written by Mark Waid
drawn by Leonardo Romero, with Adam Hughes and J.G. Jones
colored by Matt Wilson, Hughes, and Paul Mounts
Various circumstances prevented me from picking up my regular comics for the last couple of weeks, and a result the only reviews I've been able to write are various spoiler-ridden posts about Avengers: Infinity War. Fortunately, I was finally able to pick up my backlog today, and I was utterly delighted with every single issue that I read out of today's pile, starting with Captain America #701.
It is the distant future, one in which the ideals that Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, fought for have become a defining reality for all of humankind. In short, the world is now a utopia of sorts thanks not only to the ideals that Cap fought for but for the secrets that his super-soldier-serum-infused blood yielded upon his death that helped medical science advance in leaps and bounds. In this milieu, however, we find Steve Rogers distant descendant, historian Jack Rogers, fighting to save the life of his terminally-ill son Steve, whose survival, the beleaguered Jack believes, may lie with the very formula that gave his ancestor super strength. Jack begs the President to allow the secrets of the super soldier serum to be declassified so that young Steve's doctors may look at it more closely to help them figure out a cure, but the Chief of Staff is particularly restrictive about the secrets of the age-old serum. Jack uses his access as a historian to secretly find out what he can behind closed doors about the serum, and what he learns shocks him and subverts everything he thinks he knows about the serum.
Truth be told, this is the kind of story I was hoping to read when I'd heard that Mark Waid would be taking over this title. It's fresh, engaging and action-packed all at once, and, as an added bonus, is lavishly illustrated, featuring not only work by the capable Leonardo Romero, whose work quite strongly evokes that of Chris Samnee, whose wonderful linework adorned the last six issues, but also eight pages by industry legends Adam Hughes and J.G. Jones, who contribute two four-page flashback sequences each. The book starts off quite strong with Hughes' four-page flashback, which features Cap and Bucky fighting during World War II. While not exactly scaling the heights of Waid's work with Samnee on Daredevil, this is the most engaging Waid's current run on this character has ever been, and it's gratifying to know that this will be a full, four-issue arc. I'll be around for every single issue.
8.8/10
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