Comic News And Reviews

New leaked photos from the England set of Captain America: The First Avenger reveal more of director Joe Johnston's ambitious approach to the Marvel Comics icon and his World War II backstory. Seen for the first time on Comic Book Movie, the photos show life-size and presumably working models of some of the vehicles we'll see in the film, although conspicuously absent from their hulls and hood ornaments are the Nazi swastikas, with the emblem of HYDRA in their places.
While there's been some fan consternation about the more or less whitewashing of Hitler and the Nazis from Captain America's multimedia affairs -- the Avengers: Earth's MIghtiest Heroes animated series, The Avengers film, Captain America: The First Avenger; and the video game, Captain America: Super Soldier -- the villainous HYDRA outfit would seem to be a decent replacement. Certainly, the realities of World War II were crucial to the creation of Captain America, and if a fear of explaining to younger fans what exactly went on in Europe during that time seems a daunting task, well, parents are going to have to deal with it sooner or later. However, more daunting than that would seem to be the prospect of telling Marvel-branded, Swastika-emblazoned action figures, vehicles and playsets at Toys 'R Us in support of the Captain America film.

Obviously, there's precedent for such concerns:

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"I can't believe was almost too chicken to play Captain America," said Chris Evans in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on sale this week. The Captain America: The First Avenger star confesses to some serious apprehension before finally accepting the role of Marvel's most patriotic superhero, but as you can see in EW's first look at Chris Evans in costume, he's a virtually perfect (at least physically) embodiment of Captain America.

"At the time, I remember telling a buddy of mine, 'If the movie bombs, I'm f--ed. If the movie hits, I'm f--ed!'" After declining the part three times, Evans took a meeting with Marvel execs and Johnston and was dazzled by their plans for the movie. He still felt wary about suiting up for Captain America - but then he had an epiphany. "I was just scared," he says. "I realized my whole decision making process was fear based, and you never want to make a decision out of fear."

EW's shot of Chris Evans in costume comes after a number of leaks and teases. We saw a more or less complete costume shot last month in photos of Evans' stunt double performing as Captain America on the film's set in London, and Evans as a plainclothes Steve Rogers with some fake feet. Although released costume designs show Captain America in his complete outfit -- including cowl -- we've yet to see Evans all masked up.

Directed by Joe Johnston and co-starring Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull,Captain America: The First Avenger opens July 22, 2011, and will be followed by Joss Whedon's Avengers in 2012.

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Oct 28th 2010 By: Caleb Goellner

Art Asylum's Minimates line has been good to Captain America over the years. Sure, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Iron Man have all sired dozens of block figures, but for a hero without recent blockbuster movie representation, Cap's managed a healthy dozen versions so far. Responding to a fan poll from a few month back (and likely anticipating Cap's forthcoming popularity once 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger film), Diamond Select's serving up a new Toys"R"Us-exclusive Captain America box set that includes World War II Captain America, Suspended animation Captain America, Armored Captain America and Reborn Captain America. That's right, two classic Caps, Cap stuck in a block of ice and the '90s-tastic armored Cap.

Suspended animation Cap is a welcome sight given his pending introduction on Disney XD's animated Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, while World War II Cap seems like he'll pretty much fit in fine with the First Avenger film. Honestly, though, it's the armored Super Soldier (from Captain America # 438-443) that really brings the line together. Without that new armor, that Minimate would be paralyzed. With it, the toy intends to go out in a blaze of glory!

Get a closer look at the upcoming Toys"R"Us exclusive 4-pack below:

[Via Minimates HQ]

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By Mark Waid (writer), Jorge Molina (pencils), Frank D’Armata (colors), VC’s Joe Sabino (letters)

The Story: En route to their new assignment, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes discover a prototype bomber drone that has been hijacked by the Nazis. In a daring feat befitting their heroic alter-egos, the pair leap onto the drone, which they discover is set to self-destruct. Rogers manages to let go and drop off just in time to save himself, while the rest—quite literally—is history.

What’s Good: I’ve been looking forward to this book since it was first announced, and was not disappointed by this first issue. It encapsulates everything I love about Cap—his humility, heroism, determination—and also hits on what is, to me, one of the most fascinating and most often overlooked aspects of his character: the fact that is displaced from everything he once considered reality. The character has been around long enough now that it is not brought up much (aside from the occasional reference or throwaway line.) We take for granted that yeah, he served in World War II, was frozen, defrosted by the Avengers, and so on. We rarely stop to consider what experiencing something like that would really do to a person. Cap may be stronger than us by several hundred degrees, but the super soldier serum didn’t take away his essential humanity. Anyone put in a situation like his would be more than a little shocked and confused (quite understandably so). Cap is usually portrayed as so calm, stoic and in control that it’s nice to see him have to deal with this critical and emotional event in his history.

I could go on for pages with specifics—how awesome the two splash pages that transition between past and present are (not only do they look great, they perfectly establish just how sudden and immediate the change was from Rogers’ perspective), how excellent and well characterized Rogers’ reaction upon waking is (he reaches for his costume—the only safe and familiar thing—and, despite his confusion and fear, responds instantly to cries for help), and how effective little details (like the empty word bubbles that gradually fill in as Rogers’ hearing returns) are. But that would cause this review to take up far, far more space than I’m allotted . A large part of this success is due to Mark Waid’s excellent writing. While Ed Brubaker is and will always be the definitive voice of Cap for me, Waid’s credentials are not to be ignored, and he proves here that he knows Cap—and the craft of writing—a well as anyone.

What’s Not So Good: I could complain about the overuse of computer generated blur effects in the artwork (I really, really hate it), but I enjoyed the book so much that it seems petty and persnickety to do so.

Conclusion: Despite Marvel’s instance on maintaining the $3.99 price tag, if you have any interest in Captain America, this is one series that it might be worth gritting your teeth and bearing the extra cost for. This part of Cap’s history isn’t often dealt with, and I have a feeling the ride is going to be a fun and fascinating one.

Grade: B

-SoldierHawk

Filed under: Marvel Comics Tagged: | Captain America, Mark Waid, Frank D'Armata, Comic Book Reviews, Weekly Comic Book Review, VC's Joe Sabino, Captain America: Man Out Time #1 review, George Molina, Captain America: Man Out Of Time #1, Captain America: Man Out Of Time #1 review, Captain America: Man Out Of Time

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