I bought it three times, sure, but I'm not sure I had read it until now, which makes me wonder when did I last read Cap regularly? Around Cap #600? Ed Brubaker had a long run, and we checked out his last issue some time back, but that was from 2012, and it feels like there's been about 40 separate runs since then? Rick Remender/John Romita Jr., Mark Waid was back for a minute, then Captain America: Steve Rogers, which I think was 19 issues of him becoming Hydra Cap for Secret Empire? Which leads up to this one, per the lengthy "Previously..." section: while Hydra Cap had been taken down, not all the fascists appear to have been rooted out. Thunderbolt Ross--non-Red Hulk here, at least so far in the story--had sent Sharon Carter on a mission that might have been a trap, then turned up dead, with Cap as the prime suspect. Instead of going on the lam to prove his innocence, Cap had turned himself in voluntarily, and was now at the Myrmidon, which would probably be best described as a privatized version of the Vault, run by...a pardoned Baron Strucker? Were there a lot of really sketchy pardons in the Hydra Cap era?
No, Cap explains: Strucker had sold out when Hydra's power began to fade, turning on them for a clean record. To further put him over, and show his dominance over his prison, Strucker displays for the whole prison him beating the tar out of the Wrecker. He's trying to show everyone, if he can beat the Wrecker until he cries like a little girl, what can he do to Cap? Meanwhile, Sharon has a meeting with New York's mayor, Wilson Fisk: she knows Fisk knows Cap was innocent, and manages to extort some info out of him. Still, Fisk does have a closing burn: at that point, America trusted him more than Cap. Back at the Myrmidon, rec time for Cap involves a minor scuffle with the Wrecking Crew's Bulldozer and Piledriver, who act like they have the moral high ground on Cap: this is probably due to Marvel's sliding timeline, but Bulldozer had served in the Army, probably during Gulf War, and felt betrayed by America. Piledriver mentions Rick Jones, who had been "inspired" to death in Secret Empire: that was Cap's fault, for building up a rep "more trusted than Jesus." Geez, when those two are clowning on you...(Bulldozer is the one in the Bane-like face mask, was he a biter? Piledriver is rocking the Guile hair.)
The behind-the-scenes conspiracy continues, as Alexa Lukin has Hydra Cap released from secret prison but then seemingly throws him to Selene. (Who isn't referred to by name this issue!) And Sharon Carter reviews the Kingpin's info with her crew, which fingers the Foreigner for Ross's death. I can't imagine anybody really thought Ross was dead, which makes me wonder if this wasn't just Kingpin trying to take out a rival: we've seen their rivalry before. That and Foreigner looks really generic here, rather than like Patrick McGoohan circa the Prisoner; and it still references his ex-wife Silver Sable, which I maintain was meant as a joke!
Granted, this was part 2 of 6, and I'm coming in real cold; but by itself this wasn't a real satisfying comic. Which seems indicative of why I haven't read Captain America regularly in so long: it feels like I have to read forty issues to get anything out of it.
I was about to say, when did this series come out & you say it’s 2019, which checks out for the conceptual timing aspect of Strucker’s pardon given this was all going on during Trump’s 1st term (Ugh God!!!!!) so at least the bad guys are about as bad they’d be in the real world. Pretty sure Ross’s death was undone by Al Ewing’s Immortal Hulk run around this same time but I could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteI myself haven’t read or regularly followed a Captain America book since Waid’s run in the 90’s.
How the hell is Baron Strucker beating up the Wrecker? Are there power-nullifying doohickeys in place? Is Strucker rocking a Super-Satan's Claw or maybe the Wrecker took a dive for extra pudding rations.
ReplyDeleteThe last (only?) time I bought Captain America was the 10 issues or so I gave the Remender/Romita Jr. run, but that disappointed me pretty quick, as I was clearly interested in something different about the concept than Remender (But he's always been way more "miss" than "hit" with me.)
Was that when Steve was stranded in Dimension Z or whatever weird dimension Armin Zola stuck him in? The one where he helped raise a kid who’d later grow up to be Nomad in that same world?
DeleteYep, that's the one. I thought there could be something worth mining in putting Cap in an entirely alien environment and seeing how he adapted to interacting with beings that might see or think in different ways (like they're a hive species that doesn't understand "freedom" or "individuality" or something.) But Remender time-skipped most of that to focus on Rogers trying to raise a kid he abducted/rescued.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Yeah I can definitely see Steve attempting to promote & spread Democracy to other worlds and peoples like the US attempted to do in real life except Steve wouldn’t force it on them or do so with alterior motives.
Delete