Comics on the Bubble: Captain America One Shots (2011)

Oof. The dollar bins giveth, and the dollar bins punish. I had been sitting on these for the last year, and now I’m sort of bummed they took up space for that long. I’m not sure if there was any sort of vision or consistency for these things, but they are a hugely mixed bag in quality and content. I didn’t buy them all, but these are the ones I did pick up.

Captain America and the Falcon by Rob Williams and Rebekah Isaacs. Listen, I love the Falcon, but I enjoyed the opening couple of pages with Grey Gargoyle more than the parts of the comic re-establishing Falcons sense of guilt. I’m not a fan of Isaacs art either, everyone has the same face! SELL

Captain America and the First Thirteen by Kathryn Immonen and Ramon Perez. I’m not going to admit how confused I was trying to figure out that this wasn’t about thirteen folks, but rather the first Agent 13. That one word would have really helped me! I suppose if I was invested in the romance between Peggy Carter and Cap this might have hit me more, but I never found their French resistance to be too believable. Immonen’s dialogue doesn’t always sound right to me, and that was the case again here. SELL

Captain America and Crossbones by William Harms and Declan Shalvey. This wasn’t too bad. I don’t know Harms, and his story is a bit on the generic side, but I do enjoy these tiny glimpses into Brock Rumlow’s past. Shalvey’s art is nice too (as always), but in the end, there just isn’t enough here to keep this. But I don’t regret reading it! SELL

Captain America and Batroc the Leaper by Kieron Gillen and Renato Arlem. This is clearly the strongest o the one shots, and so it makes sense that the creative team is the most established of the bunch. Batroc is a fun, interesting Cap villain, and Gillen captures that while bringing in some nice parkour and French pride elements too. Arlem draws Batroc stockier than I usually picture, but he does look imposing. KEEP

Summary: Quite the mixed bag!