Nov 4, 2009 > Captain America Reborn > #4 (OF 6)

Captain America Reborn #4 (OF 6)

Review by JimBilly4:

WRITER: Ed Brubaker
PENCILS: Butch Guice & Bryan Hitch
COLORED BY: Paul Mounts
LETTERED BY: VC - Joe Caramagna
COVER BY: Bryan Hitch

Price: $3.99

This review contains spoilers, click here to read

I don't know if Hitch kicked it up a notch for this issue or if I just finally "got" his style, but I thought the art in this issue was really phenomenal. Baron Zemo standing in the rain firing his machine gun... I just stared at that for several minutes. I still think the whole issue is a bit heavy on splash pages for my taste -- Funny, I LIKE panels and sequential art, go figure -- but I can not deny they looked great.

Storywise I am still a bit bored with the lost in time nonsense, but a lot of other stuff happened this issue, including Hawkeye (and they called him Hawkeye) blowing up a Hammer tank with an actual bow and arrow. Vision gave a message from the past (not that we heard it, oddly enough), Doom/Red Skull/Zola verbally sparred and tried to out-megalomaniac each other, and of course Cap's body finally came back. And even the lost in time scenes finally got around to when Bucky got blown up, clearly the most traumatic and interesting event of Steve Rogers' life.

A lot of people are already loving the final page and I can only whole-heartedly agree. Red Skull Captain America is both disturbing and a great idea (played with before, of course, but I think actually in Steve Roger's body is a first). While I strongly suspect Brubaker plans to get Steve back in his body by series end, for the first time it seems to me like that is not a foredrawn conclusion. The lack of tension around this issue (of course Steve Rogers is coming back... It's called Captain America Reborn for God's sake) has been the biggest problem for me with the whole storyline. Imagine reading the book "Ole Yeller Gets Rabies and Is Then Put Down". It might have some problems holding your interest. I don't think it will happen, but I now think there is a chance Skull will keep the body, at least for a while. In such a case Steve would have to come back in some other form... robot? A woman? A child? Again, the odds are strongly against, but at last Brubaker has sowed just the tiniest seed of doubt and that really helps amp up the stakes.

Story: 4 - Very Good Art: 5 - Excellent

793

pulls

Avg Rating: 4.1

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Comments

You didn't mention:

Spoiler alert for Ole Yeller too!

Posted by jabroniunc on 11/05/09 at 02:55 PM

Captain America Reborn... as Dark Captain America!

Posted by Grandturk on 11/05/09 at 03:25 PM

@Grandturk Well, when you put it like that now I don't want a Red Skull Cap. Thanks a lot.

@jabroniunc Sorry, I figured 50 years was enough time to cover that one. I will take the opportunity to also mention that Rosebud is a Sled.

Posted by JimBilly4 on 11/05/09 at 06:11 PM

Red Skull and Captain America swapped bodies in Cap vol 1 # 116 to 119, I think (with great Gene Colan art and the introduction of the Falcon).

Posted by bwhancock on 11/08/09 at 10:43 AM

I should know by now the phrase, "This has never been done before" in regards to a comic book hero is probably not going to turn out to be true. I suspect if they did it again, it would be a very different take on the switcheroo (especially as Red Skull has no body really, for Cap to go into). However, the very notion of a Dark Captain America makes me cringe at this late, Dark Reign date, so I have changed my mind and now think it is a bad idea. I now vote we put them both in the same body and allow one control only when the other sleeps. Wacky antics ensue.

Posted by JimBilly4 on 11/09/09 at 08:31 PM