Well, it made the national papers: Captain America is back and here’s where you learn all about it. These juicy secrets where so powerful that our American cousins couldn’t wait until Wednesday to get them. There was a special comic shipment just for this enormous comic. But was it worth it? The MONDOcomics team will tell you.
Captain America #600
Main story: Ed Brubaker (w); Butch Guice, Howard Chaykin, Rafael Albuquerque, David Aja, Mitch Breitwiser (a).
Back-up stories: Alex Ross, Paul Dini, Roger Stern (w); Kalman Andrasofszky, Dale Eaglesham (a). Marvel Comics.
This is a really impressive comic because it weaves in about a dozen important characters and is still somehow manageable. Of course, the lengthened page count helps that out significantly: this is the heaviest saddle-stitched comic I’ve ever bought. Almost every single thread that Brubaker has touched on during his run comes into play in this issue, with one helluva kicker into the next storyline. One under-appreciated part of this comic and Captain America in general is how good the action is. Brubaker writes visceral action and has some great partners in this issue to bring it to life. In this issue, the Sharon fight and the Crossbones escape are two excellent pieces of violence. For 51 issues (plus a couple side stories), Brubaker has written a compelling action series and has never lost steam. The back-up stories in this comic only strengthen my argument that Brubaker now owns these characters. The stories themselves are fine, they just don’t have Brubaker’s flare or tone, though Stern’s comes impressively close. — Miles Baker
Miles’ rating: 4.5 out of 5
Even if I didn’t like it, I could’ve used it as a doorstop; this thing is massive. I’m going to touch on the extra stories only briefly, as I don’t have much to say about them. They’re okay, mostly. The one I really liked was Mark Waid’s. It was a really well-told story with fantastic art by Dale Eaglesham (a personal favourite of mine). On to the main story, though. Ed Brubaker is telling the story of a memorial being held for Cap one year after his death and in doing so he gets to demonstrate, once again, the effect that Cap’s death has had on those closest to him. It works well that we get to look at the characters and think how this year has changed them, but overall I found that the story didn’t pop as much as I would have liked. The rotating artists were jarring at times, and the appearance of the “Heroes Reborn” She-Bucky was odd. The ending was sudden and (thanks to Marvel’s publicity machine) anti-climactic. I found myself saying “that’s it? Well I knew that! I wanted you to tell me how.” I really did like this issue, don’t get me wrong. It just didn’t benefit from coming out one month after last month’s Bucky birthday issue, which accomplished more with less. If it seems that I’m being hard on a book that I’m giving a high rating, it’s just that I expected it to be great, rather than very good. — Owen Craig
Owen’s rating: 3.5 out of 5
Finding the right balance of tribute, celebration, and new story is always difficult for these big anniversary issues. It’s never a bad start to have an Alex Ross-drawn origin to get the ball rolling. I’m not a fan of Howard Chaykin’s art, and even though it took me out of the moment to have his entry about “The Other Steve Rogers,” it’s still an oddly appropriate choice. The inclusion of girl-Bucky is cool, giving me something to be nostalgic over — not just a WW2 vet of a character, but a short-lived character from the terrible nineties when I was getting into comics. The Mark Waid-penned “The Persistence of Memorabilia,” is an explanation to everyone out there of the value of these crazy comics we buy week after week, and everyone should read it. — Isaac Mills
Isaac’s rating: 4 out of 5
When I first opened this anniversary issue of Captain America and got a glimpse of old reprinted story in the back, I was a little bit hesitant about the amount of money that I’d have to drop for this. To be quite honest, I didn’t read it either and I probably won’t. That’s just me though.
I did enjoy reading the main feature by Brubaker, although some of the short stories seemed to be out of place. I suppose the big reveal would be what was discovered in Sharon Carter’s little bit, where she finds out that the gun she used to shoot Steve Rogers wasn’t just any old gun. I don’t know, maybe it’s magical or something. I mean, it didn’t reveal anything more than the big back cover ad of this issue. It’s trying to be all coy and sneaky, but fact is that Steve Rogers isn’t dead and he’s coming back.
The others bits were also good, but I’m not very nostalgic about it because I only recently got into Captain America, and some of the characters just don’t resonate the same way with me as they would with a hardcore fan. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed reading it and it was interesting to see what the lives of others had become since Steve Rogers died. I’m just a little bitter about the fact that they are bringing him back from the dead in the first place. I know it’s hard to keep such a popular character six-feet-under, but come on. Bucky’s been doing such a great job. I REALLY like him. But who knows, maybe he’ll keep the mantle and Steve Rogers will dawn a new suit. Although, I’m sure all complaints aside, I’ll probably still pick up Captain America: Reborn when it hits the shelves and I’ll still be raving about how much I like Ed Brubaker. I’m so weak. — Sandra Yao
Sandra’s rating: 3.5 out of 5
