Salutations, True Believers! The Marvel Rundown has returned once again to take a look at the latest adventure of the Sentinel of Liberty with CAPTAIN AMERICA #17. In the Rapid Rundown, we take a moment to check on the latest 20th Century/ Marvel crossover with PREDATOR VS PUNISHER #1. Face front, reader! The Marvel Rundown begins now!
Note: the review below may contain spoilers. If you want a quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendation on the comics in question, check out the bottom of the article for our final verdict.
Captain America #17
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artist: Tom Lima
Color Artist: Rod Fernades
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga
As Steve Rogers wakes from his coma, he comes to realize the world has changed following the events Avengers Armageddon. As SHIELD makes their move against Cap, not all is as it seems. Despite Steve being in coma for a considerable length of time there are reports are of a sighting of Steve Rogers and Vic, the young clone of Doom. It has become clear that Grant Rogers, the evil Hydra Cap, has resurfaced and is carrying out his twisted sense of “justice.”
Let’s get this out of the way, I haven’t read much of Chip Zdarsky’s current Captain America run. Sure, I flipped through the pages to get some background on Miracleman, but I haven’t had the chance to read the run closely. I want to be clear because I am going into CAPTAIN AMERICA #17 cold and I found the issue easy to follow. I was curious to see if the start of the new arc would serve as a great on-ramp point, given the significance of Armageddon’s events and the amount of fresh eyes on Zdarsky’s Avengers work. In that regard, I think this issue was successful as a new entry point.
Zdarsky uses non-linear storytelling and the general story plot—Steve Rogers coming out of coma—to organically serve as exposition dumps, all the while maintaining a sense of plot progression. This issue effectively states what has happened and establishes the current state of play for the book. The decision to bring back Grant Rogers as a false claimant to the Cap mantle adds a nice bit of drama to the book and serves as an excellent contrast against Steve’s ideals. With the world governments of the Marvel universe explicitly moving into a much more fascist direction, having the American fascist Grant Rogers running around gives a much more tangible force for Steve Rogers to oppose. Well beyond the systematic fascist oppression of SHIELD. I am excited to see what Zdarsky is going to do with the book. He’s tapping into the elements of Captain America, such as spy craft and subterfuge, that I think plays to the character’s strengths.
The art by Tom Lima is solid Marvel house style. The character work is dynamic and the page/panel construction is well constructed to create a sense of tension. Lima complements Zdarsky’s storytelling in maintaining the misdirection. Given the non-linear nature of the story, Lima (along with Rod Fernades’s colors) creates the illusion that the moments with Steve are flashbacks and that we, the reader, are to believe that the moments with Grant are actually Steve in the present. This is executed by using a desaturated color palette for the Steve segments and a much more vibrant and saturated palette for the present Grant segments. A nice touch is that the page where Steve timeline catches up with the Grant timeline, the color palette becomes unified. That’s the good stuff, right there. I am a sucker for using color to demonstrate timelines and other visual cues.
Overall, I found Captain America #17 to be a great jumping on point for new, curious readers. Zdarsky does a stellar job catching the reader up on current events and setting the stage for the future. Given the increased importance of Zdarsky’s various comic titles, I think this comic is a must read for anyone looking to keep up with the events in the Marvel Universe.
Final Verdict: BUY
The Rapid Rundown
- Predator vs. Punisher #1
Predator vs Punisher #1 - Marvel is back in the Predator vs., business as our favorite psycho vigilante, The Punisher, goes up against our favorite alien hunter. This comic is a great homage to the franchise as we’re on the cusp of a gang war, with the Predator and Punisher both hunting mobsters unaware of the other, building tension as we know the two killers are on track to collide. For this series, writer Frank Tieri and artist Jesús Saíz craft the Predator’s hunt in what could be an ’80s Punisher run, which is fitting, as the Predator franchise was started in the ’80s. That nostalgic feel makes this another strong addition to the Predator vs. line, with the grimy cast of villains, Jigsaw, the Owl, and mobster Silvio Manfredi, aka Silvermane, who apparently has his own history with the Predator. Adding to that ’80s feel is Saíz’s art, invoking the feel of Mike Zeck’s run, but modernized with the shading and texture of his digital artwork, making it more pronounced with a little bit more grit and flavor to it. After the great run Benjamin Percy had with his Predator series, and how Tieri handled his Alien books, I’m excited about this solid start and great setup for another hunt in the Marvel Universe. – GC3
Read past installments of the Marvel Rundown here! And check out the Beat’s other recent comics reviews!
