written by Ta Nehisi Coates
penciled by Leinil Francis Yu
inked by Gerry Alanguilan
colored by Sunny Gho
Following the revelation of the identity and motivations of the previously mysterious Alexandra Lukin last issue, Ta Nehisi Coates unveils her sinister plans for Captain America, which involve a lot more than just generic murder and mayhem. Her husband may be back from the dead, courtesy of some black magic, but what she has in store for Cap and his friends involves a lot more than just magic tricks or the usual punch-ups, and with the last few pages of the issue, it becomes clear just how serious her plans are as a major character is found murdered, and a certain star-spangled Avenger is the main suspect.
As I said in my review of the last issue, it was fairly clear that Coates was not going to neatly wrap up his story arc as we were just getting to know his main antagonist but rather was setting up his next big, status quo shattering arc, and he makes his play here. This isn't a bad thing, but Coates suddenly goes heavy on the exposition, as Alexandra meets up with her mentor, who turns out to be no less than a fictionalized version of the infamous Grigori Rasputin and seeks his help in carrying out her plan to destroy America. Coates goes a bit heavy-handed on the allegory, but given how he sets up with one shocking death the trajectory of the next story arc, I can almost forgive him this indulgence. Almost.
What works against Coates here is the fact that readers have only just been through a storyline which has left Cap's reputation in tatters, and in fact Cap is still reeling from the HYDRA takeover of America that he himself, or a shadow of him, spearheaded. The onus is now on Coates to show how his plan to ruin Cap's life is going to be even more hard-hitting than Nick Spencer's, WITHOUT feeling redundant.
Unfortunately, Coates will no longer be joined by his ace collaborators Leinil Yu, Gerry Alanguilan and Sunny Gho, who, per Marvel's solicitations, are ending their tenure on this title with this issue, which is a shame because they've really been consistently good all throughout. Even in this issue, which is basically a bunch of talking heads, they've managed to produce topnotch art. It's just too bad Coates couldn't have his run with them end on a more action-packed note, especially considering the somewhat anticlimactic showdown of last issue, but I get what Coates is going for, even though I don't necessarily agree with it.
It should be interesting to see where the story goes from here, and I hope that Coates can sustain what has, for the most part, been a fairly decent standard of storytelling over these last four issues.
6.5/10
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