Friday, July 17, 2009

Captain America #601

Huh. I hadn't figured on liking this as much as I did. It certainly was the one-shot style story that I had feared it would be, but the story held up much more strongly than I expected. Winter Cap tells Nick Fury of an WWII encounter that he and Cap where they had to go up against their friends. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I wasn't expecting vampires. It makes sense of course, considering how well Gene Colan handles drawing the undead. The story is fairly generic, with the heroic pair running around taking out vampires in the usual ways. I did like seeing Cap and Bucky in this type of partnership, where they seemed a lot more like equals than the sidekick relationship we used to get. Cap never comes across as weak, but he's certainly more compassionate than Bucky, so it's neat seeing them on equal footing.

Gene Colan's artwork is the star of the issue. His Cap and Bucky both look great. Colan weaves a tapestry of gloom with shadowed pencils that really sells the horror aspects of the story. The gloomy WWII front comes alive with threatening shadows made even spookier since there are ghouls in the darkness. Ed Brubaker did a great job crafting a story that played to Colan's strengths. In the past I've been unimpressed by some of Colan's work, but his work in this issue sells the story through his excellent use of atmosphere.

Good

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