This is a solid approach to a big issue #600 celebration. It starts with one of the best artists in the industry (Alex Ross) reminding us all of the (real) title hero’s origin: How Steve Rogers became Captain America. It’s just two pages, and it’s a reprint of the same spread from 2002’s Captain America: Red, White and Blue, but it’s a beautiful re-introduction to a hero who has been dead for quite some time. I know in the grand scheme of 600 issues, being dead for 2 years isn’t a lot–but Captain America is easily the most important superhero to stay dead for that long a time.
After that nice intro, we get the issue’s “in continuity” story, titled “One Year After.” Brubaker writes it, with art by several of the people who have worked on this book since his ran began. It’s a murderer’s row of great artists: Butch Guice, Mitch Breitweiser, Rafael Albuquerque, David Aja, Howard Chaykin. The story reminds us that in “comic book time,” Captain America has been dead for a year. Each artist provides a sequence showing how a member the extended Captain America cast has been affected by the loss of Steve Rogers. But it’s not just a sad reverie, there are elements that move the ball forward. Sharon Carter tracks down the gun that “she” used to shoot Captain America…
…And it’s not a “normal” gun. We the readers already know (and so does she) that she was mind-controlled by Dr. Faustus when she shot Steve, so something else about the abnormality of the weapon must be what is giving her a sense of relief.
The other character focused stories don’t offer anything as important, but they still offer real content, not just sentimentality. Rikki Barnes figures out that Elijah Bradley is the grandson of the first Blacktain America, and tells Elijah that she is from another dimension. 1950s Captain America is shown putting on the costume–so he’s now running around as another version of Cap. Crossbones and Sin have an altercation with their prison guards where the two villains seem to know something (presumably, in retrospect, they know Rogers is alive). Red Skull is still in the robot body created by Arnim Zola, but he’s muttering about how the world will soon know that he won the battle against Captain America.
And finally: Some New Avengers talk about how Norman Osborn has criminalized any “one year memorials” to Captain America, but the team attend one anyway. At the rally, Norman Osborn actually shows up and manages to get the crowd to cheer for him. The heroes are disgusted, but Sharon shows up and tells them they can save Steve Rogers.
And we the readers are told to go buy the Captain America: Reborn miniseries.
That all was certainly enough for a #600 celebration, but we then get some back up features. Roger Stern revisits Bernie Rostenthal, a character he helped create. The update on the character indicates that she’ll be back in the Cap story.
Mark Waid and Dale Eaglesham tell a story about a guy auctioning off Captain America memorabilia. It includes some original comic book art drawn by “Steve Rogers,” but those are clearly Jack Kirby pages.
Hembeck also offers a few pages, and there’s a reprint of an old Stan Lee/Al Avison story about Red Skull.
An excellent tribute to Steve Rogers, in which Steve himself never appears!
English (US) · 