Marvel's other new launch of the week is Captain America & The Falcon #1.  I was going to say that this is the book that bucks the trend for the March launches, since it hasn't been cancelled twice.  Then I remembered that Cap was cancelled once in the forties and once in the fifties, and his series has been relaunched on four occasions...

Anyway, this is supposed to be the more mainstream Marvel Universe Captain America book, now that the character's solo title has been permanently despatched to the Marvel Knights imprint.  How long this arrangement will last must be open to question, since Marvel's management are reputedly not at all happy with the level of politics in the Marvel Knights book.  Besides, while the recent Morales/Bachalo issues have certainly been a step in the right direction, it's difficult to avoid feeling that the Marvel Knights Captain America has failed.

I can't say this comes as an enormous surprise to me.  I've always been doubtful that the character was suitable for that sort of approach.  As I've said in the past, I think he's a problematic character generally.  If you put him up against complex, difficult issues surrounding modern America, he looks ridiculously one-dimensional.  If you have him wave the flag and play a straight patriotism card, then half the audience will throw up.  And if you ignore the patriotism angle altogether... well, what's the point?  But in any event, I think the character's better suited to a more conventional approach, if indeed there's much left to be done with him at all.

Marvel have claimed that a reason having both mainstream and Marvel Knights versions of Captain America and the Fantastic Four is to allow different takes on the same characters.  It has to be said that thus far, they have entirely failed to convince with this argument.  Both Fantastic Four books have had the team lose all their money, for unrelated reasons.  Both Captain America titles are doing stories about Guantanamo Bay.  If this is diversity, I am a banana.

That said, at least Guantanamo Bay is a subject which has obvious resonance for Captain America as a character.  One of the recurring themes throughout his history (when he isn't being written by drooling flagwavers, anyway) is the discrepancy between the ideals he stands for and the reality of America.  This is not inherently an unpatriotic angle, since only the downright delusional believe the USA to be a utopia.  But Guantanamo Bay, as a handy symbol of all that is loathsome (or misunderstood, depending on your politics) about the Bush administration, plays particularly strongly into the theme.

This being the more mainstream Captain America title, it takes a somewhat more indirect approach.  Rather than having characters stand around debating the merits of Guantanamo Bay, Christopher Priest instead just does a story where the Falcon is accused of breaking somebody out of Guantanamo Bay - a prisoner who may or may not have been kept there by corrupt officials and who on any view has nothing whatsoever to do with the war on terrorism.  The point of the arguments against Guantanamo Bay, of course, is not so much that people are being held there at all, but that they are being held in a deliberate legal limbo where nobody is exercising any supervision over the US government.  This creates a tremendous potential for abuse which relies purely on the honesty and goodwill of the government to get it right.

Priest's story rather neatly sidesteps the usual arguments surrounding Guantanamo Bay by giving us an unequivocal example of the place being abused, and by avoiding any discussion of the wider rights and wrongs of the place.  In this way, he focusses attention neatly on the real problem with the place: not "should they be in there at all", but quis custodiet ipsos custodes.  It skirts the issue, it flags up the moral grey areas, and bounces merrily on its way to action sequences and fight scenes.  It's really quite a good way of dealing with these issues in superhero books; tackling them head-on tends to be a disaster, but leaving them in the story's peripheral vision works better.

Priest is a strange choice of writer for a mainstream superhero comic, given that over the last few years he's generally been more in key with the Marvel Knights books.  This issue reads a little strangely, as a mix of action sequences and Priest's trademark non-linear narrative.  Halfway through, the Falcon gets to spends two pages delivering a monologue which is Very Priest Indeed.  Compared to Black Panther, it feels a little watered down.  On the other hand, the entire issue is spent building up to a rather clever pay-off on the last panel, and it may be that a lot of material had to be sacrificed to fit that format.  The pay-off is worth it - it's a clever little twist.

Of course, into every life, a little rain must fall.  In this case, it's Bart Sears' artwork.  I've never been a particular admirer of Sears' work, and this issue contains many classic examples of why not.  His ridiculously overmuscled figures look like the horrific result of a combination of steroids and wasting arthritis.  There are moments of rather good action, to be fair, but overall it's an ugly-looking book.  Sears' version of Steve Rogers, out of costume, is really a little painful.

An interesting start, marred by dodgy artwork, but with a nice twist. 

Rating: B

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