Captain America #48

Ed Brubaker writes darn consistent monthly titles. This issue wraps up the Man With No Face and evil scientist arc, with Bucky, Black Widow, and Namor all looking pretty damn awesome. Last issue I complained that Namor got the short end of the stick to make the plot points work, but Brubaker makes up for that here, as Namor gets some great dialogue, awesome fight scenes, and in fact really steals the show at one point. Winter Cap is a neat character, and I find myself really starting to like him. He's no Steve Rogers, but as Namor points out this issue, he's starting to sound like Rogers, which is a great thing. Black Widow adds a lot as a super-competent partner for Winter Cap, and I love her playfully hitting him. She's not a girlfriend who needs to be protected, she saved the freaking day in this! The Man With No Face was a neat villain, I enjoyed seeing how distraught he was seeing his doctor buddy going down, and as for the doctor, I always love villains like Ra's who think they are saving the world by killing billions. It's such a gloriously comic-book concept, I never tire of it. I am a tad disappointed we didn't get the Torch back though, I kind of thought that Brubaker was going to try to tip the death scales a little back in his favor. Let's face it, at this point he's killed Nomad, Banshee, and Captain freaking America, he could have tossed us a bone and given us a rebuilt robot, right?

The art was great throughout, as the three pencillers are all great. Butch Guice, Luke Ross, and Steve Epting all do some pages and the feel never varies from the grim super-heroics we get from this title each month.

Good