Captain America (2013 series) #11

Review: All the critics seem impressed with this issue and I’m not sure why. Yes, Carlos Pacheco’s pencils are an improvement over Romita Jr’s idiosyncratic style and Klaus Janson’s inks give it a small sense of continuity. But what all the critics are praising is how the issue focuses on Cap’s emotional and physical recovery (though the latter seems already taken care of through the marvels of technology) after his trauma. Frankly, given how absurd Remender’s grim ‘n gritty Kirby pastiche was, I was hoping to get past it a bit more quickly. What we had was “hero is broken down completely and has to find what makes him what he is.” While Captain America hasn’t had one of these lately, it’s what Batman has gone through with every new writer since “Knightfall” twenty years ago (one of the reasons I’ve stopped reading Batman). So Cap throws out all of his memorabilia to start over? Wait, Steve had a Batcave in his apartment? Maybe my analogy wasn’t so farfetched. Oh yeah, and he’ll be dealing with “dead girlfriend” issues as well—and it’s the same dead girlfriend he had before; doesn’t anyone know what to do with Sharon Carter? Anyway, it’s hard to see what they’re going to do with so-far underdeveloped Jet Black—other than set her up as an absurdly unlikely romantic interest for Cap. Besides, she seemed more innocent about the ways of the world in the previous issues; here she seems to be rather sly and knowing about sexual matters. Nuke just comes across as a right-wing Bane (there’s Knightfall again). Hope this gets better. And as an odd aside: it seemed like the paper the comic was printed on was thinner than usual, at least it felt flimsier than the DC comics I picked up at the same time; are we now paying four bucks for a sixth of a story printed on tissue paper?

Comments: Nuke was introduced as a super-soldier gone wrong in DAREDEVIL #232-233 (in the “Born Again” arc by Frank Miller and Dave Mazzucchelli); he appeared to have died in the end, a victim of his own performance-enhancing drugs. This was later revealed to have been faked by the government to keep him under wraps. He was assigned to hunt down Logan in WOLVERINE ORIGINS #1-5 and resurfaced as a hero called Scourge in THUNDERBOLTS #133. First appearance of any fellow Avengers in this series viz. Bruce Banner and Hank Pym. Plus the first appearances of Maria Hill and new Nick Fury here. The Iron Nail, referred to in the solicit, isn’t mentioned in the issue.