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CAPTAIN AMERICA: DEAD MEN RUNNING #1

By Tony Whitt February 07, 2002

The flag-waving Avenger returns in DEAD MEN RUNNING #1.
© 2002 Marvel Characters Inc.

A group of US commandos make their way through the Colombian jungles, with a the cocaine mafia on their trail and a group of Colombian children in tow. It seems like a hopeless situation, but help comes in an unexpected form as Captain America arrives on the scene in answer to their distress call. Cap soon realizes that the situation is not what it appears?the commandos claim to be "on loan" to the local government, and the children have been "liberated" from imprisonment, two very unlikely situations. But by then it's already too late.

It's incredibly un-American of me to admit this, but I've never been a Captain America fan. That lack of enthusiasm for the character has only been bolstered by the fairly lackluster writing I'd been exposed to on the now defunct CAPTAIN AMERICA series, in which Cap was reduced to a walking flag spouting patriotic rhetoric, without an ounce of unique personality and without a single surprise. Captain America was dependable, as any soldier should be, but all too predictable, as any good soldier should never be. CAPTAIN AMERICA #50, last month's swan song issue, seemed to promise a change from all that?but then it was the last issue. CAPTAIN AMERICA: DEAD MEN RUNNING seems ready to make good on that promise.

This is a far grittier world than the good Captain has been allowed to run around in before. Instead of endless battles with the Red Skull and former Nazi baddies and equally endless ruminations on the fate of Bucky, we finally get to see Cap as he would be in our world: dealing with real soldiers, providing them with courage and hope?and occasionally providing them with some problems. As the narrator Solo puts it, "He is just one man. As if one man could make a difference. And yet, it feels as if a tree had grown that makes the forest a forest." Writer Darko Macan treats his leading man exactly like that, and he makes it all the more believable by having it come from someone other than the Captain himself. This isn't the speechmaking Captain, endlessly spouting off about how great the American Way is?this is the soldier who gets the job done and manages to be a symbol of the job itself all at the same time, and does both quietly. It's quite a change. This is also a Captain America full of surprises?he can speak Spanish (and even sing in it!); he doesn't need no stinking parachute (an interesting trope mirrored in this month's excellent reimagining of the character, ULTIMATES #1); and he can be fooled. Oh, yes, he can be fooled.

Daniel Zezelj's artwork is equally surprising, especially since I didn't think I cared much for it when I saw the black and white preview of this issue in CAPTAIN AMERICA #50. Matt Madden's colors do tend to make the stark, thick-lined images just a tad too murky at times?but bear in mind we're in the same territory as movies like RAMBO and PREDATOR, and Zezelj's artwork beautifully captures the "horror" of untamed reality that Marlon Brando was going on about in APOCALYPSE NOW. A solid script and amazingly solid artwork make this a gripping first issue, and a tremendous re-introduction to a character who needs a re-introduction more than any other.