the team acting like heroes, or at least anti-heroes, while the other half are flat-out villains.  This is the sort of moral impasse that can make Thunderbolts such a fascinating comic, as while none of the characters are good guys, each represent a different sort of villainy.

Beyond that, the action has the fast, slick, and frenetic feel that you’d expect from Thunderbolts, with fancy explosions aplenty and a fun chase sequence.  This is really dynamic, yet shadowy stuff with the great shading that has come to be a requirement in a Thunderbolts book.

What’s Not So Good: It’s hard not to feel a little frustrated as you realize that Diggle has left his book in a state where nothing has really changed.  Through some rather convenient techno-wizardy, Ghost ensures that the team will have no memory of their infighting – meaning that the roster stays the same and the internal strife that made this issue so interesting is put back into the closet.  Meanwhile, a “new” member introduced at issue’s end essentially  undoes the biggest twist of Diggle’s entire run.

Diggle just feels overly concerned with making the series as accessible as possible for incoming writer Jeff Parker.  It’s as though we’re back to issue 3 of Diggle’s run, with Parker merely inheriting Diggle’s original team, but almost none of the events that came after that roster selection.

The unmasking of Scourge was also underwhelming.  It really is a C-list character, one I can imagine many people being totally unfamiliar with.  Worse still, those who are familiar with the character probably saw this coming a mile away.

Also, perhaps due to having a larger art team, things can feel a bit scattered and a little too frantic, with a few too many angular panels, some faces looking off, and some panels being clearly done by a different hand.

Conclusion: A great issue that makes me feel that Diggle’s leaving too soon.  It’s too bad that so much is undone.

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

Thunderbolts #135 – Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Miguel Sepulveda (art), Frank Martin (colors), and Albert Deschesne (letters)

The Story: Black Widow and Songbird make a run for it.

What’s Good: Diggle writes an interesting script for this issue, one that’s self-referential in many ways.  Whenever a character says a line that sounds ridiculous, cliche, or out of character, another character immediately picks up on it. It’s actually fairly clever.  They pick up on the failings in each other’s dialogue or the more ridiculous aspects of certain characters. There’s an especially funny line regarding the cliche nature of Nick Fury’s voice that isn’t to be missed.

This is overall a fairly solid issue, and one of the reasons for that is perhaps the first time since the beginning of his run, Diggle actually makes his team feel not only competent, but nuanced and outright intimidating. All too often, Diggle’s Tbolts have felt woefully ineffective. It was great to hear them finally speak of with fear. By placing them in the role of pursuers as opposed to main characters actually does wonders for the team and has given them a shot of legitimacy. Too bad this comes at the end of Diggle’s run.

Character-wise, I’m glad that Mr. X was finally was put to good use in this issue, and unlike most martial arts monsters, he actually is as invincible as he should be. Mr. X is a scary, scary dude and his action scene was fantastic, lightning quick stuff that looked and read great. Norman was also oddly competent this month. Dark Reign has often made him seem a bit bumbling, but this month, he puts out the brainpower that one would expect out of someone running the show, in a twist on a twist that’s really rather cool.

On art, Sepulveda brings his awesome shading techniques that make the book look unlike any other, giving it a neat “painted” feel.

What’s Not So Good: But that’s all I can say that’s good about the art this month, which is quite inconsistent. Close-ups of faces often look completely strange, even muddy and distorted. Nick Fury in particular looks horrible, and it’s clear that Sepulveda can’t draw beaten and battered faces. He also struggles with people shouting.

Unfortunately, many of  the other panels aren’t much better. When the shot is zoomed out a bit, a lot of detail seems to be lost, to the point of looking flat-out weird. Inexplicably, Sepulveda’s action scenes look great and don’t suffer from any problems. It’s only in zoomed out panels without action that it all becomes a bit blank and blurry.

Frank Martin’s colors certainly don’t do Sepulveda’s art any favours. It’s clear that Sepulveda’s art looks best with dark colors, but with much of the book taking place outdoors, Martin makes the book look damned bright; and it just feels very off, inappropriate even. Worse still, I feel that the strong bright colors ended up battling Sepulveda’s equally strong shading, resulting in a very weird looking comic book.

Despite the cool action scenes, there’s some sloppy work here, and the overbearing colors don’t work with Sepulveda’s drawings.

Conclusion: A fairly decent issue held back by off-putting artwork.

Grade: B

-Alex Evans