COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Captain America #1

Captain America #1 (Marvel)
Rick Remender (writer); John Romita, Jr. (pencils); Klaus Janson (inks); Dean White (colors); Joe Caramagna (letters)

I missed most of the entirety of Ed Brubaker's 8 or 9 year run on Captain America. I wasn't really reading monthlies regularly during the first 2/3s of his run. I jumped in good old Cap with volume 6, number 1, which started around the same time as the Captain America movie and ran 19 issues ending just last month, right before Rick Remender's and John Romita, Jr.'s volume 7, number 1. So, where Brubaker apparently grounded his Cap stories in espionage and mystery, Remender's take is to bring some pulpy, sci-fi fun back to Cap. Now, I can't comment on Brubaker's entire run, but his Captain America volume 6 begins with quite a pulpy opening arc concerning Codename: Bravo's origin and then later the machinations of the Hydra Queen. (Of course, that series got bogged down in mad bomb silliness that went on and on, but the opening arc was great comic book fun: pulpy, hints of sci-fi, and things only probable in a comic book along with a spy and mystery angle).

This is all a long way of saying that, unlike other reviews I've been reading about this new incarnation of Cap, Remender’s take doesn't seem so unlike the Captain America of volume 6. There is a different tone, of course, as there should be with new creative teams. Remender provides Cap with a staccato, terse narration that's at once to the point, colorful, and full of the right amount of bravado, especially during the opening encounter with the environmental villain, Green Skull. The story moves along to see Cap fall – too easily – into a trap set in another dimension ("Dimension Z") and a frenetic action sequence setting the plot for future issues.

It's a fast moving issue and Romita's art is excellent during the action sequences, capturing action in a hurried, urgent, yet balanced way. However, the art falters during the civilian scenes. Sharon Carter looks 13 years old in one panel then looks like her Agent 13 self in the next. This is a small quibble as action carries the day throughout the issue, so Romita is well served by Remender’s script.

Remender sets up an interesting storyline using a flashback to Steve Rogers as a boy, Sharon’s long-term plans for her and Steve in the present, and Cap’s current situation in Dimension Z. This new Captain America is simmering with potential. Let’s hope when the story reaches its boil, it’s worth the wait. Recommended.