Captain America #9

Final review for this Saturday night? Hows about a little Captain America. This series has been surprisingly so-so for me, but here's hoping it starts to pick up with the inclusion of Machinesmith into the picture.

Captain America #9:

Summary: Since Captain America is still depowered(thanks apparently to Machinesmith), he's helpless to stop any of the Madbomb created riots, nor able to do anything about Bravo's jailbreak. Instead, Falcon heads off to try to figure out who was behind the rash of Madbomb induced violence. Meanwhile, Sharon Carter is trapped in the Secret Avengers Quincarrier with Machinesmith. Machinesmith toys with Sharon for a while before finally moving in for the kill. However, Sharon tells Machinesmith that killing her would also lead to Machinesmith's death, since she had rigged the Quincarrier to explode, prior to which a massive EMP wave would sweep through the Quincarrier, destroying Machinesmith's wireless consciousness. Since the EMP pulse would kill Machinesmith and the explosion would kill Sharon, Machinesmith offers Sharon a deal... He'd tell her how to give Cap his strength back, IF she allowed him to leave the Quincarrier unmolested... From there we head back to Falcon, who was meeting with Viper at Ryker's Island. Viper tells Falcon that he wanted out of the Serpent Squad/Society, and that if Falcon could get him into the witness protection program, he'd tell Falcon where the Serpents had been getting the Madbombs from. After getting the information, Falcon heads to a warehouse and is struck down by some sort of sonic defenses. Falcon falls at the feet of Bravo, who tosses a miniature Madbomb at Falcon, which proceeds to explode. This issue ends with Sharon entering Avengers Mansion and telling Cap and Iron Man that she had the information that would give Cap his powers back.

Thoughts: For me, the Sharon/Machinesmith battle stole the show here, plain and simple. The other stuff(with Cap and Iron Man, and with Falcon) was good, but I've always been a big fan of Machinesmith, and like Sharon, so their battle made this issue for me. I also liked that Sharon apparently let Machinesmith leave, since the deal was the info for Machinesmith's freedom. It shows you that a) she a different kind of person from Cap, who almost definitely wouldn't have made a deal with Machinesmith, and b) she REALLY cares about Cap, enough to let a criminal the stature of Machinesmith go free. On top of all that, you know Cap's going to want to know where/how Sharon got that information, and you have to wonder what his reaction will be when he learns who Sharon made a deal with... All in all? Good stuff here.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.

Yeah, that's right, I'm a Machinesmith fan. And?