Hey all, X here with the first review of the week. This week I'll be kicking things off with one of my favorite ongoing titles, Captain America. Rick Remender really hit on something great with this storyline, I'm just hoping he can keep up the momentum as we race towards the finish.
Captain America #7:
Summary: Cap manages to gain access to the upper reaches of Zola's lab, where he is met by Jet Black. Jet is prepared to attack Cap again, but after some discussion about Zola's murderous antics, Cap can sense that Jet isn't like her father, and doesn't want to murder all of the Phrox. The two have a bit of a fight, but that ends when Cap notices one of the Phrox being dropped into a steaming vat of dead Phrox. Cap makes the save, but is unable to pull himself up the rope he used to catch the falling Phrox. Luckily, Jet pulls Cap and the Phrox up, realizing that her father's way was wrong. It's then that Zola launches his lab/battle station towards Earth, where he intended to use his hordes to conquer the planet. Jet promises to help Cap stop her mad father from demolishing the Earth, provided Cap promises to save Ian from Zola's machinations. Cap heads off to find Ian, but the brainwashed Ian finds Cap first, and shoots him through the abdomen.
Thoughts: I enjoyed this comic, as usual. However, it's been so long since I read issue #6, I didn't quite enjoy this story as much as I could have... I didn't really remember everything that happened last issue... That's what happens when you read like 200 comics a month! Honestly, I probably should have read my review of issue #6 before I read this one, but that ship has sailed. Still, I enjoyed this comic, and can't wait to see what happens when Cap realizes just who shot him.
Score: 8 out of 10.
Showing posts with label Captain America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Captain America. Show all posts
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Captain America #6
Ah, now this is what I need! After the massive miss that was AU #6, I need a good series to sink my teeth into. And you aren't gonna get much better than this series. Let's see what happens to Cap as he nears the end of his time in Dimension Z.
Captain America #6:
Summary: Cap manages to breach Zola's inner castle, and starts the slow fight through Zola's army of idiots. As for Zola, we learn he is trying to create a perfect clone of Cap, with the intention of sending it back to Earth, where it can betray and kill the Avengers. With the Avengers finished, Zola figures he'd be able to conquer Earth with little resistance. Jet is still perplexed as to why Cap chose to spare her during their battle, and ponders if Zola's way is indeed the right way. Regardless, she collects Ian to meet Zola. Ian naturally wants nothing to do with Zola, so Zola decides to reprogram him into thinking Cap is an evil man who was always putting children in danger... No, silly Zola, that's Batman! Jet takes a shower, and upon exiting it, she is confronted by a crazed Cap, who demands to know where is son was at the point of a gun. Jet laughs at that, since she doesn't believe Cap will pull the trigger. However, it seems that he does(!). This one ends with Ian beginning to see things the Zola way.
Thoughts: Damn is this comic good... Seriously, it's fantastic! This issue was no different. I couldn't wait to turn each page, hoping that Cap would manage to reach Ian before Zola's brainwashing took effect. Besides the story here, the characters are SO well thought out! You have Cap, whose only thoughts are of rescuing his son. You have Jet, and her growing attraction to Cap. Next, you have Zola, who revealed to us his master plan of conquering the Earth. Finally, you have poor Ian, who seems to have been brainwashed by Zola's machines. That's actually the thing I'm most worried about... That at the end of this storyline, Cap and Jet wind up heading back to Earth, while Ian remains evil and stays with Zola. I SO want Ian to head back to Earth with Cap, and possibly take up the Bucky mantle. I'm starting to get the feeling that's not gonna happen though... Looking past my wishful thinking though, this was a great issue, in a long line of them with this series.
Score: 9 out of 10.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Captain America #5
Hey all, X here with the first of two reviews for the night. Tonight it'll be Captain America and Nova, and on Saturday I'll have Nightwing up and ready to go. As for Monday? That will be a massive, huge, gala Best of the Rest post with around 8 comics in there. Or at least that's the plan... Before we get there though, we have to get through tonight. And the very first book I read this week was Cap.
Captain America #5:
Summary: We start off with Cap and Ian on their way to Zola's castle and a way back to Earth. However, Cap notices smoke from his camp and realizes that Zola's forces had found the Phrox and would undoubtedly be trying to kill everybody there. Cap heads back to camp and engages Zola's forces, with Ian right at his side. Jet Black spots Cap and attacks him, since both her and Zola were under the mistaken impression that Cap had killed Ian. Jet beats the hell out of Cap, and is preparing the killing stoke when Ian jumps in, distracting Jet, who rapidly realizes that Ian had to be her thought to be dead brother. Ian strikes Jet in the throat, knocking her down, and Cap forgoes killing Jet, instead diving back into Zola's forces. Jet telepathically tells Zola what she had seen, so Zola tells his forces to back off, since he didn't want Ian harmed. Once that is done, Zola attacks Cap himself, since Cap did kidnap his son and all. Cap is no match for Zola by this point, and Zola has his way with Cap. Jet seems like she wants to let Cap live, since he didn't kill her when she was down, but Zola has no interest in mercy as he blasts Cap off a cliff. From there, Zola tells his men to kill all of Phrox men and children, while taking the women for experimentation. A short while later, Cap wakes up to the taunts of the Zola virus that had embedded itself in his chest. Tired of having to hear it, Cap stabs himself in the chest, which causes the virus to ooze out. This issue ends with a bloody and beaten Cap swearing that he would take his son back.
Thoughts: Bravo! That's really all I have to say about this issue... I enjoyed it from the front cover to the back, and can't wait to see what happens next issue Hell, forget about next issue, I can't wait to see where Rick Remender takes this storyline! What a great series this is...
Score: 9 out of 10.
Zola smash!!!
Captain America #5:
Summary: We start off with Cap and Ian on their way to Zola's castle and a way back to Earth. However, Cap notices smoke from his camp and realizes that Zola's forces had found the Phrox and would undoubtedly be trying to kill everybody there. Cap heads back to camp and engages Zola's forces, with Ian right at his side. Jet Black spots Cap and attacks him, since both her and Zola were under the mistaken impression that Cap had killed Ian. Jet beats the hell out of Cap, and is preparing the killing stoke when Ian jumps in, distracting Jet, who rapidly realizes that Ian had to be her thought to be dead brother. Ian strikes Jet in the throat, knocking her down, and Cap forgoes killing Jet, instead diving back into Zola's forces. Jet telepathically tells Zola what she had seen, so Zola tells his forces to back off, since he didn't want Ian harmed. Once that is done, Zola attacks Cap himself, since Cap did kidnap his son and all. Cap is no match for Zola by this point, and Zola has his way with Cap. Jet seems like she wants to let Cap live, since he didn't kill her when she was down, but Zola has no interest in mercy as he blasts Cap off a cliff. From there, Zola tells his men to kill all of Phrox men and children, while taking the women for experimentation. A short while later, Cap wakes up to the taunts of the Zola virus that had embedded itself in his chest. Tired of having to hear it, Cap stabs himself in the chest, which causes the virus to ooze out. This issue ends with a bloody and beaten Cap swearing that he would take his son back.
Thoughts: Bravo! That's really all I have to say about this issue... I enjoyed it from the front cover to the back, and can't wait to see what happens next issue Hell, forget about next issue, I can't wait to see where Rick Remender takes this storyline! What a great series this is...
Score: 9 out of 10.
Zola smash!!!
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Captain America #4
One more review from X tonight, and it should be a good one. I'll end the night with one of my favorite Marvel Now! titles, none other than Captain America. Here's hoping this issue is as good as the past two have been...
Captain America #4:
Summary: This issue picks up 11 years after the events of the last issue. Yes, 11 years! Anyway, Cap and Ian are out hunting for the rest of the tribe that took them in all those years ago. It seems that Cap has become the head of the tribe, which is no big shock. He's also been trying to fight off the ever growing influence of the virus Zola injected him with. However, Cap and Zola's memories have been mixing, and Cap fears that Zola was trying to use his mind to get at Ian and the rest of the tribe. While out on the hunt, Cap and Ian come across a bike with an operational map, which Cap hopes will lead him to Zola and Earth. Unfortunately, Zola's virus overpowers Cap and knocks him out, at which time we see a lengthy flashback from Cap's past. When Cap comes to he's horrified to hear the Zola face in his chest talking to Ian. The Zola virus has told Ian all about his heritage(that Ian was actually Zola's child), and was claiming that Cap was a crazed thief. Cap wraps the face up in a sheet to quiet it(HA!) and tells Ian that it was true that he had come from Zola, but insists that the two of them head to Earth and get the Avengers, who Cap hopes will end Zola's threat once and for all. From there we head to Zola himself and find Ian's sister, Jet Black. Unlike Ian, Jet Black, having been raised by Zola is ruthless and murderous. This issue ends with Jet Black having learned that Cap was still alive from a captive and swearing revenge on his.
Thoughts: As usual, this was a strong comic. Rick Remender can almost do no wrong here! I love Cap's plight, I love Ian, and I love the whole setting of this comic. My only complaint was the rather long flashback sequence, which was good and all, but I'd have preferred to remain in the present with Ian and Cap. Anyway, this issue seems to be slowly bringing us to the end of this storyline, and I for one am REALLY intrigued to see how things shake out... Will Ian become the next Bucky? Will Ian even leave Dimension Z with Cap at all? And what will happen when Cap comes face to face with Ian's twisted reflection, Jet Black? Good stuff here, with more good stuff to come!
Score: 8 out of 10.
Damned gabby face!!
Captain America #4:
Summary: This issue picks up 11 years after the events of the last issue. Yes, 11 years! Anyway, Cap and Ian are out hunting for the rest of the tribe that took them in all those years ago. It seems that Cap has become the head of the tribe, which is no big shock. He's also been trying to fight off the ever growing influence of the virus Zola injected him with. However, Cap and Zola's memories have been mixing, and Cap fears that Zola was trying to use his mind to get at Ian and the rest of the tribe. While out on the hunt, Cap and Ian come across a bike with an operational map, which Cap hopes will lead him to Zola and Earth. Unfortunately, Zola's virus overpowers Cap and knocks him out, at which time we see a lengthy flashback from Cap's past. When Cap comes to he's horrified to hear the Zola face in his chest talking to Ian. The Zola virus has told Ian all about his heritage(that Ian was actually Zola's child), and was claiming that Cap was a crazed thief. Cap wraps the face up in a sheet to quiet it(HA!) and tells Ian that it was true that he had come from Zola, but insists that the two of them head to Earth and get the Avengers, who Cap hopes will end Zola's threat once and for all. From there we head to Zola himself and find Ian's sister, Jet Black. Unlike Ian, Jet Black, having been raised by Zola is ruthless and murderous. This issue ends with Jet Black having learned that Cap was still alive from a captive and swearing revenge on his.
Thoughts: As usual, this was a strong comic. Rick Remender can almost do no wrong here! I love Cap's plight, I love Ian, and I love the whole setting of this comic. My only complaint was the rather long flashback sequence, which was good and all, but I'd have preferred to remain in the present with Ian and Cap. Anyway, this issue seems to be slowly bringing us to the end of this storyline, and I for one am REALLY intrigued to see how things shake out... Will Ian become the next Bucky? Will Ian even leave Dimension Z with Cap at all? And what will happen when Cap comes face to face with Ian's twisted reflection, Jet Black? Good stuff here, with more good stuff to come!
Score: 8 out of 10.
Damned gabby face!!
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Captain America #3
First review of the night(and week)? That'll be Captain America #3... I've been SO looking forward to this one, especially since I named Cap #2 as my favorite single issue from 2012. So yeah, I'm salivating at the thought of reading this one!
Captain America #3
Summary: This issue opens with Cap using the last of his energy to prevent Ian from getting beheaded by the strange aliens. Unfortunately, the alien leader decides that he'd beat Cap to death with his own shield for that affront. Before Cap is trounced, the lead alien's second in command tells the leader that he had witnessed Cap battling against Zola's mutates, meaning Cap wasn't their enemy. The leader decides to take mercy on Cap and Ian and lets his second take them into his home. While there, Cap tries to explain that the second in command doesn't have to be subservient to the leader, but the leader overhears that insubordination and decides that now he was really going to kill Cap. The second stands up for Cap and is callously shot in the head by the leader, which infuriates Cap. Cap manages to get his hands on his shield and smacks the leader with it, but the leader just shrugs it off and slashes Cap across the gut with a blade. Cap gets his hands on a piece of rock and beats the hell out of the leader, taking him down to the delight of the rest of the tribe. With the leader down, Cap staggers off and looks down at his wound, discovering Armin Zola's face in his chest, taunting him!
Thoughts: I enjoyed reading this issue, but it was definitely a major step back from the last issue, although anything short of perfection was going to be a big step back from the last issue! Regardless, I DID like it. After this issue it seems that Cap will take up the leadership of the tribe now that he has felled the leader, although if the tribes members see Zola's face in Cap's chest, I don't know how readily they'd follow him... Speaking of which, that sure came out of left field! I don't know if Cap is hallucinating due to his fight with the leader/blood loss(although I doubt that), but how did Zola's face get IN Cap?! And why did it take so long for it to show up?! That was weird, but a good kind of weird. The kind of weird that has me looking forward to the next issue.
Score: 8 out of 10.
Take THAT, alien scum!!
Captain America #3
Summary: This issue opens with Cap using the last of his energy to prevent Ian from getting beheaded by the strange aliens. Unfortunately, the alien leader decides that he'd beat Cap to death with his own shield for that affront. Before Cap is trounced, the lead alien's second in command tells the leader that he had witnessed Cap battling against Zola's mutates, meaning Cap wasn't their enemy. The leader decides to take mercy on Cap and Ian and lets his second take them into his home. While there, Cap tries to explain that the second in command doesn't have to be subservient to the leader, but the leader overhears that insubordination and decides that now he was really going to kill Cap. The second stands up for Cap and is callously shot in the head by the leader, which infuriates Cap. Cap manages to get his hands on his shield and smacks the leader with it, but the leader just shrugs it off and slashes Cap across the gut with a blade. Cap gets his hands on a piece of rock and beats the hell out of the leader, taking him down to the delight of the rest of the tribe. With the leader down, Cap staggers off and looks down at his wound, discovering Armin Zola's face in his chest, taunting him!
Thoughts: I enjoyed reading this issue, but it was definitely a major step back from the last issue, although anything short of perfection was going to be a big step back from the last issue! Regardless, I DID like it. After this issue it seems that Cap will take up the leadership of the tribe now that he has felled the leader, although if the tribes members see Zola's face in Cap's chest, I don't know how readily they'd follow him... Speaking of which, that sure came out of left field! I don't know if Cap is hallucinating due to his fight with the leader/blood loss(although I doubt that), but how did Zola's face get IN Cap?! And why did it take so long for it to show up?! That was weird, but a good kind of weird. The kind of weird that has me looking forward to the next issue.
Score: 8 out of 10.
Take THAT, alien scum!!
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Captain America #1
Happy Thanksgiving, X-Maniacs! I get the honor of doing the first review of the week, and while I wish I had gotten Amazing Spider-Man #698(which was AWESOME!), I still ended up with a trio of good titles, two of which are Marvel Now! books, including this one... Yep, in this review, I get to take a look at the first issue of Rick Remender's Captain America run. With how insanely awesome Ed Brubaker's multi-year run on this series was, Remender has some HUGE shoes to fill. Well, without further ado, let's get to it!
Captain America #1
Summary: This issue kicks off with a flashback to a young Steve Rogers watching his father take out his frustrations on his mother. Afterwards, his mother teaches young Steve a lesson, no matter what happens to you, always get up. From there we head to the present where Steve(as Captain America, naturally), brings down an eco-terrorist before heading off to meet with his girlfriend, Sharon Carter. Sharon gives Steve a gift(it's his 90th birthday!) and begins talking SHIELD business with him. However, Steve is only half listening since he's still contemplating Sharon's earlier marriage proposal to him. Sharon eventually tells him that a subway line under Manhattan that had been abandoned for 80 years had suddenly been having trains, and pedestrians arrive. Steve and Sharon go to investigate, but are told there was only room for one on the strange train, so Steve naturally goes. While pondering Sharon and marriage, Steve is cuffed and drugged by a bunch of weird creatures. When he wakes up, Steve finds himself strapped in a lab with a baby in a tube connected to the wires hooked up to Steve. A huge needle comes down from the ceiling and stabs Steve in the chest just as the mastermind behind this scene shows up, none other than Armin Zola(!). Before Steve's blood is drained by the Nazi scientist, Steve follows his mother's advice and manages to fight off the drugs being used to tranquilize him and gets up, much to Zola's chagrin. Steve grabs his shield and flings it through the lab, destroying pretty much everything before hopping out a window, and escaping Zola's headquarters on an airplane. With Steve gone, Zola bemoans the fact that Cap had killed his child(?!) and reveals that the baby in the tube was something he had been designing for decades to a young girl, who Zola had also cloned(!). After gathering himself, Zola demands his mutates bring him Cap, alive and unharmed. As for Cap, he crashes the plane and climbs out of the wreckage, revealing he had tucked the baby from the tube away in his shield. This issue ends with Cap looking up and quickly realizing Zola's base was in another dimension and that he, and the baby, were stranded.
Thoughts: Awesome!! That's really all I could think after putting this issue down. It ticked all of the boxes I was hoping Remender would tick. It gave us some development between Cap and Sharon, it brought back one of Cap's old foes(the HUGELY underused and under-appreciated Zola), gave us a great story, great art(sorry, I'm a huge JRJR mark), and a sweet cliffhanger. So yeah, I loved this issue and am SO looking forward to seeing where Remender goes with this storyline. Personally, I'm really hoping the baby Cap rescued grows into the new Bucky, because, why not? Um yeah, I could keep heaping praise on this issue, but instead I'll just give it the inevitable perfect score and move on.
Score: 10 out of 10.
Check me out, dropping perfect scores like candy!
Captain America #1
Summary: This issue kicks off with a flashback to a young Steve Rogers watching his father take out his frustrations on his mother. Afterwards, his mother teaches young Steve a lesson, no matter what happens to you, always get up. From there we head to the present where Steve(as Captain America, naturally), brings down an eco-terrorist before heading off to meet with his girlfriend, Sharon Carter. Sharon gives Steve a gift(it's his 90th birthday!) and begins talking SHIELD business with him. However, Steve is only half listening since he's still contemplating Sharon's earlier marriage proposal to him. Sharon eventually tells him that a subway line under Manhattan that had been abandoned for 80 years had suddenly been having trains, and pedestrians arrive. Steve and Sharon go to investigate, but are told there was only room for one on the strange train, so Steve naturally goes. While pondering Sharon and marriage, Steve is cuffed and drugged by a bunch of weird creatures. When he wakes up, Steve finds himself strapped in a lab with a baby in a tube connected to the wires hooked up to Steve. A huge needle comes down from the ceiling and stabs Steve in the chest just as the mastermind behind this scene shows up, none other than Armin Zola(!). Before Steve's blood is drained by the Nazi scientist, Steve follows his mother's advice and manages to fight off the drugs being used to tranquilize him and gets up, much to Zola's chagrin. Steve grabs his shield and flings it through the lab, destroying pretty much everything before hopping out a window, and escaping Zola's headquarters on an airplane. With Steve gone, Zola bemoans the fact that Cap had killed his child(?!) and reveals that the baby in the tube was something he had been designing for decades to a young girl, who Zola had also cloned(!). After gathering himself, Zola demands his mutates bring him Cap, alive and unharmed. As for Cap, he crashes the plane and climbs out of the wreckage, revealing he had tucked the baby from the tube away in his shield. This issue ends with Cap looking up and quickly realizing Zola's base was in another dimension and that he, and the baby, were stranded.
Thoughts: Awesome!! That's really all I could think after putting this issue down. It ticked all of the boxes I was hoping Remender would tick. It gave us some development between Cap and Sharon, it brought back one of Cap's old foes(the HUGELY underused and under-appreciated Zola), gave us a great story, great art(sorry, I'm a huge JRJR mark), and a sweet cliffhanger. So yeah, I loved this issue and am SO looking forward to seeing where Remender goes with this storyline. Personally, I'm really hoping the baby Cap rescued grows into the new Bucky, because, why not? Um yeah, I could keep heaping praise on this issue, but instead I'll just give it the inevitable perfect score and move on.
Score: 10 out of 10.
Check me out, dropping perfect scores like candy!
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Captain America #18
I could very easily sum this issue up in a sentence or two... That's about how much I care about this storyline... Eh, I might as well polish this one off.
Captain America #18
Summary: While Falcon and Diamondback try to keep people from going crazy due to the madbombs dropped by the Hydra Queen, Bravo and Baron Zemo(who is unfortunately evil. Again...), Sharon Carter confronts Zemo on his space station and Cap heads after the Queen and Bravo. Sharon(with some help from Dum Dum Dugan), manages to choke Zemo unconscious, before the two destroy the station, which in turn destroys the madbombs(I guess...). Cap beats up Bravo, so the Queen shoots at both of them, which is fine since Cap has a shield. Not so fine for Bravo, who doesn't. Bravo gets shot a few times, so Cap throws his shield at the Queen, which knocks her into her computer screens, and apparently puts her in a coma(?!). From there, Cap and company are happy, Bravo and Zemo get taken into custody, while the Queen is being worshiped by some lackey in her hospital bed.
Thoughts: Blah. That's my thoughts on this one. It's sad that Ed Brubaker's epic Cap run is ending with such a whimper, but that's what we're getting. But considering the fact that Brubaker's Cap run is my favorite run, by any writer, on any comic, from any company, ever, he definitely gets a pass from me on this one. I never found Bravo or the Hydra Queen interesting(which is weird since Brubaker has that special talent to make ANYBODY interesting), the storyline was another variation of the old, "Cap is disillusioned by America" story, and yes, I hate the fact that Baron Zemo is evil again. So if you take all of that, mix it up, you end up with a comic I sadly didn't really enjoy.
Score: 5 out of 10.
Too bad Bravo didn't die here...
Captain America #18
Summary: While Falcon and Diamondback try to keep people from going crazy due to the madbombs dropped by the Hydra Queen, Bravo and Baron Zemo(who is unfortunately evil. Again...), Sharon Carter confronts Zemo on his space station and Cap heads after the Queen and Bravo. Sharon(with some help from Dum Dum Dugan), manages to choke Zemo unconscious, before the two destroy the station, which in turn destroys the madbombs(I guess...). Cap beats up Bravo, so the Queen shoots at both of them, which is fine since Cap has a shield. Not so fine for Bravo, who doesn't. Bravo gets shot a few times, so Cap throws his shield at the Queen, which knocks her into her computer screens, and apparently puts her in a coma(?!). From there, Cap and company are happy, Bravo and Zemo get taken into custody, while the Queen is being worshiped by some lackey in her hospital bed.
Thoughts: Blah. That's my thoughts on this one. It's sad that Ed Brubaker's epic Cap run is ending with such a whimper, but that's what we're getting. But considering the fact that Brubaker's Cap run is my favorite run, by any writer, on any comic, from any company, ever, he definitely gets a pass from me on this one. I never found Bravo or the Hydra Queen interesting(which is weird since Brubaker has that special talent to make ANYBODY interesting), the storyline was another variation of the old, "Cap is disillusioned by America" story, and yes, I hate the fact that Baron Zemo is evil again. So if you take all of that, mix it up, you end up with a comic I sadly didn't really enjoy.
Score: 5 out of 10.
Too bad Bravo didn't die here...
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Captain America #12
And now we'll take a look at the most recent issue of Captain America... The last issue got my hopes up that maybe, POSSIBLY, Jack Monroe was under the mask of the new Scourge... Will we learn the identity of the new Scourge this issue? We'll know in a few...
Captain America #12:
Story Points:
-It turns out the new Scourge beat Diamondback into a coma. Dum Dum Dugan is just fine though... Strange how that worked out.
-Sharon locates a Hydra base and Cap, still pissed about what happened to Diamondback, takes Dum Dum and invades the hideout.
-The good guys easily defeat Hydra...
-But even Cap realizes they won too easily...
-It turns out Hydra wanted Cap to locate that base and find footage of Hydra hypnotizing Henry Peter Gyrich into working for them.
-Cap is angry.
-As for Gyrich, he's giving information to the media about the criminals in the witness protection program getting killed while simultaneously working with the Scourge.
-This issue ends with the Scourge unmasking to reveal... D-Man... What a HUGE letdown...
Thoughts: Well, I hate to say it but I saw that coming... I recall typing somewhere that I was hoping the Scourge didn't turn out to be somebody like D-Man, and sure enough, that's who it is... I've NEVER liked D-Man as a character. He does nothing for me. And now he has a kick-ass look and name. Eh, no sense harping on it I guess, it's already happened. I'll be honest, this issue was extremely good. To the point where I was actually pondering if it was perfect score material as I approached the end. And then the Scourge unmasked and REALLY hurt my enjoyment of this one. In the end, this was a great comic, but one that I think missed a golden opportunity to be a perfect comic...
Score: 9 out of 10.
Captain America #12:
Story Points:
-It turns out the new Scourge beat Diamondback into a coma. Dum Dum Dugan is just fine though... Strange how that worked out.
-Sharon locates a Hydra base and Cap, still pissed about what happened to Diamondback, takes Dum Dum and invades the hideout.
-The good guys easily defeat Hydra...
-But even Cap realizes they won too easily...
-It turns out Hydra wanted Cap to locate that base and find footage of Hydra hypnotizing Henry Peter Gyrich into working for them.
-Cap is angry.
-As for Gyrich, he's giving information to the media about the criminals in the witness protection program getting killed while simultaneously working with the Scourge.
-This issue ends with the Scourge unmasking to reveal... D-Man... What a HUGE letdown...
Thoughts: Well, I hate to say it but I saw that coming... I recall typing somewhere that I was hoping the Scourge didn't turn out to be somebody like D-Man, and sure enough, that's who it is... I've NEVER liked D-Man as a character. He does nothing for me. And now he has a kick-ass look and name. Eh, no sense harping on it I guess, it's already happened. I'll be honest, this issue was extremely good. To the point where I was actually pondering if it was perfect score material as I approached the end. And then the Scourge unmasked and REALLY hurt my enjoyment of this one. In the end, this was a great comic, but one that I think missed a golden opportunity to be a perfect comic...
Score: 9 out of 10.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Captain America #11
Man, I am TOTALLY blanking on this issue... I can see that I gave it a VERY high score, but I'm having a tough time remembering anything... Oh well, hopefully once I start typing it'll all come rushing back to me...
Captain America #11:
Story Points:
-A new Scourge is running around killing criminals... Criminals who were in the witness protection program.
-Cap sends Diamondback and Dum Dum Dugan to investigate, because when you need a case solved, look to the guy named “Dum Dum”...
-Cap brings three agents into his office and demands to know which one had been leaking the locations of the hidden criminals. One of the agents screams, “Hail Hydra”, thus outing himself and leaps out a window. Cap follows, but the Hydra sleeper takes some poison, killing himself.
-While protecting a member of the Serpent Society/Squad, Diamondback and Dum Dum are attacked by the Scourge. He handles the two heroes with little problem, and this one ends with Diamondback recognizing Scourge's voice.
Thoughts: I did like this issue, and I DID start to remember what happened in it as I started typing, so hurrah for me! So yes, Cap is STILL dealing with the Hydra Queen and Bravo, but they didn't actually appear in this one, which is a huge plus for me. Oh, and one more thing... Please, please, please let this Scourge be Jack Monroe(Nomad)... It wouldn't be the first time he was the Scourge, Diamondback WOULD know his voice, and I really want him to come back...
Score: 9 out of 10.
Captain America #11:
Story Points:
-A new Scourge is running around killing criminals... Criminals who were in the witness protection program.
-Cap sends Diamondback and Dum Dum Dugan to investigate, because when you need a case solved, look to the guy named “Dum Dum”...
-Cap brings three agents into his office and demands to know which one had been leaking the locations of the hidden criminals. One of the agents screams, “Hail Hydra”, thus outing himself and leaps out a window. Cap follows, but the Hydra sleeper takes some poison, killing himself.
-While protecting a member of the Serpent Society/Squad, Diamondback and Dum Dum are attacked by the Scourge. He handles the two heroes with little problem, and this one ends with Diamondback recognizing Scourge's voice.
Thoughts: I did like this issue, and I DID start to remember what happened in it as I started typing, so hurrah for me! So yes, Cap is STILL dealing with the Hydra Queen and Bravo, but they didn't actually appear in this one, which is a huge plus for me. Oh, and one more thing... Please, please, please let this Scourge be Jack Monroe(Nomad)... It wouldn't be the first time he was the Scourge, Diamondback WOULD know his voice, and I really want him to come back...
Score: 9 out of 10.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Captain America #10
And now the comic books left in my collection take a nosedive with regards to my interest in them... Don't get me wrong, I love Ed Brubaker's writing and his is(imho) THE definitive run on Captain America, but this current Cap series? I just haven't been that into it... But hey, I'm currently riding a TWO comic book perfect score streak(which NEVER happens!), so maybe this issue with extend that streak to three!
Captain America #10:
Summary: Sharon Carter shares the information Machinesmith gave her last issue with regards to Captain America losing his powers with Iron Man, and IM rigs a device that destroys the nanites Machinesmith had infected Steve with, returning his Super Soldier Serum derived powers to him. After that, Cap and Sharon get word from Hawkeye that Falcon had gotten caught by a Madbomb and was rioting with several others. Falcon sneak attacks Hawkeye and decides to kill him with one of his arrows, but Cap comes in and makes the save. Cap and Falcon fight, and Cap is soon jumped by (ugh) Codename Bravo... Bravo and Falcon double team Cap and manage to take him down, at which time Bravo gets called back to base. Falcon prepares to kill Cap by dropping a big rock on his head(worst death EVER!), but Iron Man arrives on the scene, using a device he created(Tony was BUSY in this issue!) to reverse the effects of the Madbomb, turning the rioters(and Falcon) back to normal. Later on, Cap demands to know why Sharon allowed Machinesmith to escape, so Sharon informs Cap that she had suckered Machinesmith into hopping into a robot body that had a virus in it that was eating away at Machinesmith's memory banks, making him useless to Bravo and the Hydra Queen.
Thoughts: Well this issue sure moved along at a brisk pace! In this one issue Cap was cured, the Madbomb damage was undone and Machinesmith was rendered harmless... Most of this issue was taken up by the fight between Cap/Hawkeye/Sharon and Falcon/Bravo/the rioters(some of whom were undercover Hydra agents for some reason), and those scenes were good. That's this issue in a nutshell. Good. Not great, but good.
Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.
Damn you, “The Man”!
Captain America #10:
Summary: Sharon Carter shares the information Machinesmith gave her last issue with regards to Captain America losing his powers with Iron Man, and IM rigs a device that destroys the nanites Machinesmith had infected Steve with, returning his Super Soldier Serum derived powers to him. After that, Cap and Sharon get word from Hawkeye that Falcon had gotten caught by a Madbomb and was rioting with several others. Falcon sneak attacks Hawkeye and decides to kill him with one of his arrows, but Cap comes in and makes the save. Cap and Falcon fight, and Cap is soon jumped by (ugh) Codename Bravo... Bravo and Falcon double team Cap and manage to take him down, at which time Bravo gets called back to base. Falcon prepares to kill Cap by dropping a big rock on his head(worst death EVER!), but Iron Man arrives on the scene, using a device he created(Tony was BUSY in this issue!) to reverse the effects of the Madbomb, turning the rioters(and Falcon) back to normal. Later on, Cap demands to know why Sharon allowed Machinesmith to escape, so Sharon informs Cap that she had suckered Machinesmith into hopping into a robot body that had a virus in it that was eating away at Machinesmith's memory banks, making him useless to Bravo and the Hydra Queen.
Thoughts: Well this issue sure moved along at a brisk pace! In this one issue Cap was cured, the Madbomb damage was undone and Machinesmith was rendered harmless... Most of this issue was taken up by the fight between Cap/Hawkeye/Sharon and Falcon/Bravo/the rioters(some of whom were undercover Hydra agents for some reason), and those scenes were good. That's this issue in a nutshell. Good. Not great, but good.
Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.
Damn you, “The Man”!
Saturday, March 17, 2012
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?
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?
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Captain America #8
I'm starting to get to that point in the week where I'm running out of things to say in the introductions of the comics I review... Um... Here's hoping this is a good read?
Captain America #8:
Summary: Cap and Sharon Carter manage to take down the Serpent Society(or Serpent Squad I guess...) with Cap not losing his powers, so Cap leaves Sharon to keep the Serpents under wraps while he tried to quell a madbomb instigated riot outside the bank he was in. Unfortunately, Cap's powers give out on him, so the crowd attacks him. Before they can batter poor, little Cap, Falcon swoops in and rescues his partner. Meanwhile, Bravo is broken out of prison by the still currently evil Baron Zemo and some Hydra agents. Falcon takes Cap back to Avengers Tower where Tony Stark is able to do some experiments on Cap while he is still in his non-powered mode. From there, Sharon interrogates King Cobra, who tells her that the mastermind behind Cap's depowering was Machinesmith(!). Sharon grabs the disk Machinesmith's consciousness had been trapped in by Cap and puts it into a computer, hoping to get some answers. Unfortunately, that's exactly what Machinesmith wanted, as it has apparently freed him.
Thoughts: This is another comic that was okay, but not much more... It moved along at a brisk pace and all, it was an okay read, but it didn't really have that little extra to make it stand out. I was glad to see Machinesmith pop up here, as I've been a fan of his since the Gruenwald Cap run, but other than that, this was a rather forgettable comic book.
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
It's times like these that help me remember why I like Sharon so much.
Captain America #8:
Summary: Cap and Sharon Carter manage to take down the Serpent Society(or Serpent Squad I guess...) with Cap not losing his powers, so Cap leaves Sharon to keep the Serpents under wraps while he tried to quell a madbomb instigated riot outside the bank he was in. Unfortunately, Cap's powers give out on him, so the crowd attacks him. Before they can batter poor, little Cap, Falcon swoops in and rescues his partner. Meanwhile, Bravo is broken out of prison by the still currently evil Baron Zemo and some Hydra agents. Falcon takes Cap back to Avengers Tower where Tony Stark is able to do some experiments on Cap while he is still in his non-powered mode. From there, Sharon interrogates King Cobra, who tells her that the mastermind behind Cap's depowering was Machinesmith(!). Sharon grabs the disk Machinesmith's consciousness had been trapped in by Cap and puts it into a computer, hoping to get some answers. Unfortunately, that's exactly what Machinesmith wanted, as it has apparently freed him.
Thoughts: This is another comic that was okay, but not much more... It moved along at a brisk pace and all, it was an okay read, but it didn't really have that little extra to make it stand out. I was glad to see Machinesmith pop up here, as I've been a fan of his since the Gruenwald Cap run, but other than that, this was a rather forgettable comic book.
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
It's times like these that help me remember why I like Sharon so much.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Captain America #7
One more comic for the night, the thus far disappointing Captain America series. This series is definitely not anywhere NEAR the awesomeness that the first Ed Brubaker launched Cap book was, but it IS Ed Brubaker we're talking about, so maybe THIS is the issue where things turn the corner.
Captain America #7:
What Happened: While Captain America is stuck running tests at Avengers Mansion to see why he lost his Super-Soldier Serum imbued powers, Hawkeye and Falcon head out to try to track down the Serpent Squad. Since the Squad was obviously working with somebody supplying them Madbombs, it was in the Avengers best interest to squeeze the Squad until they talked. Falcon comes across a Madbomb caused riot in the middle of the day, which causes Cap to think that the Squad was out trying to capitalize on the riot. Sure enough, Cap and Sharon Carter track down the Squad attempting a bank robbery with the riot as their cover.
Thoughts: Ah, now this was WAY more like it! The story focused heavily on Cap's strange power losses, but it also featured Beast, Hawkeye and Falcon. If Bucky would have been here it would have been a who's who of some of my favorite Cap/Avengers characters! It seems more and more likely that Machinesmith may be the one behind Cap's power-losses, because his name is being mentioned a lot these past two issues. I'd like to think it's Machinesmith and the Squad working together, but I'm sure this will all come back as some sort of master plan for that Hydra Queen and Bravo. Speaking of which, the lack of Hydra Queen, Suddenly Evil Baron Zemo, as well as Bravo only appearing on three pages is probably another reason I enjoyed this one.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
It doesn't matter what costume he wears, Hawkeye is still awesome!
Captain America #7:
What Happened: While Captain America is stuck running tests at Avengers Mansion to see why he lost his Super-Soldier Serum imbued powers, Hawkeye and Falcon head out to try to track down the Serpent Squad. Since the Squad was obviously working with somebody supplying them Madbombs, it was in the Avengers best interest to squeeze the Squad until they talked. Falcon comes across a Madbomb caused riot in the middle of the day, which causes Cap to think that the Squad was out trying to capitalize on the riot. Sure enough, Cap and Sharon Carter track down the Squad attempting a bank robbery with the riot as their cover.
Thoughts: Ah, now this was WAY more like it! The story focused heavily on Cap's strange power losses, but it also featured Beast, Hawkeye and Falcon. If Bucky would have been here it would have been a who's who of some of my favorite Cap/Avengers characters! It seems more and more likely that Machinesmith may be the one behind Cap's power-losses, because his name is being mentioned a lot these past two issues. I'd like to think it's Machinesmith and the Squad working together, but I'm sure this will all come back as some sort of master plan for that Hydra Queen and Bravo. Speaking of which, the lack of Hydra Queen, Suddenly Evil Baron Zemo, as well as Bravo only appearing on three pages is probably another reason I enjoyed this one.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
It doesn't matter what costume he wears, Hawkeye is still awesome!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Captain America #6
Okay, Cap #5 wasn't very good(to me at least), let's take a look at Cap #6 and see if business picks up.
Captain America #6:
What Happened: Since the fight against Bravo(which was several weeks ago), Captain America has been having nightmares where he's lost his super-soldier strength and is being pummeled b his various baddies. To see what the deal was, Cap heads to Tony Stark to run a full battery of tests on him to see if he was somehow losing his powers while he slept(?) since the dreams felt so real. Hawkeye, who was hanging out with Cap and Iron Man, figures what Cap really needs is a good, old night out on patrol... With Hawkeye as his wingman naturally. Well hell, this issue is already better than the last one! Cap and Hawkeye go out and bust some small time crooks, and Cap realizes that Hawkeye was right and he did need a night of just fighting regular criminals, not contending with crisis after crisis. However, while on patrol the two come across a major riot, and after quelling it Cap learns that all of the rioters came from the same bar. Sure enough, Cap and Hawkeye enter the bar and discover an advanced madbomb in the bar(and yes, as you'd expect, a madbomb causes people caught under it's thrall to act mad!!!). Cap realizes they'd need some scientific help in taking the madbomb apart, before he is overcome with a sudden weakness and falls to the ground. Hawkeye walks over to Cap and is shocked to see that Cap had actually become depowered, as he'd been in his dreams. Before Hawkeye can react, he is blasted into unconsciousness by the Eel, who is accompanied by King Cobra and Viper. King Cobra and his Serpent Squad(what, they're no longer a Society?) happily beat the hell out of powerless Cap to end this issue.
The Good: Hawkeye!! There's your good! The parts of this issue that had Cap and Hawkeye in it were a nice callback to my second favorite era of Captain America, Mark Gruenwald's lengthy run. From Cap, to Iron Man, to Hawkeye, to the new Serpent Squad, I liked almost all of the characters that were in this one. Cap's on-again, off-again powers could be interesting going forward.
The Bad: I'm still not interested in Queen Hydra, but I see Brubaker intends on making her the type of threat the Red Skull was during the very beginning of his Cap run... Big mistake that, says I... While the Hawkeye/Cap parts were enjoyable, the beginning and ending of this one didn't really do much for me.
The Verdict: Well, if nothing else, this proves a point... That point? Adding Hawkeye to a comic automatically makes it WAY better! Seriously though, Cap and Hawkeye have always had a great relationship, so I was quite pleased to see Brubaker pull Hawkeye into this issue. While a Cap/Bucky team-up would have to be my favorite, a Cap/Hawkeye team-up would be my second favorite(Cap/Iron Man is third, fyi). So yeah, I definitely enjoyed this issue more than any of the others from this current series of Captain America. Here's hoping things continue to get better with issue #7.
Score: 7 out of 10.
Cap + Hawkeye = Awesomeness.
Captain America #6:
What Happened: Since the fight against Bravo(which was several weeks ago), Captain America has been having nightmares where he's lost his super-soldier strength and is being pummeled b his various baddies. To see what the deal was, Cap heads to Tony Stark to run a full battery of tests on him to see if he was somehow losing his powers while he slept(?) since the dreams felt so real. Hawkeye, who was hanging out with Cap and Iron Man, figures what Cap really needs is a good, old night out on patrol... With Hawkeye as his wingman naturally. Well hell, this issue is already better than the last one! Cap and Hawkeye go out and bust some small time crooks, and Cap realizes that Hawkeye was right and he did need a night of just fighting regular criminals, not contending with crisis after crisis. However, while on patrol the two come across a major riot, and after quelling it Cap learns that all of the rioters came from the same bar. Sure enough, Cap and Hawkeye enter the bar and discover an advanced madbomb in the bar(and yes, as you'd expect, a madbomb causes people caught under it's thrall to act mad!!!). Cap realizes they'd need some scientific help in taking the madbomb apart, before he is overcome with a sudden weakness and falls to the ground. Hawkeye walks over to Cap and is shocked to see that Cap had actually become depowered, as he'd been in his dreams. Before Hawkeye can react, he is blasted into unconsciousness by the Eel, who is accompanied by King Cobra and Viper. King Cobra and his Serpent Squad(what, they're no longer a Society?) happily beat the hell out of powerless Cap to end this issue.
The Good: Hawkeye!! There's your good! The parts of this issue that had Cap and Hawkeye in it were a nice callback to my second favorite era of Captain America, Mark Gruenwald's lengthy run. From Cap, to Iron Man, to Hawkeye, to the new Serpent Squad, I liked almost all of the characters that were in this one. Cap's on-again, off-again powers could be interesting going forward.
The Bad: I'm still not interested in Queen Hydra, but I see Brubaker intends on making her the type of threat the Red Skull was during the very beginning of his Cap run... Big mistake that, says I... While the Hawkeye/Cap parts were enjoyable, the beginning and ending of this one didn't really do much for me.
The Verdict: Well, if nothing else, this proves a point... That point? Adding Hawkeye to a comic automatically makes it WAY better! Seriously though, Cap and Hawkeye have always had a great relationship, so I was quite pleased to see Brubaker pull Hawkeye into this issue. While a Cap/Bucky team-up would have to be my favorite, a Cap/Hawkeye team-up would be my second favorite(Cap/Iron Man is third, fyi). So yeah, I definitely enjoyed this issue more than any of the others from this current series of Captain America. Here's hoping things continue to get better with issue #7.
Score: 7 out of 10.
Cap + Hawkeye = Awesomeness.
Captain America #5
Huh, so far this week has been VERY lackluster for me comic-wise... I think the high score is something like an 8... That is pretty bad, especially considering some of the books that dropped this week. Ah well, let's see if the trend of mediocrity continues as we take a look at the first of the TWO Captain America comics that dropped this week. I bet you can guess what the next review I post will be...
Captain America #5:
What Happened: Queen Hydra ends up shooting Jimmy Jupiter in the chest due to Sharron Carter making a move at the Queen. That causes the alternate reality world Jimmy created to start breaking apart all around Captain America and Bravo. Bravo shows that he still has some control over the world by zapping Cap, causing him to lose his super-soldier powers. Even without his powers though, Cap still manages to take the fight to Bravo. The Queen manages to escape and Sharon ends up convincing the pretty much catatonic Jimmy into doing one final thing before he died, expelling Cap and Bravo from the other world. Back in the real world Cap's powers are still with him and Cap, Sharon and Nick Fury manage to take Bravo down, but not before Bravo rants about how Cap failed America. In the end, Cap gets moody as he wonders if he really did fail America, Baron Zemo buddies up with the Hydra Queen and Cap has nightmares where he's lost his powers.
The Good: This storyline with Bravo is finally over... That's the good.
The Bad: Well, everything else pretty much... Okay, that's not fair, the art wasn't bad. This story, and the characters introduced(Queen Hydra, Bravo) did nothing for me. This was EASILY Ed Brubaker's worst Cap story ever, and I say that as somebody who's loved like 89% of his Cap work.
The Verdict: Well, the first comic review for 2012 was a stinker... So now we get to look forward to “Steve Rogers loses his faith in America” part 74... I NEVER thought I'd say this, and it's probably dumb to say after only one storyline, but maybe Brubaker has finally run out of awesome Cap tales to tell. I mean it happens to every writer. After a while they just can't come up with any compelling stories after writing a character for so many years. Brubaker's past Cap stories all had an epic feel to them. They were multifaceted, had all sorts of interesting characters running around and almost always had me dying to pick up the next issue. But the prospects for the future here really don't look good... I mean a multi-part story featuring Queen Hydra, Bravo(who is sure to be sprung from prison eventually) and Baron Zemo, who a) should be playing the role of conflicted tweener, not out and out villain again, and b) never explained how he got out of the desert after being betrayed by Sin, just doesn't appeal to me... At all.
Score: 5 out of 10.
It was nice to see Cap and Falcon working together again here...
Captain America #5:
What Happened: Queen Hydra ends up shooting Jimmy Jupiter in the chest due to Sharron Carter making a move at the Queen. That causes the alternate reality world Jimmy created to start breaking apart all around Captain America and Bravo. Bravo shows that he still has some control over the world by zapping Cap, causing him to lose his super-soldier powers. Even without his powers though, Cap still manages to take the fight to Bravo. The Queen manages to escape and Sharon ends up convincing the pretty much catatonic Jimmy into doing one final thing before he died, expelling Cap and Bravo from the other world. Back in the real world Cap's powers are still with him and Cap, Sharon and Nick Fury manage to take Bravo down, but not before Bravo rants about how Cap failed America. In the end, Cap gets moody as he wonders if he really did fail America, Baron Zemo buddies up with the Hydra Queen and Cap has nightmares where he's lost his powers.
The Good: This storyline with Bravo is finally over... That's the good.
The Bad: Well, everything else pretty much... Okay, that's not fair, the art wasn't bad. This story, and the characters introduced(Queen Hydra, Bravo) did nothing for me. This was EASILY Ed Brubaker's worst Cap story ever, and I say that as somebody who's loved like 89% of his Cap work.
The Verdict: Well, the first comic review for 2012 was a stinker... So now we get to look forward to “Steve Rogers loses his faith in America” part 74... I NEVER thought I'd say this, and it's probably dumb to say after only one storyline, but maybe Brubaker has finally run out of awesome Cap tales to tell. I mean it happens to every writer. After a while they just can't come up with any compelling stories after writing a character for so many years. Brubaker's past Cap stories all had an epic feel to them. They were multifaceted, had all sorts of interesting characters running around and almost always had me dying to pick up the next issue. But the prospects for the future here really don't look good... I mean a multi-part story featuring Queen Hydra, Bravo(who is sure to be sprung from prison eventually) and Baron Zemo, who a) should be playing the role of conflicted tweener, not out and out villain again, and b) never explained how he got out of the desert after being betrayed by Sin, just doesn't appeal to me... At all.
Score: 5 out of 10.
It was nice to see Cap and Falcon working together again here...Saturday, November 19, 2011
Captain America #4
It's time for Captain America! Yeah, thus far this series has yet to really grab me, but it's written by Ed Brubaker, it's bound to get awesome soon, right?
Captain America #4:
What Happened: While Nick Fury, Sharon Carter and others hunt for Hydra and Jimmy Jupiter, Captain America is in Jimmy's fantasy world where everything is exactly how Cap always wanted it. Eventually Cap realizes that something is wrong and his paradise turns into a dirty, dingy hell. From there Bravo appears and rants about how that's what the real world looked like to him after he was expelled from Jimmy's fantasy world when Jimmy woke up. While Cap tries to battle Bravo in a world Bravo could alter to his will, Bravo's wife, um, Hydra Queen(?) is preparing to amplify Jimmy's powers to the point where he'd turn the real world into the fantasy world Bravo and Hydra Queen had been living in for the past 70 years. Sharon manages to shoot her way through Hydra's hordes and reaches the Hydra Queen and Jimmy, but is frozen when the Hydra Queen pulls a gun and aims it at Jimmy, threatening to kill the old man, trapping Cap in the fantasy world forever.
The Good: We finally know just what's going on with the story here. Bravo and his wife were disgusted by the real world and want to alter it to their Utopian world. Seeing Nick Fury back commanding people just seems right... I mean I liked Bucky as Cap and Steve as Commander Rogers, leader of the organization formerly known as SHIELD, but Fury back in charge just feels right... The fight between Cap and Bravo was cool since Bravo could control everything around the two.
The Bad: While I now know what the story here is about, I could care less about it. Bravo is an odd character in that(I think) he has some potential, but has thus far bored me. The cliffhanger wasn't exactly that great since the Hydra Queen killing Jimmy would trap Cap AND Bravo in the fantasy world as well as foil her plans, so you KNOW it's not happening.
The Verdict: Honestly? I'm glad the next issue is going to conclude this storyline. It just never clicked for me from the first part on. I can now firmly say, without a doubt, that this was the worst Ed Brubaker Captain America storyline I've ever read. With that said, do you want to know just how awesome Brubaker is as a writer? Even though I don't like this storyline it doesn't suck, I'd just classify it as not my cup of tea.
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
Well if nothing else this was a unique fight.
Captain America #4:
What Happened: While Nick Fury, Sharon Carter and others hunt for Hydra and Jimmy Jupiter, Captain America is in Jimmy's fantasy world where everything is exactly how Cap always wanted it. Eventually Cap realizes that something is wrong and his paradise turns into a dirty, dingy hell. From there Bravo appears and rants about how that's what the real world looked like to him after he was expelled from Jimmy's fantasy world when Jimmy woke up. While Cap tries to battle Bravo in a world Bravo could alter to his will, Bravo's wife, um, Hydra Queen(?) is preparing to amplify Jimmy's powers to the point where he'd turn the real world into the fantasy world Bravo and Hydra Queen had been living in for the past 70 years. Sharon manages to shoot her way through Hydra's hordes and reaches the Hydra Queen and Jimmy, but is frozen when the Hydra Queen pulls a gun and aims it at Jimmy, threatening to kill the old man, trapping Cap in the fantasy world forever.
The Good: We finally know just what's going on with the story here. Bravo and his wife were disgusted by the real world and want to alter it to their Utopian world. Seeing Nick Fury back commanding people just seems right... I mean I liked Bucky as Cap and Steve as Commander Rogers, leader of the organization formerly known as SHIELD, but Fury back in charge just feels right... The fight between Cap and Bravo was cool since Bravo could control everything around the two.
The Bad: While I now know what the story here is about, I could care less about it. Bravo is an odd character in that(I think) he has some potential, but has thus far bored me. The cliffhanger wasn't exactly that great since the Hydra Queen killing Jimmy would trap Cap AND Bravo in the fantasy world as well as foil her plans, so you KNOW it's not happening.
The Verdict: Honestly? I'm glad the next issue is going to conclude this storyline. It just never clicked for me from the first part on. I can now firmly say, without a doubt, that this was the worst Ed Brubaker Captain America storyline I've ever read. With that said, do you want to know just how awesome Brubaker is as a writer? Even though I don't like this storyline it doesn't suck, I'd just classify it as not my cup of tea.
Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.
Well if nothing else this was a unique fight.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Fear Itself #7.1
The first comic I'll be reviewing this week? That's an easy one, it was this week's Pick of the Litter, and a comic I was so excited about after reading it I had to immediately post my thoughts about it. So now, without further ado, the Captain America aftermath issue of Fear Itself.
Fear Itself: Captain America #7.1:
Summary: We get things started with Nick Fury entering the apartment of Steve Rogers(Captain America), who was preparing the eulogy for Bucky Barnes. Nick tells Cap that he had something important to tell him, but he wasn't exactly sure how to go about it... With that, we have a flashback to right after Bucky was killed by Sin in Fear Itself #4. As Bucky is being flown away from the battlefield on an army aircraft, the army medics manage to get a slight pulse in Bucky, and tell Black Widow that if she had any last words to say to him, now would be the best time for them. Fury, who was also aboard the plane, says nuts to that and tells the pilot to fly to a secret SHIELD location. Once there, Fury shows Black Widow a Bucky LMD(that would be a Life Model Decoy, which is something that looks exactly like a person), and tells her that he was willing to give Bucky the rest of his Infinity Formula, which could possibly bring Bucky back to life... Fury tells the Widow that if they were to go through with this, nobody could know, since what the world needed during the Fear Itself events was Steve Rogers as Captain America, rallying the troops and taking the fight to the Serpent, and Bucky's “death” would be a sure way to get that to happen. Widow agrees to not tell another soul and Fury orders his doctors to administer the Formula to Bucky. Two days pass and Bucky wakes up, much to the Black Widow's relief(and mine as well!!). And that brings us back to the present. After hearing this story from Fury, Cap attacks him and begins to beat the hell out of him for lying to him about the fate of his best friend. Cap finally pulls away from Fury when Bucky and Widow enter the room which quickly calms things down. From there, the quartet decide to keep Bucky's return to life a secret, since that would take care of the whole “Bucky as a fugitive” troubles that Bucky was going through before Fear Itself began. Fury tells Cap that Bucky would be working in the shadows again, which angers Cap, but is what Bucky needs right now. With that, Cap heads off to Bucky's memorial service, and Bucky heads off to take care of some business that was left over from his Winter Soldier days.
Thoughts: Wooooooooooo!!!!!!! Yes, Bucky is BACK! What other thoughts could I possibly have about this comic book? Bucky never should have “died” during Fear Itself in the first place, but now that he's back, and Steve is back as Cap, I guess all is right in the world again. I'll be honest with you, I did NOT expect Bucky to come back here... I was always hoping that he'd come back, but I figured Marvel would string things out for a while first. So imagine my surprise, and yes, elation when I read this comic and Bucky came to in Fury's secret hospital. What more can I add? One of my top five favorite comic book characters came back from the dead, in a story that made sense and is getting an ongoing series in a few month's time... This comic, for me, was perfect.
Score: 10 out of 10.
Yes.
Fear Itself: Captain America #7.1:
Summary: We get things started with Nick Fury entering the apartment of Steve Rogers(Captain America), who was preparing the eulogy for Bucky Barnes. Nick tells Cap that he had something important to tell him, but he wasn't exactly sure how to go about it... With that, we have a flashback to right after Bucky was killed by Sin in Fear Itself #4. As Bucky is being flown away from the battlefield on an army aircraft, the army medics manage to get a slight pulse in Bucky, and tell Black Widow that if she had any last words to say to him, now would be the best time for them. Fury, who was also aboard the plane, says nuts to that and tells the pilot to fly to a secret SHIELD location. Once there, Fury shows Black Widow a Bucky LMD(that would be a Life Model Decoy, which is something that looks exactly like a person), and tells her that he was willing to give Bucky the rest of his Infinity Formula, which could possibly bring Bucky back to life... Fury tells the Widow that if they were to go through with this, nobody could know, since what the world needed during the Fear Itself events was Steve Rogers as Captain America, rallying the troops and taking the fight to the Serpent, and Bucky's “death” would be a sure way to get that to happen. Widow agrees to not tell another soul and Fury orders his doctors to administer the Formula to Bucky. Two days pass and Bucky wakes up, much to the Black Widow's relief(and mine as well!!). And that brings us back to the present. After hearing this story from Fury, Cap attacks him and begins to beat the hell out of him for lying to him about the fate of his best friend. Cap finally pulls away from Fury when Bucky and Widow enter the room which quickly calms things down. From there, the quartet decide to keep Bucky's return to life a secret, since that would take care of the whole “Bucky as a fugitive” troubles that Bucky was going through before Fear Itself began. Fury tells Cap that Bucky would be working in the shadows again, which angers Cap, but is what Bucky needs right now. With that, Cap heads off to Bucky's memorial service, and Bucky heads off to take care of some business that was left over from his Winter Soldier days.
Thoughts: Wooooooooooo!!!!!!! Yes, Bucky is BACK! What other thoughts could I possibly have about this comic book? Bucky never should have “died” during Fear Itself in the first place, but now that he's back, and Steve is back as Cap, I guess all is right in the world again. I'll be honest with you, I did NOT expect Bucky to come back here... I was always hoping that he'd come back, but I figured Marvel would string things out for a while first. So imagine my surprise, and yes, elation when I read this comic and Bucky came to in Fury's secret hospital. What more can I add? One of my top five favorite comic book characters came back from the dead, in a story that made sense and is getting an ongoing series in a few month's time... This comic, for me, was perfect.
Score: 10 out of 10.
Yes.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Captain America: The First Avenger DVD
Since I did a review for the Batman: Under The Red Hood DVD, how couldn't I do one for the Cap movie? This was one of the FEW movies I actually wanted to see in the movie theater, but I instead decided to wait for the DVD to get released. Well, the movie is loading in my PS3 and should start up soon, so let's get to it!
Captain America: The First Avenger(2011):
What Happened: Back during World War II, scrawny Steve Rogers from Brooklyn winds up getting a special serum and becomes America's first super-soldier. The creator of the serum, Dr. Erskine, is murdered by agents of the Nazi's special science division, Hydra, which is led by the Red Skull. The Skull knew of Erskine because he himself took a prototype of Erskine's serum which granted him enhanced physical abilities, while leaving him with grotesque red skull-like head. Steve becomes a propaganda tool for the US government to sell war bonds as Captain America, but is more keen on actually fighting in the war, something his commanding officer, Col. Phillips, doesn't want to see since Steve was basically untested on the field. Eventually while entertaining some soldiers in Italy, Cap learns that his childhood friend Bucky Barnes(and most of Bucky's platoon) was captured and/or killed by forces of Hydra. With some help from Peggy Carter and Howard Stark, Cap ends up busting into the Hydra facility on his own and rescuing Bucky and the rest of the captive soldiers while meeting the Skull face-to-face for the first time. With that rousing success, Col. Phillips allows Cap to create a hand selected team to take the fight to Hydra. Cap's squad(basically the Howling Commandos) meets with several successes taking apart Hydra bases, but are racing against the clock as the Red Skull, using an insanely powerful artifact that he felt was left behind by the gods(basically a Cosmic Cube), is busy building a massive airship that was powered by the artifact and was capable of wiping out the entire US eastern coast within an hour's time. Cap and his squad end up capturing the Skull's right hand man, Armin Zola, but at the expense of Bucky, who is killed during the mission. Zola rats out the location of Hydra's main base and Cap and his squad attack, forcing the Skull and his Hydra goons to leap into their aircraft before they are completely prepared to. After getting a kiss from Peggy, Cap alone manages to get aboard the Skull's aircraft before the Skull was able to take flight. After dispatching of the Hydra goons, Cap meets the Skull in the plane's cockpit and the two have their long-awaited showdown. The two adversaries toss each other about the cockpit until they eventually rupture the unit holding the artifact, at which time the Skull grabs the artifact hoping to use it against Cap. Unfortunately for the Skull, the power from the artifact seemingly disintegrates him before the artifact itself burns through the bottom of the plane falling into the ocean below. With the plane's power-source gone, and the controls damaged during the battle, Cap contacts headquarters and tells them that he was going to down the plane in the icy northern Atlantic waters before it reached any populated area. Peggy, who was at headquarters, tries to talk Cap out of his plan, but the two realize that there was no other way and Peggy stays on the radio with Cap until the plane slams into the ice below. Fast forward 70 years and an expedition exploring the northern Atlantic comes across the frozen remains of the airplane, as well as Cap, who ended up in a state of suspended animation. Cap eventually wakes up, freaks out a bit and is met by Nick Fury, ending this one.
The Good: Everybody in the movie did a pretty good job with the roles they were given. I especially enjoyed the Skull, Dr. Erskine and Col. Phillips. The addition of characters like Dum Dum Dugan, Armin Zola, Howard Stark and others was a nice little treat for a Marvel fanatic such as myself. Call me a sap, but I really enjoyed the interaction between Cap and Peggy Carter. The final battle between Cap and the Skull was awesome, mainly because it was two hated enemies beating the hell out of each other. There was nothing fancy about it, it was simply a fight. Even though it was never called as such, I liked that the Skull was using the Cosmic Cube the entire time, since that rung true to the comic books. Speaking of which, the special effects with the Cube and the Skull's appearance were topnotch. Cap bashing people with his shield was as fun on screen as it is in the comics. Cap's “death” scene was a real tearjerker. The beginning and end of this film were really well done.
The Bad: Bucky as Cap's childhood friend as opposed to a younger member of the army that Cap could have found/saved/anything was a bit annoying. Speaking of which, Bucky's death was downright infuriating! He was offed by a random Hydra agent in a scene that was basically throwaway! It had literally NO emotional impact on me whatsoever. Seriously, wouldn't it have made more sense for the Skull to have been the one to kill Bucky since there was no Baron Zemo in this movie? The middle of the movie dragged a bit... The time between when Erskine dies to when Cap rescues Bucky and the rest of the soldiers was completely forgettable. The ending wasn't an ending at all, it was basically the beginning of the Avengers.
The Verdict: This wasn't the best comic book movie I've ever seen(that distinction still goes to X2), but it's definitely one of my favorites. It didn't stray TOO far away from the comic books which is always a good thing, although the Bucky stuff REALLY hurt my enjoyment of this one. I still don't get why Bucky couldn't have been a 16/17 year old soldier that Steve takes under his wing. I'm not saying to make him a 14 year old army camp mascot like in the comics, but Bucky as Steve's childhood friend/protector just didn't add anything for me. Plus his death was just plain bizarre... I mean seriously, he was killed by random Hydra agent #276! Really?! Sure, as the head of Hydra, the Skull kind of/sort of was responsible for killing Bucky, but it would have been way more personal if the Skull had a more active hand in Bucky's death. Besides the Bucky portions, which could/should have been better, this movie was a great way to spend 2 hours. I mean hell, even though I KNEW he wasn't dying, I still got all teary-eyed during Cap's “death”! That tells me that the story had me and had me good. May 2012 can't get here soon enough, bring on the Avengers movie!
Score: 9 out of 10.
Captain America: The First Avenger(2011):
What Happened: Back during World War II, scrawny Steve Rogers from Brooklyn winds up getting a special serum and becomes America's first super-soldier. The creator of the serum, Dr. Erskine, is murdered by agents of the Nazi's special science division, Hydra, which is led by the Red Skull. The Skull knew of Erskine because he himself took a prototype of Erskine's serum which granted him enhanced physical abilities, while leaving him with grotesque red skull-like head. Steve becomes a propaganda tool for the US government to sell war bonds as Captain America, but is more keen on actually fighting in the war, something his commanding officer, Col. Phillips, doesn't want to see since Steve was basically untested on the field. Eventually while entertaining some soldiers in Italy, Cap learns that his childhood friend Bucky Barnes(and most of Bucky's platoon) was captured and/or killed by forces of Hydra. With some help from Peggy Carter and Howard Stark, Cap ends up busting into the Hydra facility on his own and rescuing Bucky and the rest of the captive soldiers while meeting the Skull face-to-face for the first time. With that rousing success, Col. Phillips allows Cap to create a hand selected team to take the fight to Hydra. Cap's squad(basically the Howling Commandos) meets with several successes taking apart Hydra bases, but are racing against the clock as the Red Skull, using an insanely powerful artifact that he felt was left behind by the gods(basically a Cosmic Cube), is busy building a massive airship that was powered by the artifact and was capable of wiping out the entire US eastern coast within an hour's time. Cap and his squad end up capturing the Skull's right hand man, Armin Zola, but at the expense of Bucky, who is killed during the mission. Zola rats out the location of Hydra's main base and Cap and his squad attack, forcing the Skull and his Hydra goons to leap into their aircraft before they are completely prepared to. After getting a kiss from Peggy, Cap alone manages to get aboard the Skull's aircraft before the Skull was able to take flight. After dispatching of the Hydra goons, Cap meets the Skull in the plane's cockpit and the two have their long-awaited showdown. The two adversaries toss each other about the cockpit until they eventually rupture the unit holding the artifact, at which time the Skull grabs the artifact hoping to use it against Cap. Unfortunately for the Skull, the power from the artifact seemingly disintegrates him before the artifact itself burns through the bottom of the plane falling into the ocean below. With the plane's power-source gone, and the controls damaged during the battle, Cap contacts headquarters and tells them that he was going to down the plane in the icy northern Atlantic waters before it reached any populated area. Peggy, who was at headquarters, tries to talk Cap out of his plan, but the two realize that there was no other way and Peggy stays on the radio with Cap until the plane slams into the ice below. Fast forward 70 years and an expedition exploring the northern Atlantic comes across the frozen remains of the airplane, as well as Cap, who ended up in a state of suspended animation. Cap eventually wakes up, freaks out a bit and is met by Nick Fury, ending this one.
The Good: Everybody in the movie did a pretty good job with the roles they were given. I especially enjoyed the Skull, Dr. Erskine and Col. Phillips. The addition of characters like Dum Dum Dugan, Armin Zola, Howard Stark and others was a nice little treat for a Marvel fanatic such as myself. Call me a sap, but I really enjoyed the interaction between Cap and Peggy Carter. The final battle between Cap and the Skull was awesome, mainly because it was two hated enemies beating the hell out of each other. There was nothing fancy about it, it was simply a fight. Even though it was never called as such, I liked that the Skull was using the Cosmic Cube the entire time, since that rung true to the comic books. Speaking of which, the special effects with the Cube and the Skull's appearance were topnotch. Cap bashing people with his shield was as fun on screen as it is in the comics. Cap's “death” scene was a real tearjerker. The beginning and end of this film were really well done.
The Bad: Bucky as Cap's childhood friend as opposed to a younger member of the army that Cap could have found/saved/anything was a bit annoying. Speaking of which, Bucky's death was downright infuriating! He was offed by a random Hydra agent in a scene that was basically throwaway! It had literally NO emotional impact on me whatsoever. Seriously, wouldn't it have made more sense for the Skull to have been the one to kill Bucky since there was no Baron Zemo in this movie? The middle of the movie dragged a bit... The time between when Erskine dies to when Cap rescues Bucky and the rest of the soldiers was completely forgettable. The ending wasn't an ending at all, it was basically the beginning of the Avengers.
The Verdict: This wasn't the best comic book movie I've ever seen(that distinction still goes to X2), but it's definitely one of my favorites. It didn't stray TOO far away from the comic books which is always a good thing, although the Bucky stuff REALLY hurt my enjoyment of this one. I still don't get why Bucky couldn't have been a 16/17 year old soldier that Steve takes under his wing. I'm not saying to make him a 14 year old army camp mascot like in the comics, but Bucky as Steve's childhood friend/protector just didn't add anything for me. Plus his death was just plain bizarre... I mean seriously, he was killed by random Hydra agent #276! Really?! Sure, as the head of Hydra, the Skull kind of/sort of was responsible for killing Bucky, but it would have been way more personal if the Skull had a more active hand in Bucky's death. Besides the Bucky portions, which could/should have been better, this movie was a great way to spend 2 hours. I mean hell, even though I KNEW he wasn't dying, I still got all teary-eyed during Cap's “death”! That tells me that the story had me and had me good. May 2012 can't get here soon enough, bring on the Avengers movie!
Score: 9 out of 10.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Captain America #317 (May 1986)
Well if I'm going to post some Retro Reviews, I HAVE to post a Captain America comic from Mark Gruenwald's run! With the exception of Ed Brubaker's recent run, Gruenwald's Cap run had been my favorite. Many of these issues still hold a special place in my heart, and when I was flipping through my Cap collection, I HAD to give this issue a read since it had Cap AND Hawkeye on the cover!
Captain America #317:
Summary: This issue gets started with the Death Throws(Evil villainous jugglers!!!) helping Crossfire escape from police custody. Hawkeye and Mockingbird, who were in New York to testify against Crossfire, arrive at the scene of Crossfire's escape scant minutes too late to prevent his rescue. With Crossfire free, the Death Throws leader, the appropriately named Ringleader, asks how Crossfire wanted to pay for the Death Throws services. Crossfire tells Ringleader that he currently didn't have enough money to pay the Death Throws, but that he'd get the money soon. That doesn't sit well with Ringleader so he gets together with the rest of the Death Throws and they all decide to see if they could get money out of Hawkeye for the return of Crossfire. Meanwhile, Captain America, in his civilian guise of Steve Rogers, is attending a going away party for his one-time girlfriend, Bernie Rosenthal. While Cap is busting a move on the dance floor(really!), Hawkeye and Mockingbird arrive at the apartment(in their civvies naturally) to tell Cap about Crossfire's getaway. Since he wouldn't be able to make it back to the West Coast Avengers right away, Hawkeye asks to use Cap's Avengers phone in Cap's apartment. The two head over to Cap's place and discover a message sent to Cap's Stars and Stripes hot-line telling Hawkeye to head to an abandoned train station, alone, where he could buy Crossfire back. The two Avengers know the whole set-up had to be a trap, so Cap offers to have Hawkeye's back, something Hawkeye readily accepts. Cap excuses himself from the party and Hawkeye tells Mockingbird that he was going to go after Crossfire with Cap since Hawkeye's sky-cycle only seated two. Hawkeye enters the train station and is nearly ambushed by the Death Throws, but is saved by Cap. The two heroes and the Death Throws duke it out, with Cap and Hawkeye eventually whittling down the Death Throws numbers, only leaving a single Death Throw, Knick-Knack, standing. During the battle Knick-Knack had managed to get his hands on Cap's shield and runs for the exit, meeting with Mockingbird's fist. Mockingbird gives Cap his shield back and Hawkeye discovers that the Death Throws were planning on capturing him and selling him back to the Avengers for one million dollars. Hawkeye is surprised that the Death Throws thought he was worth that much money(HA!!) and the heroes take all of the criminals to prison. With that taken care of Cap heads back to Bernie's apartment, only to find it empty with the exception of a note from Bernie saying good-bye.
Thoughts: How couldn't I love this issue?!? It had Hawkeye and Captain America teaming up to face down the deadly menace of costumed jugglers! Seriously, this entire comic was great. I especially loved the way the Death Throws tried intimidating Crossfire after he told them he couldn't pay for their services, juggling menacingly around him... It was all just perfect! The story made sense and gave us a reason for Hawkeye and Mockingbird to show up, as well as giving us a reason for Hawkeye and Cap to do the whole team-up thing. Add some great character work between Cap and Hawkeye, showing how much the two longtime Avengers respected each other, the fact that Mockingbird delivered the coup de grace, along with some furthering of the storyline going on in Cap's personal life and you have a recipe for a highly enjoyable comic book. Who would have thought jugglers could be so damn menacing?!
Score: 9 out of 10.
"Look out, they're gonna juggle at you!!!"
Captain America #317:
Summary: This issue gets started with the Death Throws(Evil villainous jugglers!!!) helping Crossfire escape from police custody. Hawkeye and Mockingbird, who were in New York to testify against Crossfire, arrive at the scene of Crossfire's escape scant minutes too late to prevent his rescue. With Crossfire free, the Death Throws leader, the appropriately named Ringleader, asks how Crossfire wanted to pay for the Death Throws services. Crossfire tells Ringleader that he currently didn't have enough money to pay the Death Throws, but that he'd get the money soon. That doesn't sit well with Ringleader so he gets together with the rest of the Death Throws and they all decide to see if they could get money out of Hawkeye for the return of Crossfire. Meanwhile, Captain America, in his civilian guise of Steve Rogers, is attending a going away party for his one-time girlfriend, Bernie Rosenthal. While Cap is busting a move on the dance floor(really!), Hawkeye and Mockingbird arrive at the apartment(in their civvies naturally) to tell Cap about Crossfire's getaway. Since he wouldn't be able to make it back to the West Coast Avengers right away, Hawkeye asks to use Cap's Avengers phone in Cap's apartment. The two head over to Cap's place and discover a message sent to Cap's Stars and Stripes hot-line telling Hawkeye to head to an abandoned train station, alone, where he could buy Crossfire back. The two Avengers know the whole set-up had to be a trap, so Cap offers to have Hawkeye's back, something Hawkeye readily accepts. Cap excuses himself from the party and Hawkeye tells Mockingbird that he was going to go after Crossfire with Cap since Hawkeye's sky-cycle only seated two. Hawkeye enters the train station and is nearly ambushed by the Death Throws, but is saved by Cap. The two heroes and the Death Throws duke it out, with Cap and Hawkeye eventually whittling down the Death Throws numbers, only leaving a single Death Throw, Knick-Knack, standing. During the battle Knick-Knack had managed to get his hands on Cap's shield and runs for the exit, meeting with Mockingbird's fist. Mockingbird gives Cap his shield back and Hawkeye discovers that the Death Throws were planning on capturing him and selling him back to the Avengers for one million dollars. Hawkeye is surprised that the Death Throws thought he was worth that much money(HA!!) and the heroes take all of the criminals to prison. With that taken care of Cap heads back to Bernie's apartment, only to find it empty with the exception of a note from Bernie saying good-bye.
Thoughts: How couldn't I love this issue?!? It had Hawkeye and Captain America teaming up to face down the deadly menace of costumed jugglers! Seriously, this entire comic was great. I especially loved the way the Death Throws tried intimidating Crossfire after he told them he couldn't pay for their services, juggling menacingly around him... It was all just perfect! The story made sense and gave us a reason for Hawkeye and Mockingbird to show up, as well as giving us a reason for Hawkeye and Cap to do the whole team-up thing. Add some great character work between Cap and Hawkeye, showing how much the two longtime Avengers respected each other, the fact that Mockingbird delivered the coup de grace, along with some furthering of the storyline going on in Cap's personal life and you have a recipe for a highly enjoyable comic book. Who would have thought jugglers could be so damn menacing?!
Score: 9 out of 10.
"Look out, they're gonna juggle at you!!!"
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Captain America #3
First off, a confession... I've been very down on the Captain America series since Bucky's senseless death at the end of Fear Itself #3, so I'm honestly not expecting much from this comic. Besides that, the first two issues of this series just haven't had the same epic feel almost all of Ed Brubaker's previous Cap work has had... This story feels more like somebody doing a bad impression of a Brubaker Cap story than an actual, honest to goodness Brubaker Cap tale. But hopefully this issue things will turn around and this series will shoot back up to the awesome heights it once occupied.
Captain America #3:
Summary: While Cap is battling the Ameridroid, Sharon Carter is jumped in her apartment(which is overlooking the battle) by Baron Zemo. After an extended battle, Cap manages to put down the Ameridroid, so Zemo tosses Sharon out of her window. Cap saves his falling girlfriend, and Zemo manages to make good his escape. Cap and Sharon take the Ameridroid to a Project PEGASUS lab in New York where they meet up with Nick Fury. The trio are kind of surprised by how easily the Ameridroid went down, and while they are having their meeting, Bravo sets up shop in an ambulance outside the PEGASUS building and has one of his men fire shots at some police officers. Cap, Sharon and Fury rush over to the window to see what was happening, and the Ameridroid wakes up from playing possum and rushes Cap, knocking him out the window of the lab. While the two are falling, Bravo uses Jimmy Jupiter(please don't ask...) to open a portal to Nowhere, the land Bravo had been stranded in for decades. Upon arriving in Nowhere, Bravo callously kills the Nazi scientist who had been trapped in the Ameridroid's form and knocks Cap unconscious with a massive punch, ending this issue.
Thoughts: Meh. I sadly just can't seem to get into this story... I hate Baron Zemo as a villain. I don't care about Bravo, Jimmy Jupiter, OR the new Hydra Queen from Nowhere. I'm actually just tired of Brubaker continuously returning to Cap's WWII past to bring back former allies/enemies for him to fight. It worked perfectly with Bucky because NOBODY expected it, plus the storytelling was magnificent, with Brubaker PERFECTLY capturing both Bucky and Cap's emotions. But this stuff with Bravo? There IS no emotional attachment to him, since he was never mentioned prior to this storyline. This is simply a Winter Soldier-lite storyline, it lacks the emotional impact and the Commie brainwashing shenanigans the original Winter Soldier storyline had, but is still trying for the same sort of feel. The sooner this storyline ends, the better.
Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.
Did Baron Zemo really smack Sharon Carter upside the head!? That was awesome!
Captain America #3:
Summary: While Cap is battling the Ameridroid, Sharon Carter is jumped in her apartment(which is overlooking the battle) by Baron Zemo. After an extended battle, Cap manages to put down the Ameridroid, so Zemo tosses Sharon out of her window. Cap saves his falling girlfriend, and Zemo manages to make good his escape. Cap and Sharon take the Ameridroid to a Project PEGASUS lab in New York where they meet up with Nick Fury. The trio are kind of surprised by how easily the Ameridroid went down, and while they are having their meeting, Bravo sets up shop in an ambulance outside the PEGASUS building and has one of his men fire shots at some police officers. Cap, Sharon and Fury rush over to the window to see what was happening, and the Ameridroid wakes up from playing possum and rushes Cap, knocking him out the window of the lab. While the two are falling, Bravo uses Jimmy Jupiter(please don't ask...) to open a portal to Nowhere, the land Bravo had been stranded in for decades. Upon arriving in Nowhere, Bravo callously kills the Nazi scientist who had been trapped in the Ameridroid's form and knocks Cap unconscious with a massive punch, ending this issue.
Thoughts: Meh. I sadly just can't seem to get into this story... I hate Baron Zemo as a villain. I don't care about Bravo, Jimmy Jupiter, OR the new Hydra Queen from Nowhere. I'm actually just tired of Brubaker continuously returning to Cap's WWII past to bring back former allies/enemies for him to fight. It worked perfectly with Bucky because NOBODY expected it, plus the storytelling was magnificent, with Brubaker PERFECTLY capturing both Bucky and Cap's emotions. But this stuff with Bravo? There IS no emotional attachment to him, since he was never mentioned prior to this storyline. This is simply a Winter Soldier-lite storyline, it lacks the emotional impact and the Commie brainwashing shenanigans the original Winter Soldier storyline had, but is still trying for the same sort of feel. The sooner this storyline ends, the better.
Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.
Did Baron Zemo really smack Sharon Carter upside the head!? That was awesome!
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