Well That Didn't Take Very Long: A (Late) Review of Captain America #2

written by Ta Nehisi Coates
penciled by Leinil Francis Yu
inked by Yu and Gerry Alanguilan
colored by Sonny Gho

The mysterious force unleashing clones of the deadly cyborg Nuke on the United States continues its rampage, and as Cap fights a seemingly never-ending army of them, all out to commit murder and mayhem, the weight of his having been the face of HYDRA continues to weigh heavily on him, especially considering that he may not have been quite as innocent as even those closest to him may believe. Thunderbolt Ross tells Steve to stand down, but Cap's never been one for following orders he doesn't believe in. Meanwhile, Sharon Carter is about to go deep underground for a mission.

To be honest, while I enjoyed a lot about the first issue of this new relaunch, one of the highlights was definitely the fight between Cap and the Nuke clones. Clearly, writer Ta Nehisi Coates thought so, too, because he basically reproduced it in the first several pages of the book. I literally thought at one point that I was looking at some sort of flashback, especially since Coates opened with yet another "skinny Steve" montage, the last of which we readers saw in these pages as recently as Mark Waid's Captain America #695 less than a year ago.

Coates did a solid, if not quite spectacular job at setting up his larger narrative last issue, and would have done the story a power of good by pushing things along even further, but in this issue neither Selene nor her mysterious Russian benefactor is anywhere to be found. Having Steve struggle with his conscience, and introducing the element of him having asked for his youth, vitality and strength back at a time when he had become the old man that he is does not quite break the distinctly repetitive feeling that bogs down this issue.

Fortunately, though, Yu, Alanguilan and Gho continue to deliver on the art front, which is basically this issue's saving grace. Still, as much as I enjoy the art, I can't imagine myself enjoying four or five issues of Yu et al drawing Cap fighting a Nuke army. Coates has got to push the story along a little more briskly than this or at the very, very least, avoid repeating himself as he has so clearly done here.

6/10