Main story is far superior.
The Civil War between Captain America and Iron Man has ended with Iron Man as the victor. Due to leading the anti-registration force against the US Government, Captain America was handcuffed and lead to his trial only to be assassinated by sniper fire and hit several times, later being announced to the world dead on arrival. The heroes gather to bury their long time friend. -summary
Spinning out of Mark Millar's Civil War event and Ed Brubaker's Death of Captain America storyline, Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America is the follow up and some of the final major falling out of Civil War. This book is a massive spoiler if you missed those storylines, which makes it a terrible jumping on point.. For those not in the loop, the Civil War was an event that saw Iron Man and Captain America on separate sides, as the latter chose to oppose the Superhuman Registration Act which forced people with powers to register with the government. Those whom chose not to register would be locked in prison indefinitely. Captain America lost the war, and Iron Man not only saw the bill being passed, but he became Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. since Nick Fury went underground after the events of Secret War, plus he put together a new Avengers team that debut in The Mighty Avengers along with the Avengers Initiative. This book collects Fallen Son issues 1 - 5, plus Captain America #1 and an art gallery all as bonus content.
Jeph Loeb penned Fallen Son, and the story clearly takes place within the main Death of Captain America storyline (those little portions in that story which references a speech that took place is here). Around this time, Loeb's writing had already been taking a dive and you can see it with how uneven this feels. This book is a mixed bag and at times some of the characterization felt pretty scattershot, this can especially be seen with Spider-Man.
Loeb attempts to deal with the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, by using the superheroes here as they attempt to deal with losing their friend, leader, and mentor. Wolverine's story is among the best here, as he breaks onto the SHIELD helicarrier to not only interrogate Captain America's shooter, but also to confirm his body. This story is good for what it is because it's rare for Wolverine to be shaken up by anyone's death other than one of his lovers or crushes. However, I really can't ignore the plot hole taking place with one of Cap's major enemies being Crossbones, whom was actually the shooter. I believe this storyline should have been double tasked at the very least with Brubaker assisting on writing duties, after all, he was the one whom wrote The Death of Captain America so he knew what was actually there.
It doesn't take long for the story to seesaw, as the Mighty Avengers deal with their anger by taking the fight to Tiger Shark. This is a throw away story that really does nothing except toss in action for the sake of it, plus continues pushing Tiger Shark as a completely garbage villain when he's in fact equal to Namor in power. I mean seriously, didn't they damage him enough with Reality Check?
Loeb's heart I guess is there with the Spider-Man story, but bad characterization hurts him as well. Death isn't new to Spider-Man, and he has indeed grown over the years, so I find it unlikely he would go to a cemetery only to see Rhino at a grave, and then just start slugging him out of some sense of responsibility. If this story did anything, it gave Spider-Man fanboys something to smile about by finally giving him that victory over Rhino, after being trashed by the over-sized brute in Peter Parker, Spider-Man: Civil War. These stories are action just because, and they really didn't do anything for me. The rest of the book has some fairly good moments as Bargaining sees Iron Man coming to realize that the world needs a Captain America, and we get a look at his manipulative side; and the final story which is the best wraps things up with Captain America's eulogy even paying homage to that silly Cap-Wolf storyline back in the 90's.
It makes perfect since Marvel would go this route though, since Captain America is among their very first and most important superheroes, like Superman, he is the true superhero archetype that everyone aspires to be. Therefore, his death is worthy of the hype and attention, but this storyline feels way too heavily pushed because unlike Superman, it was kind of obvious Cap was eventually coming back and it really didn't take Marvel long. It was great as a status quo change and his title along with both Avengers "New" and "Mighty" never felt the same without his "Avengers Assemble" battle cry, so he earned a story like this. The major problem I have here is that Loeb just wasn't the guy to send Cap off in style properly, it should have been Brubaker because he proved that he understood the character and his world. There was too much nonsense and the action felt unnecessary and forced. Loeb should have taken a look at World Without A Superman to see how a story like this should have been done.
Visually the book has moments where it shines brightly; Spider-Man's story is drawn by David Finch and it indeed looks incredible like all of his artwork. The backgrounds of the cemetery definitely capture the gloom and dread working the theme of depression deeply. The artwork is done perfectly down to the rain drops in the background and even running off Spider-Man's face. This is the best story concerning artwork. John Romita Jr. brings his talents as well with mainly his character and facial designs standing out the most. John Cassady draws the final story and even though it's slightly above average, there's one moment where he fits a very large group of characters and random people at Cap's funeral across two pages, with a ray of light shining down that feels just right. If anything the book looks pretty overall.
Fallen Son is a book I use to be completely mixed on, now it's no question that I really don't care for it much. The artwork is probably what saves it for me from a completely dreadful rating. Unfortunately, Loeb's writing in regards to Marvel really didn't get much better. This story isn't what I consider that essential. I would only recommend this to serious Captain America fans. It's not at all necessary moving forward.
Pros: Some fine artwork and good moments
Cons: Some bad moments that were hard for me to ignore.
