Captain Marvel Now
It shouldn't surprise anyone that Captain America is getting the relaunch treatment at Marvel. Thanks to the film bearing his name and this summer's The Avengers, he's probably more popular now than he has ever been. Now almost all of the cast of Marvel's The Avengers have been relaunched with an all new ongoing comic book series, some with more success than others.
Rick Remender, who has a knack for writing truly bizarre comics, has taken the reigns on Cap and has positioned him in a place that is entertaining to the reader and does the character justice with equal weight. The character elements of the comic are the strongest, though, as Remender creates several moments throughout that stick with the reader and reminds us that Captain America is after all just a man. Remenders opening action sequence, while fun to look at, seems to stick to lowest common denominator plot wise and is almost repeated in the end with surprisingly more success.
The art is a sticking point for many readers. John Romita Jr. provides the pencils for the comic and he is a very divisive artist. You should know going in whether you can stomach his work and if you can't then this won't appeal to you; however, if you like his style there is a great team surrounding him that gives his art better weight than it's had in the past few years on other comics. Klaus Janson of Daredevil and The Dark Knight Returns fame provides the inks with Dean White on colors. These three together have created some of the best looking, complete artwork for the Marvel NOW relaunch.
Where this comic gets it right is in the character himself. The action scenes look fun but they don't hold a candle to the rest of the comic. Captain America #1 does what the best of the Marvel NOW! comics are doing, it's trying to tell its own story without worrying about tying into every other series or appealing to the casual fan with cameos.
