I’ve been trying desperately to figure out where Cap is going wrong of late.  I read this relaunch from the get go and thought it was so well made that I upgraded to the first two omniboo because I thought it deserved that special place on my bookcase.  Brubaker weaved an intricate spy story with action and, more importantly, an intriguing overarching plot.  Unfortunately this latest 4 parter feels really lacklustre and doesn’t come close to the first 4 years of greatness.

The trouble is, I can’t quite explain it.  The 50s Cap wasn’t a favourite character, but he does make a nice twisted mirror to the real thing.  Maybe he’s just not as great a villain as the Red Skull, Zola or Luchin.  I’m glad that the spotlight remains on Bucky as I think he’s one of the best elements of Bru’s reign, and the Falcon is always a welcome addition, so that’s all a definite bonus.  I think my main beef is the fact that this is all just too straightforward.  The first fifty or so issues were set apart by the crisscrossing of characters and plots, and the steady build of the villains’ masterplans.  Instead what we have is a simple action movie plot, made up of elements I kind of feel we’ve seen before, something I would never expect from Brubaker.  I could concede that there’s an effort to reflect some of the political feelings and friction in the US, but even that falls kind of flat, forgotten in the background.

I also feel that the art seems to lack the class of those early Epting/Perkins arcs.  Luke Ross always seems like one of those journeyman artists, solid but nothing flashy.  The Epting style (unexpectedly good as it was at the time) oozed atmosphere and set the book apart from other Cap series, this is plain at best falling to altogether poor at other points.

As long as Brubaker is on the book I think I’ll keep reading just to see if things get back on track, and the next storyline certainly looks interesting.  Maybe this is just a bit of a breather, and on the plus side the back up story seems to be over.  Here’s hoping for next time.