4 issue Test #30 - Captain America: Steve Rogers

It was only a matter of time before we got to this one, although it took nearly 2 weeks for the final issue to arrive. This comic eared significant controversy over things I’ll discuss in depth. Nick Spencer does not strike me as an idiot, but it would be idiotic to assume this twist could escape controversy. For many outside of comics, Steve Rogers is Captain America so him coming back and reclaiming the mantle was inevitable and it happened during the Assault on Pleasant Hill crossover. A lot of the crossover did help set up this title, but I’ll give details as they happen. Let’s take a look and see if this infamous book offers something to soothe the burn.

Guess what, 2/4 characters and 1 building don't appear in this issue

We open in 1926 New York. Joseph Rogers is having it out with his husband, Sarah. He saw what looked like another man flirting with her, a rich man. Tired of her trying to defend herself he whacks her down. A woman in a red scarf comes by and intervenes, Joseph tries to fight her but she defeats him easily. She introduces herself as Elisa Sinclair and is introduced to her son, who was hiding behind a vehicle.

In the present day Captain America smashes through a train carriage, there’s a bomb on board, a human wearing an explosive jacket, his name is Robbie Dean Tomlin: a man who’d had a rough life and was dreaming of something better but his grades stopped him from going to college, he ended up in prison and joining a bad crowd, lost a girlfriend to a drug addiction and eventually wound up in the crowd being addressed by the Red Skull. He has the ability to make people do what he wants, he has Charles Xavier’s brain but he wishes not to use it.

Cap talks to Sharon Carter, the operative in charge of the mission and

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOUR FACE!

Apparently there’s an explanation for it, but it’s not in any comic I’ve read so f*ck it, I can make that joke, moving on. He asks about the HYDRA operatives at the staging site but they’re being taken care of by Jack Flag and Free Spirit. Rick Jones, now Cap’s technical assistant has managed to gain control of the train (they’re computer controlled) and detaches the carriages, leaving only Robbie. Cap goes to try and stop Robbie, he says he’s spoken to his mother but he says he has to finish this and activates the explosive.

Steve and Cap talk 5 hours later as she patches up his injuries, he took quite a beating. He first blames his shield, then says he feels like a stranger in his own body. Sharon thinks it’s more psychological and Cap admits the things HYDRA are doing are getting under his skin.

We return to 1929 where Elisa has taken Steve and Sarah to a restaurant. She says she thinks Steven is destined for great things.

After a filler scene with Jack Flag, Free Spirit and Rick Jones, we cut to Maria Hill seeing news about HYDRA’s threat, she’s publicly the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. but she’s undergoing a secret tribunal because of what went down in Pleasant Hill. Sharon comes in and they argue about the boy and the suicide vest. Cap interrupts and Maria reveals they have a lead on Baron Zemo, who was last seen kidnapping Erik Selvig.

Zemo has gathered some super-villains who I’ve never seen in my life to wage war against the Red Skull. Cap, Jack Flag and Free Spirit arrive. Zemo heads into a jet and Cap pursues, telling the others to stay and take care of the D-grade super-villains. Selvig is tied up in a passenger seat. Cap uses his new pointy shield to cut in. They fight but with no-one to pilot is the jet begins to rock, Cap is sent right onto a hatch which Zemo opens. Cap manages to hold on but only just.

Jack Flag and Free Spirit have easily defeated the d-graders, Jack Flag wants to help Cap so heads off.

Back in 1929, Sinclair walks Sarah and Steve home and they homeless people, Elisa says it’s disgusting how the government allows it to continue and Sarah agrees.

Cap is on the ropes until Jack Flag punches Zemo down and helps Cap up. Cap has it out and says he’s sorry before grabbing his shoulder

Before Sarah can shut her door, Elisa mentions she’s a part of a group, a civic league of sorts, she hands her a pamphlet for the New York chapter of the Hydra society. In the present, Cap tosses Jack Flag out of the plane and we get that infamous moment where Cap says “Hail Hydra”

This is the one cover that's accurate to the story, just this one

Issue 2 is very exposition heavy, so I’ll give you the cliffnotes version. Kobik is a living cosmic cube, the cosmic cube which belonged to the Red Skull. When she came to be, she retreated to him and he earned her trust and told her stories of HYDRA and how HYDRA is perfection. She came to him with Eric Selvig, who she’s made HYDRA by rewriting his memories to match her stories. He tells Selvig to suggest the idea of Pleasant Hill to Maria Hill. He used telepathy to ensure everything went his way, Kobik restored Rogers to his prime but did more than that, she made him HYDRA. He does not control her yet; it will require a more compassionate touch for that to happen.

The Red Skull does not fight Zemo in this episode, so prepare to be disappointed

Issue 3 opens at a HYDRA meeting in New York, 1926. They’ve repainted the community centre and they’re still lobbying for a new playpark, and they’ve managed to feed and clothe over a 100 of their most destitute neighbours last Saturday thanks to Sarah helping them break records with their charity drives. Elisa asks to talk with Sarah privately, she’s taken on enough responsibility and doesn’t want to be part of HYDRAs education board, Elisa understands and asks about Steven. He enjoys the meetings and is particularly excited about the playpark. She comments on her scarf, which is hiding an injury inflicted on her by Joseph. She promises he’s getting better but Elisa doesn’t believe her.

In the Present Day Cap reports to the Red Skull after drawing a hydra logo on his chest for some reason. The plane was set to crash into the building with both Eric and Zemo on board. Red Skull says the mission was successful then but not entirely is Cap’s response. Free Spirit finds Jack Flag crashed into the ground and goes to check on him. Sharon wants to decloak and descend but she’s reminded they’re in Bagalia, a lawless city primarily populated by Supervillains who will shoot the ship down. She hopes for Cap but when she hears the jet crash she decides to go ahead anyway, ordering all SHIELD agents with weapons training to stand ready.

They’re greeted by 3 Supervillains but manage to hold them back until Taskmaster intervenes. He’s now the supposed sheriff of Bagilia. Last I hear, Taskmaster is supposed to be good, really good but he’s beaten down easily when Cap returns. But someone declares martial law and the citizens start getting restless. They call Rick Jones for ideas. He announces that he’s hacked all the major casinos and is about to drain all their money. The villains have 3 minutes to cash their chips, to Sharon’s amazement this works and the villains back off. A SHIELD medic detects a pulse in Jack Flag

Rogers defends his actions. It was more likely Flag could’ve survived the plane explosion than the fall, plus he deserved a proper funeral. Red Skull berates him for that, and attempting to save Robbie in issue 1. He promises Jack Flag will die. With the call terminated, it’s revealed that Selvig is still alive and working with Cap. In 1926 some goons jump Joseph and toss him into the River.

This doesn't happen in the issue, might've actually tied it into Civil War II and we can't have that

Issue 4 re-opens a short while after the end of issue 3, Sarah is packing, telling Steve they have to leave, they can never go back to HYDRA again. Miss Sinclair knocks on the door asking to talk. Cap has secured a lab belonging the Red Ghost, he killed him and his super apes to gain control of the lab. Selvig will be using this lab as a base and home, keeping him protected from their enemies. Not S.H.I.E.L.D. they’re too busy with the trial and not the Avengers, who are in the brink of Civil War II

Sharon carter is putting forward a bill to the senate to increase surveillance across the globe in an effort to crack down on these HYDRA attacks, Cap has apparently endorsed it. Meanwhile Rick Jones joins Free spirit at Jack Black’s beside in the hospital. She blames herself for his condition, he relied on her to rein him in but she got caught up in the moment as well. Rick consoles her and gives her a choice of TV to watch.

In Bagalia, taskmaster investigates the crash, he’s suspicious that something’s not right. Selvig realises he’s here because of Kobik, who can reveal his allegiances at any moment, but he doesn’t know where she is. Cap says he does, she’s with the Thunderbolts under the tutelage of Bucky. Cap has tried to get in contact but for some reason Kobik is interfering with their communication. And he’s not the only one looking for her and we see a flash of Thanos from the FCBD civil war ii issue.

Back in 1926, Sarah confronts Elisa, she knows she was involved with the death of her husband, there were witnesses that put her with them. She tries to deny it and make the come to the centre but ultimately fails, Elisa tries to attack and one of her body guards kills her. Steve tries to run but is grabbed but one of the thugs. Elisa gets the thug to be less rough, she has grand plans for the boy.

In the present, Cap reveals his intent. He wants Selvig to help him kill the Red Skull. In case his plan with the Uncanny Avengers fails I suppose.

So that was Steve Rogers: Captain America #1-4, what did I think? Let’s take a closer look.

The timing of #1’s release is no co-incidence, on the exact day as DC Rebirth #1, which caused some controversy of its own comes the equally controversial Steve Rogers book. The biggest issue I have right now is that the story is hoping to grab you on what it will deliver rather than what it actually is delivering.

This is particularly the case #2 which serves more as a recap of past events. Whilst there are some revelations to help ease the twist from the last issue, it’s non-stop exposition for the entire issue. Just the Red Skull explaining his plan in caption boxes with some nice images. It is not good to structure an issue like that; it kills the pacing.

Pacing is an issue throughout the comic, it’s crammed with far too many characters (Rick, Jack Flag, Free Spirit, Sharon Carter, Maria Hill, Bucky Barnes, Kobik, Selvig, Taskmaster etc) and with far too many subplots that things are not developing very quickly, helping this less the fact they want to play the long game with the Cap HYDRA plot, unfortunately all it’s amounted to right now is some exposition and flashback scenes.

One praise I will give is the artwork, there’s a nice contrast between the scenes in the present and the past, the flashbacks are largely black and white with the odd red thrown in and feel very Sin City, adding I suppose to the idea of it not being real. Both of them look good though.

But what the hell am I supposed to say about the covers that I wouldn’t have covered in the captions I haven’t written yet. Aside from #2, they are all complete lies! Neither Bucky nor Sam Wilson appear in #1. Zemo and the Red Skull do not fight in #3, and Cap is nowhere near the Civil War II conflict in #4.

Hell, you’d be hard pressed to call #4 a tie-in to Civil War II at all, there are very brief references to it but if you cut them out entirely, the story would be largely unchanged. That’s not in itself necessarily a bad thing but it does go against the way it’s marketed.

Rating:

#1 – 6.5/10

#2 – 5/10

#3 – 6/10

#4 – 5.5/10

Overall – 5.75/10

Recommendation: This series has promise and decent artwork but needs to pick up the pace or introduce something to distract us from the fact it’s going nowhere. I unfortunately cannot recommend this book

For initial thoughts on movies, comics and video games as well as exclusive updates, click here to like my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @rageformedia

Images/clips used in this review belong to Marvel. All images in this review are subject to fair use