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valbuenaversion360
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Joined: 06 Aug 2010
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Sun Aug 22, 2010 3:08 pm |
 Post subject: Review: Captain America vol.5 # 1-6 |
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Title: Out of Time
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Steve Epting/Michael Lark
Company: Marvel Comics
The first arc to Brubaker's Eisner-winning run on Captain America begins with the mysterious assassination of Cap's long-standing archnemesis, the Red Skull. Already on edge, with the Skull’s escape just months before the assassination, Steve Rogers is paired with ex-flame SHIELD Agent Sharon Carter due to his recent erratic behavior in the guise of Captain America. Together, they uncover a plot hatched by the Skull to use a splinter group of AIM to bomb major cities across the world and harvest the ensuing death and destruction as energy to repair and repower a Cosmic Cube. This plan, they discover, was stopped dead in its tracks and the Cube appropriated by another faction running rival to the Skull’s. Meanwhile, Steve continues to contend with his horrific memories of World War Two, as figures from his past come under attack from this faction. He eventually discovers that this faction is led by Aleksander Lukin, a Russian relic of the Cold War, out for revenge on Captain America for his supposed wrongdoings towards the Russian Army in WW2, and perhaps more, and that the Cube and the means to repower it are in Lukin’s possession. As Lukin’s plans, and the bombing of Philadelphia are set in motion, Steve uncovers another shocking discovery; the man who assassinated the Skull, and who has been attacking Steve through his past on Lukin’s orders is none other than Bucky Barnes, his former partner from the War, somehow back from the dead.
Upon initial perusal of the book, one notices that the book plays out more like detective fiction, instead of your traditional superhero throwdown, focusing on a mysterious, far-reaching and multifaceted plan to get under our intrepid hero’s skin. Even with all the influences superhero fiction has appropriated from detective fiction as of late, you can always expect a superhero story to culminate in, or at least feature an all-out brawl between the hero and his nemeses. Not so for Out of Time; Steve spends majority of the arc chasing down leads, piecing together clues, and ultimately failing to stop Lukin’s plan; fight scenes are interspersed throughout the narrative, and often end with either Steve being berated for his recklessness, having his victory cut short due to another shocking development, or getting his head kicked in. Truly, one sees Brubaker’s characteristic skill in the detective genre, as you soon realize that the fights aren’t the meat of the book, the mystery and the new angles of Steve’s characterization brought about by it are. And despite the book firmly being marketed as a superhero comic, you don’t resent Brubaker one bit for it.
Another staple of the detective genre given a superhero spin in the book is the concept of the shady character from the hero’s past. It’s actually rather interesting as to how this plays out, given that majority of Cap’s supporting cast is composed of secret agents, spies, vigilantes with secret identities, or masked terrorists; all indeed “shady” characters in their own right. Then, suddenly these characters start dropping like flies around him, the first one to fall being perhaps the most heinous of them all. It invokes a genuine sense of fear in the reader as this assassin can somehow take down these mysterious and very deadly individuals with ease, and knows that he can use them to get to Steve. In the end, the reveal replaces the fear with a genuine sense of shock, Bucky, although rather skilled in his own right, wasn’t exactly one would call assassin material prior to his retcon, but Brubaker retools the character in such a way that wouldn’t scream “character derailment”, and uses the character to further expand on Steve’s emotional distresses.
The Bucky retcon, is perhaps the most striking part of not just the arc, but perhaps of Brubaker’s entire run, barring Death of the Dream. It is revealed that the serials of the 1940’s wherein Bucky was a simple Army brat who accidentally stumbled upon Steve changing into his Captain America costume were part of a cover story to hide the fact that Bucky was, in essence, a child assassin, sent to accompany Steve to do the wetwork Captain America shouldn’t be seen doing. After the accident that supposedly killed them both, Bucky was discovered by the Russians, who were hoping to rescue Captain America, then revived and brainwashed into becoming the Winter Soldier, a Russian spy meant to pass for American, in order to give them the edge in the Cold War. Again, none of this is done simply for the sake of having a cool new villain for Steve to fight, though how cool the Soldier may be. Instead, Bucky is brought back with the intent of getting under Steve’s skin; a major departure from majority of his rogue’s gallery who are unambiguous threats to his country and whom Steve would not hesitate to kill if the need arose. The Winter Soldier, while also unambiguously a threat to American society, is also a loved one of Steve, someone who Steve will most certainly hesitate to kill even if the need arose. The threat isn’t simply a matter of national security, but it’s also a matter of Steve’s personal state of mind, which is very interesting to be seen in detail, and Brubaker doesn’t fail in getting the reader to personally feel Steve’s dilemma.
Brubaker’s dialogue is also rather genre savvy, almost unnaturally so, with the ins and outs of superhero fiction. Take for example an action sequence in issue 1 wherein Cap stops a bombing of Coney Island via train loaded with a dirty bomb by saving one of the terrorists from falling to his doom, only to pin the guy to the roof, and order the defusal of the bomb, boasting that if the bomb wasn’t, “We’re both going to ride it into the sunset. I’m fairly certain I’d survive, how about you?” This continues throughout the arc, such as in Cap’s disbelief that the Skull died without so much as a whimper, and indeed throughout the rest of the series. This is very appropriate, given Cap’s age, and his reputation amongst the superhero community, he’s just about seen everything. This vibe also makes the more shocking developments throughout the story all the more shocking.
As for the art, Epting does a stellar job at capturing the new direction in which the book’s been taken. The art features realistically proportioned figures, highly expressive faces, dark shades and shadows, and very cinematic panels; drawing the reader into the mystery itself, instead of simply observing from beyond. Visualized sound effects are used sparingly, the “words” being placed in such a manner that they wouldn’t draw attention to themselves, giving the book a realistic feel. Also, in contrast to superhero comics characteristically being colorful, using explosions any chance they get to put more color into the panels, Frank D’Armata’s coloring is relatively pale and subdued, giving a spy-thriller quality to the book, and almost making Cap’s uniform believable as stealth attire.
Overall, the book is awesome, and an excellent choice for readers new to Captain America, as it only uses previous continuity to further the story, and research is not really necessary as the book itself explains these continuity references. However, the arc is not meant to be read alone and starting on it pretty much means that you have to delve all the way into Brubaker’s run, not that that’s a bad thing, given that the run has won Eisner awards. There are only minimal gripes with the story, such the character of Neal Tapper, another one of Sharon Carter’s exes, who was killed in issue six, simply to make Carter’s pursuit for Bucky personal; contrary to the emotional potshots taken at Steve over the course of the arc, there was very little emotional investment in Tapper to make us feel for Sharon when he dies. Other than that, it’s hell of a way to kick off one of the most lauded continuing series in comic book history, and certainly a must-read if you want to start following one. |
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Sir Pepoy Josepito
Super Special Awesome
Joined: 02 Dec 2008
Posts: 603
Location: in sanity
Sun Aug 22, 2010 11:34 pm |
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MORE THAN 1000 WORDS
DO IT AGAIN
I'M KIDDING
Great job, Daniel.
The summary was sufficient without being overly long, you have here good observations of the author's writing style and how he implemented it to this story without mangling the feel of the book and the handling of the "resurrection and reinvention" of a character long dead and gone (which is always a controversial move usually done with horrible results), your description and evaluation of the art is spot-on (IN MY OPINION), and you also knew well enough to point out a flaw in the storytelling.
And you're the first one to submit a review in your batch! Someone with the money or the baking experience should give you cookies. Good on you for shifting to CW!
For the rest of the apps, this is how your reviews should look like! Well, no, you don't exactly have to follow this format but please do something like this. You'll earn my admiration AND THAT WILL GET YOU PLACES!
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ryerye17
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Joined: 11 Nov 2009
Posts: 12
Location: UP Village, Quezon City
Mon Aug 23, 2010 10:07 am |
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| Sir Pepoy Josepito wrote: |
And you're the first one to submit a review in your batch! |
Mine was submitted Saturday at the DC Forums, and someone else already uploaded a review at the European forums.
To be on topic, I like your review as well.  Makes me want to read Cappy
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Sir Pepoy Josepito
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Joined: 02 Dec 2008
Posts: 603
Location: in sanity
Mon Aug 23, 2010 6:02 pm |
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oh my god why did i not see those reviews
I TAKE IT ALL BACK DANIEL
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valbuenaversion360
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Joined: 06 Aug 2010
Posts: 9
Mon Aug 23, 2010 8:47 pm |
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aw hell.
well, at least I'm not doing it again. |
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Van
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Joined: 07 Aug 2010
Posts: 8
Tue Aug 24, 2010 9:15 pm |
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| Quote: | | MORE THAN 1000 WORDS |
WTF! I got intimated in writing my comic review because of this! Anyway I'll TRY MY BEST to submit my review if I have nothing to do, like right now. ;P |
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Sir Pepoy Josepito
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Joined: 02 Dec 2008
Posts: 603
Location: in sanity
Tue Aug 24, 2010 9:28 pm |
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what i actually meant by that was the review went OVER THE WORD LIMIT so i JOKINGLY demanded it to be rewritten
the actual limit is 500 words minimum, 1000 maximum
but it's ok to go past a thousand!
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NakoZonbineko
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Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Posts: 210
Wed Aug 25, 2010 7:41 am |
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lol
Yaki posted a review first, dude. She reviewed Persepolis.
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Sir Pepoy Josepito
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Joined: 02 Dec 2008
Posts: 603
Location: in sanity
Wed Aug 25, 2010 11:16 pm |
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yeah we already covered that part TWO DAYS AGO KEEP UP HANNAH SANTOS, KEEP UP
*snaps fingers*
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marionjasper
Ito ang "tama"
Joined: 15 Jan 2009
Posts: 204
Location: Tandang Sora Ave, QC(for now)
Sun Aug 29, 2010 6:05 pm |
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I've just read this review last night. I'm impressed how it was written, covering issues on the storytelling and artistic sides. Though it's a bit longer than it's supposed to be compared to those posted on IGN and CBR, the thought is already there. You may want to be more concise next time , assuming you're doing this professionally.
Actually, I envy you on how you on how well you wrote this one.
But yeah, great work indeed! ;D |
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NakoZonbineko
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Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Posts: 210
Tue Aug 31, 2010 8:30 pm |
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| Sir Pepoy Josepito wrote: | yeah we already covered that part TWO DAYS AGO KEEP UP HANNAH SANTOS, KEEP UP
*snaps fingers* |
Sorry.
I haven't been online here much lately.
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