Captain America: Steve Rogers #15 - Marvel Comics

CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE ROGERS No. 15, June 2017

It’s hard to imagine that very many of this comic’s 34,863 readers were particularly happy or impressed with the opening preamble to Issue Fifteen of “Captain America: Steve Rogers”, as alongside Nick Spencer’s highly contentious narrative sticking to its premise that the titular character is both an Avenger and “Agent of Hydra”, this particular publication also includes a disconcerting demand for its audience to purchase an entirely different comic book first, courtesy of a “Warning!” that any perusing bibliophile must only gaze upon this edition after reading "Uncanny Avengers #22”; a magazine which in April 2017 was fortunately “on sale now!”

Such blatant and aggressive marketing, which infuriatingly appears without any prior notice whatsoever, really proves a sore point to the enjoyment of this magazine, and despite the two-time progressive Charter Party candidate’s use of three pages within which he tries to explain Captain America’s manipulation of “a team of Avengers, X-Men and Inhumans who could be lead to believe that they themselves had the idea to bring” the Red Skull down, it’s hard to forgive Editor Tom Brevoort for allowing such fundamental events involving this title’s lead to take place within the cover of another comic.

Plot-wise, this magazine is also rather disappointingly dull and straightforward, in that it focuses almost entirely upon Shield-slinger’s final congregation with Hydra’s so-called Supreme Leader, Johann Schmidt. Ordinarily, such a cataclysmic confrontation would certainly be the stuff of legend, such as “Captain America #300” when Cap fought the Red Skull “to the death”, but on this occasion Der Rote Schädel has been so badly weakened by having his (or rather Charles Xavier’s) brain removed, that Roger’s brutal murder of the incapacitated invalid appears simply overly sadistic and potentially distasteful; “Y-You idiot -- You think you can replace me?!”

Just as poor a decision is allowing Javier Pina and Andres Guinaldo to both contribute artwork for this book. The Zaragoza-born penciller’s illustrations, depicting both a flashback fight between the Sentinel of Liberty and his Nazi foe, as well as the aforementioned final fatal tussle, is undoubtedly well-drawn and adds greatly to Spencer’s storytelling. Sadly, however, the same cannot be said for the work of the former “DC Comics” backup artist, whose scratchily-detailed depiction of Commander Carter’s argument with the World Security Council gravely jars with the professionally-smooth look of his counterpart’s pages.

The regular cover art of "CAPTAIN AMERICA: STEVE ROGERS" No. 15 by Gabriele Dell'Otto