I have to confess, the character of Captain America holds a special place in my consciousness and I am very fond of him because he was one of the first superheroes I read about and because he helped to further my literary development. I remember being very young and my mom showing me strips of Spiderman and the Cap in the newspaper.
Do they still have strips of the superheroes in the paper? I am not sure, I do know that throughout middle school and beyond, Cap’s comics were among the ones I would love to read and among the most fun. I also remember seeing the old Marvel cartoons featuring Cap, Hulk and other Marvel characters, even though I didn’t realize it at the time, they were made in the 60s. As I became an adult, I lost track of Cap, but every so often I’d pick up an issue to see how he was doing and was thrilled to see him fend off the Serpent Society, the Red Skull, or some other foe. Reading the beginning of Captain America #25 brought back some of those old feelings I would get when “Captain America threw his mighty shield.”
However, in their infinite wisdom, the editors at Marvel have decided to off Captain America following his surrender in the aftermath of Civil War. I remember reading a review by a recent comic book Blogger in reference to some of the deaths over at DC during “52” and he griped that a hero’s death should be meaningful and grandiose. A hero should go down averting a terrible world threat, saving the destruction of an entire planet or planet system, none of these apply to Cap’s death. Brubaker’s script is actually a good one. He switches between a retelling of the character’s origin and the events immediately following Civil War #7 and the second part of the book goes into action mode following the scenes with the sniper as Bucky and the Falcon go after Crossbones. All of the requisite strings are tugged, as they usually are in a story where a major character dies, almost to the point of being maudlin, though I suppose that there is a nice “twist” ending. Yet, for me, the issue fails because the Captain’s death seems cheap and unnecessary and contrived. Thor died and hasn’t been around the main Marvel universe for more than two years and now the same is rumored to happen with Cap, so what’s the point of killing off a major character only to bring them back years later? Well, DC did it to Superman but in that case, it made for some good follow up stories. I doubt this latest death will be as memorable even if the marketing is already paying off for Marvel with the mainstream media carrying the story of Cap’s death.
Hello all. I just wanted to tell you that my comic book reviews are growing exponentially and since I have been blogging here less and less that I have set up a site exclusively for posting comic book related content including any scripts I write. You can check it out at:
Ariel's comic book writing site
However, I will continue to blog about other issues including television, movies and whatever else strikes my fancy here.
This week Mighty Avengers #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Frank Cho will be released by Marvel. A preview copy was met with a lot of skepticism from my sbc peers. I would have to say that there was plenty of action but some of the dialogue, as is always the case with a Bendis penned book was off the mark. Iron Man is now the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. as alluded to in CW #7 and he wants Ms. Marvel to lead the Avengers. Of course, he has a say in what heroes will make up the new roster. I suppose this comic book was OK for the most part. It's not all talking heads, there are actual threats which the new team has to deal with. One thing which was irritating about New Avengers was the fact they never seemed to be dealing with huge threats on a cosmic scale and I am sure that Bendis has heard this argument and has compensated for it here.
The creators also employ the old thought balloons which have mostly been replaced in modern comics with captions but it's not like the characters are hiding any deep emotional issues or secrets, mostly the device is employed for comic effect.
For example, we find out that Tony may have feelings (or at least lusty thoughts) about Carol.
I still dislike a lot of the artificial sounding banter which Bendis writes, but this one reads better than New Avengers #27. The cheesecake factor in Cho's artwork is not as evident as in some of his other work but that's not to say he can't draw some titillating panels, especially when Ms. Marvel is involved. The book also ends with a shock ending in which a long time Avengers foe returns, well sort of. Overall, this is a decent beginning but I think having two Avengers books on the stands penned by the same writer is a mistake. Bendis simply isn't capable (in my opinion) of sustaining this type of momentum on a monthly basis, especially if he has two books to write for. Of course, I hope that eventually I am proven wrong but as my peers also pointed out this comic feels more like a marketing ploy than a vehicle for some thought provoking stories.
