Captain America: Living Legend #1 - Marvel Comics

CAPTAIN AMERICA: LIVING LEGEND No. 1, December 2013

Initially pairing up the colourfully-costumed veteran of the Second World War with a group of fanatically-lead Soviet soldiers in the Bavarian Alps during the last days of the Third Reich, many readers of Andy Diggle’s script for Issue One of “Captain America: Living Legend” were probably a bit disappointed that the entire comic didn’t focus on the anxious troops' exploration of a secret German scientific bunker in the snow. Indeed, it’s difficult not to hear a palpable sigh of regret from this book’s 32,495 strong audience when Sergeant Volkov is treacherously shot in the chest by a supposedly surrendering Nazi, and the narrative suddenly leaps forward in time some decades later; “That incident was edited out of your official wartime record…”

Enjoyably though, all the barely contained distrust and politics which made the opening such a spell-binding and atmospheric experience does partially return at this twenty-two page periodical’s conclusion, courtesy of Steve Rogers and Sharon Carter witnessing “a top-secret orbital research station” crash-land in deepest, darkest modern-day Russian. This dialogue-driven sequence is admittedly rather simplistic in setting up the mini-series’ subsequent race against time between the United States’ super-hero and the U.S.S.R. But such a no-nonsense approach does mean that it’s pretty clear just what sort of dangers the Sentinel of Liberty is likely to be facing, and how incredibly high the stakes for success are going to be.

Unfortunately, what debatably does let this comic down is therefore it’s middle segment, which focuses upon the aforementioned space facility’s unwise attempt to tap “right into the Dark Energy Field” for limitless energy. Just how the D.E.U.S. reactor works, or what causes the catastrophic power spike isn’t explained, whilst artist Adi Granov’s disconcertingly sterile environment, all bright white and aqua blue, isn’t arguably all that convincing either – most notably his establishing shot of the station in low Earth orbit with a blurry (possibly photographic) background.

Of course, the same cannot be said of the Bosnian-American illustrator’s work at the start of this story, which immediately grabs any perusing bibliophile and conveys them straight back to 1945. There’s a genuine look of sadness in the dying Russian Captain’s eyes as he realises the futility of their mission, and then a final spark of anger when he realises the over-zealous Volkov sees his fatalism as weakness.

Script: Andy Diggle, Illustration: Adi Granov, and Lettering: VC's Joe Caramagna