Let me get this straight, you did four issues
of Captain America Reborn, showed Steve Rogers back in the Siege and Iron Man
Disassembled, and all this before he had actually
come back in his own series. Oh wait! Then you released the one shot that comes
AFTER the Reborn series BEFORE the final issue, ergo spoiling the end. Oh
Marvel, what a cluster$@#& you’ve created.

Putting the circumstances of its
release aside, (as much as we can) how does the issue stand on its own? First
of all, I’ve been a hater of Bryan Hitch since his run on Reborn started. I
thought his layouts were bland and a lot of his figures felt awkward and often distorted
so you can imagine my relief upon seeing Butch Guice on pencils. The art was
pretty dark with a heavy emphasis on shadows which felt appropriate for the
brooding tone. The panel layouts were dynamic with some overlapping and panel
breaks. The figures, especially coming off of Hitch’s run, looked phenomenal.
Guice did a great job choosing poses for his characters and getting their
expressions just right. I’d probably have to say that the art was the strongest
part of the issue.

That’s not to say the writing was
bad, however. It certainly lacked the silliness that Reborn was chock full of
and replaced it with a more personal character study. This issue centers around
Bucky and Steve as they debate who should be Captain America, but you probably
got that from the title. The dialogue was alright but most of the events that
take place in this book felt predictable. That could be because we already knew the outcome, but the way Brubaker
got there wasn’t exactly a surprise either.

So now that we’re here does that
mean there won’t be a Captain America Reborn #5? I hate having an incomplete
series but I’m not sure if I hate it more than the writing/pencils combo of
that series. I can only hope that the main Cap book doesn’t suffer as a result
of this miniseries and that we get the great Brubaker Cap I was used to before
this $#!@fest started.