I’ve never been into Captain America, but I heard great things about Rick Remender, and John Romita Jr. has been one of my favorite artists for years now. I also read the free Venom #1 download that Remender wrote, and thought it was great. Needless to say, my expectations were pretty high for this series. I am thoroughly disappointed.

This issue continues the choppy, ADD driven prose that aggravated me while reading issue 1. It is a very uncomfortable book to read. The reader is actually supposed to be in Cap’s head, and it is not a very effluent place. I can see how this might work for some people, but I almost didn’t finish the book.

Aside from the style, the premise is not what I expected from a Cap book, and I don’t find it interesting. There seems to be some cool stuff in the Z Dimension (monsters and past experiments) but we don’t see much. The kid Ian seems to have aged rather quickly for one year. The end of the issue points us where the story is headed, and once again, I just don’t care. Even the young Steve story, although sad, was short, and didn’t reflect or echo the main story enough for me. That was one of the better parts of the first issue, and it fell short for me here.

I honestly think this book would be better without words. The art team knocks it out of the park! The lines are crisp, the storytelling awesome, and White’s colors are engrossing. The texture he provides is beyond description. I really liked the panels with Cap cooking in his shield, and there was a panel that showed each of his suit’s scales that I stared at for a solid minute. It’s a shame that this team is on such a lame story.

Overall, the package is okay. The story doesn’t interest me and the writing is choppy, but the art is some of the best I’ve seen. If you want a strangely-paced, sci-fi story with characters you don’t really need to care about, but that are beautifully illustrated, then this is your book. Seems like it might be going somewhere, but I won’t be around for the ride.