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Review: Captain America comes back from the dead in Reborn
As we all know, the rules of life and death are different in superhero comic books. No death can remain unreversed; a character is not permanently dead unless you see the body, and even then the grievousness of the wounds and the finality of the corpse's disposal do nothing but ramp up the ridiculousness of the devices that must later be used to bring him back.
In a field where Doctor Doom once survived being cremated, where Spider-Man's Aunt May is still alive and kicking despite two separate funerals, where the Jason Todd Robin came back from his own burial because a super-strong madman spent a few years angrily punching a wall, and—most importantly, for our purposes—where the assassination of Captain America in the aftermath of Marvel's Civil War led to his replacement by the teen sidekick who was himself blown up real good way back in World War II, it was only a matter of time before the star-spangled avenger returned to fight anew, even though we all saw the burial of the man shot dead on the Manhattan courthouse steps.
It's been about two and a half years, but now we have Captain America Reborn #1 (Marvel Comics, $3.99), written by Ed Brubaker with art by Bryan Hitch and Butch Guice, wherein the various members of Cap's large supporting cast (among them the Falcon, Sharon Carter, Nick Fury, the replacement Cap and the Black Widow) discover that the bullets that perforated the big guy at the behest of his longtime enemy the Red Skull were actually manifestations of Dr. Doom's time-machine technology, and that a Cap now "unstuck in time" has been bouncing back and forth among the highlights of his long and storied career. This is all somehow part of the Red Skull's master plan, though why he would go to such convoluted lengths to bring back an enemy he's been trying to kill since 1942 remains at this point an unanswered question.
As is only to be expected from a Brubaker script with Hitch art, it somehow manages to feel grounded and immediate despite the outrageous (and, really, narratively indefensible) lengths the creators must now go to to make the impossible happen. It doesn't entirely escape its status as a colossal cheat, but then that was expected from the moment Cap's death made the front pages in both his universe and ours.
Longtime readers will just have to accept these developments as the price to be paid for getting to the next thing, which is, most pressingly, that Cap's not going to be happy at all when he finally does return to the present day and discovers that the still-lingering fallout from the civil war that his side lost has eventually led to the Avengers being replaced, in the public's eye, by evil, murderous imposters under the command of Norman Osborn. Whatever happens, it's gonna be real fun to see Cap track down Tony Stark, the Invincible Iron Man, whose well-meaning but short-sighted machinations, way back then, ultimately led to this sorry state of affairs.
Cap's angry "I Told You So" is gonna be real eloquent.
By PALADIN at 7:16 AM ON 07/13/09
RE: "... the bullets that perforated the big guy at the behest of his longtime enemy the Red Skull were actually manifestations of Dr. Doom's time-machine technology, and that a Cap now "unstuck in time"....."
----- Wouldn`t it have been simpler just to have Cap`s 'death' a staged fraud orchestrated by Nick Fury with a Life Model Decoy ? I could buy Cap having been off on some secret intrigue more than the stated plans.
By mikymik38 at 7:53 AM ON 07/13/09
So what happens to Bucky & that cool new suit. Will he give it to Cap, or will he still wear it himself, then we'll just have two Cap's
By copacetic at 9:33 AM ON 07/13/09
So basically, Marvel ripped off the Omega Sanction from DC's Final Crisis - the energy beam that probably doesn't "kill" Batman, but actually sends him spiralling through several lifetimes.
Sometimes I wonder why I ever bother reading comics.
By Darth Touma at 10:05 AM ON 07/13/09
It was basically such a crappy way to kill a great hero.. and just to make some political statement.. they are making that statement again in reverse now.. but they are scrambling.. I love Cap.. don' tknow if I will stoop to buying this drivel though..
By GotsDaSyfyDownLow at 11:19 AM ON 07/13/09
I got the latest Capt. America comic and it does feel like a real stretch. I was wondering the same thing Milky. If they bring Cap back, what happens to Bucky?
By fanboy d at 12:10 PM ON 07/13/09
tony stark was right!
By Pelican at 12:17 PM ON 07/13/09
Couldn't they have brought him back without the dopey wings on his head?
By Werehunter at 12:40 PM ON 07/13/09
copacetic, actually if one followed the Captain America book then one could look back and see the clues for this laid out long before Final Crisis came out. While I had the same thought at first, I did realize that many of the small things going on, including Red Skull's meeting with Doc Doom, all show this being in the works for a long time.
By Old Guard at 12:46 PM ON 07/13/09
Bringing back Cap is the right thing to do. Killing him off was a mistake in the first place. The weird thing is the upheaval in the Marvel Universe as a result of The Civil War has worked for the most part. But the mistakes have been arrogant whoppers, unmasking Peter Parker, then erasing the unmasking, ending his marriage to Mary Jane are prime examples. Even though his title currently is the best it has been in a long time. Still, the stories would have been just as good if Peter and Mary Jane were still married. The same is true of Cap. The stories in Captain America prior to his death were truly excellent. Then we had to deal with this death crap, it was pointless. Now that Cap is back, they can get back to telling solid, good stories. Also, I like the wingtips on his head. Call me old fashion. He's not Captain America without the wingtips. Without the wingtips, he's 'Skull Cap America'.
As for 'Bucky' Cap it will be interesting to see what they do with him.
By malohombre at 2:31 PM ON 07/13/09
I haven't read comics in a long time.I guess "Bucky"is Nomad.They had 2 Caps before ,back when he quit and became The Captain.The new Cap wore the new suit and became US Agent. They'll probably do that.
By sentinus at 2:33 PM ON 07/13/09
everyone...the stage was set for this in, of all places, an issue of Thor where we learn that Cap is in some sort of "limbo" between life and death. So I was not really that surprised by the Cap "reborn" series.
The issue with Cap and Bucky will probably be resolved in a fashion along the lines of the eventual problem with Dick Grayon and Bruce Wayne. Can't really have two Batman's and you can't have two Captain America's.
By Taiso at 2:59 PM ON 07/13/09
Old Guard has the best handle on this situation and his thoughts mirror my own in every respect. Excellent post.
By Gill Avila at 5:01 PM ON 07/13/09
I'm not going to bother with this "Craptain America." I stopped buying comics when the ink on the cover stock came off on my fingertips, the paper stock jacked up the price, and when half the pages in a comic were full-page adverts.
By Jarrod at 9:36 PM ON 07/13/09
I guess you called it. Hey, I need your home email if you ever decide to leave MHS. Who else do I have to send this stuff to?!
By CaptainZappyPants at 12:17 AM ON 07/14/09
Let's face it. Captain America would never serve George W. Bush, let alone Dick Cheney's agenda. Cap needed to go away for a while, and he did. It's now safe to come back. Too many people were saying "Cap needs to pick a side!" Thankfully the editors gave him an out for a while. I'm glad he's back, and Bush is gone.
By GH at 3:46 AM ON 07/14/09
Yeah Cap would clearly be against liberating foreign countries from tyrannical dictators. Soon we will need him to save us from that neo-marxist con man presently trying to eliminate the American Way.
By Gwibble at 11:02 AM ON 07/14/09
malohombre,
no, the bucky who's running around as Cap now is NOT the one from the fifties who was Nomad for a while. It's THE Bucky, the ORIGINAL Bucky, the one whose supposed death had Cap whining for, literally, decades. He was for a long time one of those characters you could count on being permanently dead, but no, he was just pining for the fjords.
By Squibble at 11:26 AM ON 07/14/09
Malohombre,
The Bucky currently running around in Cap's uniform is not (as you presumed) the one from the fifties, who became Nomad and died a while back. It is the original Bucky, the one whose supposed death in World War Two turned Cap into a world-class whiner for decades. Turns out he was only pining for the fjords.
By Gaijin at 12:58 PM ON 07/14/09
Okay, the ONLY way I can see Marvel pulling this off AND convincing me to continue reading the Captain America books after Rogers is brought back is as follows:
Rogers comes back from the dead somehow, but he looses the majority of the Super Solider Serum benefit in the process. He may be on par w/ the average human, but the majority of his crime fighting career is over. Bucky stays Captain America, while Rogers steps up to a advising/leader position. In the years to come, he steps up to take control of SHIELD (as nobody trusts Nick Fury anymore after what happened in Latveria).
Not going to say it couldn't be done, but I need one heck of a reason to believe Marvel could pull this one out of a hat and make me want to keep on reading.
By Fletchtar at 11:22 PM ON 07/14/09
This was actually planned all along, though originally it was only going to take 6 issues to bring him back. According to the author he just wanted to do an homage to Slaughterhouse Five starring Captain America. I think it probably would've gone over a little better had it been shorter. And, despite what the reviewer wrote, it is not narratively indefensible at all. There were several scenes early on that hinted that something like this was going to happen. They introduced Doctor Doom's time platform before even killing Cap off. It was indicated several times that simply killing him was never the Red Skull's agenda as well. There are several points at which he says that killing him wasn't enough.
Also, this was in the works before DC's "Omega Sanction" was inflicted on Batman. Plus, both devices are taken straight from Slaughterhouse Five, so if anyone has a right to feel that their ideas are being borrowed, it's certainly not DC. They're separate stories with the only common element being unstuck in time. Rogers is living moments throughout his life in WW2, Batman (seemingly) is stuck in prehistory.
By Fletchtar at 11:32 PM ON 07/14/09
That being said, I do hope Bucky stays Cap & Rogers becomes the head of Shield like that old What If comic. That'd be pretty great.
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Fletchtar:
That being said, I do hope Bucky stays Cap & Rogers becomes the head of Shield like that old What If comic. That'd ...More »