I haven’t seen a corpse get this much action since last night’s Girls Next Door. It’s ironic but predictable that Marvel Comics’ 2007 decision to kill Captain American has led to a rash of miniseries featuring their patriotic powerhouse. The latest in Marvel Comics’ borderline indecent campaign to squeeze their resident American eagle until he hollers is Captain America: White #0, a prologue issue for the upcoming Jeph Loeb/ Tim Sale miniseries.

Opportunistic necrophilia aside, Captain America: White, which Marvel Comics says will hit stands December 2008 (read: February, 2010), looks kind of promising. Like the other “color” books (Daredevil: Yellow, Spider-Man: Blue, Hulk: Grey), Captain America: White will be a story about coming to grips with death. The victim du jour of this “color” book will be Cap’s teen sidekick, Bucky. The tone of Cap: White #0 (and the liberal application of internal monologue) is similar to the tone of Loeb’s other “color” books, so if you weren’t a fan of those, you probably won’t be of this, either. But, love or hate Loeb’s approach, Tim Sale’s art is sharp.  

Tim Sale’s lean, equine depictions of the human body look good distributing right hooks and dodging gunfire, so two of the three things Cap does in every one of his stories look good. That third Cap action—a constant struggle with issues of loss and perceived irrelevance—is also convincing in Sale’s gifted hands. For Loeb, the “color” books represent a serious attempt to revisit emotionally charged events in the Marvel Comics timeline. For Tim Sale, they’re an opportunity to draw his childhood heroes doing cool things, and praise Stan Lee they are. If the rest of the series’ art will be as good as #0, Cap fans across the board will have something to look forward to.

Worth the money? Cap fans, and Loeb/Sale die-hards, yes. Casual readers, give it a skim in the store. Just watch out for the leathery, Hefner-like texture of the pages.