Review: This issue begins with a scientist getting blown up in his car. From there we head to a meeting between Steve Rogers and Pete Wisdom, English super-spy extraordinaire. Pete tells Steve that the scientist who was killed in the beginning of this issue worked for Nextin Pharmaceuticals, and that he was killed because he knew too much about Nextin's activities. When pressed, Wisdom tells Steve that Nextin was being run by a Professor Jacob Erskine, who was the grandson of the man who invented the Super Soldier Serum that turned Steve into Captain America. It seems that Jacob Erskine had managed to recreate the Super Soldier Serum, and Wisdom goes on to tell Steve that the younger Erskine didn't seem to have the same high scruples his grandfather had. Wisdom explains that he was afraid that Nextin would be willing to sell the Super Soldier Serum to the highest bidder, which could lead to some evil countries creating an army of Super Soldiers. Upon hearing this news, Steve decides to find the younger Erskine and have a little discussion with him. Later on, Steve heads to the corrupt country of Madripoor where Nextin was throwing a shindig, and sneaks inside, running into three goons who seemed to have been empowered by the Super Soldier Serum. Steve fights the goons, and during the course of the fight, one goon drops dead, causing Steve to believe that the Serum wasn't quite perfected yet. Eventually Steve makes his way to Erskine's office and confronts him, but Erskine explains to Steve that he only wanted to use the Serum as a cure for cancer. When Steve tells Erskine about the Serum empowered goons, Erskine is shocked, and begins to tell Steve that his head of security must have done something, but before he can tell Steve anything else, a single bullet flies through Erskine's window, hitting him in the chest. This issue concludes with Steve cradling the dead body of yet another Professor Erskine.
What I Thought: First off, it was HARD to type out this review without continuously referring to Steve as Cap! To me Steve Rogers IS Cap, so my instinct is to type “Cap” instead of Steve! But enough of my idiosyncrasies, let's talk about this comic. This wasn't the best Captain America/Steve Rogers story I've ever read from Ed, but it was still better then most comics on the market today. This was simply a set-up issue, with us learning about the threat(the Super Soldier Serum), and getting a good old fashioned mystery(Erskine being shot). There's still ways to go here, but so far so good.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
Who would be dumb enough to try to take Cap in a fight!?.jpg)
Check it out, some Jack Kirby art from the 1940's!!! How awesome is that?!?
I say just call him Cap. He will be again once the movie comes out anyway.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know Steve Rogers had a holo-shield. That's kind of cool, unlike back in 1999 when he first had one.
Yeah, good point Kello. I'll probably always call Bucky, "Bucky" and not Cap, no matter how long he remains Captain America, so I might as well call Steve "Cap". He'll always be Cap to me, and like you said, once the movie hits, I'm sure Steve'll be Captain America again.
ReplyDeleteUntil I read this comic, neither did I! That's definitely a new(and yes, cool!)toy.
Hmm, this sounds really interesting. I love stories that tie back to Cap's origins, so this should be right up my alley.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I love me some Jack Kirby Captain America. The first issue of that series is one of the single best comics of the Golden Age, and not just because the cover has Cap punching out Adolf Hitler!
Yeah, I didn't even mention it in the review Marc, but Cap also saw a woman he recognized from WWII at the Nextin party with the younger Prof. Erskine, so this series should be chock full of old school Cap goodness.
ReplyDeleteThe cover to Cap #1 was pretty awesome though! What a way to make a splash with a brand new character! Yeah, for me there will never be a better CB artist then Jack Kirby, nor can anybody ever touch the writing of Stan Lee.
The Kirby factor is what made Cap #1 so great. He practically begged to be allowed to draw that entire issue single-handedly, and he did...and this was back in the days when comic books had a HUGE amount of pages in each issue! No single artist ever did an entire issue back then. Just shows that Kirby was head and shoulders above the rest!
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