Steve Rogers: Captain America 1 review

Boy is this comic’s ending causing a stir online. I’ll talk about the spoiler later on, but for now let’s talk about the comic as a whole.

Written by Nick Spencer, Steve Rogers: Captain America takes place not long after Steve is restored to his younger self with super strength, along with a new shield that’s based on his original design. Through most of this comic, it feels like a Captain America story. The romantic scene between Steve and Sharon Carter is nice, and also explains how Steve was restored to his younger self in case you didn’t read … wherever that happened.

As with both the original comics and the Captain America movies, the story gets fairly political without it getting in the way of the story. There seems to be a coming war within Hydra, meanwhile Red Skull is taking a hard stance against mass immigration. His speech is very well written, and without taking sides on a political debate, there are a lot of people in the real world who feel the same way. Of course the vast majority of them won’t take it to the same extreme that Red Skull and his followers do in this comic. This eventually leads to a tragic moment where Captain America saves lives, but fails to stop a suicide bomber at the end.

Controversial spoiler time

The comic’s main story is interwoven with a glimpse into Captain America’s past, where he and his mother is saved from his abusive father by a mysterious woman. This woman turns out to be working with Hydra. The very last page in this comic is the big twist that’s proving controversial. Captain America has been a Hydra double agent the entire time, or that’s how things appear at least. Personally I’m kind of interested in seeing how this plays out, but it makes me feel uneasy at the same time. It’s also kind of hard to believe in a number of ways, but that’s usually how great plot twists in comics work.

End spoilers

The art and colouring by Jesus Saiz is great. The flashback scenes are mostly drawn in black and white, with a touch of brown on the buildings in New York. The only prominent colour in these flashbacks is red, whether it’s one character’s scarf, touches of blood or a street light that’s illuminated in red. It actually works really well for the spoiler moment in hindsight. The main comic is bright and colourful. Both halves of the comic are very well detailed. The certain character’s scarf is complete with fur lines, and shards of glass fly everywhere when Captain America smashes through a window, and some of them are even cracked. Facial expressions and tears do a great job at conveying emotions. Also when someone’s supposed to look either old or in rough shape, they look realistically so.

This comic is something else, that’s for sure. Ignoring the controversial moment, it’s very well written and very well drawn. Through most of the story it feels like a classic Captain America story, with some great guest stars who could very well contribute to the story going forward. Despite that, I’m not sure whether I want to continue with this run or not, and that’s because of the twist. Captain America fans should at least check this story out, but at the same time, read it before you buy it if knowing that this comic is controversial worries you.

7.5/10