Book of Doom: Captain America – The Chosen #1
I told the gang up front that I chose this book to draw attention to Jean-Claude Van Doom’s scoop of the existence of this series back in June. I love me some Captain America, but this book had three of my biggest pet peeves working against it from the beginning:
1. Existing to bring in a non-comics superstar writer
2. An out-of-continuity, “What if?” storyline
3. A $3.99 price tag.
The first two of those beefs can be easily erased with a good story, but man, it’s irking me how often Marvel has been marking up comics to $3.99 for the tiniest of reasons. I realize this is a #1 issue. I realize that the covers are slightly thicker stock than usual. But does Marvel expect me to believe they need to charge 4 bucks for what is nothing more than a completely dependent introduction?
And my faith in the story was quickly diminished by page 5, with the caricaturization of Muslims as nothing more than hate-mongers who think they’re getting some virginal action in the next life. Granted, that’s just the character talking, and not necessarily the writer, but when Captain America comes to the aid of The War on Terror as it exists now, I feel a little preached to and a little insulted.
Anyway, as far as a soldier’s monologue goes, it was decent enough, though I was just thinking — how cool would it be for Tim O’Brien to have written this story? So, Captain America “helps” this soldier, but we find out that it was just Captain America’s ghost, or a hallucination, or astral projection or something. This soldier channeled the power of Captain America to fight terrah! But the chapter closes with Captain America lying on some kind of examination table, so maybe it was just all in Cap’s mind..?
I’m a little unsure what’s going on, but it’s in a “I don’t feel that I was communicated to effectively” way rather than a “oooh, mysterious! I must keep reading” way. But so far, what I think I’m getting is that Captain America will help this soldier in Afghanistan get back in touch with his heroism so that he can kill the Muslims who want to take away our freedom. Or something.
So, the art was okay. I had been reading JCVD’s interview with Mitch Breitweiser and checking out Mitch’s website. He has some beautiful art, and I spent quite a while looking around on his site (and so I immediately recognized his wife in the artwork), but I didn’t feel that this issue lived up to anything he had on display. It wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination – it just seemed kind of stiff. His appreciation for the art of Michael Lark is evident, but the work lacks a lot of the heavy lines and liberal use of blacks that Lark employs so well for dramatic impact.
If anything keeps me buying this series, it will be Breitweiser’s artwork. I have a feeling that, as a young artist, his work on this book will loosen up as it progresses and he gets more comfortable with it. I’m going to be very curious to compare his lines and expression on issue #6 with this first issue.
So we’ll see…if the series stays at $3.99, I’m not going to stick with it. If it drops to $2.99 and comes out on slow weeks, I’ll probably pick it up.
Let’s now see what the rest of the Legion has to say…
Jean-Claude Van Doom
I’m going to just get my major complaint out of the way right at the start and then get into all of the many things I enjoyed about this issue. After paying $3.99 for this issue, I couldn’t help but think of Silver Surfer: Requiem, which cost the same extra price essentially for a stiff cover and a non-continuity storyline. That kind of pricing seems like a blatant move to milk readers, especially when comics already cost an arm and a leg. Whew. Okay, rant done.
As for the content within those cardboard-y covers, I obviously have to mention the art. I got a pretty good chance to know Breitweiser when we both lived in Little Rock, and the guy’s very talented. He understands storytelling and has adapted a style that fits perfectly into Marvel’s realistic movement, yet remains his own. And after looking at Breitweiser’s work in Drax and elsewhere, it seems like he’s developed even further. While that book had rough spots, this is spot-on throughout. The light inks and ink washes blend perfectly with Cory Petit’s colors, making the panels of Middle Eastern warfare appear as photos from a magazine, at least until you look at them closely.
But even with the realistic bent, the art doesn’t become crisp and lifeless. The battle scenes especially have plenty of life and movement.
As always, it takes more than pretty pictures, and after all the buildup (remember the hoopla over Captain America: The End, then the name change, etc.?), Morrell came through at least the first issue with a Captain America issue that’s almost like the in-continuity Cap book: it’s great even though the big guy doesn’t really show up.
Change a couple pages and this is simply an emotional yarn about a soldier in Afghanistan who doesn’t completely agree with his mission even though he strives to protect America and himself. That approach shouldn’t be a surprise, though, given Morrell’s experience with another disgruntled soldier: John Rambo.
What ultimately sold me, though, was the complete surprise of the conclusion, setting up Cap as Harvey the giant rabbit. As great introductions should do, it established the world of this book while leaving us with more questions than answers. Well done all around.
Oh, and as a bit of an Easter Egg, the soldier’s wife and son are actually Breitweiser’s wife and nephew.
Fin Fang Doom
For me, Captain America: The Chosen #1 is one of those books that just “is.” It certainly wasn’t bad. The art was really nice, and the writing was adequate. But the story just didn’t do anything for me.
If I’m picking up a $4 Captain America book, I expect the story to feature Cap pretty prominently. I’d even settle for Winter Soldier or the Falcon. But I have no interest in reading the story of some random soldier in Afghanistan, even if he is just a figment of Cap’s imagination.
That last page, the shot of Cap on a medical table with tubes coming out of his chest, surrounded by who appears to be Nick Fury and possibly Sharon Carter, does give me a little bit of hope that the series might be heading in a direction I could get behind. Pretty art and hopes that the story might improve wasn’t enough to get me to but Silver Surfer: Requiem #2, though, so I highly doubt it will be enough for me here.
Jim, I also was initially very displeased with the preachiness and simplification of the conflict in Afghanistan. After re-reasing the issue this morning, I thought maybe I was being a little harsh. I thought it was just my own personal displeasure with anything associatied with the War on Terror (see: Namor #1), because after all, we were seing this from the character’s POV, and I’m sure plenty of soldiers think that way. Setting the story in Afghanistan instead of Iraq made it a lot easier for me to stomach, too. But it still seemed like the wrong message to be sending in a Cap comic (especially if this soldier is part of Cap’s unconscious), because Cap’s always represented the American public, not the American government or military, and this isn’t the way the American people feel anymore.
I should have included this in my review, but when I read those pages of Cap showing up in battle, I thought: “Wait, wasn’t Frank Miller supposed to do Batman vs. al Qaeda?”
Unlike you guys, I see the soldier as a real character that’s somehow been tapped by Cap’s consciousness. My guess (and this leans a lot on the appearance of the main soldier) is that we’re going to see the creation of a dying Cap’s replacement.
So explain to me how the soldier exists within the “A” on Cap’s head and on a monitor behind where Cap’s hooked up to all sorts of wires, yet also exists in the real world? Did Cap gain psychic powers I don’t know about?
I took it to be somewhat symbolic art with the “A” and the monitor could be showing video. You know, like your TV.
Also, from talking to Mitch, that was the impression I got.