Captain America 14, Captain America Living Legend 4

Captain America 14
Remender (w) and Pacheco and Taibo (a) and White (c)

Captain America and Nuke have been fighting for quite some time before Cap starts to get through to him, explaining how his orders are wrong and how they have to go back to America and set things right. Nuke relents and helps Cap up as the American journalist who has seen the whole thing unfold takes another picture and reveals herself, setting Nuke off again. It takes all the remaining might of Cap and Falcon to slow him enough to give the journalist a head start and Falcon, after getting slashed across the stomach by Nuke and berated for being a civilian, still has to fly off a cliff to rescue her. When they land, he asks to have the camera to follow his orders and to make sure the pictures can't be skewed to look like America as a whole has anything to do with it but the journalist makes an impassioned plea to Falcon about freedom of the press and the orders he's following, which leads to him allowing her to keep the camera. Meanwhile, Cap has attacked Nuke again and finally hits his breaking point, something he knew he was reaching during the whole fight. He wails on Nuke and puts him down brutally before preparing to land a killshot, fearing that allowing Nuke to live only means allowing more wars to start and more innocents to die. Falcon shows up and takes the shield from Cap's hand just before he can bring it down on Nuke and Nuke falls unconscious, but not before he reveals that he did it all to make Cap and the other soldiers proud. Fury shows up to take Nuke away and to bring the heroes home and reveals that the journalist released the picture of Cap and Nuke shaking hands and framed it in such a way that it seemed like American operatives attacked the country, not just the broken Nuke. In China, the Iron Nail swears that America will be better for these attacks and that he needs to topple SHIELD to really start things rolling.

This is another emotionally charged issue that sits really well in this series. When Ed Brubaker started his already-legendary run on CAPTAIN AMERICA back in 2005, he started with a Captain America who was particularly aggressive and angry with the ways things had been falling and put more pressure on him by launching him into the epic Winter Soldier storyline. Steve was a little unhinged, though always in his "still morally better than you" way. He was strong in his convictions and he, of course, ended up being right but he didn't necessarily go about things the right way, rushing in half-cocked to certain delicate situations. We're seeing a bit of that Steve here, though maybe even more amplified, which makes sense. Brubaker's Steve had been worn down over time where this Steve has seen real personal tragedy and ten years of his life erased in the course of a week and, guess what, he's still in that week. Cap openly admits in his narration that he's tapping into a rage he hasn't felt before, something that's been hidden in him and brought out by the recent goings-on. He also is able to see that it makes him a worse fighter and a worse soldier so he continues to try to tamp it down, but it comes out in full as he pounds Nuke at the end. On top of the amazing character work that we're seeing and the decidedly different while also true-to-history Cap, there's a really interesting plot happening here with a world that is turning on SHIELD, if it was ever on SHIELD's side. Foreign powers working against America or working to smear America isn't new but the idea that a foreign power would want to, in whatever way, improve America by breaking it down first and allowing it to rebuild (he compares it to the re-birth of Germany after the fall of the evil reich) free from its corrupt government and SHIELD is a somewhat new twist on it and it comes at a time when the American people have less faith in their government and more suspicions than ever before. Really compelling story that's highlighted by phenomenal character work and really great art. Can't complain as Cap continues to grow.

Captain America Living Legend 4
Diggle and Granov (s) and Diggle and Robson (w) and Alessio (a and c)

Cap is being taken in by the dark energy entity before Volkov, deep within the base, manages to grasp control of it and pull Steve out. The energy keeps attacking and, with Cap's shield off in the distance, they have no weapons to defeat it. Cap rushes to his shield while the others buy a second's time, throwing it back in just as it prepares to overtake them. He leaves the shield with Dr. Fox and tasks Colonel Gridenko and his men with getting her to the Deus device so she can shut it down and stop the dark energy once and for all while he makes his way to Volkov. Gridenko knows that usually means death but lets him go all the same. Cap manages to reach Volkov, who tells him that he should have died that day Cap saved him and that his survival set in place a course of action that led to all of this. Even now, he cannot manage to die and the dark energy that's lived in him since his time in space consumes him, both of them hoping to die but unable to do so. He tells Cap that it's taken him 40 years to control the energy enough to allow a moment's respite and asks Cap to kill him in that time. Cap declines, wishing to get him to medical and scientific help but Volkov is adamant that it cannot save him, it will only kill any who'd get close enough. Finally Cap relents and prepares to shoot the soldier. He does and, for a second, it seems not to work. At that moment, though, Fox manages to activate the Deus device and pulls all of the dark energy in, destroying it there and leaving Volkov to peacefully die. Cap, Fox, and Gridenko leave the station with Cap still mourning Volkov and Gridenko essentially telling him not to waste his breath. Gridenko regrets what's become of Russia and its army as, to underline his point, a Russian bureaucrat shows up to question Gridenko on what's happened and why the Americans aren't being detained and so forth. Gridenko ignores him as Cap blows up the station. The Colonel then throws the bureaucrat to the ground and asks Cap for political asylum in America, which Cap happily informs him they can offer.

A pretty nice ending to the book, really powered by some great art, a compelling story, and nicely developed characters despite the length of the book. This is a shining example of a solid writer telling a good story but doing just enough to make sure the characters are all fully-fleshed out even without the benefit of a long series. So it is possible, you guys, and you don't have to sacrifice much to get it. Granted, I think Alessio's art really cemented this book; I think the writing was tight and the story was good but I may as well have just been distracted the whole time by the visuals. Still this is one of those stories that I think would be a good complete set to show someone who wasn't sold on Captain America or who didn't know a lot of comics, a really good beginner arc. There is an amount of soft science and the kind of stuff that will gain you some blank stares when you explain it out loud to non-comic readers but good luck finding any comic story worth its salt that won't. I don't actually know what the phrase "worth its salt" means because, I mean, it's salt, right? This day and age, that's not worth all that much. Anyway, I'm fairly certain it is a saying (please don't correct me if it's not, I don't need that you guys, just all assume I'm right). So another good issue to round out a good mini!

Avengers AI 5, Captain America Living Legend 2

Avengers AI 5
Humphries (w) and Schiti (a) and D'Armata (c)

After Dimitrios' attack on Washington, AI fears are at an all-time high, making it considerably more difficult for Vision and Alexis to protect the populace and keep order. Making it slightly more easy, though, is that Alexis is successfully cutting her way through Dimitrios' encryptions that kept her memories sealed off from her, giving her a new purpose: she is a protector of all types of life. She also seems to have gained some sort of limited precognition, which she uses to stop an unstable man from blowing up a bank after the bank lost everyone's money in Dimitrios' attack. Back at home, Pym has sealed himself away in his lab to cope with his own bipolar disorder, recognizing (after thorough charting) that he's about to hit a downswing. Monica Chang isn't thrilled with the decision and makes her frustrations clear as she reveals that Victor, with his seemingly dying breath, protected the server's black box but only Pym can actually access it. Meanwhile, Doombot is attempting to revive Victor, feeling that Pym hasn't done enough. Victor's consciousness, on the other hand, has found itself in the Diamond.

I think the pieces are here for a substantial book but right now it's kind of circling around a point. I'm not exactly sure about what's making the book feel uncomfortable right now but something isn't quite clicking. It might be the vagueness of the enemy or the abruptness of the team; we're kind of used to teams needing to build together but, in a day and age where the market is so filled with content, books don't have as much of a chance to build, forcing those "coming together" kinds of arcs to be too short or too staged. I think Humphries has done a pretty good job trying to pull something together for that; everyone here still feels like (with maybe the exception of the mysterious Alexis) he or she has his or her own voice, even in how early we still are in the series. I'd like to see that developed a little further. Another worry is that every book these days, again because there are so many, has to start with a bang or else you won't get any sort of market share, or at least that's how it feels. Therefore, this threat has to be big but it also has to be meaningful and it also has to be beatable by this ragtag team. That's a lot of constraints to put on a first arc, let alone the need to build a team and a theme and what not. I think this book will have to find its legs soon or risk waiting too long.

Captain America Living Legend 2
Diggle and Granov (s) Diggle (w) and Alessio (a and c)

Cap has been sent to Russia to find the crashed DEUS Project and any survivors of the crash. He manages to get there in time to find Dr. Lauren Fox but worries that the Russians must be hot on their trail. She tells him what happened in space and they speculate that maybe the Russians have a little less to do with this than it would appear, given that the area where DEUS was brought down doesn't seem to be constantly patrolled already. The Russians are reactive here, not proactive. There's also a bit of a moral question as Cap informs Fox that her attempt at finding clean, renewable energy has been secretly bankrolled by the Department of Defense, who clearly intend to weaponize whatever she finds. She's mad about it and indicts Cap too, saying that the serum that created him could have been used for peace, not soldiers. They don't really have time to argue, though, as they're attacked by what seems to have been a Russian patrol at some point but is now a mess of metal controlled by some unseen force. Of course, that would be Volkov, eagerly awaiting Cap's return to Russia.

Another neat little issue (though Granov doesn't provide the art for this one, as I had previously assumed; Alessio still does a fantastic job, keeping with the feel of the book Granov had created while clearly making the art his own) that, again, impressive goes out of its way to characterize people who aren't our main characters. In fact, again they're Russian and they die almost immediately after their characterization. I know, that seems like a small thing to bring up, especially to lead an analysis paragraph, but it's really not. It both makes it feel like a real situation (not just comic book villains everywhere, there are real people really dying as a result of...okay, as a result of the comic book villain) and it makes me feel better as an American that there is a depiction of normal Russians as just people. Diggle's not American, sure, but it's still nice to see. Like, all of our war games that make, you know, untold billions of dollars seem to feature Russians as the enemy these days because we still think maybe we can win the Cold War or something (more like the COD War, am I right? Classic) and it's honestly a little uncomfortable. Comics (good ones, anyway) tend to be pretty good about spreading the right message in these sorts of situations; there's a Captain America book from just after 9-11 that depicted Americans surrounding an innocent Middle Eastern man before Cap steps in. The Middle Eastern man comes off looking great and the Americans look like jerks which was a pretty big statement for a country that wanted nothing more than war. Anyway, getting a little off-topic, I didn't mean for this point to carry on throughout the whole paragraph. I guess I can let it do that because Diggle's a solid writer and he's writing a good Cap and a good story, leaving me with time to talk about the little things instead of talking about what doesn't feel right. Sure the obvious antagonist is still a Russian and, perhaps, a more Russia-obssessed Russian, but Diggle has gone out of his way to make sure we know that he is not your typical Russian. And it makes a difference.

Mighty Avengers 2, Iron Man 16, Captain America Living Legend 1

Mighty Avengers 2
Ewing (w) and Land and Leisten (a) and D'Armata (c)

Proxima Midnight's attack is in full swing and is already devastating the Mighty Avengers. She sends a light spear after Spectrum which knocks her completely out of the fight. Proxima promises that the spear's poison will kill her, even after it's been removed. She knocks Cage down too as she prepares to finish the team off. An uprising from the nearby civilians inspires Cage back to his feet and fighting harder than ever. He holds his own against Proxima for a bit until Thanos projects his image over the city, pulling Proxima out. She leaves and the team checks in with the possibly dying Spectrum. Meanwhile, Blue Marvel has been monitoring the whole situation, with some motivation from the Watcher, and takes off as Doctor Strange, under the influence of the Ebony Maw, summons Shuma-Gorath.

Plenty going on as the series kicks off. On top of the cast of characters we already had, we now get a surprise visit from Blue Marvel and Kaluu, Stranger's master in black magic. The stakes are pretty high, as anyone reading any part of Infinity can tell you. It's reflected here pretty accurately as Proxima Midnight's attack is more than powerful enough to knock out the two strongest members of the team (depending on who the Spider Hero is). Blue Marvel has a nice scene as he explains why he's removed himself from the world as far as Blue Marvel goes, preferring to monitor the world from his own surveillance station. His character comes out pretty strong as he talks casually with Uatu (well, "talks with" is a little strong as it's a pretty one-sided conversation) and he figures out the problems pretty well. It's a strong showing for him and it's simultaneously an interesting and nice move to throw him in with this team. Solid issue with plenty of new characters and ideas while continuing where we left off, all without being overwhelming in any real way.

Iron Man 16
Gillen (w) and Pagulayan and Hanna (a) and Guru eFX (c)

The Godkiller is withdrawing into its own dimension, 451 is shutting himself down and deleting his databases, and Tony is running out of options. He attempts to hack into 451's programming to find the codes he needs to get out but even his tech can't make that happen fast enough. In a quick decision, he flies the inert 451 to Death's Head's ship which he suspects might be based on 451's tech, in payment for his tracking Tony down. He's right and manages to hack 451 successfully and break out of the Godkiller just in the nick of time. He picks up his former life again, jumping back in with the Guardians for a few months (we flash forward to three months after the 451 saga and Tony is leaving the Guardians) before returning home. Unbeknownst to anyone else, he's kept 451. He arrives home to find that Pepper (the real one, not the computer) has a new fiancee and that some new research he's done has dredged up some results on his parents.

We get a nice ticking clock finale to what has been an overall great arc. In a way, this ending was a little bit of a letdown if only because it pit Tony against 451 again, after a fashion, but it was a 451 who was no longer functioning. 451 was a fantastic villain in so many ways and it's a little sad that the end of his run (for now, obviously) has him silent. Still, I think it's the best way for it to end. I know, this sounds like I'm talking in circles (because I am) but I think I'm getting to a point. First and foremost, I absolutely loved the turn 451 took in that last issue and I think it's far stronger than having him in a massive gunfight with Tony (which, you know, also happened). It's just a little sad because you'd like to see him battling against Tony. But you also don't. You know how it is, right guys? Look, 451's a great villain, is what it comes down to. I want to see more of him and I'm glad to know that I likely will, in some form or another. In addition, 451 had a nice little narrative at the beginning to show his stance again. It seems more truthful within the narrative. Excited to see where this all goes.

Captain America Living Legend 1
Diggle (w) and Granov (a and c)

Flashback to the final days of WWII: America and Russia are still allies but they're starting to run out of common enemy as Germany begins to collapse. A Russian unit has been sent to find and extract a German rocket scientist from a bunker to help Russia as the world starts to progress towards rocket-based weapons and space exploration. Sergeant Volkov, the sergeant leading the unit (with his captain too injured and wishing not to go forward with the mission), is pretty die-hard pulling for Russia, knowing that the alliance between America and Russia is set to break down and knowing that Russia needs to get its edge now. Of course, as they start getting overwhelmed by the German troop in front of them (led by a Panzer), Captain America shows up and pretty much singlehandedly gets the Germans to surrender. As he and Volkov discuss the fate of the German rocket scientist, a stray Nazi shoots Volkov. We find, flashing forward to 1968, that Cap managed to save Volkov, who is now going to be the first man to walk on the moon on behalf of Russia. Flash forward to today as American scientists in orbit are deploying a new technology to try to convert dark energy to a sustainable energy for Earth's use. The space station breaks down as it overloads, with the station transforming into some sort of monstrosity and pulling the scientists in. The space station breaks through orbit and ends up in Russia, acting like it's being pulled that way. One word got through SHIELD's monitoring of the situation: Volkov.

It's a really solid first issue for this mini-series and it's a great character-builder for Cap (who doesn't need a ton of building here, just some reinforcing and some direction as to which Cap we'll be seeing here) and for Volkov, who acts strictly on the behalf of mother Russia at all times. Cap is strong as ever, throwing his shield through the Panzer, in fact. In truth, Cap isn't really the focus of this book as we kick off; again, where we know Cap's somewhat unflinching character and where he stands on most issues, we don't need to see a ton of him to set the tone. Volkov is extremely important to characterize here and Diggle makes sure he gets the right amount of attention. The exchange between Volkov's captain and Volkov is a fantastic characterization of each; I don't anticipate seeing the captain again but he acts as a great stand-in for the opinion of a more human person, someone who would rather Volkov go and pursue his own life rather than commit suicide in an attack against a much stronger force. Solid characters, intriguing plot, plenty to look forward to with this one. Great art, too. I've mostly seen Granov on covers to this point; it's nice to see him on interiors in a book I'm already liking.