"Captain America: Reborn"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Captain America: Reborn” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

Sharon Carter, former Agent 13 of S.H.I.E.L.D., was struggling with the guilt of killing her lover Steve Rogers/Captain America while Sharon was under the control of Dr. Faustus and Johann Schmidt/Red Skull. Sam Wilson/Falcon was searching for William Burnside. Burnside had been the Captain America of the 1950s and currently believed himself to be Steve Rogers. Sharon reunited with her old friend Dave Cox. Sharon’s repressed memories of being pregnant returned and Sharon remembered the loss of Sharon and Steve’s child due to a fight with Synthia Schmidt/Sin. The return of this memory also caused Sharon to remember she had seen a figure when Red Skull and Arnim Zola utilized Sharon in operation of Dr. Doom’s time platform, which was destroyed before it could reach full operational status.

            On James “Bucky” Barnes/Captain America’s birthday, Bucky battled members of the militia group, the Watchdogs. The battle brought back Bucky’s memories of Bucky’s previous birthdays during World War II, before Bucky apparently died and was turned into the Winter Soldier. Following the fight, Bucky returned home to find the Avengers had prepared a birthday party for Bucky.

            A year after the death of Steve Rogers, Sharon found the weapon that had been used to kill Steve. A candlelight vigil in Central Park was planned in honor of the one-year anniversary of Steve’s death. Eli Bradley/Patriot encountered Rebecca “Rikki” Barnes, Bucky’s granddaughter from another universe. Rikki followed Patriot, hoping Patriot could introduce Rikki to Bucky so Rikki could train to be Bucky’s partner. Patriot told Rikki Bucky wasn’t looking for a sidekick, but invited Rikki to join Patriot and the Young Avengers at the vigil. Brock Rumlow/Crossbones, who was in prison for being the sniper involved in the death of Steve Rogers, learned that Sin was being held in the same prison that Crossbones was incarcerated in and did everything Crossbones could to be reunited with Crossbones’ lover. The Avengers planned to attend the vigil, despite their fugitive status and the fact that Norman Osborn and Osborn’s Dark Avengers would be in attendance. Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow had to convince Bucky not to attend in Bucky’s Captain America uniform because this was Osborn’s opportunity to arrest Bucky. The Dark Avengers identified the Avengers at the vigil, but Osborn chose not to cause a scene and told the Dark Avengers not to make a move on the Avengers. Sharon came to the Avengers and told the Avengers Sharon thought there could be a way to save Steve Rogers.

Bernadette “Bernie” Rosenthal, Steve’s ex-girlfriend, who had been at the scene when Steve was killed, and Josh Cooper scattered the ashes of their friend Mike Farrel, who died saving Bernie.

An auction was held by Joseph Paglino for pieces of Captain America memorabilia.

Norman Osborn had one of Osborn’s H.A.M.M.E.R. agents interrogate Sin, offering Sin a place in the Thunderbolts if Sin revealed who the second shooter in the death of Steve Rogers was. Sin tried to fight Sin’s way out of the H.A.M.M.E.R. facility, but was stopped by Osborn’s Dark Avenger Bullseye, who was pretending to be Hawkeye. This interrogation led Osborn to question the deaths of both Steve Rogers and Red Skull.

Bucky and Black Widow infiltrated the H.A.M.M.E.R. Helicarrier to acquire the remains of Red Skull’s time platform. Sharon and Falcon went to Vision and Hank Pym/Wasp to analyze the weapon that had killed Steve. Hank confirmed that the weapon was Doom-tech. On the H.A.M.M.E.R. Helicarrier, Bucky and Black Widow ran into the Dark Avengers Mac Gargan/Venom who was pretending to be Spider-Man and Ares. Arnim Zola went to Osborn and told Osborn that the gun used to shoot Steve Rogers actually locked Steve’s body in time and space and that the Red Skull had tried to use Sharon as the constant with the time platform to pull Steve out of the timestream so that the Red Skull could supplant the Red Skull’s consciousness into Steve’s body, thus having claimed the ultimate defeat of Captain America, and that due to the destruction of the time platform, Steve was now unstuck in time. Steve found himself reliving moments of his past but being unable to act or change them. Bucky and Black Widow were defeated on the Helicarrier. Falcon and Vision went on a recon mission to find Bucky and Black Widow. Osborn made a deal with Crossbones and Sin. Osborn leaked to the press Sharon’s involvement in the death of Steve Rogers to blackmail Black Widow into bringing Sharon to Osborn, or else Osborn would kill Bucky. Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four and Namor discovered that Steve’s body had disappeared out of Steve’s coffin. The Thunderbolts (Ghost, Scourge, Paladin, and Eric O’Grady/Ant-Man) were transporting Bucky. Falcon found the Thunderbolts’ plane and attacked. Ant-Man turned traitor on the Thunderbolts and released Bucky from Bucky’s shackles, and Falcon and Bucky were able to escape. Sharon turned herself in to H.A.M.M.E.R. custody. Crossbones and Sin located Red Skull and headed to Latveria to meet with Doctor Doom. Vision discovered that Steve had left a message in the Vision’s memory banks and brought the message to Reed and Hank. Red Skull used Doctor Doom’s time platform and Sharon to pull Steve out of the timestream, then implanted Red Skull’s consciousness into Steve’s body. Red Skull, Crossbones, Sin, and an and A.I.M. contingency flew with Sharon to Washington, D.C. The Avengers (Bucky, Black Widow, Falcon, Clint Barton/Ronin, Wasp, and Vision) flew after the A.I.M. transport to rescue Sharon. Vision tried to sneak onto the A.I.M. transport but was caught. The Avengers’ plane was shot down. Crossbones released the Super-M.O.D.O.K. Squadron on the Avengers. Bucky engaged the Red Skull in Steve’s body in combat. Steve managed to gain dominance of Steve’s body and purged the Red Skull from Steve’s body. Red Skull was sent back to a robotic body. Red Skull was bombarded with Pym Particles and grew to a gigantic size. Steve, Sharon, and the Avengers had to fight the giant Red Skull, Sin, Crossbones, and the Super-M.O.D.O.K. Squadron and escape before Osborn and the Dark Avengers arrived. Steve, who had been unstuck in time, had been confronted by two futures, and was left wondering which future was true and how Steve could fight to prevent the dark future Steve saw before Steve.

Bucky was left wondering about Bucky’s future as Captain America now that Steve was back from the dead. Calvin Zabo/Mister Hyde escaped from the Raft. Bucky and Black Widow went to apprehend Hyde, with Steve monitoring the fight. Steve then had to decide who would wield the shield.

While on a U.S.O. tour in Bastogne, Belgium during World War II, Steve and Bucky had encountered several of the U.S.O. soldiers who had been turned into vampires and attacking Steve and Bucky. Steve and Bucky learned it was not Steve and Bucky’s enemy Baron Blood creating these vampires and had to learn who was the source of this plague of vampires and put a stop to it.

Okay, we’ve now completed going over the plot summary, it’s time for my individual bits of this review. I’ll start off, as I always do, by sharing my own personal insights about the book. I will say that I found the stories in this book to be highly enjoyable. I have to admit, it took a little bit of getting used to the idea of Bucky being Captain America. Killing Steve Rogers was not a Marvel plot maneuver I supported. I especially disliked that the kill-shots came from Sharon. But I liked how she was the constant in bringing Steve back from the timestream. I actually didn’t mind the fact that Brubaker made this that Steve wasn’t really dead, he was just lost in time. Sometimes that plot maneuver doesn’t really do it for me, but in this case, I’ll let it fly. I enjoyed the total scope of the Red Skull’s plan to ultimately defeat Captain America, going from beyond killing his greatest enemy to actually becoming his greatest enemy, I thought that was a brilliant plot, and I’ve loved watching it build over the four volumes of this series. I also enjoyed Norman Osborn’s part in this drama, even when he’s not the Green Goblin, he’s still a dangerous villain. I would’ve enjoyed a little more presence from the Dark Avengers; I would’ve liked to have seen a full-on fight between Bucky’s Avengers and Osborn’s Dark Avengers. Still, the final battle between the Avengers and the Red Skull’s forces was satisfying enough for me. In the One Year After issue, I liked all of the vignettes, seeing all the substories was extremely entertaining for me, particularly “The Youth of Today” with Patriot and Rikki Barnes. Now, since this is a graphic novel, I also have to evaluate the graphics of this book as well as the story, which is just as important. There were a lot of artists in this book, and I did, for the most part, enjoy most of their work. There were a few here and there I disliked. I will say that I love the stylizations of Bryan Hitch, and his work in this book was outstanding in my opinion. I also enjoyed Luke Ross’ work in this book in particular. I would also like to go on the record as saying that I think that Bucky’s Captain America costume is a lot cooler than Steve’s. Another aspect of Marvel Epic Collections I evaluate is the title. I judge how appropriate I feel a title is for the book. This book is titled “Reborn.” The majority of this book is the “Captain America: Reborn” limited series, as well as the “Captain America: Reborn” Digital Prologue and “Captain America Reborn: Who Will Wield the Shield?” one-shot, so I will agree that “Reborn” is the most appropriate title for this book. And though it seems extremely nitpicky, I do also evaluate the appropriateness of the cover for the book. What I’m looking for is two things. The first is if what is shown on the cover actually happens on the pages inside the book. The second is if it properly represents the main essence of the book as a whole. This book’s cover features both Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes as Captain America charging into battle. I will say that this is a perfect cover for this book. This book features both Steve and Bucky as Captains America running into battle, and the two are the primary foci of this book, so I have absolutely no complaints about this as the choice of the cover. For the most part, I found consuming this book to be a positive experience, and the marketing for this book is absolutely appropriate.

Our next topic of discussion is accessibility. I’ve done over seven dozen reviews like this, and each time I explain the meaning of the usage of this word in application to a graphic novel because I always have new readers every time I do a review who don’t know what I mean when I use the word, so if you’ve ever read one of my reviews before, please bear with me while I explain myself to the newbies. So, when I use the word “accessibility” when talking about a graphic novel, what I mean is how easy it is for someone who knows absolutely nothing about Captain America or Marvel in general to obtain this graphic novel, read the comic from cover to cover, and understand everything they have just read, with no outside context. So, when evaluating the accessibility of this book, I have to bring up that this book is marketed as Vol. 4, and it does continue a thread that’s been building over the previous three volumes. Not having read the whole storyline is extremely detrimental to following the story in this volume. That said, I will point out a few things that help with accessibility, as well. This book does not pick up directly from a story begun in the previous volume. It also does not tie in to any events going on at the time. All the series contained in this volume are Captain America titles. This book does not contain any crossovers into other ongoing series. However, if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before and are looking for your first volume, I would not pick this one as a first choice.

Moving right along, we’re up to the scoring. The numeric score is one of the most essential aspects of my reviews. I know I have people who come primarily just to see how good I think a book is before they commit to reading it, but there are people who love coming here so they can read about the story, but every segment of my reviews holds a point of value, so there’s no saying that any one paragraph of my review is the most important to everyone. So, on that note, I think first I should explain my scoring system. It’s extremely simple. I score on a scale of exact whole numbers ranging from one to ten. One is the lowest score I can possibly give, and that means that this book is so horrible that I wouldn’t even tell the people I dislike the most to read this book, as it’s a total waste of time and money and should be avoided at all costs. Ten, on the other hand, is my highest score, reserved only to books of absolute sheer perfection. To get a ten from me, a book has to have a storyline that totally engages me and I can find no faults with, artwork that is consistently visually appealing, a title that perfectly describes the main point of the content in the book, and a cover that accurately depicts what a reader can expect to see and perfectly captures the essence of the book. It is extremely difficult for a book to get a ten from me, I don’t often find a book to truly be what I consider perfection. So, upon careful consideration, when taking every one of those factors and analyzing the entire comic, I would score this book at… an eight! The story was, for the most part, enjoyable, but I wouldn’t say it’s one of the best reads I’ve ever had. In general, the art was relatively decent, but there were a few artists here and there that were just not visually palatable. The title fit the book very well. The cover captured the essence of what was contained within the pages of this book. Overall, I thought this book was an outstanding production, and I highly enjoyed consuming it.

Continuing on, we’re going to my recommendation segment. This segment is designed to answer two questions. The first is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my wonderful readers? The second is, regardless of if I give this book my personal stamp of approval, who is the perfect audience for this book, going beyond the obvious of fans of Marvel, Captain America, and the creative team, and looking at key components of this book that reading demographics could find appealing? To answer my first question, yes, this book does get the Tim Cubbin recommendation, so if you were considering reading this book based solely on just the words I’ve been typing for the past several hours and were waiting to see if I would tell you to read it, I will, so hop onto your favorite online retailer, head to your local bookstore, comic book shop, or library, or hit up someone you know who collects Marvel graphic novels, and get your hands on this book and read it. If you enjoyed reading this review, you will definitely enjoy reading the actual book. As for who would be the perfect audience, I would say it would be appealing to people who served in the military or fought in a war, as there are a lot of war scenes, and Captain America and Bucky Barnes are relatable to people who have been in the military. If you’re interested in World War II fiction, this book does have several scenes that come from the time-period, so they could be appealing.

Okay, we’re getting closer to the finish line. There are things I need to say before I hit publish and let you go about your business. First off, feel free to keep on exploring timcubbin.blogspot.com for tons more content. I’ve been working on this blog for six years now and have done over two hundred posts. I’ve posted several short stories, poems, essays, articles, and editorials, as well as reviews. I’ve reviewed prose novels, comic book events, and manga, as well as over seven dozen other Epic Collection reviews just like this one. The current primary focus of this blog is on Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase every one of those as soon as I can after they are released and put up a review of it as soon as possible. Seeing as this is the case, I publish posts very often, usually at least once every two months. If you enjoyed this review and want to read something similar, search for my reviews of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” “Captain America: Death of the Dream” and “Captain America: The Burden of Dreams” for more Captain America content. For those of you curious about what’s coming next, my next review is going to be “Hulk: Fall of the Hulks” which you can expect to see within the next two months following the posting of this review. I’m going to be doing this blog for as long as I’m able to, so don’t expect there to be any end to Tim Cubbin content in sight. If you have anything to say, please feel free to drop a comment on this blog page or on whatever site you’ve found this review on, and please like, share, retweet, and tell all your friends about this page, spread the word, I appreciate all the love and support from my readers. That’s all I have to say for this review. Until next I post, Tim Cubbin… out!