Captain America Patriot

So yeah, I picked up issues #1 and #2 of Captain America: Patriot, and it’s really good. The story focuses on intrepid Daily Bugle reporter Jeffrey Mace, who is inspired to become the masked hero The Patriot after a chance encounter with Captain America in a Brooklyn shipyard in the summer of 1941. As the Patriot, Mace battles Fifth Columnists with the help of a team called the Liberty Legion, while Captain America is in Europe fighting the Nazis alongside the Invaders (the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, Bucky, Toro, Union Jack, and Spitfire). When (SPOILER!) Captain America and Bucky are presumed killed in an explosion over the English Channel the United States looks to other heroes to continue Cap’s legacy (as the G-Man in #1 says, ”...The trouble with a living legend… (is that) it has to stay alive.”), and Mace is the third man to become Captain America.

(For those who don’t know the publication history of Captain America, the character appeared regularly in Timely (Marvel) comics through the 1940’s, but fell out of popularity along with most superheroes at the close of the Golden Age, and appeared sporadically through the 40’s and 50’s until Stan Lee and Jack Kirby reintroduced the character in the Silver Age in 1964, in Avengers #4. The sporadic post-war appearances of the character were later retconned to be different men in the role, as Steve Rogers was now established to have been trapped in ice since the end of the war.)

The writing here is smart, full of little winks to real-life events (JFK’s speech at Faneuil Hall on July 4, 1946) and period films (like the “Third Man” reference that kicks off issue #2), and the dialogue has a nice 40’s feel without being too hokey. The art here by Mitch and Bettie Breitweiser is gorgeous, at times recalling Sean Phillips, Darwyn Cooke, and Dave Stevens (maybe I’m thinking Stevens because of the retro subject matter, but I do detect an influence). I’ve admired the Breitweisers’ work from afar, though it’s always been on titles I wasn’t interested in, and these pages are simply incredible- great flow and wonderful dynamism. My only gripe with the action sequences is that there aren’t enough of them!

Basically, the only thing preventing me from giving this a blanket recommendation is the price- $3.99 is probably too steep for the reader who isn’t already a Cap fan. But, if you’re as hungry for great Cap stories as I am this is a total must-read.