Captain America By Ed Brubaker Omnibus
Two Years Of Stories Bound Together In All Their Star-Spangled Glory
Captain America By Ed Brubaker Omnibus
July 11th, 2008 - The back of the book talks about “The Death of a Dream.” Spoiler!! They ain’t kidding! It was on the news everywhere people. Captain America died! And before he got to have his movie. This massive tome tells the story of how he kicked the bucket. I can hear a few of you shuffling in the back. I know, you bought the issue where he died, you sent the copy to be appraised and hermetically sealed so you could retire when it sells on ebay. Me too. But the truth is that if you just saw the end of the story, you really didn’t know any of it. Because this book has a whole lot more going for it than just telling the last tales of Steve Rogers. And the story of how he got to the place where he died had so much more going on to it than just what was seen in Civil War.
Top Ten Reasons to Buy This Book
10. It is awesome.
9. I said you should buy it and you trust me implicitly.
8. It makes Captain America really cool. Seriously, this is a guy who is really strong and loves America, not the best pitch I ever heard for a story. This Captain America has chutzpah. He has self-doubt, which is what I’ve been missing from Superman all these years. But most of all he is a fully developed and complete person. Brubaker makes Steve Rogers come alive like no one else has. He is fully realized here. There is no blind patriotism. There is only a love of the ideals of this country. There is no partisan politics, only a man trying to do the best he can.
7. There’s a lot of politics and espionage. Someone, somewhere said that all politics is power. And that is interesting. Who has the power, and how do they use it? True, I suppose that every superhero comic by default has some power play in it. But here in Brubaker’s world, there is more. There is a whole element of spying and trickery afoot here. And I love every minute. When was the last time you saw Captain America breaking international law so he can try to punch a bad guy? That is politics.
6. Captain America has no idea what is going on. That is also interesting to me. He really has no idea what the Red Skull is up to. He’s trying really hard to find out. But even when he gets a clue, he doesn’t even trust if it’s real or not. And we don’t really get a complete picture either. It’s a really complex puzzle that I’m having a blast trying to figure out. Brubaker should be the next comics writer that “Lost” scoops up. He knows how to tease a reader with a complicated mystery.
5. The supporting cast is a joy. Cap is great, but what really makes him shine here are the people around him. And even better, especially when considering the status-quo-clinging tendencies of comics, the relationships between Cap and his posse are continually growing and changing. In particular I’m talking about Cap and Sharon Carter. It starts in issue 1 and continues to get better all the way to the last second, in very surprising ways if you have managed to keep yourself spoiler free. Add to that a Nick Fury, that isn’t revolutionary, but is just perfect. Brubaker writes perfect Fury dialogue.
4. You have the whole thing in one beautiful package. I was personally elated to see Marvel start to publish these oversized hardcovers. They make everything look so damn good. The artwork just pops here, the added size just plays up the details that the artists slaved to put in. And then they upped the ante with the “Omnibus” books. The ones that could be used as a lethal weapon if necessary. Here you have over two years of stories, plus extras. Two years of sweat and tears and (maybe) blood in your hands! So it might be a little expensive, you can go without food for a week or two! Remember all those Ramen noodles in college?
3. Steve Epting shouldn’t be this good. The art is above all things solid. And I mean that in the best way possible. It’s the kind of art that breezes by you. You don’t notice how good it is because the artist isn’t trying to show off. I think he’s taking a cue from another favorite artist of mine, an Ed Brubaker regular, Mr. Sean Phillips. The art is a bit looser, a bit rough around the edges. I’m not sure if he switched to a brush or what, but the artist here is not the same man as we have seen before. The art is steady and easy to read. And perfectly suited to the story. Which I would expect from a veteran such as Epting, but here he goes further than he has before. He has upped his game. In the “extras” there are some uncolored pages from Epting. Do yourself a favor, check them out. Absolutely stunning.
2. I already mentioned that this represents two years of comics. But what that really means is that you get to see everything from a bird’s eye view. Suddenly events that were read months apart in the steady trickle of monthly publishing are now juxtaposed right next to one another. I suppose this could be said of any of the large collections, but here, in a story about twists and turns of plot, a story of winding subplots and dangling mysteries, having everything in your hands all at once brings a clarity to the story that I feel is lost month to month. The momentum here builds beautifully. And as you get to the close of the book you wonder in the back of your head, did Brubaker know exactly where he was going from page one?
1. This is a bit spoilery, so if you want your reading experience to be untainted, DON’T READ ON. Okay, so a certain sidekick was brought back from the dead. Now some of the time in comics you get characters coming back from the dead. It happens. Hal Jordan, Superman, Aunt May. It happens. But never have I read a character coming back from the dead that was handled like this. THIS is why I’m telling you to spend money on this book. Because bringing Bucky back from the dead was so well thought out, and made such a meaningful impact on the story, that even though I wanted to scream from the towers that it was a bad idea, that bringing back a character that was dead for 50 years made no sense and was a sign of the apocalypse, I am in fact awed by what they have done. The cold war references, the logic behind it, it all makes me smile just thinking about Bucky not being dead.
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