Beau Tidwell
Mar 23, 2008, 02:46 pm
<a href="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/marvel/0308/CAPA2036_col.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/marvel/0308/CAPA2036_colt.jpg" alt="Captain America #36" hspace=10 align=left></a> Reviewer: Beau Tidwell, comixfanbeau@gmail.com
Story Title: The Burden of Dreams, part six
“Don’t know how long we’ve got ‘till this goes to hell!”
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Butch Guice (pages 1-12)
Artist: Mike Perkins (pages 13-22)
Colorist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Production: Anthony Dial
Associate Editor: Molly Lazer
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (www.marvel.com)
I really, really hope I’m wrong about all this.
Did you ever see the movie Swordfish? Of course you did. It had Hugh Jackman in it right after he stole fanboy hearts everywhere as Wolverine and right before he broke those hearts with Van Helsing. More on that later.
Here we are at the end of act two of Brubaker’s modern epic, The Death of Captain America. The trouble with the middle act in comics is that ongoing series are, essentially by definition, always in the middle of Act Two. The kind of sound, solid three-part structure movie and television writers are drilled on is extremely difficult to execute satisfactorily in mainstream super-hero books. With his current opus, Brubaker has defied a lot of expectations and challenged a lot of conventional wisdom. But his efforts in this chapter, at least, have yielded mixed results.
To begin with, I find myself frustrated as a reader with the sense that not enough happened. For a book billed in the solicits as a major turning point, this issue really just felt like more of the same. Now, it’s a very good “same”, but it still felt largely devoid of the kind of dramatic, game-changing developments readers were led to expect.
The main thrust of the action, which finds the brand-new (and shinny) Captain America facing off against the re-tooled Serpent Squad on his second mission wearing the colors, is reliably excellent. I really love the effective synthesis of realistic combat and super-hero action which has long been this title’s hallmark, and I was particularly impressed by Butch Guice. I’ve loved his work since he was “Jackson” Guice back in the days of the original New Mutants series and it’s great to see him, like Steve Epting before him, getting the opportunity to strut his stuff in a modern context on such a high-profile book. Guice and Mike Perkins, who provides the second half of the issue’s artwork, do excellent work. Colorist Frank D’Armata and, presumably, Anthony Dial on the production end, deserve tremendous credit for not only making the transition between the two artists absolutely seamless, but also providing a unified feel to the artwork as a whole so that--- when read in the context of the larger story (in a trade, or a hardback, or an Omnibus …), it all hangs together as a piece.
The sub-plots of this issue are less successful. It reads as though the Skull and Lukin’s plot has been simmering in the B-plot for entirely too long. After the major developments that kicked off this arc with the assassination of Cap and then continued to unfold into riots in Washington and rogue SHIELD agents shooting dirty hippies, it feels like we’re back in neutral. Until the very last page, that is.
Without spoiling it, let me just say that I hope beyond hope that Brubaker rewards the readers’ faith in him and takes this in a counter-intuitive direction. I believe that he can and that he will. I hope.
That said, for the first time since Cap hit the courthouse steps in issue #25, I have a feeling of dread about the way this is going. I was a freshman in high school when DC pulled their “Death of Superman” stunt, and Brubaker and company are stepping dangerously close to that treacherous territory. There is every reason to believe Brubaker will rise to the occasion and deliver something unexpected and something satisfying, but the big reveal meant to propel us into act three could also lay the groundwork for a train wreck. “Trust the story, not the storyteller” as the saying goes--- but for now I’m willing to trust Bru.
But I’m nervous. And quite possibly, that’s a very good thing--- because it means I’m dying to buy next issue. That’s an effective “act two,” if I ever saw one.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/capfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/capfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/capfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/caphalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/capnone.jpg
Story Title: The Burden of Dreams, part six
“Don’t know how long we’ve got ‘till this goes to hell!”
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Butch Guice (pages 1-12)
Artist: Mike Perkins (pages 13-22)
Colorist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Production: Anthony Dial
Associate Editor: Molly Lazer
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (www.marvel.com)
I really, really hope I’m wrong about all this.
Did you ever see the movie Swordfish? Of course you did. It had Hugh Jackman in it right after he stole fanboy hearts everywhere as Wolverine and right before he broke those hearts with Van Helsing. More on that later.
Here we are at the end of act two of Brubaker’s modern epic, The Death of Captain America. The trouble with the middle act in comics is that ongoing series are, essentially by definition, always in the middle of Act Two. The kind of sound, solid three-part structure movie and television writers are drilled on is extremely difficult to execute satisfactorily in mainstream super-hero books. With his current opus, Brubaker has defied a lot of expectations and challenged a lot of conventional wisdom. But his efforts in this chapter, at least, have yielded mixed results.
To begin with, I find myself frustrated as a reader with the sense that not enough happened. For a book billed in the solicits as a major turning point, this issue really just felt like more of the same. Now, it’s a very good “same”, but it still felt largely devoid of the kind of dramatic, game-changing developments readers were led to expect.
The main thrust of the action, which finds the brand-new (and shinny) Captain America facing off against the re-tooled Serpent Squad on his second mission wearing the colors, is reliably excellent. I really love the effective synthesis of realistic combat and super-hero action which has long been this title’s hallmark, and I was particularly impressed by Butch Guice. I’ve loved his work since he was “Jackson” Guice back in the days of the original New Mutants series and it’s great to see him, like Steve Epting before him, getting the opportunity to strut his stuff in a modern context on such a high-profile book. Guice and Mike Perkins, who provides the second half of the issue’s artwork, do excellent work. Colorist Frank D’Armata and, presumably, Anthony Dial on the production end, deserve tremendous credit for not only making the transition between the two artists absolutely seamless, but also providing a unified feel to the artwork as a whole so that--- when read in the context of the larger story (in a trade, or a hardback, or an Omnibus …), it all hangs together as a piece.
The sub-plots of this issue are less successful. It reads as though the Skull and Lukin’s plot has been simmering in the B-plot for entirely too long. After the major developments that kicked off this arc with the assassination of Cap and then continued to unfold into riots in Washington and rogue SHIELD agents shooting dirty hippies, it feels like we’re back in neutral. Until the very last page, that is.
Without spoiling it, let me just say that I hope beyond hope that Brubaker rewards the readers’ faith in him and takes this in a counter-intuitive direction. I believe that he can and that he will. I hope.
That said, for the first time since Cap hit the courthouse steps in issue #25, I have a feeling of dread about the way this is going. I was a freshman in high school when DC pulled their “Death of Superman” stunt, and Brubaker and company are stepping dangerously close to that treacherous territory. There is every reason to believe Brubaker will rise to the occasion and deliver something unexpected and something satisfying, but the big reveal meant to propel us into act three could also lay the groundwork for a train wreck. “Trust the story, not the storyteller” as the saying goes--- but for now I’m willing to trust Bru.
But I’m nervous. And quite possibly, that’s a very good thing--- because it means I’m dying to buy next issue. That’s an effective “act two,” if I ever saw one.
OVERALL:
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/capfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/capfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/capfull.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/caphalf.jpg http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/capnone.jpg