The Enemy is Revealed...but not Quite the Plot: A (Late) Review of Captain America #5

written by Ta Nehisi Coates
penciled by Leinil Yu
inked by Gerry Alanguilan
colored by Sunny Gho

After the solicitations and the cover for this issue promised a climactic showdown between Captain America and Selene, this issue sort of delivers on the promise as Cap predictably defeats Taskmaster and comes face-to-face with Selene, who is about to consume Sharon Carter. Fireworks ensue.

I'll be honest; I was expecting a bit more from the promised Cap/Selene showdown, judging from the grim cover and the fact that it's the penultimate issue of the story, so I've got to be honest, as semi-climaxes go, this one kind of failed to live up to the hype. Heck, even Cap's fight with Taskmaster lasted longer than this did, and Taskmaster never even made the cover.

Another thing that disappoints is that, rather than set-up a satisfying conclusion to what's been a fairly engaging arc, it seems, based on the future solicitations at least, that Coates is setting up one of those finales that really messes up the status quo for the hero and lays out a whole new arc (or several) in which he strives to claw his way back to some semblance of normalcy, sort of how Bendis outed Daredevil waaay back in 2001 and spent the next three years having Matt deal with the fallout. Coates' goes easy on his political subtext, limiting his Russia-is-running-America comments to just a few lines of dialogue, and makes it a point to make a bigger splash with his old-school villain reveal at the end of the issue. It's not a bad issue, and certainly doesn't descend into the meandering exposition that Coates' early Black Panther run did, but after two much stronger issues it definitely disappoints.

One thing about the issue that does not disappoint, however, is the art, as Yu, Alanguilan and Gho hit it out of the park yet again, making me wonder what they could have done with a more drawn-out battle between Cap and a powerhouse like Selene. Unfortunately, from future Marvel solicitations it doesn't look like they'll be sticking around for much longer, either, which is a real shame. Anyway, I'm glad to have had them for as long as I have.

7/10