Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Captain America Reborn #6 of 6
Marvel Comics
Brubaker, Hitch & Guice
Steve Rogers returns in this mini series finale. This is not a surprise because Steve Rogers has been in multiple Marvel titles since the beginning of December. What is surprising is how this issue plays out resolving the Ed Brubaker epic about the conspiracy, assassination and fallout from the Death of Captain America storyline that has been building for some three plus years. This issue is an okay story with some hokey elements and decent action, but doesn't come close to providing a fitting end to an otherwise amazing saga. To be blunt, this issue is among the worst, for various reasons, in the Brubaker run on Captain America.
This issue is very much a by the numbers return. Red Skull occupies Steve Rogers' body and battles the new Cap, Bucky. Steve, from inside his brain, fights off the Red Skull, preventing Skull (in Cap's body) from killing Bucky, who is obviously pulling his punches. Red Skull's conscious then jumps over to a robot and is ultimately taken down by the Steve led hero coalition.
There are elements that are cheesy, such as the Red Skull turning into a giant robot. This reminded me of the golden age story where the Red Skull dressed as Captain America and hid his face from the President by simply raising his shield up over his face. It just came off as bizarre and a little ridiculous.
The battles between the good guy Avengers and the Red Skull army came across as an unnecessary distraction. It provides a means to include the supporting cast to witness the return of Steve Rogers and it allowed for some explosions but it really had little purpose in the real meat of the story.
The character of Bucky has been completely altered in this mini series. He was brought back from the dead and built up as a spy that struggled with leaving the world of assassins and entering the world of being a hero. Later, he waffled with being the new Captain America versus being the Winter Soldier. However, here he is little more than a cheerleader. Sure the story is about Steve Rogers, but is it worth it to damage the work done to bring up Bucky over the last five years?
The artwork struggles between the varying styles. This goes for the inking especially. Some of the panels are so heavily inked that there are crisp details on everyone's faces, regardless of the focus. Elsewhere, the panels are loosely inked providing so little facial detail that these characters barely resemble their counterparts within this comic. The art simply looked rushed and not worthy of an epic story such as this.
The return of Captain America was an eventuality and this was the mini series that brought him back. In years to come no one will remember that the return was spoiled in other titles weeks before the mini series completed. However, what will be out there for all to see is how this mini series, this issue in particular, was such a big departure from the entire Brubaker run on this character over the last several years. If you haven't read the Brubaker run then you might find this to be a marginally decent return from death story that was a little odd with some mixed results in art. However, if you loved the Brubaker run and how deep the conspiracy went then this is simply a letdown in terms of a payoff. Rogers should have stayed dead. It was a more interesting story apparently.
2 out of 5 Geek Goggles
