Sunday, April 3, 2011

Captain America #616

Seems like we get an "Anniversary" issue of Captain America just like clockwork.

The comic celebrated its 600th issue just over a year ago, just before that they celebrated the 50th issue of Captain America (Marvel has numbering issues - no pun intended), and now they're celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the first appearance of Cap.

This issue features almost 100 pages of art and story, including modern-day stories written by Ed Brubaker and art by Mike Deodato, Ed McGuinness and Travis Charest, and five other "throwback" stories by a variety of writers and artists, most of whom have never tackled Cap before.

The result is kind of an interesting mix. Howard Chaykin writes and draws an interesting adventure about the story behind a World War II painting of Cap.

Cullen Bunn and Jason Latour team up on an offbeat story about the aftermath of a natural disaster and the evil it uncovers, as Cap is challenged in an unusual way.

Mike Benson and Paul Grist give us the most unusual story in the comic, as an anemic-looking Cap tackles Baron Blood, the Nazi vampire.

Frank Tieri and Paul Asceta offer a story that has Steve Rogers setting up an art exhibit with an art dealer who has a horrific secret.

The final story is by Kyle Higgins, Alec Siegel and Pepe Larraz, and it features Captain America and Captain Britain teaming up to defend a town from a Nazi attack. It's a hard-hitting tale that owes a bit to "Saving Private Ryan."

So overall, a pretty solid issue and an interesting experiment. It's essentially an anthology book, with no real unifying theme other than the main character.

Luckily, he's interesting enough to make it worthwhile.

Grade: B+

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