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Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Comic Book Review: Captain America - Reborn


 The image above belongs to its respective owner, not me
Hello Enthusiasts,

Today I will be reviewing Captain America - Reborn. The very nature of this review is a spoiler, so please be aware of MILD SPOILERS BELOW.

After the events of Marvel's Civil War, Captain America was assassinated on the steps of a courthouse, killed in trying to save the life of one of his police escorts. The world was shaken, as America's greatest hero finally met his end. However, as Superman can attest, death is not always the end in comic books. As the title suggests, this is one such story.

The twist here is that, unlike the Man of Steel's death, Captain America isn't actually dead. While it's not completely explained (at least not well), his mind is basically traveling through time, reliving all of the big moments of his life. Unfortunately, Captain America's big moments can often involve the death of someone he loves, and he gets to relive that over and over. These are not his memories that he's traveling through either, he is literally traveling through time, watching as his former self goes through the motions that already happened. Cap can take control of himself if he wants to, and can therefore make changes to the timeline. However, in not knowing what such actions could do to the future, he doesn't get to prevent the deaths of anyone, which is even more painful for him.

At the same time that Captain America gets to go through his greatest (and worst) hits, he has fellow heroes aware that he isn't dead and looking to save him. It's great seeing all of these heroes going to any length to rescue Cap, especially Bucky. It really shows how important he is to the universe, even if others like Iron Man aren't involved due to the after effects of the Civil War and the Secret Invasion.

The comic also has very clean artwork, in an enjoyable style. It's also enjoyable to see this new art style on some more classic moments in Cap's history as he travels through time.Panels from old comics are recreated with a more up-to-date art and thought boxes for Cap. Bryan Hitch shines here, just like he did when he was penciling The Ultimates for Marvel.

On the downside, the plot of Captain America's "death" as described here is pretty convoluted. It was a stretch, even for Marvel, though not to the point of being complete malarkey. Without giving too much away, the bullet that killed him wasn't any type of regular bullet, it was one that was able to trap him in time. There's also a story about his body being replaced, but it feels kind of sidelined. While I know that Captain America isn't a hero at the level of Superman, so can't just be brought back with very little explanation, but it still felt like a bit too much for a regular sized graphic novel like this.

This comic is above average. Marvel brings Cap back to life and we get an interesting story, though not perfect. I wouldn't make this a must-have for anyone but die hard Captain America fans, but it is a good read for anyone curious about how Cap came back.

I gave Captain America - Reborn a 6.5 out of 10.

Sincerely,

The Bored Enthusiast

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