Justice League: Rise and Fall (comics)

Writer: JT Krul
Artists: Diogenes Neves, Mike Mayhew and numerous others
Collects: Justice League: Rise and Fall #1, Green Arrow vol. 4 #31-32, Rise of Arsenal #1-4*

Don't let the title fool you. No one "rises" in this book and the Justice League has nothing to do with it. The only thing to be witnessed here are a couple downward spirals.

After the events of "Cry for Justice" - the most hated miniseries of the past five years - the Arrow family is in a bad place. Roy's lost both his arm and his daughter. Green Arrow has killed the man responsible and knows he's likely to lose everything. The elevator only goes down from here.

I actually have some sympathy for JT Krul and I'm willing to give him a bit of a pass for this. While the prospect of writing Green Arrow must have been enticing, he had to clean up a mess or two first. This entire volume hinges on the events of Cry for Justice, a story that essentially carpet bombed everything that had been done with Green Arrow in recent years. Krul was being handed the keys to a broken kingdom.

The Green Arrow half of the book finishes off whatever Cry for Justice didn't. There's a real feeling of "putting the toys back in the box" here. Connor Hawke reverts to resenting Ollie, his "family" of characters is splintering, his secret identity is blown, the Robin Hood motifs seem to be coming back into play and he's an outlaw in his own city. Oh, and Black Canary visits him in prison to leave her ring behind, telling him their marriage is over**. Yeah.

It's less a story and more of an epilogue to Cry for Justice. Obviously, the final act of that miniseries required some measure of follow-up, but I'm not sure this happened to be the most entertaining way to go about it. If they couldn't come up with anything, they could have just gone the Batman & Robin route with the new GA series; jump right in and give a few lines explaining how we got there.

Mixed is the best way I can describe my feelings. I got the impression this was DC's way of taking Green Arrow back to the old Mike Grell status quo. While that's not exactly a bad thing, I don't think all of this was necessary to get there.

The other half is "Rise of Arsenal". I don't even know what to think about this one. There's some merit to the concept, especially the relapse; it's pretty much fact that most recovering addicts will relapse at least once. It's a lifelong struggle; in Roys case the trauma he'd just gone through doesn't exactly help.

On the other hand, it isn't handled well; I can buy into his sorrows and nightmares over his daughter, but the book completely lost me with the hallucinations, which actually start way before he's back on anything. His worst one actually happens after he decides it would be a great idea to go chasing the dragon; I'm not particularly knowledgeable about drugs, but I'm pretty sure heroin is not supposed to cause a hardcore fight-your-best-friend-to-the-death hallucination. Not unless it's cut with something else, which doesn't seem very likely.

Some unintentionally hilarious moments abound, though. During the biggest hallucination, we find out that Roy nearly killed three guys protecting a dead cat he thought was his daughter. Better still, I'm this close to absolving this storyline of all it's sins for giving me the phrase "whoring through space with Kyle Rayner". It was directed at Donna Troy, but I can't help imagining the male version of it would be Captain Kirk and Kyle tag teaming any and all alien women across the galaxy.

That a comic of this does not exist is a crime; DC needs to call up IDW this instant and get a Green Lantern/Star Trek crossover going.

That said, little of this works if you don't care about Roy or his daughter. If you feel bad for him, you probably knew these characters beforehand; Roys actions over the course of the story veer further and further from the path of a hero. It's easy to grasp his sorrow and memories of his daughter, but without prior context there isn't enough here to tell you why you should care about him or feel bad.

Oh, yeah, then there's the fact that it all revolves around a dead kid, one that was cute as a button. All to give Roy a heel turn that went nowhere. I get that they felt the need to shake the character up, but come on.

The Score: 5 out of 10

There's no reason to buy this unless you really need to see Roy protect a dead cat and huff heroin.

* I wish DC would go back to printing the contents somewhere in the volume, because I'm getting really sick of having to go look it up. Sure, it only takes an extra two minutes, but it's annoying.

** Canary doesn't come off well here, but to be fair to her, none of the main characters really do.

Justice League International vol. 1 (comics)

Writers: Keith Giffen, JM DeMatteis
Artist: Kevin Maguire
Collects: Justice League International #1-7

Long a cult favorite, Justice League International is a book I'd heard plenty about but never got around to. Quite a few folks consider it "their" Justice League and much has been said about its comedic nature. Having now read this volume, I'm not exactly ready to say it's the best thing since the pyramids, but it's a very charming, solid team book that's occasionally pretty funny.

Just looking at the cover, you can tell this Justice League is a motley crew. Outside of Batman and the Martian Manhunter, the roster isn't exactly made of League stalwarts. It's certainly not as rag-tag as the Detroit lineup - a roster mostly made up of Z listers - but none of them would be your first pick. Apparently they weren't Giffens either. But part of the strength of the book is that it's a fun group to watch; they don't all get along, but they do achieve results and prove themselves.

It helps that they're likable in their own ways, from Captain Marvels "gee whiz" personality to Blue Beetles joke cracking to Guys... well, Guy is just a prick in this book, but he's the lovable sort of prick you like in fiction but would hate in real life.

If nothing else, the stories in this volume are nothing if not good, solid team fare. The plots are a bit standard, but the dialogue and scripting keep things interesting. The book isn't in the realm of full on humor I'd expected - seems that comes later - but you can see seeds of it in scenes like the infamous "one punch" and Boosters explanation of why he can hit a female villain. It's a great balance, one that I'm a bit worried about losing, since I know the book eventually descends into being more of a superhero sitcom, of sorts.

If I have any problem with the stories in this volume, it's that there are a few too many that resolve without much participation from the League. The plot of the group running around disposing of nukes sort of resolves itself, the rest of the League doesn't do much more than stand around while Dr. Fate disposes of the Gray Man and Mr. Miracle does a lot of the heavy lifting with the problem in space. I'm willing to chalk it up to the creative team getting into their groove - there's a plot or two where the League effectively handles a situation, so they know how to do it - but I hope to see less of this in future volumes.

Kevin Maguire does his usual great work. He's famous for his facial expressions; while we don't get as much of that here as we would later, there's still a fair bit of great storytelling through the characters reactions. I quite like his work, so I'm happy that his earlier work is showing signs of what made him famous.

The Score: 7.5 out of 10

Good, solid Justice League stories. I can see why this was an instant hit when it came out; while the humor the run would become famous for hadn't kicked into high gear yet, it must have been a relief to have a consistently good Justice League book after the book had been stuck in Detroit for so long with D-to-Z list nobodies. There's plenty of room for the book to get better, but for a first volume still working out the kinks this is still very solid. Give it a look; just don't expect full on "Bwa-Ha-Ha" yet.

Batman: The Dark Knight - Golden Dawn (comics)

Writer: David Finch
Artists: David Finch, Jay Fabok
Collects: Batman: The Dark Knight #1-5, Batman: The Return, material from Superman/Batman #75

Man, was this comic ever the ongoing joke of 2011. The delays were verging on ridiculous; it was originally solicited to start in the fall of 2010. Over the next six months, give or take, it only managed to get out two issues. It took something close to a year to get the five issue story finished; not only did they have to rush it just to finish before the relaunch, but it required Jay Fabok to pinch hit on the art.

So, nothing approaching high hopes for this book from me. Having a fill-in on art just made it worse. The book was launched as a vehicle for David Finch to do whatever he wanted with Batman; without his art, what was the point?

Anyways, one of Bruce Waynes childhood friends - Dawn Golden - turned up missing. Apparently she was the one who made him reconsider the whole "girl" thing as a kid; turned out they were pretty rad. Batman, thoroughly pissed off, decides to smack Killer Croc with a sign or two in the midst of his search. Then the Penguin decides to waddle his way in and Etrigan throws fire around while mystical elements start cropping up and I guess Ragman was possessed by a demon and things just kind of got out of control.

The writing is all over the map. Artists that double up have worked magic in the past. Finch isn't one of the success stories. The plot is a mess that lacks general consistency, with elements just kind of popping in for what seems to be no other reason than that's what David Finch felt like drawing that day.

The first half of the plot is essentially a kidnapping caper, but the whole thing - along with Croc and Penguin - is essentially forgotten the second Dawn is rescued. Apparently, it's irrelevant to the real issue - which makes you wonder why we blew two and a half issues on it - which is that Dawn is targeted for sacrifice. I guess Batman figured a giant Croc-man roaming the city wasn't a pressing issue.

Loose threads that go nowhere are all over the place, like an asskissing rookie gunning for Gordons job, some kid stealing the Batmobile, the demon Blaze vanishing from the story without even being defeated and so much more. Other questions involve how Etrigan got his status as a Rhyming Demon back midway through the story and just what's up with Ragman after having his body hijacked. Then there's what I suspect is a dropped plot point; on a certain page, the amount of emphasis on the amulet and linking it with the rage* from prior pages seems a bit too much to be a coincidence, but if there was a plan for it, we never see it. On top of all that, the story seems to just stop, like Finch was running out of pages and needed to "conclude" things with all due haste. This story explains absolutely nothing; there's no guarantee of a follow-up either, because I haven't heard anything about these plot threads returning in the relaunch volume.

The whole thing kind of resembles what you might get if you gave a kid a bunch of DC action figures and told him to come up with a story; any number of random cool moments, but nothing resembling structure or even coherency.

To top it off there's the central figure of the story, Dawn Golden. We don't get a sense of why Bruce is obsessed with saving her. I mean, sure, she was obviously the first girl Bruce wanted to, err, have relations with before he even knew what went where, but other than that, we have little idea what their connection was. Worse still, it's unclear why we should care about her; while the plot essentially revolves around her, we spend little time actually with her. The one hint of character we see comes from the flashback scene; the only thing we get out of her after the rescue is an infodump on why demons are suddenly after her with no prior warning in the story.

Now, this wouldn't be such a huge deal if David Finch did all the art. As important as story is to comic books, some folks will buy a book even if it's lousy if their favorite artist is on it. But as I mentioned earlier, delays forced them to employ a fill-in artist just to get the books solicited issues out there before the relaunch. Not that Jay Fabok isn't talented - he is - but a lot of the draw of this book to start was David Finch drawing Batman. With the story being something of a mess, it's left to the art to carry the weight. In this case, managing two thirds of five issues just isn't going to cut it; especially considering the fact that they gave it the Deluxe Hardcover treatment.

What's there is pretty though, I'll give it that. Since Finch is not on writing duties for the relaunched book and it's been hitting on time, I may check it out. His work is nice to look at.

Since the story ended up wrapping in five issues, the trade department apparently figured it would have been a good idea to throw something else in. On tap is a two page short story from issue #75 of Superman/Batman and the "Return" one shot Finch drew that served as a bridge between Morrisons Batman & Robin and Batman Incorporated. The Return has the opposite problem of Golden Dawn; the script's pretty good and sets up Incorporated well, but the artwork is Lesser Finch.

It's clearly there for no other reason than to pad the book out, though; the issue was already collected in one of the volumes of the story it's relevant to, so it's not like this is the only place to see it.

The Score: 5 out of 10

It's not that great. Way too many problems and not enough depth to any of the important parts of the story. Might be worth a look if you're really into Finchs artwork, but be forewarned that he only managed two thirds of the main story. Otherwise, I'd recommend giving it a pass.

* Seriously, we're talking blinding rage. He breaks Penguins limbs even as Penguin cries for him to stop. It was a very uncomfortable scene to read; it came across as unnecessarily cruel and not at all like Batman. I know Penguin was trying to kill him just a few pages prior, but it was completely overboard to the point I was feeling sorry for the Penguin.

Spider-Man Noir (comics)

Writer: David Hine, Fabrice Sapolsky
Artist: Carmine Di Giandomenico
Collects: Spider-Man Noir #1-4

The last time I read a Marvel Noir title, I was struck with the feeling that the line might have been losing its way a bit. To Marvels credit, they haven't tried anything as ridiculous as "Thor Noir" or "Captain America Noir", but I'm still left believing that they didn't think this thing through enough. Most of the miniseries utilize Marvels most popular characters, whether they fit or not.

This one only adds wood to the fire.

Peter Parker, socialist extraordinaire, is taken under the wing of newsman Ben Urich. Peter wants to take down the Goblin, a man he's certain ordered the death of his uncle Ben. Not an easy goal, but he's helped along the way by a spider bite that gives him superhuman agility and silk webs he can fire from his wrists.

Look, I'm no noir expert, as I've said in the past. I have a passing interest in it, but well versed in the tropes I'm not. But I know enough to realize Spider-Man is not the best fit for it. Peter Parker is, in almost every continuity, a guy who rolls with whatever punch is thrown is way, which is a clash with a genre known for messy, ugly, dirty tales of betrayal and loss where everyone is bought and no one can be trusted. How do you make a guy like that work in a setting like this?

Turns out you kind of don't. Peter and his relatives are re-imagined as socialist crusaders in Depression era New York. Socialism being kind of a dirty word to most; some things never change, it seems. As pointed out in-story, it's a hell of an optimistic dream; everyone works together and things will get better. Even when faced with the ugliness, it's something Parker doesn't give up on. It's true to the character of Peter Parker in almost any universe, but it's kind of a clash with this genre.

An element of the supernatural also finds its way in. As always, Peter's bit by a spider. In this universe, it connects him to some spider god or a spider totem. Something like that. Regardless of what it is, the end result is Peter gaining superhuman agility, a Spider-Sense and webbing. I don't know enough about noir to truly say one way or the other whether it fits, but something about an element like this in a story striving to be noir seems off to me.

It's to David Hines credit that it doesn't just fall apart. It's readable and even fairly enjoyable. I'm just not sure it feels like noir, even with the betrayals, darkness and shadows. David Hine proves himself more a capable, dependable writer every time I read one of his comics. One of these days I hope to read a project of his unencumbered by flawed concepts or necessitated structural gaffes.

The Score: 7.5 out of 10

A fairly decent read, even if Spider-Man and noir isn't exactly a match made in heaven. I wouldn't recommend an outright purchase, but it might be worth a look. Depends on how much you like the idea of Spidey chillin' in the shadows and smacking around carnies. At least it's a better read than X-Men Noir.

Ultimate Spider-Man: The Death of Spider-Man (comics)

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Mark Bagley
Collects: Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #155-160

The Ultimate line of books lost its way real early. Originally, it was supposed to be a continuity free, familiar, accessible take on Marvel favorites. Only Ultimate Spider-Man really stuck to that. Ultimate Fantastic Four made a go of it, but The Ultimates and Ultimate X-Men seemed to be in a race to see which team could become the bigger group of unlikable assholes. Most Ultimate Marvel books - even Spidey at times - then seemed to get their jollies on putting new, different spins on old classics. The line kind of floundered, which was obviously worrying; keep in mind that the Ultimate line generated a lot of positive critical buzz and sales in the early days.

At this point they made the idiotic decision to give the line to Jeph Loeb, who proceeded to infect the line with the comic book equivalent of gangrene; by this point they figured the only option was to "cut the rot", meaning kill off half the heroes in Ultimatum and hope a clean slate could save it.

The overall goal now seems to be to make the Ultimate line as different as possible, making it an interesting alternate universe. This is the volume where it catches up with Ultimate Spider-Man. I used to collect Ultimate Spider-Man regularly and - insistence on Mary Jane being his one true love aside - there wasn't a thing I didn't like about it. It was a great Spider-Man book at a time when the regular Spider-Man was knee deep in a twenty year rut that seemed like it would never end. Brand New Day changed all that and kicked regular Spideys quality level up to eleven, at which point Ultimate Spider-Man, while still good, started to feel redundant.

So I dropped it. Call me a sucker for hype if you want, but the only reason I really came back was for this. I guess I wanted to see how it ended for a version of Spidey that was, for a time, THE Spider-Man to me.

It's an effective story, but not in a bombastic "event" sort of way. It feels a bit more... subdued, I guess, for a story where things are exploding left and right. Norman Osborn is back and he's rounded up several of Spideys rogues; his ultimate goal is to kill Spidey. This is a bigger deal for this Spider-Man; he's only a teenager and, while very resourceful, we're talking about six super powered goons coming at him. He receives enough warning to get his Aunt and Gwen out of dodge, then ends up getting shot. From that point on, it's a fight for survival; you can guess how it goes.

For most of the book, it feels like it could have been a normal arc without leading to his death, which I think is a strength. Ultimate Spidey has faced tall odds before; even with a gunshot wound, you still feel like somehow he could pull it out. But this time, he doesn't survive the end of the fight and dies in the line of duty, having saved everyone he loves and the neighborhood in general. It feels like a "normal" ending to someone who picks a line of work that deadly; sort of like a police officer, there are times someone won't get to go home to his family.

Part of what leads to the death stems from a crossover to the final arc of Mark Millers Ultimate Avengers. I'm of two minds about it. On the one hand, it's a little pointless; it doesn't play any huge role in the story and is relegated to "stuff happening at the same time". So "why bother" is a fairly legitimate question to ask.

On the other, it adds background detail and desperation to Spideys last fight. Sometimes, you just expect big fights will overlap. In this case, Spideys biggest foe has escaped on the day the Ultimates are busy fighting Nick Furys black ops Avengers squad. When he goes to try and help, he's shot for his trouble. To make matters worse, it ensures just about anyone who could provide backup is a bit preoccupied with the gigantic brawl in the middle of New York; Spidey's left on his own, bleeding out from a gunshot wound and trying to fight off five guys. It's the definition of the desperate struggle.

Overall, I think it worked out pretty well, but it doesn't stick the landing entirely. Bendis has a few moments where he gets a little cutesy; I audibly groaned when he had a character actually say "come with me if you want to live". Also, some of Spideys logic is a little screwed up; he suspects that if he hits the hospital for some treatment for the gunshot, his secret identity is blown. So he figures, well, why the hell not just show up back at the house with his mask off and fight everybody that way. Everyone is going to know anyways.

Absolutely retarded; all he'd have to do if he wanted to hit up the hospital - and he could have, since his family evacuated ahead of time - was switch to civvies and say he was hit by a stray gunshot. I mean, there is a huge fight going on. Who's going to call shenanigans when two super teams are beating the crap out of each other in the middle of New York? Hell, he could even say he was the victim of a mugging gone bad. It's not like anyone was around when Spidey came to; the warring super teams were in another part of the city by then and there weren't exactly any news crews nearby to see that Spider-Man was shot. Oh, and while we're at it, why exactly did that truck explode at the end of the book? That was terribly unclear.

So yeah, it's not a complete slam dunk, but I'd say it's a good two point shot.

Mark Bagley returns to Marvel after a stint at DC that wasn't exactly the big hit everyone hoped it would be. Bagley's overall strength is that he's fast and reliable; he's a workhorse with fairly decent art. That said, he's far from the best; even here, there are a few odd panels that are hard to suss out and an occasion or two of patented Liefeldian knife-feet. Still, his presence helps the book feel as though it's come full circle. Bagley was there at the beginning and stuck around for over a hundred issues. It's only fitting he'd illustrate the ending of the story.

While this is the swan song for Ultimate Peter Parker, this isn't the end of Ultimate Spider-Man. The title is relaunching, with a new, ethnic teenager taking on the identity. It's been making some waves and I've heard some good things. I may stick around for it; the book might not feel so redundant if we're following a new kid carrying on in the name of the old.

The Score: 8 out of 10

The story works, but it's a bit flawed. Still, it's a fairly memorable death and clears the deck for Marvel to do something really different with the Ultimate Spider-Man property. Not an instant classic, but a good send-off for this version. If you've been reading all along, of course you'll pick this up. If you, say, dropped the book after Bagley left, I still think it's safe to nab the hardcover and roll with it. I haven't read Ultimate Spider-Man in years* and I didn't have any major problems. Recommended.

* I think the last one I read was that one with Black Cat and a bunch of other guys. Pretty sure Kingpin and Ultimate Elektra were involved. I recall Pete really wanted to bone the Black Cat - because duh, she's incredibly hot and he's a horny teen - and she puked on him when she realized he was a teenager. Fun stuff, but by the time I got around to reading it - a couple years after its publication - I was kind of falling off the train when it came to the book. Pretty sure it was an arc back when Bagley was still on the book full time.

The Light (comics)

Writer: Nathan Edmondson
Artist: Brett Weldele
Collects: The Light #1-5

I picked this one up largely because the striking cover caught my eye and I figured what the hell.

Story's pretty simple. We meet a welder who had just lost his job. He's pretty far from a good person; apparently, when his life went to hell, he went all Chris Brown on his wife - which is why they separated - and he's also an alcoholic. His teenage daughter lives with him and his mother for some odd reason - dad's rarely get custody, even if they're the most fit to raise them, which this dude definitely isn't - and it's all set up quickly in the first half of the first issue.

At this point, his old boss comes screaming in the dead of night about lights coming on and people spontaneously combusting. Then a street light comes on and he spontaneously combusts. Our "hero" is saved by his welders goggles. Figuring this is probably not the time to be hanging around the suburbs, he grabs his daughter and blows dodge, because despite the fact that he's kind of a scumbag he does love his kid.

From the opening setup, it's pretty straightforward up until the end. Standard apocalypse scenarios; get supplies, try to find family members at such and such place, bickering and infighting, you know the drill. It's mostly about the father, despite being an asshat, wanting to save his kid and the lengths he'll go to do it. It feels fairly realistic - his teenage daughter borderline hates him and doesn't respect him, which, you know, is understandable considering he smacked her mother around - and the two define dysfunction. There's little else to the book though.

Edmondson takes the Robert Kirkman route of not bothering to really explain what's going on, letting the questions just hang in the air. It's a pretty fair choice, but at the same time the concept is a bit out there and could use a bit of definition. He tries to establish some ground rules - apparently, the light has to hit the eyes or something and the effects only come from something that receives its power from the power grid - but it's mostly for the purpose of giving the dad an option to try and stop the crisis in the immediate vicinity to save his kid. None of that really explains why looking at a light will make somebody burst into flames. Doesn't make much sense to me; probably why he wanted to dodge explaining it.

Given the simplicity of the overall story, I think five issues was kind of pushing it. Obviously Edmondson needed time to establish the father-daughter dynamic, but there are parts where I got a bit of a feeling of killing time. If compacted a bit more - say, three issues - I think the story might have been a bit more punchy; you know, goes in, gets the job done and leaves with a bit of an impression made. As it is, the book is a brisk, fast paced read, so it's not particularly glaring, but I can't help but think it went on a bit too long without anything really "happening".

There's a text piece in the back where Edmondson gives his thoughts on the story and what he was aiming for. He was gunning for tension and horror through use of the fact that we're all connected these days; he probably should have gone with the internet for it, but I suppose power lines do the job. It's a fairly neat concept, for sure, but it's a bit of a minor theme; I think if it were played up more in the story instead of being mostly explained in the text piece this book would have stood a bit taller.

As it stands it's a breezy read with some nice art that's a perfectly acceptable way to kill an hour.

The Score: 7 out of 10

I think this book had more potential, but it's still a decent, inoffensive read. You could skip it and not miss a whole lot, but you won't feel lesser for checking it out. Give it a read if the concept interests you.

Captain America: Patriot (comics)

Writer: Karl Kesel
Artist: Mitch Breitweiser
Collects: Captain America: Patriot #1-4, All Winners Comics 70th Anniversary Special, What If #4

One of my favorite things about Captain America relates to the retcon* they did; when he came back in Avengers #4, we learned he had been encased in ice since the end of World War II. Instead of scrapping the numerous Captain America comics in the intervening years from continuity, they had a better idea. As the retcon goes, after Caps final mission - when he and Bucky were assumed dead - the government decided the spirit and symbol of Captain America needed to be kept alive. So other men wore the uniform in the years prior to Steve Rogers return.

The end result is a stretch of time where numerous men tried to live up to the legend of Steve Rogers; a concept with a lot of potential to it.

This miniseries is about the second man to wear the uniform after Rogers went missing, Jeffery Mace. Inspired by Captain America during the war, he took up his own heroic identity of The Patriot. After the war came to a close, his peers began to drift. But eventually he discovered the truth; the original Captain America had died at the end of the war and another took his place. Realizing Cap was a symbol the world needed, Jeffery Mace took on the identity of the man he patterned himself after to carry on in his name.

It's a moving, effective story; we see Mace struggle to come to grips with the uniform he wears and what it means. Unlike Steve Rogers, Mace had no Super Soldier Serum to power him up; he was a regular man trying to carry on the mission of the ultimate man. What he has is heart and a mind of his own; like Rogers would prove to be time and again, Mace is not just some government stooge. This is the story of a man who stepped into the boots of a legend and not only lived up to the legacy, but kept to the same ideals even when it might have cost him.

Generally, the stories of the replacement Captain Americas end badly. One died while the 50's Cap went insane thanks to a flawed Super Soldier Serum and would become a bit of a recurring nuisance. Jeff's the only one who got to walk away from the costume intact and it's an ending that feels earned. This is the definitive story of the third Captain America, using continuity properly as a structure for the life story of Jeffery Mace to be wrapped around.

I can't say enough about what an enjoyable read it is. It's a great story coupled with art that has that perfect balance of looking kind of old fashioned while feeling distinctly modern. On top of the four issue miniseries, the All Winners special Karl Kesel wrote - featuring an adventure with the All Winners Squad we didn't see in the mini proper - is included, as is the original What If** issue that first gave us the events that led to Mace's tenure, which we saw snippets of in the main miniseries.

Overall, a nice package.

The Score: 8.5 out of 10

I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed this. The story of a man who fought to live up to the name of Captain America is a winner. Well worth adding to your bookshelf.

* A lot of folks decry retcons, but some are for the better. This is one of them. I think it ended up adding a lot to the Cap mythos and that's a win any way you look at it.

**As you probably know, Marvel's "What If" series essentially asked the question of what might have happened had a key event in a story gone another way and then let us see how that change might have played out. Several of the ones I've read were cute but disposable - some of them tended to end up in the same place the regular story did, only going along a different sequence of events - and just about every one of them are out of continuity tales, hence the "What If". This is one of the only - and may be the only, I'm not a hundred percent sure - "What If's" to actually be rendered in continuity, since it filled in a few gaps in Caps history.