In Captain America #38, Sharon Carter stumbles on a resuscitated Grand Director, the Captain America of the 1950s, who is being brainwashed to believe he should bear Steve Rogers’ mantle. Bucky and Sam Wilson (the Falcon) raid an enemy base while the Red Skull and his accomplices, Ginger Santa (Dr. Faustus) and Professor Arnim (J’Accuse) Zola, try to overthrow America with the help of a successful third party candidate. Now THAT’S fiction…
Yes, it’s just another normal day for Ed Brubaker’s Captain America: Cap attacks a warehouse full of science stuff while the bad guys giggle maniacally in their hideout.
The action may have become repetitive, but one can at least admire Brubaker’s ambition in adding a political angle to the story. The Red Skull’s branched out beyond the traditional tesla coils and hydrogen bombs, and has put his own presidential candidate into the race, Senator Gordon Wright. Wright yells a lot and appears to have no realistic agenda, so I guess he’s Jesse Ventura or something.
But Brubaker’s Robert Penn Warren impression doesn’t quite stick, and comes across as posing. The image of the Red Skull in an oxford, leaning nervously over his desk and watching CNN screams “I’m relevant! Comics can be timely! Honest!” but Brubaker’s fooling no one but himself. Sure, politics and comics have been together since Steve Rogers punched Hitler in Captain America #1-- but the pseudo West Wing-y spirit of this issue strives too hard to seem legitimate.
Steve Epting's art maintains its usual quality. His ability to render kinetics is second almost to none, and is arguably on a par with the Kubert brothers.
Worth the money? Only if you're a Cap fan.
