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james_desantis 's review for:
Captain America by Ta-Nehisi Coates Vol. 1: Winter in America
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
This is what I'm talking about. Captain America is BACK!
Little history on myself and cap (If you care enough to read this). I loved Captain America as a Superhero ever since I was in High School (I just turned 30...I'm fucking old). I actually own every single arc/trade since 2005 all the way to 2019. There's been ups and downs, but mostly he's stayed pretty solid (Still gotta read Rick's run) but I just felt nobody hit that high point that Brubaker did. He crafted a spy thriller like no other for our boy in blue and I kept waiting for someone to follow up with the same feels.
I have to say I believe Coates did it.
This starts off simple enough. Steve is helping break up rallies gone wrong when Nuke looking wannabes drop from the sky to make things worse. Repeating the same phases to Steve, saying he's the Captain of nothing. Steve is also dealing with the fallout of Secret Empire, which for some reason Waid's run kind of skipped over. I personally enjoyed the build up to Secret Empire (the event itself was okay) but I kept thinking how great a story would be to build off the ramifications of it all. Here, Steve does just that, and he can see that many still don't fully trust him despite him not being the leader of Hydra.
This book is pretty big in mythos and we get a lot of villains you might not have known about or seen in a long time. Hell, they even bring in a X-men villain I only ever read about but haven't actually read much comics with her, or if any at all if I'm being honest. The thing though is all these villains are linking up in a way that is foreshadowing Captain America's greatest threat yet, but they're fighting in a new way. A way to break a legacy. To break a man's public image. Because what's worse then when the people who trust you turn on you completely?
Good: The art is a great mix of heroic stance moments, easy to follow fight scenes, and some dramatic tuning to make the dialogue land even better. I couldn't really ask for a better art team since it hits all the highs of what I want with it's grit, but also hopeful coloring at times.
Coates NAILS Steve's inner monologue. Not ultra word heavy like the start of his Black Panther run, this is light enough but emotional and hard-hitting enough to relate and care about Steve. He's a person after all, and now he really does hold the weight of the world on his shoulders. From the strong dialogue, some nice overall twist, the tone of hope verses loss, and of course that goddamn ending, we have some big things coming in Captain America.
Bad: It is big, and so many character's being introduced you might have to look some up. A lot of scheming too, and building, so if looking for all the payoffs in this volume you might be disappointed. This is going for the long game.
Overall, fantastic. This is by far my favorite Captain America start since I first open Brubaker's comic almost 15 years ago. I hope it continues to be this good or even better, because I was hooked from page 1. A 4.5 out of 5.
Little history on myself and cap (If you care enough to read this). I loved Captain America as a Superhero ever since I was in High School (I just turned 30...I'm fucking old). I actually own every single arc/trade since 2005 all the way to 2019. There's been ups and downs, but mostly he's stayed pretty solid (Still gotta read Rick's run) but I just felt nobody hit that high point that Brubaker did. He crafted a spy thriller like no other for our boy in blue and I kept waiting for someone to follow up with the same feels.
I have to say I believe Coates did it.
This starts off simple enough. Steve is helping break up rallies gone wrong when Nuke looking wannabes drop from the sky to make things worse. Repeating the same phases to Steve, saying he's the Captain of nothing. Steve is also dealing with the fallout of Secret Empire, which for some reason Waid's run kind of skipped over. I personally enjoyed the build up to Secret Empire (the event itself was okay) but I kept thinking how great a story would be to build off the ramifications of it all. Here, Steve does just that, and he can see that many still don't fully trust him despite him not being the leader of Hydra.
This book is pretty big in mythos and we get a lot of villains you might not have known about or seen in a long time. Hell, they even bring in a X-men villain I only ever read about but haven't actually read much comics with her, or if any at all if I'm being honest. The thing though is all these villains are linking up in a way that is foreshadowing Captain America's greatest threat yet, but they're fighting in a new way. A way to break a legacy. To break a man's public image. Because what's worse then when the people who trust you turn on you completely?
Good: The art is a great mix of heroic stance moments, easy to follow fight scenes, and some dramatic tuning to make the dialogue land even better. I couldn't really ask for a better art team since it hits all the highs of what I want with it's grit, but also hopeful coloring at times.
Coates NAILS Steve's inner monologue. Not ultra word heavy like the start of his Black Panther run, this is light enough but emotional and hard-hitting enough to relate and care about Steve. He's a person after all, and now he really does hold the weight of the world on his shoulders. From the strong dialogue, some nice overall twist, the tone of hope verses loss, and of course that goddamn ending, we have some big things coming in Captain America.
Bad: It is big, and so many character's being introduced you might have to look some up. A lot of scheming too, and building, so if looking for all the payoffs in this volume you might be disappointed. This is going for the long game.
Overall, fantastic. This is by far my favorite Captain America start since I first open Brubaker's comic almost 15 years ago. I hope it continues to be this good or even better, because I was hooked from page 1. A 4.5 out of 5.