Cap's Somewhere in Time

Captain America Reborn #2
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artists: Bryan Hitch and Butch Guice
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Rating: 4 1/2 Stars

A couple years ago, a tragedy in the Marvel Universe shook the world. Steve Rogers, Captain America, was being escorted in cuffs after surrendering at the end of the Superhero Civil War when he was gunned down by two shooters. Only one shooter was captured - Crossbones, the former right-hand man of Cap's deadliest foe, The Red Skull.

Only a few know that the second shooter was Sharon Carter, Cap's longtime love interest. She was used as a pawn and acting under post-hypnotic suggestion (only in comics, right?). Captain America's death left a hole in the Marvel Universe. After he fell, heroes were forced to either register their identities with the government or act on their own as wanted enemies of the state. Then, just as that was cooling off, the Secret Invasion happened, and was ended by Norman Osborn (the Green Goblin) who has his own villainous agenda.

It seems as though the moment Steve Rogers fell, the whole damn world lost their collective mind. With Osborn in control of everything the now defunct S.H.I.E.L.D. possessed from Tony Stark's time in charge, he used his intelligence to be extra douchey and super Dick Chaney-esque. Some of what Osborn has done has been create his own version of the Avengers that have mostly unstable and/or out-right murderous assholes as part of the team and work with the ridiculously annoying Hood. If you don't remember how much I really dislike this guy, check out this post.

Don't get me wrong, I like what Marvel's done with Osborn being in charge. I think it's their way of saying, "Hey, America... If George Bush and Dick Chaney were super villains, this is what the last 8 years would have been like." The writing for this "Dark Reign" has actually been pretty effective. It didn't take me long to get really angry at the idiocy of the average person to quickly and easily forget that Norman Osborn is a total dick cheese.

I honestly believe that this whole Osborn thing is why I've always liked Marvel more. Over at DC, if Superman was completely removed from the world and didn't come back, and Darkseid showed up to mess things up (for real, not that Final Crisis junk), DC has other badasses like Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, Captain Atom and Green Lantern (to name a few) to help out. Captain America was not the strongest Marvel hero by any stretch of the imagination, but he was the Marvel U's heart and soul. He was the shining beacon of awesome-ocity. As long as Captain America had an opinion about anything, the other heroes listened and took it to heart.

So, what was the easiest way to screw stuff up? Take Cap out of the equation. That left Tony Stark uncertain of himself and his decisions and the rest of the heroes had no one to turn to for leadership when the poop hit the fan.

I also want everyone to know that I am NOT a hater for Bucky taking over the shield and the title. I absolutely love the Captain America series under Ed Brubaker's control. This series has not disappointed either. Plus, he has two artists that I really dig too! This story has Cap stuck in time (turns out, he's not really dead after all), so there's some cool time traveling ideas, Nazi punchin' and the heroes of today trying to solve the mystery of what's going on. Brubaker's Catwoman run was awesome and very interesting considering I never really thought much about Catwoman prior to checking out his run. Daredevil has been really cool too. So, obviously, I think Brubaker is pretty awesome at what he does. He is certainly Marvel's best writer right now. I really want him to take over The New Avengers. I long for this to happen.

Now, go out and buy a shit load of Captain America books, ya jerks!

Thanks for reading. I was wrong about what my next post will be. I originally thought The Marvels Project #1 was going to be released today, but it was not. So, instead, I will be back later tonight with a review of The Invincible Iron Man #16!