CAPTAIN AMERICA #11

By Tony Whitt     March 31, 2003

While tracking down Inali Redpath, a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who has gained control over the weather, Steve discovers that dozens of clones have been made of himself and his dead partner Bucky. Inali claims that the government was trying to clone a more malleable version of Captain America and hopes that Steve will join his revolution to take America back from the white usurpers. But Steve decides to fight thunder with thunder, and calls in an old friend...

It had to happen eventually: the Marvel Knights version of CAPTAIN AMERICA simply couldn't stay in the "real world" and long endure. With all the backstory for this character, and with all his interactions with others in the Marvel Universe, it was only a matter of time before we moved away from 9-11 and al-Qaida to Thunder Gods and Atlanteans. And yet despite these traditional comic book trappings, Chuck Austen has not made the storyline any less relevant, nor any less realistic.

While the main plot has to do with a Native American's battle to take back what he considers his people's land, there's a question that's been nagging at Steve ever since the start of this series: how does a good man like Captain America defend a country whose government often does reprehensible things? Asking that question in the current climate leads to the usual unoriginal "If you don't like it, leave" response that those who can't think up anything better to say usually resort to, but Austen allows the other side of the debate to be heard, and the answer Cap comes up with is a good one. Granted, it's a bit disturbing to hear Steve labeling Inali's paraphrase of Thoreau's ideas in CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE as "terrorist double-talk." But his later conclusion - that America itself is still a country worth our love and worth defending, even if its government is sometimes wrong or sometimes makes mistakes - is one which both sides of the current real-world debate over what our country is doing should think about. It's his ability to see the flaws in the system and yet still be willing to defend his country to the death that makes Cap (to borrow a phrase from another series) a real American hero.

And by the by, lest anyone think I'm using this review as a soapbox, bear this in mind: I once had a reader write in over my last review of this book, telling me to save my "left-wing propaganda" for a forum that is supposed to have political content because he was trying to read about comic books. And a comic book named CAPTAIN AMERICA doesn't have political content, simply by definition? Besides, if Chuck Austen didn't intend some political commentary of some sort here, I'll eat my hat. Folks, do me a favor on this one, and save the nasty letters until after reading this issue. You'll be doing yourself (and me) a favor. Not to say this issue is perfect, mind you: the dialogue between Inali and Thor once they get down to business is a bit over the top, as is Jae Lee's artwork, in a murky, confusing sort of way. But if CAPTAIN AMERICA had to return to the realm of fiction to have greater relevance to the real world, then I for one am all for overblown dialogue and difficult imagery. After all, isn't that precisely what we see on the evening news every night, anyway?

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