My New Obsession!

I’m not really in the mood to be elaborate, so let me just get this done real quick.

I’ve been reading Ed Brubaker’s Captain America. So far I’m at the 34th issue (of 42, or so I heard). I have a good reason for going that far into the entire series, and that’s because the story rocks my socks off! I know it’s utterly embarrassing and pointless to go into a gushing-fanboy mode when describing any product, but I just can’t help it in this case. The writing, the pacing and the characterization feel so right.

And by the way, I’ve never read a single issue of pre-Brubaker’s Captain America, so I have almost no prior knowledge of that superhero. Sure, I know his arch-nemesis is Red Skull, and that America represents America (duh!), but that’s about it. Even so, I can follow the story most of the time. The only rough places are some issues that are tie-ins of major marvel events: for example, as part of House of M, issue 10 has nothing to do with the continuity; being part of Civil War, it’s hard to understand issues 22-24 when you’re not following the entire Civil War arc chronologically. Since I haven’t read either, I don’t know what are happening at those issues at all.

Besides those complaints, I can wholeheartedly recommend this series. Ed Brubaker excelled in portraying Captain America not as an ultra-nationalistic boy scout, but as a jaded war veteran. The characters were fleshed-out very well. The story did not weaken a bit even after issue 25 (you probably know what happened there by now). So, yeah, go read it.