Mar 17, 2014
Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, is perhaps the least subtle superhero of all time. And yet, the draw to one of Marvel’s oldest characters (first gracing the cover of Marvel’s predecessor, Timely Comics’, Captain America #1 in 1941) is his genuine heroic spirit. Instead of being thrown into the deep end of superheroics because he just so happened to invent a super weapon that could be worn as a suit of armor, or being bitten by a radioactive spider, Steve Rogers was, from the beginning, a hero. A guy willing to put his life on the line and fight for his country, despite some obvious physical shortcomings. In exchange for a dose of a highly experimental “Super Soldier Serum”, Rogers becomes more capable of putting his money where his mouth is, and does so splendidly. Captain America carried the US through World War II, both in books and in reality. Then he went and got himself frozen in ice. Luckily, cryogenics in Marvel is super advanced, because he thawed a couple decades later and became one of the core members of The Avengers.
The first story arc of Rick Remender’s Captain America downplays Rogers’ hyper realized heroism in favor of a more bizarre story involving Cap being spirited away to Dimension Z by Arnim Zola. Here he finds and raises a young boy for ten years, barely keeping the two of them alive as Zola’s army hunts him and as the other residents of Dimension Z try to take his or the young boy (Ian’s) head to Zola in exchange for peace. The art is handled by John Romita Jr. There’s really nothing else that needs to be said about the quality—I’ve yet to come across a book from JR JR that looked anything less than beautiful, his run on The Amazing Spider-Man was probably the best run of art the series had (not to get off topic, but Stracyzinski’s authorship was also amazeballs. I’d check out that entire run if you haven’t already).
An entire story that takes place in an alternate dimension over a decade? Sounds like it could be hard to pull that off and then jump back to the main Marvel verse, but Remender manages it beautifully. The obvious “time dilation” solution keeps Cap from returning to a world 10 years older, of course, but the impressive part of Cap’s transition from otherworld warrior back to righteous American crime fighter only works because of what Cap brings back. Physically, there’s Jet Black, Ian’s “sister” from Dimension Z. Originally a true follower of Arnim Zola, Cap convinces her to come back with him and live a normal life just as Ian turns to the dark side. Jet Black gets her character focused entry in the series’ 15th issue as well, but more on that later. The more important bit of baggage Cap has is internal-- his pain from the loss of Ian and Sharon coupled with his feeling of being a "man out of time" again.
That said, bringing Cap back to the main Marvelverse isn’t made out to be some chore, instead it’s handled mostly off panel in John Romita Jr.’s final issue as artist. Captain America is tasked with taking out a failed Weapon Plus project, code named “Nuke”. This guy may be familiar to veteran readers, but his story here is certainly unique and gives Captain America an intriguing villain that parallels Cap’s own recent experiences. In their showdown, Cap realizes the parallels between Nuke and himself, both of them being veterans of the same war, now living in a world at peace. The allegory for PTSD and the real world difficulty of veterans transitioning to civilian life shouldn’t be lost on anyone, and issues 11-15 or so are pretty sobering. Cap understands Nuke’s pain on two levels, being literally the WWII vet, but also being a “vet” of Dimension Z’s residents’ infighting and squabbles. For ten years Cap was alone and fighting to protect himself and his son. Now he’s lost his son to Dimension Z and has to learn how to live without the constant threat of death every night before he goes to bed.
The finale to this first part of a larger arc is in issue 16, where Nuke literally explodes after being transported to the S.H.I.E.L.D Hub facility, killing all the agents there and freeing a mysterious new villain named “Mindbubble”. Mindbubble takes center stage next issue where it is revealed he’s manipulating. Cap naturally blames himself for not realizing the true intention behind Nuke, but the current story is less focused on Cap making amends and more on exploring the murky world of covert and clandestine operations. S.H.I.E.L.D. is naturally hiding something that Mindbubble is, also naturally, attempting to acquire for his organization’s own nefarious ends. Issue 17 takes a new angle by depicting Nick Fury’s systemic destruction of a secret HYDRA base. At least that’s what it appears to depict until the final pages, where it is revealed he’s actually attacked agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. And not the TV show.
The current issue expands on MindBubble’s plot as well as gives us some answers on what S.H.I.E.L.D. is up to. Cap and Falcon team up and break into the secret drydock in the Sahara desert; meanwhile, Maria Hill is also infiltrating the base, intending to destroy the mysterious “Gungnir” tool too keep it out of Mindbubble’s grasp.
Jet Black, who was tasked with finding out who Mindbubble is, turns up information by torturing a cyborg in Mindbubble’s employ. The moral quandaries of torture are mostly overlooked by Cap, whose in a hurry for the info, and he learns Mindbubble used to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist working on the Weapon Minus program to create weapons and soldiers that would kill more humanely. He mixed the super soldier formula with LSD and tested it on himself, causing his own insanity and bloodlust. Mindbubble’s powers work by emitting “Dream Maps” from his noggin to any unsuspecting S.H.I.E.L.D. agent’s. The Dream Map then makes all their deepest desires appear to them in a twisted LSD style hallucination. And much like LSD, the hallucination can prove fatal. Actually, it always does, as eventually the Dream Map creates one’s darkest fear and kills the poor affected sap in the worst way they can imagine. Jet Black ominously warns Cap that the only way to escape the Dream Map alive is to kill yourself while trapped.
During Jet Black’s briefing, Falcon takes up arms against a tank trailing the heroic duo, and the issue closes with him taking one for the team and Cap managing to finally make his way to a giant helicarrier; Mindbubble’s objective. And on the horizon? Dozens of S.H.I.E.L.D. combat aircraft…
The current arc is quite obviously creating some synergy with the upcoming film, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. A major element of the upcoming film is the interplay between freedom and privacy, and the limits government organizations have and how best they are enforced. The current arc in Captain America leans on these questions, and it’s little wonder why with the frequency of scandals involving alphabet agencies these last few years. The NSA scandal was the big one, but there are certainly lots of questions to ask about the idea of exchanging liberty for security. Tying them to Cap’s Dimension Z PTSD may just be enough to get him out of his rut.
On the whole, though, Remender’s Captain America has been a thrilling throwback to the idea of heroism that Steve Rogers embodies. Remender doesn’t get bogged down in creating a new threat every week, or constructing some huge, bloated, nonsensical serialized story. Instead, he places Captain America into dire situations and lets us see why he’s capable of escaping them and coming out the other side a better man. It’s because he was forced to work himself half to death while taking care of his sick mother. Because he spent years readjusting to a world that had left him behind, and trying to reconcile his status as the nations’ most famous hero with the identity of Steve Rogers, who was hardly celebrity material. The man that Steve Rogers is today was heavily informed by his past, as with all of us. The reason he’s capable of doing so much good and being so inspiring, both to those within the pages of the book and those who simply thumb through it every month, is because of that mantra that he’s come to live by: “You always stand up”. Really, if we at home could just commit to this, I’m sure we’d all feel a little more heroic too.
Series Verdict: Read It Like a Fox
8.0/10.0
