Monday, April 10, 2017

Captain America: Steve Rogers #15 Review - Marvel Monday




Written by: Nick Spencer
Art by: Javier Pina, Andres Guinaldo, Rachelle Rosenberg and VC's Joe Caramagna
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 5, 2017
Reviewed By: Carl Hamlin


*Non Spoilers and Score at the Bottom *


This book has been one interesting ride, and with Secret Empire coming up soon all of Captain America's plans are starting to ramp up. I will warn all those who are reading that there are tie-in stories you should probably read before this book Most importantly, according to Marvel, is Uncanny Avengers #22. With that being said I am sure that I am going to spoil part of that book as well. Now Lets Dive In!


This book took me by surprise, and I'm not going to lie, I don't read any of the tie-in stories for the money grab that Marvel attempts, unless I happen to be reading that title as well. So with the warning at the first page of this book, I ignored it, that being said Nick Spencer does a good job summing things up in the first few pages of his book for those of us not reading Uncanny Avengers. We learn that Red Skull was captured by the Avengers Team, brought to S.H.I.E.L.D. Where Charles Xavier's brain was taken out of Red Skull's head, taking with it the telepathic powers.



 After the surgery he was placed back into his cell, where he was broken out by Sin... All of which was carefully planned out by Captain America, so carefully everyone thought it was their idea. How crazy is that? I mean Captain America basically set up not one, but two different groups of people to do something, all while hiding his Hydra support while being director of S.H.I.E.L.D. When Sin brings Red Skull back to his mansion Cap is waiting for him. Red Skull sent S.H.I.E.L.D a threat, give Hydra the time of day or they send nukes into highly populated cities in Europe. And Then:

However Carter, being a bad ass decides to work on the betterment of the world, since Cap went MIA and the council wouldn't act without his say so. Now this book also is full of flashbacks, and my favorite part is how each issue is about something specific and those flashbacks pertain to the story in that issue. In this one the flashback was to when Cap went to kill Red Skull the first time, how he was played by Red Skull into submitting to him, and finding out that the Allied Nations had a new super weapon: The Cosmic Cube.



 I love these flashbacks they allow the writer to break down parts of the story the reader may have known from Caps past, but twists it to the new Captain America's history. We finally get to the main event Cap vs Red Skull, but in the shape Skull is in it wasn't much of a fight:

Best part about that? The reaction of Sin: Was it quick? It was. Pity. She is such a bad character, and Cap had all of this planned out, for the Glory of Hydra. Finally we end this book with Madame Hydra bringing the new Hydra high council to greet their new leader.



Bits and Pieces:

If you are a fan of this new Cap book, you will love this issue. If you haven't been reading this book, but are interested in how this all came to be, go back and read issue 1 and keep going. It is worth every second it takes to read it, and the artists work between flashback and current time compliment each other so well. This is a very long form story, and if you are not reading the tie-in issues I don't blame you, but this story is so intriguing I am finding myself adding the issues suggested to my buy list to get the full effect the story is going for.

8.9/10

6 comments:

  1. Here's what i'm curious about: How could they possibly fix this?

    At this point, Steve Rogers has murdered, attempted murder a hero, was at the center of Civil War 2 pulling all the strings and caused the death of the hulk. In his future, we see him quite essentially become a second hitler, putting aliens in concentration camps. So the question remains that how is there ANY way to redeem the character of steve rogers?

    I truly believe that the only reason for this 'hydra agent' story arc for Steve to exist was for Nick Spencer to clear a path for what he truly believes is the best Cap. Not Steve Rogers...but Sam Wilson. Steve has been fighting for the government for a while now, but Sam fought for the people of America, and THAT is what Captain America should be standing for.

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  2. Actually, I think in the end Kobik (I think I spelled that right) will fix the whole thing. Using all the power of the sentient Cosmic Cube that she is and make it so that the whole thing never happened.

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    1. You don't think she would blow apart the man who killed her 'daddy'?

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  3. I didn't think of that as a possibility only because it's Steve Rogers. However, you do bring up a good point

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    1. Even if he did come back, he'd probably
      A: kill himself in sepuku like fashion for all the destruction he's done
      B: Say "Put me in front of a jury" who at this point(opening of Secret Empire) would probably be like DEATH PENALTY!

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  4. Before Secret Empire started, after Beast did the operation on Red Skull... was there an actually issue of Sin breaking Red Skull out of SHIELD custody or is it just mentioned in Captain America: Steve Rogers #15???

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