Captain America: The Chosen No 1

Source: The List (Issue 586)
Date: 20 September 2007
Written by: David Pollock

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David Morrell & Mitch Breitweiser

In the current Marvel universe, Captain America is dead. Still, that doesn’t stop him being reincarnated when David Morrell – the novelist who created Rambo – comes calling for a scripting job.

The majority of this first issue of six is about as heavy on military onanism as you might expect, following the life of a battle-weary young corporal in modern-day Afghanistan. He runs, he fights, he misses home and feels like giving up, until a phantom Cap turns up and reacquaints him with the heroic American way.

It’s a bold subject for a mainstream comic to cover, although it’s disappointing to note that the baddies (ie. the Taliban) are barely more impartially portrayed than the Nazis were in Cap’s very first 1940s serials, while not even mild questioning of the war itself seems to be forthcoming. The art is crisp, and a Jacobs’ Ladder-like cliff-hanger offers hope for issue two, but only if the flag-waving is toned down substantially.

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Last updated: 27 Sep 2007 16:10 BST