ADVANCE REVIEW by Edwin Schacherer
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE CHOSEN
Writer- David Morrell
Artist- Mitch Breitweiser
Marvel Comics
Captain America: The Chosen, a six part story, ships this week and continues the story of the after-effects of Captain America’s death, earlier this year. If you’ve been following Cap’s death with great interest, this book is for you. If you have not been doing that, this is likely a poor purchase, being a six parter entirely about that and the revelations therein.
The story begins with an ordinary soldier (James Newman) and his history as such in Afghanistan and the details of his service. The main draw of the storyline is the war through the soldier’s eyes, which we’ve seen countless times in countless mediums. Trying to convey that the main character is, in fact, a soldier results pretty much in the entirety of this first issue, with a twist end, predictably tying the soldier to dead Captain America.
While the crux of the first issue is exposition revolving around James Newman’s life as a soldier and not much else, the twist at the end is more than standard, leaving the reader with many questions for the future issues to hopefully answer, and in that regard is successful and will merit future purchases by anyone intrigued by this book to begin with.
James Newman’s life as an ordinary soldier is gotten across fairly well, however as a character he’s entirely bland. His voice is that of an ordinary soldier, his actions, his mixed feelings towards war, etc. Nearly everything he is screams cliché ordinary soldier, and as such, as a character he’s completely lacking depth beyond the initial premise, to make him a unique, driving force for the book, if it continues to follow his exploits, as it seems it will.
Breitweiser’s art fits well with the situation of war, and is reminiscent of its counterpart Cap series’ art, and the familiarity will be appreciated by fans. Action sequences are workable and movement is well conveyed, and all the situations shown are justifiable.
As a six part series, it has the hook needed to capture people’s interests, but the hook only hits at the very end, and otherwise the book is thus far extremely bland. As such, it’s worth seeing the next issue, but unless it improves, the impact that it shoots for will be pitiful.
