Holy effing crap.
Given that Remender destroyed Earth in "Uncanny Avengers" and sent Steve into another dimension for twelve years in this title, he's definitely proven himself to be an author that keeps you guessing. As such, I wasn't entirely sure how this story was going to end, since it seemed entirely possible that Cap could fail to save Nrosvekistan. The possibility that the hero might legitimately fail is so rarely on the table, and it clearly amps up the tension that builds throughout this issue. In the end, Remender goes one better, because he makes you realize that you were worrying about the wrong thing. Steve manages to save the day, but the Iron Nail drains the super-soldier serum from him in the process. He wins the battle, but he loses his youth as a price. Again, I really have no idea where Remender's going to go with that, and the possibility that Steve isn't going to be Captain America for a while left me staring blankly at the last page for a while. For other artists, it would've felt like an obviously cheap stunt, tantamount to an X-Man's death. For Remender, it's an opportunity to explore how Cap would respond to such a challenge.
Part of the tragedy of Steve losing his powers is that he just realized how important they were in the first place. As he struggles to stop Gungnir from destroying Nrosvekistan, Steve realizes that he had been asleep at the wheel, wallowing in his (understandable) grief over the loss of Ian and Sharon and letting the Iron Nail advance his plan this far. As I was reading it, I thought that I saw where Remender was going; the arc would likely end with Steve really getting his head into the game again. Instead, he can't even play the game anymore. Moreover, Steve might've stop Gungnir in the end, but the Iron Nail isn't necessarily wrong that he lost anyway. Sure, S.H.I.E.L.D. may blame the Iron Nail for the chaos, and it might even be able to prove its case to the public, as I've mentioned over previous reviews. But, the world is now aware of the sheer destructive power that the United States was creating. It might not exactly bring rise to other nations declaring war on America as Ran thought (despite how awesome that story might be to explore in the hands of someone like Remender), but it will certainly have negative repercussions for the United States. In that way, Steve's victory is limited, at best.
Remender also spends some time making sure we consider the impact that this issue will have on Steve's supporting cast. I loved the fact that the Falcon gets the win here. Remender writes Sam better than anyone that I can remember - full of determination and grit - and I found myself wondering if he's going to tap him to replace Steve for a while. We're also left with all sorts of questions about Maria Hill. In this series and "Uncanny X-Men," Remender and Bendis have portrayed her as unable to control S.H.I.E.L.D., with often disastrous consequences. (Kot in "Secret Avengers" is starting to strike a similar theme.) It make you wonder how much longer she's going to be in charge.
This issue is a great conclusion to the second arc of this series. Remender just keeps finding ways to advance an overarching narrative from issue to issue, with each set of battles having consequences that drive the next set of battles. "Captain America" hasn't been this consistently good at telling such a big story about Steve since Gruenwald. Brubaker obviously told an amazing story about the Winter Soldier, but his later work had Cap mired in self-doubt because the world wasn't like it was in the 1940s, without ever considering whether the 1940s was the world that Cap thought that it was. Remender is returning us to Gruenwald's stories of Cap considering whether he really wanted to advance the agenda of his employers, and this issue only ups the ante. Amazing stuff.
***** (five of five stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment