Captain America takes a step away from Dimension Z and dives into some good old fashioned Cold War action, in the oft-delayed miniseries “Captain America: Living Legend” from Andy Diggle and Adi Granov.
Written by Andy Diggle
Illustrated by Adi Granov• When a top-secret orbital research station is dragged from the sky by an unknown alien force, army-of-one Steve Rogers finds himself caught between two global superpowers on the brink of war!
• But how does it involve Volkov – a decorated Russian officer he last crossed paths with during the closing days of World War II, who disappeared on an ill-fated lunar mission over forty years ago?
• Andy Diggle and Adi Granov send living legend Captain America on a one-man mission into the heart of darkness—in search of another!
Punctuality is vitally important within the comic book industry. Readers expect the new issue of “Spider-Man” or “Fantastic Four” to be on time, and on stores shelves every month. After the boom and bust of the 1990’s, where books were announced and then never published, canceled mid-story, or just drifted away in a cloud of delays only to wait for the inevitable relaunch (looking at you, “Youngblood”), meeting deadlines became a point of pride among the Big Two Companies.
As a result, when a high-profile book is announced only to subsequently disappear, the comics community is not so quick to forget. This was the case with “Astonishing Captain America” from the creative team of Andy Diggle and Adi Granov, which was originally announced in 2010 to coincide with the Captain America: The First Avenger film, only to vanish from Marvel solicitations. Now, with a sequel film heading to theatres next spring, the re-titled and retooled “Captain America: Living Legend” has finally been released.
The first issue of a four part miniseries, “Living Legend” opens in the dying days of World War II, deep in the frozen Alps. A Soviet platoon is preparing to attack a Nazi bunker, who seemed determined to fight to the death. An injured Soviet captain seems ready to retreat, but the young Sergeant Volkov rebukes him, and leads the attack himself. The Nazi’s are prepared for an attack, and the Soviets are almost completely gunned downed before the timely arrival of Captain America and a squad of US soldiers. The Soviets and Americans are not instantly buddies, however, and it becomes clear that this bunker holds something both parties desire. Time jumps forward to 1968 and finds an older Volkov as a Soviet cosmonaut, reminiscing about his days in the war, as he sits on the launch pad and prepares to become the first man to walk on the moon. Another time jump brings the story into the present, where a space station crashes to earth in the middle of Siberia, and Captain America is sent to investigate the wreck and a mysterious connection to his past.
Andy Diggle excels when dealing with gritty warriors shaped by their time in battle. The characters he has dealt with, from Oliver Queen to the Thunderbolts team to The Losers, are all fighters who have been shaped and molded by their experiences in combat. Steve Rogers, everybody’s favourite WW II veteran/giant Boy Scout, would seem to be squarely within Diggle’s wheelhouse. This makes the fact that Captain America appears only briefly in this issue at first seem a bit perplexing, until it becomes clear that it is Volkov who is getting the full Diggle treatment. It only takes one scene for Diggle to establish Volkov as the proverbial good soldier, as committed to the Union as Rogers is to the country that made him a superhero. Volkov will obviously be playing a large role in the miniseries, and in just a few pages Diggle has created a character with enough similarities to the Captain that readers will understand him, but with enough differences to make their conflict interesting.
The decision to feature three separate timelines in the story, 1945, 1968, and the present, is certainly an ambitious one, and one that doesn’t have the biggest payoff in the first issue. The focus is understandably centered in 1945, with the later periods feeling somewhat like a double-epilogue. The burden of exposition and set up that falls on any first issue would surely justify this imbalance, but it is the unfortunate side effect of making the book feel a bit like a prelude to the larger story. The three timeline structure does have great potential to show many sides of Steve Rogers, the man out of time, and link the more realistic adventures of Captain America and his adversary during wartime, with his present activities as superhero.
Continued belowAdi Granov is not a name commonly seen on the inside of comic books. The artist is known primarily for his cover work, one shot issues, and concept development for the Marvel films. His style, while gorgeous, is also time consuming and seems to preclude him from work on an ongoing monthly series. Due to delays, this will be the only issue of “Captain America: Living Legend” to be illustrated by Granov, but darn it if he doesn’t leave a huge impression. Granov’s art is lifelike and richly textured, capturing the larger-than-life persona of Captain America. When Rogers makes his first full appearance, the resulting gorgeous splash page looks instantly iconic. Granov’s style is painterly, almost Alex Ross-like, and grounds the book firmly in a real world setting.
Granov should also be commended for his work on all the backgrounds featured throughout the issue. The majority of the story takes place outside in a bitterly cold winter, where everything is grey and covered in snow. Back in the Gold and Silver Age, a winter scene would have been rendered by leaving the page white, a technique Granov surely was tempted to utilize here. Instead, the Alps are rendered with barren trees and dirty ground where soldiers have marched across. The sparseness doesn’t look lazy at all; instead it adds a great deal of texture to the scene, and makes Captain America’s first appearance even more striking.
“Captain America: Living Legend” #1 is off to a good, if slightly protracted start. The story from Andy Diggle is compelling, and Adi Gravnov’s art is beautiful to look at, it just suffers from a bit of ‘first-issue-syndrome’. The set-up takes a bit of time, and future issues would be smart to balance out the three timelines a little more evenly. Nevertheless, the book sets up an interesting story that actually manages to bring Roger’s WWII past into the present without feeling forced or corny.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – Buy. It’s a shame that Granov is only the artist for one issue, but his beautiful art is worth the price tag alone.
