Hero Realm!

Captain America #34

Script by Ed Brubaker
Art by Steve Epting and Butch Guice
Cover by Alex Ross
Review by Ryan Stevens

    Last year, the comic book community--and the American media at large-- was caught completely by surprise when Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, was assassinated on courthouse steps following the Superhero Civil War, resulting in a title wave of media coverage, the likes of which having never been given to the four-color medium since the Death of Superman in 1992.
    Now, just like the Man of Steel, Captain America has returned from beyond the grave to battle tyranny in the name of truth, justice, and the American way. Unlike Superman, however, Steve Rogers, the man behind Captain America’s cowl, remains dead.

Audience: “Say whaaaaat?”

    Yes, you read that right. There’s a new Sentinel of Liberty in town, and his name is [spoiler withheld]. Now, as anyone who knows their Captain America can tell you, this is an incredibly surprising yet oddly fluid and believable new role for this fairly recently (re)created character whose “debut” was quite controversial in and of itself. Of course, the guy’s still as human as the rest of us, more or less, and as it’s his first day on the job, the new Captain America is entitled to some first-day jitters, especially since your first day on the job is fighting a squad of A.I.M. soldiers, while the American economy is taking a nosedive, riots are erupting across the country, and S.H.I.E.L.D. is beginning to topple like a tower of Jenga blocks while the nefarious Red Skull and his band of villainy continue their march toward victory. At least he’ll get some hazard pay, provided he survives.
    Despite being part three in a story arc that is, in itself, part two of a much grander epic, this issue is actually a perfect jumping on point for new readers. The recap page of the beginning gives a nice and neat streamlined way to catch-up with previous events, but the narrative at the beginning of the issue itself provides much more insight to what has already transpired. If anyone is not currently reading Captain America, a) you’re an idiot, and b) now is definitely the time to begin.
    Written by Ed Brubaker, this is one twisted thrill-ride. From the cathartic majesty of the new Captain America in action, to the delicious villainy of the Red Skull and company, to the political espionage of Tony Stark, frantically trying to pull the economy up by its bootstraps, Brubaker manages to keep all these things from becoming trite, clichéd or preachy, and instead makes them fantastically realistic while at the same time realistically fantastic.
    The art is where this issue really shines. The dynamic team of Epting on pencils and Guice on inks is an absolutely pitch-perfect combination, considering their similar styles. The result is something that is a beautiful combination of the two artists, whose styles meld together seamlessly. The new Cap’s bright-n-shiny new costume is perfectly rendered, with painstaking attention to detail like how the shadows and colors of surroundings would reflect off of it. Also worthy of note is the rendering of the Red Skull, which is the most striking representation of the super-nazi in recent memory. The cover, by comics legend Alex Ross, is an absolutely superlative image of the new Star Spangled Avenger, clad in his spick-&-span new threads, leaping towards the reader, gun pointed forward, mouth open (no doubt yelling obscenities aimed at evil-doers), with only the slightest resemblance to the famed “Uncle Sam Wants you” picture. Excellent work, Mr. Ross.
    In a time filled with over-hyped, ham-fisted event stories being thrown out left and right and deals with the devil wiping away decades of continuity, it’s nice to have a genuinely good, nay, great, comic book for a change. As long as Brubaker, Epting, and Guice stay on board this title, and no editorial mandate ever messes with their creative control, Captain America is, for me at least, the gold standard of the comic book industry.

A 10 out of 10.