I almost feel heartless for not caring.
The sole reason I picked up this book, was to feed my curiosity about Cap's first love. I'm not a huge fan of Cap, but it seemed like such a story would have great drama and romance and be a change from my usual selection. Unfortunately, the drama and romance scarcely existed at all. We are immediately thrust in the middle of a mission in 1943, Peggy and Cap's love has already flourised. We follow through the mission, which goes without hitch, then get this humorous reminiscent banter of how they first met. Right after that, is what is meant to be a sad ending, but the story moved too quickly and just felt like I picked up a random Cap book and read through one short scenario with some forlorn words tagged onto the end. If there were more drama involved, the ending might have had more of an impact on me, but as it is, I just don't care. It isn't the fault of the writing, either, I think that it just needed more filling out. I also don't get a good feel for Peggy's character. She seems very cool and interesting, but I feel like I'm not really given enough to make a lasting impression on me, let alone the Cap. I'd have liked to have seen something more fleshed out, like an oversized one-shot.
After this story, there's an older one where Cap reminisces about his lost love while listening to a television documentary on the subject. While there was a ton of exposition, which is pretty normal for Stan's work, there was more drama and the events didn't seem to progress quite as quickly. It also felt like more of a full story, than snippet, though it still moves pretty quickly. By the end of it, I felt more sympathy for Cap. That isn't to say the story wasn't without it's cheese factor. I'm guessing for it being old, that somehow makes it more palatable to me, or nostalgic.
Regardless of my hopes at a deep story filled with drama and excitement being more-or-less dashed, there was a least good art and good writing. With one-shots, I'm pretty much used to either a rushed or incomplete feeling story. It's difficult for me to recommend this book, as I could have easily gone without this, but part of me is glad I read it. I I'd like to fish up more books featuring her. I'm curious to the details I didn't get in this book.
