Home of the Brave? More Like Travels of the Timid: A Review of Captain America #696

written by Mark Waid
drawn by Chris Samnee
colored by Matt Wilson

Cap's post Secret-Empire status quo continues as Steve Rogers continues his road trip across America, this time stopping over in Sauga, Atlanta, where he is mobbed by an adoring public, and where he happens to run into--surprise, surprise--another bad guy, this time the masked villain Swordsman, or at least, someone new assuming the guise.

When Mark Waid and Chris Samnee launched a new status quo for Daredevil three years ago, they started off with a very strong, done-in-one first issue, then, with the second issue, launched into a genuinely interesting story involving the Shroud, a one-time hero who had fallen on hard times and had sort of turned to the "dark side," and one of DD's longtime foes, the Owl. It was absorbing stuff, and though there were some flaws in the execution, Waid and Samnee still turned in excellent work.

Here, two issues into their new, highly-anticipated run on Captain America, the dynamic duo already appear to be stuck in a rut. For the second issue in a row, they have Cap traveling to a small town in America and facing off against a B-list villain. I get that there's a theme running through these first few issues, but it would help if the storytelling didn't feel distinctly bland. Both creators (yes, even Samnee, whose work I usually adore) appear to have been sleepwalking through this one. Notably this issue doesn't even bother to acknowledge that not too long ago, Cap, or at least someone wearing his face, was the biggest supervillian in the entire Marvel universe, not even with a line of throwaway dialogue, like they used last issue.

Now, it strikes me Waid has plans for this character and that these initial, vanilla stories are to lull readers into complacency before he shows his hand, but really, that's no excuse for this kind of perfunctory storytelling. I'm having a hard time believing how safe Waid is playing things, especially considering how, over in other books, he is more than willing to weather fanboy ire with his "social justice warrior" advocacy over in his Champions book. Here, it's basically just "villain of the month" every month so far, and I know that, even in the short span of two issues, Waid is capable of so much more, and so is Samnee.

I'm still waiting for this new team to come good; such is the goodwill they have that I am willing to forgive issues as conspicuously mediocre as this. But at the equivalent of over four dollars a pop for a paltry twenty pages, things had better start getting better real soon.


6/10