Comics Fondle

If Steve Epting has done anything, he’s established himself as Brubaker’s Captain America artist–the Mike Perkins fill-ins aside–so when Butch Guice comes on for an issue and a half, it’s clearly wrong. Guice isn’t matching Epting’s visual tone, which is kind of like The French Connection with superheroes. Guice’s is more like, no offense, Conquest for the Planet of the Apes with superheroes (it might be the rioting and the DC setting). Guice’s art is good, but it just doesn’t feel right and these issues, otherwise, all feel right.

Brubaker’s stars of the book are Bucky and Sharon Carter (it took Ed twenty-five issues to give Sharon enough angst to be a Brubaker character) with Bucky’s arc to becoming the new Captain America particularly good. Even though the issues are not done-in-ones, Brubaker makes each of them a full episode. The first episode is Bucky being mentally tortured by Faustus, the next issue is Bucky escaping, the next issue is Bucky at S.H.I.E.L.D. Brubaker’s got lots of B and C plots in Captain America, including the last of these issues revelation the Black Widow and the Winter Soldier used to get it on. The most interesting thing, in terms of plotting, is how Falcon runs through the issues, alternating between troubleshooter and private detective. Brubaker knows how to manage a large cast, even when he keeps on increasing it.

Right now, I’d say his cast for Captain America consists of the following: Bucky, Falcon, Black Widow, Iron Man, Sharon Carter, the Red Skull, Dr. Faustus and Zola. Cameos from Sin and Crossbones too. But it’s eight principals, two protagonists. I’m somewhat surprised The Death of Captain America is running through the regular series, if only because it’s such a big story. Brubaker’s Captain America, after a middling start, is developing into a serious, monumental piece of superhero literature.

The last thing I want to get in, so it doesn’t get ignored, is Captain America’s politics. I’m sure Brubaker would hem and haw about it not being liberal and it not being about political identity–and it isn’t big D Democratic at all–but one of Brubaker’s major plot points is the evil of selling out the United States to a company (Halliburton) or foreign power (Saudi Arabia). I’m kind of surprised, given how polarizing some of Brubaker’s rhetoric should be, Marvel doesn’t have him tone it down.

Maybe they expect their readers to be stupid, which doesn’t make any sense, since Captain America’s got to be their best superhero title.

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