f13.net forums - Captain America vol. 5 #1-6

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April 23, 2024, 11:00:33 PM

we're back, baby

Captain America has pretty much always been one of the least interesting comic book characters to me. Sure I have a fondness for a lot of the late Mark Gruenwald's Cap stories of which there always seemed to be one of in those big 50-packs of comics my mom would pick up for me at Price Club every so often. Cap himself always seemed fairly one-dimensional though. More recently Marvel seemed at a loss for what to do with the character in his own title, attempting to do a more "real world" kinda Cap dealing with subjects like terrorists and Guantanamo Bay.

Recently though Marvel did another relaunch of Captain America, this time with Ed Brubaker (Sleeper, Gotham Central) writing about Cap going against a former Russian General from the Cold War era, Aleksander Lukin, and his mysterious assassin the Winter Soldier (who guns down the Red Skull in the first issue to gain control of depleted Cosmic Cube). S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury, and former Cap girlfriend Sharon Carter (Agent 13) play major roles, and we also get a lot of good flashbacks to Cap, Bucky, and the Invaders in WWII. This isn't just Cap swinging a shield around while Bucky punches some people and no one gets killed kind of stuff either. Bucky slits Nazi throats, and Cap tosses a grenade into a German tank among other things.

These first 6 issues just complete the first part of the story, but unlike a lot of 6 issue arcs at Marvel these days, this story didn't feel padded at all. Every issue moves the story along with some of the best pacing I've seen in comics in recent years. Steve Epting's art and Frank D'Armata's colors fit the story perfectly. They colors are dark, especially in the the flashbacks, but not muddy. I don't recall seeing any double-page spreads (a welcome change from a lot of comics these days that seem to have multiple spreads and single panel pages per issue as filler) and the visual storytelling is spot on.

For the "wait for the trade" folks here, Captain America: Out of Time looks like it's scheduled for July 27th. This story really is a good one to enjoy in serial format though.

Hardcover collecting issues 1-7 for only 14.95. Diamond Comics Distributors lists tomorrow as the shipping date, although Amazon is listing August 3rd. Can't recommend this enough.

Can't recommend it enough even if I die-hard HATE Captain America?

I've NEVER been a particular fan of Captain America. I never thought that I'd be buying a Captain America series on a regular basis, but this isn't the Cap you're use to seeing. This guy doesn't pretend that he made it through WWII without killing people, for one thing.

Alright, I'll pick it up for my flight back out to Arizona, but so help me god if I get bored with it. rolleyes

I haven't read these yet, but Ed Brubaker did some good writing on Catwoman, so I'd read it on that basis alone.

Sounds more like Ultimate Captain America.

I've been enjoying their portrayal of it, having him hanging around folks 70 years old and older because he feels out of place with the new generation.

Quote from: Llava on July 20, 2005, 12:31:17 PM

Sounds more like Ultimate Captain America.

I've been enjoying their portrayal of it, having him hanging around folks 70 years old and older because he feels out of place with the new generation.

Not so much Ultimate Cap, as it is closer to Cap as he was shown early on. It wasn't until after he was brought back in Avengers that he became some guy who was so perfect, that he made it through WWII without ever killing anyone. Back in the old days it apparently wasn't uncommon to see Bucky shooting at people either.

But yeah, Brubaker's stuff is good. Sleeper is also worth checking out, although I don't think the whole thing has been collected yet.

Edit: And if you want it now (since amazon still doesn't have it listed as shipping) instocktrades.com has it here for $14.29 (free shipping on orders of $50 or more).

For those who don't mind reading part of the story out of order and what to see what this story is like, milehighcomics has all of issue 3 available for reading here.

I rather enjoyed it.

One of the few interesting bits of news from WizardWorld Chicago, Brubaker will be taking over on Daredevil after Bendis leaves. If this guy can get me interested in Captain fucking America, I have to give his Daredevil a chance. Michael Lark, who he worked with on Gotham Central, will be doing the art.

I love Bendis's Daredevil. Brubaker is a good choice to follow that up.

For those interested, issue #14 wraps up the Winter Soldier storyline. I'd love to discuss it in depth, but on the off-chance that people here will actually read it I really don't want to spoil anything. Good storytelling all the way down to the end though and there are still a lot of plot threads left for the next story arcs.

I was somewhat ambivalent about the ending. It did leave a lot of storytelling options open, but I'm not sure I wouldn't have ended it a different way.

The only thing I didn't really like about the ending was Cap's use of the cosmic cube. That and the fact Marvel has already decided to have the Winter Soldier do a guest appearance in Wolverine. The next arc apparently is going to focus on Crossbones and the Skull's daughter.