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| ALL-NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA No. 1, January 2015 |
In many ways this ‘All-New, Spy-Fi, highflying adventure’
comic book must have been something of a conundrum for many of its 120,500
purchasers in November 2014. On the one hand it brought a completely new spin
on the New York-based publisher’s second most popular superhero (at least
according to “Imagine Games Network”), and on the other this particular title
wouldn’t actually be focussing upon the exploits of ‘The First Avenger’ Steve
Rogers. But instead feature storylines involving mainstream comics’ first
African-American superhero and Cappy’s “longtime friend and colleague” Samuel
Wilson; upon whom the elderly Sentinel of Liberty had “passed [on] the mantle
of Captain America” following the removal of his super-soldier serum by Iron
Nail…
Such a debatably contentious amalgamation of the
Seventies era partners is immediately evident with Stuart Immonen’s dreadful-looking
design for the twenty-two page periodical’s cover. This “All-New Captain
America” is a horribly colourful concoction of both The Falcon’s red wings and eye-shades,
coupled with the vividly bright red, white and blue of Flag-head’s patriotic
costume. Indeed the new uniform simply smacks of the sort of garish raiment
that A.I.M.’s Super Adaptoid would prominently display, if the artificial construct
had copied the physical abilities of both heroes simultaneously.
Unfortunately writer Rick Remender’s narrative would equally
appear to be just as much of a clash of ‘both worlds’ as the new titular
character’s attire. Based upon the reasonably straightforward plot of the
star-spangled super-hero penetrating a hidden, albeit heavily-armed, Hydra
base. The pulse-pounding action is potentially ruined by Wilson repeatedly
referring to his use of Captain America’s shield, and querying just “How did I
ever get by without one of these?” Such repeated doubts as to Sam’s previous
crime-fighting record become increasingly annoying, especially when one considers
that the prominent minister’s son hadn’t carried such a defensive device before
and been successful since 1969 when he was co-created by Stan Lee and Gene
Colan.
Perhaps even more irritating however, is this latest incarnation’s
inability to utilise the shield as well as his predecessor. On a couple of
occasions the former ‘Hero For Hire’ demonstrates a complete inability to throw
the shield accurately and would even have lost the trademark piece of equipment
in a river of lava if it wasn’t for his accompanying “brother”, Redwing, flying
to its rescue. As a result every time Remender’s Sentinel of Liberty uses the
device there is a genuine sense of it ‘being forced’ into the action, and that
cannot be a good sign of things to come for a superhero whose name is
synonymous with just such a ‘weapon’.
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| The variant cover art of "ALL-NEW CAPTAIN AMERICA" No. 1 by Paul Pope |
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