Captain America #20

Review: So this is what it was building up to? A rehash of the BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES episode “Perchance to Dream?” In that story, Bruce Wayne wakes up one morning to discover that his parents were never murdered, he’s never been Batman, he is a rich playboy, with nothing to do but enjoy life. Slowly he discovers that he is under some sort of mind control by his enemy the Mad Hatter and he forces himself out of the perfectly happy fantasy world by leaping to his death from a bell tower. Now go back and reread the synopsis and check off the points of contact. And when you consider that in this same month that we discovered that the Iron Nail could transform into a monster form, we saw Thor’s current baddie Dario Agger also become a monster, it seems like Rick Remender is just phoning it in. And for the big climax? The Gungnir Helicarrier is a Transformer! I feel almost churlish pointing out that Dr. Mindbubble’s fate (hoist on his own petard) was fairly predictable, and that the character never lived up to his potential as a psychedelic super-soldier, never moving past second rate Mad Hatter. I hope the big finish next issue is interesting, and actually addresses some of the socio-political questions spouted by the boringly long-winded Iron Nail. Or maybe not.

Comments: Previous issues gave the idea that only a real suicide would end the mindbubble, not a dream one. Or maybe I was misreading it. One thing is certain, Jet Black could not hear and respond to Iron Nail’s reference to a god, while she was several hundred feet away in the flying car.