CAPTAIN AMERICA #600 (Marvel) ($4.99)
by Jeb D.

I’m not a numbers guy, really. Anniversaries don’t mean that much to me (apart from my wedding, which I’m scrupulous about remembering!), and I really don’t much care if a particular comic is #1, #100, or #1,000: good story (and by “story,” I mean words AND pictures) I read; bad story, I skip. So the idea that Marvel is rejiggering their numbering on Captain America (as well as several other books) is, for me, a sensible marketing move, but not anything that’s going to impel me to read a book, or give it any kind of a pass because it’s a souvenir.

And in looking at Captain America #600, in addition to a couple of good stories, I see lots of souvenir goodies (in the world of guitar-buying, they call stuff like this “case candy”, and I think we should all adopt that for comics reviewing). But I also see a large, surprising hole that, while it doesn’t diminish this comic as a reading experience, certainly tarnishes the commemorative aspect.

Opening with a reprint of a short 7-year-old piece isn’t the most promising way to begin. The piece in question is a retelling of Cap’s origin by Alex Ross, Paul Dini, and Todd Klein, and suggests some kind of war going on at Marvel for Cap’s soul: everyone lavishes (deserved) praise on Ed Brubaker’s somewhat iconoclastic take on the character(s), but when it comes to marketing the Star Spangled Avenger, Ross-style hagiography is always an easier hook.

But after that, we’re back in the firm hands of Ed Brubaker, as “One Year After” takes place on the anniversary of Cap’s assassination. As most readers know, this is the endgame of the death of Cap, leading into the Reborn miniseries beginning in July. The big developments will happen there; here, Brubaker assembles the cast, both familiar and new. If any more tributes are needed to Brubaker’s storytelling expertise, it comes here in the way that he overcomes the crazy-quilt of artists handling the different segments (including Butch Guice, Howard Chaykin, David Aja and Mitch Breitweiser), moving the story so smoothly that the visual shifts rarely feel distracting, as can so easily be the case (in particular, the Sharon-centric section is the best work I think I’ve seen from Guice since his time on the late, lamented Ruse).  There are developments here that are going to irk people in the way that the idea of Bucky’s return initially did,  and others of the “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” variety, but it’s a great read, full of telling character moments and its fair share of action.

Speaking of Ruse, Guice’s partner for the early issues of that series, Mark Waid, scripts a short story on the auctioning of Cap memorabilia (Marvel Universe version). There’s not much to it beyond a rather mild twist ending but Dale Eaglesham’s art is up to the high standards of the rest of the new material.  There’s also a new Cap story from veteran scribe Roger Stern, centering on Steve Rogers’ old girlfriend Bernie (with some nice cartoony work by Kalman Andrasofszky), a fun text piece by Cap co-creator Joe Simon, and a reprint of a 1942 Captain America / Red Skull story by Stan Lee and Al Avison. We also get a complete Captain American cover gallery that needs to come with a magnifying glass like the OED.

So, that’s 60+ pages of new material for your five bucks, plus your case candy. Not a bad buy, right? Right.

Except for one thing: how the hell do you have a Captain America anniversary without Jack Kirby?

Oh, sure, The King is credited on the first page, as Cap’s co-creator. And even at reduced size, his covers just jump out of the gallery at you. But come on—we’re reprinting Alex Ross and Al Avison here, and not Kirby? Is there some particular reason that the reprinted story comes from the post-Simon and Kirby era (though its plotline actually dovetails nicely with Brubaker’s story)?  I had thought there was a thawing of relations between Marvel and the Kirby family, though maybe the fact that Marvel put out that god-awful Galactic Rangers series through the barely-marketed Icon line might have put the Kirbys’ collective nose out of joint again.

Honestly, no matter what the reason, it’s a glaring omission.

As I say, I’m not big on comic book anniversaries and such, so the fact that this one contains a lot of good, new storytelling, makes it a recommendation for me. But if I were interested in it as a way of commemorating the history of Captain America, I think I’d find it had a large hole indeed.


THREE AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS

 

CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN #1 (Marvel) ($3.99)
by Jeb D.

What’s been remarkable about Ed Brubaker’s handling of the Death of Captain America is less what he did with it that what he didn’t: the typical “death of a superhero” storyline is intended to underline the irreplaceability of the original character, usually by having the replacement take a different (typically more violent) approach than his predecessor, screw up royally, and have the crown returned to its original head while readers are reminded that there can be “only one” [fill-in-the-blank]. As Reborn continues the “return” saga begun in Cap #600, it’s nice to reflect on just how easily Ed Brubaker and his artistic colleagues have side-stepped that. His controversial decision to return Bucky to active duty was followed by his having to don the fallen Steve Rogers’ mantle. And while there was certainly the usual amount of soul-searching, once Winter Soldier became Captain America #... what, 4? 5? I’ve lost track… he went to  work doing the job in the way that best suited him, including packing a sidearm. And that was no big deal: just another tool of the trade. And Captain America, the series, did not become about James Barnes’ crisis of conscience: it continued to be the same engaging, multi-threaded espionage yarn that Brubaker’s been telling for the past few years. Lots of great moments for supporting characters like The Falcon and The Black Widow, a key spotlight role for Sharon Carter,  and villainy so deliciously devious as to make the reader wonder if maybe Cap’s rogues gallery hasn’t been rather underestimated over the years.

Now, it’s perfectly reasonable to argue that this story has, so far, fit very nicely between the covers of Cap’s regular book, and that it’s the demands of commerce, not art, that have it breaking out into this new miniseries. So, let’s dock it half a Viking for needlessly complicating our lives. And maybe another half Viking since we’re all opposed to comic prices rising in general.

What we’re left with is the latest chapter in Brubaker’s Cap saga, plot threads twisting and tightening around some characters’ necks. We learn more about how Steve Rogers is coming back (as a ‘back from the dead” comic book device, it looks like about a 7 out of 10 so far), and some stunning Bryan Hitch art. Hitch is so often associated with “widescreen” paneling, floating space stations, military hardware and the like that it’s striking to see him working this way with actual people: while there is certainly action (including a great flashback of Cap at D-Day), most of the book’s effectiveness is in the facial expressions and dramatic closeups that tell a story that is clearly more about what Cap’s return will mean to these characters than how it will (or won’t) reshape the Marvel U.

Like most of Brubaker’s work on the series, this is a single issue that’s not designed to stand on its own, but to be a integral part of the overall storyline. So while I can’t say that this is “the one comic you need to buy this week!”, it does its job just fine, and Hitch kicks things up a notch.


THREE AND A HALF OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS


WEDNESDAY COMICS #1, July 8th ($3.99)(DC Comics)
By Adam Prosser
 
For some reason I’ve never understood, there’s a strange disconnect in many comic fans’ minds between newspaper and pamphlet comics. Most people who grew up reading superheroes, even those with a decent grasp of comics history, seem to think that comics somehow sprung up fully formed in the mid-1930s. This is particularly ironic, since when comic books first appeared they were generally considered to be cheap and shoddy cash-ins of the much higher-quality newspaper strips. Even in the superhero realm, Will Eisner’s The Spirit (which originally appeared in the newspaper) was clearly outclassing most of its contemporaries in pamphlet format.
 
But slowly, the tables turned. The comic strip was producing masterpieces decades before the “comic book” came into existence, but in a way it’s been a long, slow decline for that medium as newspapers allocated less and less space to the funnies. Now we’re in an era in which comic books are more sophisticated, and in some ways better, than ever before, even as the medium of newspapers supposedly teeters on the brink of nonexistence, and the great comic strips are largely gone.
 
Yet there are people who remember the old-time strips fondly, and clearly, some of those people work at DC. Wednesday comics is an interesting experiment in reviving the old full-page adventure-strip format, combined with more modern innovations like the weekly release schedule first seen with 52. And a $3.99 price tag, but more on that in a moment.
 
As you’re no doubt aware, this is a broadsheet-sized comics page, similar to the supplement you might still have in your Sunday paper, printed on newsprint but with a more-or-less modern color job. Each strip makes some attempt to recapture the serialized structure of the old adventure strips—most attempt some kind of introduction to the characters, but they also mostly open in media res with the assumption that you’ll imply a certain history to the characters. There’s a good mix of heavy-hitters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman) and obscure oddballs (Kamandi, Metamorpho, the Metal Men), the latter of which are probably a big draw for many people. In that regard, DC may have finally learned the less on of 52, which derived a lot of its charm from focusing on characters that comic fans haven’t been inundated with.
 
But the story isn’t really the point here, at least not with the first issue. This is essentially a series of first pages, which means that just as each story is getting started, it’s on to the next one. That didn’t bother me as much as it might bother some, but it certainly leads to a choppy, unsatisfying feeling, and it almost encourages one to skip the comics you aren’t interested in.
 
On the other hand, the art is absolutely spectacular, with a single exception: Sgt. Rock, by Adam and Joe Kubert, which looks like a normal comics page that’s been hastily blown up. Other than that, though, there’s a definite sense that the artists are pushing themselves to take advantage of the new format: even my least favourite strip, the Wonder Woman by Ben Caldwell (featuring cluttered art and an incredibly limp ‘cliffhanger’) is undeniably a treat to look at. Meanwhile, the best strip, Kamandi, written by Dave Gibbons with art by Ryan Sook, is a spot-on pastiche of Prince Valiant in both visuals and the “illustrated captions” style. My other favourite is Metamorpho by Neil Gaiman (!) and Mike Allred, which perfectly recreates the Silver Age comics and manages to fit more actual heroic action into its first page than any of the others.
 
Actually, aside from the art, one of the biggest benchmarks of quality in this first issue is the degree to which the writers are able to get things moving fast. Old comics usually didn’t waste a lot of time on the characters standing around discussing their personal problems, and this format encourages writers to pick up the pace, something superheroes badly need to be reminded of these days. (In that regard, the worst offender is Kurt Busiek’s take on Green Lantern - art by Joe Quiñones - in which almost the entire page is about Hal Jordan’s friends eating at a diner.)
 
In many ways, then, the most interesting thing about Wednesday Comics is what they might become. I was originally under the impression that this would be an attempt to snag new readers, but now that it’s here this seems pretty squarely aimed at the nerdy faithful (though it might be fun for kids, which is always welcome). To me this seems like a missed opportunity, but there’s still time to shift strategies if this gets picked up as a long-term project. And I think there are good reasons for DC to stick with this; aside from the freshness factor and the kid appeal, there’s also the fact that it could lay the groundwork for a true anthology comic. People who might not be willing to shell out for an ongoing “Kamandi” comic might be willing to buy it if it was one of several ongoing offerings in a large anthology mag, especially if the price is right.
 
…Oh yeah, the price. That’s DC’s biggest blunder here, in my humble opinion. I don’t usually allow price to affect my reviews too much, but there’s simply no excuse for this to cost $3.99. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I know a little about printing, and there’s no way their print costs on this aren’t lower than on standard comic pamphlets, which are overpriced anyway. And this is for a comic with fewer pages! Oversized pages, but does that really make a difference? If this experiment is deemed a failure, the price will have been the single biggest contributing factor; certainly it’s the main reason, apart from any creative choices, why this is a major missed opportunity. This is the kind of comic you flip through casually on the train or over breakfast, not something you settle into your armchair to read, and it’s kind of hard to justify buying that every week if it’s going to cost as much as a week’s worth of newspapers. I just hope DC comes to their senses and tries a little harder to take advantage of this format, because right now they seem to be treating it as merely the latest cash-in “event comic”, when it could be so much more.


THREE OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS

 

Greek Street #1 ($2.99)(Vertigo)
By Devon Sanders

The Greek gods are, once again, popular. Over the years, in comics, this particular pantheon has suffered for want of understanding and use. In the DC Universe, they’re shown in the pages of Wonder Woman or any of one of the random SHAZAM! Family books, usually portrayed as meddlers possessing little to no understanding of actual humanity. At Marvel, a company known for its embrace of the Norse pantheon of gods and its Wagnerian bluster, a weird and some would say welcome thing happened. They realized they had just as much access to the public domain as anyone, turning the title formerly known as The Incredible Hulk into one now known as The Incredible Hercules. TIH has become a monthly hybrid of history lesson in Greco-Roman mythology and traditional Marvel hubris, becoming one of the most talked about comics currently on stands. Herc’s brother, Ares, the god of war, has recently joined a team formerly comprised of superhero mainstays such as Captain America and Thor (and when Thor wasn’t available, Hercules.) What it comes down to is that comics and the Greek pantheon were practically made for each other. Enter Vertigo Comics new, “the gods must be crazy” entry, Greek Street #1, written by Vertigo mainstay, Peter Milligan (Hellblazer) and drawn by Davide Gianfelice (Northlanders)

The war of the gods begins in the streets of London. A young man is on the hunt for someone missing since day one and within the day, he’s found her and killed her. Elsewhere, a war breaks out for control of the underworld and many will have little say in the outcome as the lords of it all play their epic games.

Milligan presents us with a tale of just how much mythology is borne of the man’s internal struggles. Milligan’s writing is suitably epic in its scope but at times feels a bit overwrought in its efforts getting across just how epic its all going to be. Some of the characters’ names and scenarios are a bit too “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” but once you get past that and focus on plight, Greek Street very much becomes something worth keeping your eyes on.

Artist Gianfelice shows flashes of noir brilliance that will ultimately, draw comparisons to noir master, Eduardo Risso of 100 Bullets fame and in no small part to the coloring of Risso’s former collaborator, colorist Patricia Mulvihill. At times, Gianfelice’s figure work verges on the cartoonish, not entirely jibing with the story being told, at others, he locks into place, figuring out exactly where darkness is needed and displays the chops that could make this book a possible Vertigo mainstay.

Greek Street #1, with its $1 price point and intriguing juxtaposition of modern day crime fiction with classic Greek mythology, is very much headed in the right direction. While it didn’t entirely draw me in, the energy involved the first issue’s debut is enough to keep me coming back for more.


THREE OUT OF FIVE VIKINGS