Royal Nonesuch
04-24-2004, 06:31 PM
Hey folks, welcome to the second installment of "Spinner Series" our look at fun stuff arbitrarily chosen from a spinner rack in one man's small effort to support comics outside the direct market.
Captain America #24
Writer: Robert Morales
Pencils & Colors: Chris Bachalo
Inks: Tim Townsend (pg. 17 by Wayne Faucher)
Letters: Virtual Calligraphy's Randy Gentile
Cover: Dave Johnson
Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor, Assisting: Jennifer Lee
Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Captain America created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby
"Homeland" Part Four
In recent issues of Captain America, Cap is given the task of sitting on a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay of an Iranian-born historian named Fernand Hedayat, whose American citizenship was revoked under the USA Patriot Act. Cap has had some clashes with the CO and some other personnel at Camp Hazmat (in one recent issue, while being given a tour of the facilities, he realizes that he's actually just being paraded in front of the Muslim prisoners during their prayer sessions with the intent to intimidate them, something which Captain America resents). He does, however, befriend Lester Paley, a former US Senator who is acting as counsel for Hedayat, and is absolutely convinced that Hedayat has no terrorist connections. In the previous issue, a bunch of Al-Qaeda inmates, led by Khalid El-Gamal, stage a jailbreak, killing one senior officer in the process. Although Hedayat is one of the prisoners who has gone missing, Paley doesn't believe that he went with the other inmates voluntarily (Nick Fury believes that the escapees are headed toward a stockpile of bioweapons in Havana, and since Hedayat is the only prisoner who speaks fluent Spanish, it makes sense that they would take him with them). This issue, Cap, along with two Cuban soldiers appointed by President Castro himself (who does make an appearance in this issue), go out looking for the escapees.
I've actually been buying Robert Morales' run on Captain American from the spinner rather than at my amazing comic shop. I think Morales is approaching Cap very intelligently, and this arc has been greatly engaging. I know most people have been clamoring for Cap to return to his straight-up superhero status, punching out super-villains and what not, while staying away from the more political, "real world" type situations. I think there's plenty of room for both interpretations. In fact, I believe that with a character called Captain America, there shouldn't always be easy questions and easy answers, especially in today's climate. In fact, I think our ever uncertain times are making Cap pretty difficult to write for this very reason, and thus the overwhelming desire for the character to go the superhero route. I applaud Morales for taking on this great challenge, and I think he's doing a great job. There are no easy answers here, in fact, at times it looks like Cap is kind of an onlooker, not sure just what to make of this America he's been living in (much like most of us in the real world), but he's trying to represent the American ideal as best he can, which is all any of us can be expected to do. One great scene is when Cap is eating with the two Cuban soldiers, and debating with one of them, Luisa Prohias, about the reason why Cuba is a starving country, both citing the history of the conflict between America and Cuba ("What do you know of our struggle," Prohias remarks," You slept through it, no?"). And for those of you craving some intense superhero action, well, this issue's got plenty of that, too, as Cap goes head first into gunfire, and ably handling a whole bunch of enemies, as he is often wont to do.
Then there's the art by Chris Bachalo. Now, I've never really been a big fan of his work, but I'm liking what he's doing here. His exaggerated, "cartoony" style may not be the best fit for this type of writing, but at the very least, you can tell what's going on on each page, which is really all I've ever wanted out of Bachalo. Maybe the fact that he's doing his own colors here, added to Tim Townsend's always capable inking pen, accounts for the improvement. There are still some issues here and there, like the ever changing size of Cap's shield, or the fact that he seems to have stolen Batman's utility belt at some point during JLA/Avengers (what does he keep in there?), or that the "blue field with single white star" part of his torso suddenly comprises his entire torso, with the exception of the little inch of red and white stripes just above his belt. All the same, it's some of the best stuff I've seen Bachalo do.
Overall, this issue merits an A-, with only the art issues keeping from the A.
Captain America #24
Writer: Robert Morales
Pencils & Colors: Chris Bachalo
Inks: Tim Townsend (pg. 17 by Wayne Faucher)
Letters: Virtual Calligraphy's Randy Gentile
Cover: Dave Johnson
Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor, Assisting: Jennifer Lee
Editor in Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Captain America created by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby
"Homeland" Part Four
In recent issues of Captain America, Cap is given the task of sitting on a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay of an Iranian-born historian named Fernand Hedayat, whose American citizenship was revoked under the USA Patriot Act. Cap has had some clashes with the CO and some other personnel at Camp Hazmat (in one recent issue, while being given a tour of the facilities, he realizes that he's actually just being paraded in front of the Muslim prisoners during their prayer sessions with the intent to intimidate them, something which Captain America resents). He does, however, befriend Lester Paley, a former US Senator who is acting as counsel for Hedayat, and is absolutely convinced that Hedayat has no terrorist connections. In the previous issue, a bunch of Al-Qaeda inmates, led by Khalid El-Gamal, stage a jailbreak, killing one senior officer in the process. Although Hedayat is one of the prisoners who has gone missing, Paley doesn't believe that he went with the other inmates voluntarily (Nick Fury believes that the escapees are headed toward a stockpile of bioweapons in Havana, and since Hedayat is the only prisoner who speaks fluent Spanish, it makes sense that they would take him with them). This issue, Cap, along with two Cuban soldiers appointed by President Castro himself (who does make an appearance in this issue), go out looking for the escapees.
I've actually been buying Robert Morales' run on Captain American from the spinner rather than at my amazing comic shop. I think Morales is approaching Cap very intelligently, and this arc has been greatly engaging. I know most people have been clamoring for Cap to return to his straight-up superhero status, punching out super-villains and what not, while staying away from the more political, "real world" type situations. I think there's plenty of room for both interpretations. In fact, I believe that with a character called Captain America, there shouldn't always be easy questions and easy answers, especially in today's climate. In fact, I think our ever uncertain times are making Cap pretty difficult to write for this very reason, and thus the overwhelming desire for the character to go the superhero route. I applaud Morales for taking on this great challenge, and I think he's doing a great job. There are no easy answers here, in fact, at times it looks like Cap is kind of an onlooker, not sure just what to make of this America he's been living in (much like most of us in the real world), but he's trying to represent the American ideal as best he can, which is all any of us can be expected to do. One great scene is when Cap is eating with the two Cuban soldiers, and debating with one of them, Luisa Prohias, about the reason why Cuba is a starving country, both citing the history of the conflict between America and Cuba ("What do you know of our struggle," Prohias remarks," You slept through it, no?"). And for those of you craving some intense superhero action, well, this issue's got plenty of that, too, as Cap goes head first into gunfire, and ably handling a whole bunch of enemies, as he is often wont to do.
Then there's the art by Chris Bachalo. Now, I've never really been a big fan of his work, but I'm liking what he's doing here. His exaggerated, "cartoony" style may not be the best fit for this type of writing, but at the very least, you can tell what's going on on each page, which is really all I've ever wanted out of Bachalo. Maybe the fact that he's doing his own colors here, added to Tim Townsend's always capable inking pen, accounts for the improvement. There are still some issues here and there, like the ever changing size of Cap's shield, or the fact that he seems to have stolen Batman's utility belt at some point during JLA/Avengers (what does he keep in there?), or that the "blue field with single white star" part of his torso suddenly comprises his entire torso, with the exception of the little inch of red and white stripes just above his belt. All the same, it's some of the best stuff I've seen Bachalo do.
Overall, this issue merits an A-, with only the art issues keeping from the A.