Captain America #10

   Well, that stunk.

   I've been a fan of Captain America for a long time, and have been thrilled to see the country discover that hero through his recent film and his star turn in The Avengers movie.

   So when they announced they were relaunching this title with John Romita, Jr. art, I was very hopeful.

   Romita certainly delivered his end of the deal, with kinetic, powerful artwork that captured the desperate nature of the story while keeping Cap's inner nobility on display.

   But Rick Remender's story failed all across the board.

   It placed Cap in Dimension Z, where he was trapped by his old enemy, the robotic Arnim Zola. He rescues and raises Zola's son, Ian, for more than a decade, all while fighting for his life in an alien setting against a variety of monsters (In other words, it's Planet Hulk all over again).

   So after 10 long issues of torture for Cap, of the same "who will betray who" and "who will live or die" storylines, we reach the end, and it just makes no sense at all. (This story only needed four issues at most, even with the decompressed storytelling everyone uses these days.)

   There's no character growth here - we don't even get the interesting glimpses into Cap's early life that were featured in early issues. It's just all screaming and explosions and sturm and drang, characters acting out of character, plot points that are never explained. Was Cap there for decades or was it a hallucination / time shift / choose your own hoary science fiction explanation here?

    The conclusion treats a beloved character very badly indeed, and offers a pale attempt at a Twilight Zone finish.

   Hopefully the next storyline will feature the decisive, heroic Cap that fans have flocked to see - not this violent, grim and gritty substitute.

Grade: C-

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