written by Mark Waid
drawn by Chris Samnee
colored by Matt Wilson
After three self-contained issues of more traditional superhero stories, which ended with Captain America getting frozen in a block of ice yet again, Mark Waid and Chris Samnee plunge Cap (and readers) into a disturbing future dystopia in which America is now ruled by a king and most people live in squalor. The real shock, though, hits cap when he learns that unlike the last time, he wasn't actually frozen for very long, and that it took America a distressingly short amount of time to reduce the entire country to a shambles. Alongside a bunch of ragtag rebels, he decides to fight back.
While I'm sure Marvel's right-wing readership will roll their eyes at Waid waving his "social justice warrior" flag in this issue and this story arc, I'm not so sure his "SJW" brigade of readers will exactly embrace this story. I mean, Waid has gone for a fairly broad allegorical approach here (though I wonder if the fact that "Rampart" the name of the evil organization responsible for all this, sounds vaguely like "Trumptard" is a coincidence), and God knows the criticism he is leveling against the current administration is valid, but with characters named "Liang" and a character named "Dinesh" dying violently, Waid is displaying all the subtlety of a sledgehammer and I worry that he might be putting more emphasis on his messaging than his storytelling. I rather prefer Soule's approach over in "Daredevil," which strikes a better balance.
Also, given that the story is set in a scenario so far removed from Marvel's current status quo, the story feels inconsequential, i.e. that it will be undone and forgotten within a few issues. It could also be interpreted as a retread of Rick Remender's and John Romita Jr.'s "Castaway from Dimension Z" only this time with an explicitly political message. Essentially, once it's wrapped up, it seems that Cap will be plunked back into whatever constitutes the Marvel Universe status quo and will go on to another adventure. While I'm not really an advocate of status quo shattering, Mark Waid does a pretty good job of it, as he and Chris Samnee showed in their run on Daredevil.
Speaking of Samnee, he turns in excellent work for this issue and basically saves the day, considering Waid's gone a bit off the rails this time. I've sung paeans to this artist time and time again, so I don't know that I have anything new to write in praise of him, but suffice it to say he delivers the goods yet again.
Things should get interesting next issue as Cap is joined by two other iconic superheroes.
7.5/10
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