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Review: Captain America: The Fighting Avenger #1

By | April 14th, 2011
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Written by Brian Clevinger
Illustrated by Gurihiru

He’s got the strength. He’s got the training. But has he got what it takes? A ragtag Special Forces unit takes Captain America on his first mission of World War II. Their orders? Don’t get him killed! But when the low-profile assignment draws the attention of Baron Strucker, the future Red Skull and half the Nazi army, it’ll be a crash course in super heroics for Marvel’s first Avenger!

We sure have given this book a lot of pre-release hype on this site, haven’t we? Over the last few months, we’ve witnessed this book’s demotion from ongoing series, to mini-series, right down to a one-shot combining the only two issues of the book to be completed and lamenting the downfall of all-ages comics that that demotion seemed to indicate. Now that its finally here, it’s hard to review it as anything but a completely delightful and charming wasted opportunity.

Like the dearly departed Thor: The Mighty Avenger, this book sought to recreate the legend of Captain America with a certain uniquely modern sensibility (despite the story taking place in the familiar Cap territory of World War II) in a way that can be enjoyed by readers from across the age spectrum. The story opens with a never-to-be-moniker’d US Commando Squad getting a nubile, just enlisted but still not even named Steve Rogers thrust into their care in order to learn the war tactics he would need as America’s Sentinel of Liberty. Once I realized this was going to be the modality Clevinger would use to introduce the readership to Cap, I immediately realized that he was also filling a pretty glaring plot hole in the Cap history.

Lowly, skinny Steve Rogers with zero military experience gets the super soldier serum and is all of a sudden navigating the front lines as a tactical genius two days later? Since that sure as hell is what the early issues of Cap seem to indicate. Ultimately, getting your physique instantaneously raised to the peak of human efficiency does not automatically give you the mental wherewithal to pull off ANY of the feats he would later accomplish. It makes PERFECT sense that some kind of training would have had to occur, and finally we get to see it (albeit a side-continuity version, but still the sentiment counts).

From there, the story is simple. Nazis ambush them, Cap saves the day until Baron “Complete Jerk” Strucker (yes, the caption did say that) shows up with a bigger tank, all are captured, overzealous Nazi scientist tries to match Cap’s power and ends up with a Red Skull, everyone escapes, Nazi castle blows up and the good guys win. A more classic Cap story has not been seen in quite some time. In this day and age when comics are filled to the brim with faux-philosophica and overly complicated narrative and intentionally unanswered plot threads, it is a breath of fresh air to read a book who’s only goal is to tell a complete story with a beginning, middle and end and just have FUN with it. All of the creative banter, interplay and situational development in this story is living, breathing proof that Clevinger was just having a blast writing this book, and as a reader you can’t ask anything more than for a writer to bring their own joy into their story.

Speaking of joy, Gurihiru’s “not quite manga but basically manga” pencils are just loads and loads of fun. I’ve witnessed the evolution of this two-man Japanese art-attack team over the years as their look gets a bit harder and little less childlike and this book is the next stage of that particular evolution. Their crisp line-work that combines both eastern and western sensibilities really fits the jovial but still intense nature of the script (there be Nazis here, after all), and manage to create a unique look and feel for the book. We’ve seen countless stories of Cap in World War II, but I would go so far as to say that this is one of the most visually interesting yet still respectful takes on that theme.

It’s clear, given the “character the *blank* avenger” title that Marvel was attempting to build a bit of a line for themselves with this book and the aforementioned Thor book, which was hastily aborted when Thor did not sell. And that is damn unfortunate since to be blatantly honest, the only points I can wager against this book is the fact that it won’t continue. It was very clearly intended to be the first of many and was not really amended much after it’s hasty cancellation to insert a more concrete ending. Though that makes me more sad FOR the team as opposed to angry AT the team at the end of the day. Yes, we know all ages books don’t sell and that comics are a business and blah blah blah, but when books like this are cut so tragically short, it makes me wonder if fandom (which then impacts the industry)is moving in the direction it should be.

Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy! (Please?)


Joshua Mocle

Joshua Mocle is an educator, writer, audio spelunker and general enthusiast of things loud and fast. He is also a devout Canadian. He can often be found thinking about comics too much, pretending to know things about baseball and trying to convince the masses that pop-punk is still a legitimate genre. Stalk him out on twitter and thought grenade.

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