Captain America: Steve Rogers (2016-) #4 by Nick Spencer
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I suppose the derailment was bound to happen sooner or later. This series, that began by courting controversy has now dwindled into a verbose, complicated mess. I keep telling myself the writer has a plan, yet the convoluted machinations of the plot and of Steve's corrupted brain is making it less plausible by the issue.
In this one, Hydra-Cap does nothing but talk, and I mean this in the literal sense. He doesn't move from his position, instead giving us pages-long explanations for why Dr. Selvig should help him with his plan. And what is his plan - a ridiculous and predictable one revealed to us on the very last panel. The upsetting thing is that in an attempt to leave this revelation to the last panel, the writer makes this an incredibly boring, wayward entry in the series. It is schizophrenic in its story-telling, jumping from group to group, plot to plot. We're with Cap one moment, and with Maria Hill and her woeful attempts at belittling the SHIELD Security Council the next. Of course, Hill gets her figurative come-uppance by another character a few panels in, proving yet again that Marvel's writers all hate Maria Hill and begrudge her rise to the highest authority in SHIELD. Don't quote me on this, but Maria gets treated pretty badly in all the comics I've read, and it cannot be a coincidence. What do all the writers have against her?
We jump from the curtailed SHIELD scene to a curtailed scene where elderly Sharon Carter attempts to table a new SHIELD act, which sounds scarily like that other act that was tabled a few years ago and eventually led to that little thing called Marvel's Civil War. Of course, issue #4 falls in with the Civil War II storyline (which I haven't had the chance to read yet) so there has to be some precursor to the start of that war.
Because this falls into the Civil War II storyline there are a lot of extraneous characters floating about trying to look important (#snark alert). All they do is halt the actual story and add nothing to the narrative. And since I don't read comics regularly, I don't even know who half these people are, or why I should care. All this jumping about makes the book feel longer, less interesting and far too complicated.
It was nice to see Bucky Barnes again, even though his role seems to be primary babysitter for the cosmic kid that started all these problems - Kobik. Yeah, my head hurts trying to figure it all out.
The entire Hydra concept may have seemed novel when pitched to the studio, but now it's just becoming a mess. There are only so many ways to make Cap look bad before he becomes irredeemable. All the while the writer has to make a coherent story that involves Hydra being a big part of Cap's life and being an idealistic goal for Cap to attain. How this fits in with Cap's 70+ year history has yet to be addressed; and I think it probably never will.
If upcoming issues are going to drag as much as this one, I may find myself giving up on the series altogether. Here's hoping the pace, logic and character arcs pick up from the next issue onwards.
View all my reviews
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
I suppose the derailment was bound to happen sooner or later. This series, that began by courting controversy has now dwindled into a verbose, complicated mess. I keep telling myself the writer has a plan, yet the convoluted machinations of the plot and of Steve's corrupted brain is making it less plausible by the issue.
In this one, Hydra-Cap does nothing but talk, and I mean this in the literal sense. He doesn't move from his position, instead giving us pages-long explanations for why Dr. Selvig should help him with his plan. And what is his plan - a ridiculous and predictable one revealed to us on the very last panel. The upsetting thing is that in an attempt to leave this revelation to the last panel, the writer makes this an incredibly boring, wayward entry in the series. It is schizophrenic in its story-telling, jumping from group to group, plot to plot. We're with Cap one moment, and with Maria Hill and her woeful attempts at belittling the SHIELD Security Council the next. Of course, Hill gets her figurative come-uppance by another character a few panels in, proving yet again that Marvel's writers all hate Maria Hill and begrudge her rise to the highest authority in SHIELD. Don't quote me on this, but Maria gets treated pretty badly in all the comics I've read, and it cannot be a coincidence. What do all the writers have against her?
We jump from the curtailed SHIELD scene to a curtailed scene where elderly Sharon Carter attempts to table a new SHIELD act, which sounds scarily like that other act that was tabled a few years ago and eventually led to that little thing called Marvel's Civil War. Of course, issue #4 falls in with the Civil War II storyline (which I haven't had the chance to read yet) so there has to be some precursor to the start of that war.
Because this falls into the Civil War II storyline there are a lot of extraneous characters floating about trying to look important (#snark alert). All they do is halt the actual story and add nothing to the narrative. And since I don't read comics regularly, I don't even know who half these people are, or why I should care. All this jumping about makes the book feel longer, less interesting and far too complicated.
It was nice to see Bucky Barnes again, even though his role seems to be primary babysitter for the cosmic kid that started all these problems - Kobik. Yeah, my head hurts trying to figure it all out.
The entire Hydra concept may have seemed novel when pitched to the studio, but now it's just becoming a mess. There are only so many ways to make Cap look bad before he becomes irredeemable. All the while the writer has to make a coherent story that involves Hydra being a big part of Cap's life and being an idealistic goal for Cap to attain. How this fits in with Cap's 70+ year history has yet to be addressed; and I think it probably never will.
If upcoming issues are going to drag as much as this one, I may find myself giving up on the series altogether. Here's hoping the pace, logic and character arcs pick up from the next issue onwards.
View all my reviews
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