Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Captain America #9
Marvel Comics
Remender, Romita, Janson & White
Captain America finally finds a way out of Dimension Z as help arrives in the form of Sharon Carter. This issue contains a lot of action as Captain America squares his journal with Zola as he makes his final moments in Dimension Z count. The comic book isn't nearly as emotionally charged as it could have been considering the death of Ian, Cap's adopted son. Instead there are a lot of the usual super hero elements: a lot of yelling, a lot of punching and a long death scene. It's an average read.
Basically, Carter shows up to explain to Cap what's really been happening. Cap is confused, injured and very defeated. The shock of what Sharon has to say really crushes his spirit. But this is Captain America.
Rather than fleeing, he scrapes himself up off the ground and rescues those he still can rescue. He's lost Ian but he doesn't intend to lose anyone else. This puts him on a path to square off against Zola.
The fight is a good one. Zola gets under Cap's skin as things really heat up. Eventually Cap takes things to the very edge as he pushes his own boundaries. There should be more emotions pouring out in these scenes but they simply lean too much towards yelling and action. They stop short of deep insight unfortunately. However, if you like classic super hero dustups then you'll love this one.
The artwork is okay. I never got past the fact that Romita simply didn't draw Ian well. He looks too girly and his head is much too big for his body. He appears in a flashback to open the book and it sets up a tone that made me look at the art much more critically than it deserved. The art goes through some good sequences as the story commands several big splash pages followed by some emotional scenes. These are the comic's best parts. The art is somewhere between average and good.
Captain America has been in Dimension Z for nine issues. It was overdue that he returned to Earth. He's going to be a very changed man as a result and hopefully those stories will make use of the turmoil from these issues. This is a straightforward super hero story that puts down a foundation for a very mentally spent Cap to return to Earth. Hopefully this series will use this issue as a springboard to bigger things.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
