Captain America: Man Out of Time #4 *Spoilers*

[Moose967]

Captain America: Man Out Of Time

By Mark Waid and Jorge Molina

The Review

If you are not picking up this mini, then you are are missing out on one heck of a quality Captain America story. The twist at the end of this issue may only be rivaled by the antagonist revealed in Hawkeye: Blindspot #1. Often times you find that when a writer or artist returns to a title that they were superb on, in this case Waid's excellent first run on Captain America in the mid 90's (which included the excellent "Man Without A Country" and "Operation: Rebirth" arcs), they tend to not be as good as they once were. Waid does not fall into this category with this return to Steve Rogers' beginnings in the Modern Marvel Universe (his second go on Cap during "Heroes Return" is a bit more debatable).

Much like the three previous issues, we get to see Steve adapt to his new home. This time we see him on various missions with the Avengers, culminating in a battle with a particularly large UFO. Steve also finally gets a point of cultural reference as it were when he finds a very old WW2 vet.

As this series progresses the more I am liking Molina's art. To the point that I want him on the regular Cap book when Steve returns to the role. The art is fluid and expressive and has a very superhero feel about it. Love it.

The Moose's Line Score: Story-9/Art-10/Overall-9.5

The Spoilers

spoilers:

-While working with the Avengers, Cap tries his best to dig up information on Bucky and Peggy Carter but to no avail. -Cap does find his old commanding officer though; General Jacob Simon. Simon and Cap discuss how the world has changed for the worst. Cap also comments on how it makes him angry. -Iron Man is tracking an UFO sighting which turns out to be none other than.......KANG. Despite the fact that Kang dispatches the other Avengers with ease Cap gets the drop on him. -Kang senses that Cap is not from this time and correctly deduces that he is from the mid-1940's. Cap lands one last devastating blow when Kang sends Cap back to 1945. To be concluded...

end of spoilers

[Retrodork]

I've really been enjoying this mini. I liked the Y2K references in the newstand Cap is walking by in issue 2, nice little things like that.

[CMBMOOL]

spoilers:

I must say someone been watching the new Avengers toon.

end of spoilers

[Leocomix]

Wow! Many readers think a series set in the past can't be interesting because nothing can happen.
Waid proves this is false. The story is more exciting than anything else Marvel publishes with Cap and the last page cliffhanger... I've got no words.

[SomeBodyAtCBR]

This series is amazing. They need to get Waid on something on-going stat.

[StoneGold]

This series is amazing. They need to get Waid on something on-going stat.

You mean like Ruse?

[Hrist]

You mean like Ruse?

Isn't that just a mini?

[SomeBodyAtCBR]

Isn't that just a mini?

I bet it's more like a trial, and will continue if it sells well. I'm sure I'll try out Ruse, because I love Marvel and I think the CrossGen properties lend more of a EC comics feel to Marvel's line-up. I like "genre books" and would probably like one or the other. Marvel needs more pulp and horror titles though!

But I'd like to see Waid on something in the MU proper. I wasn't a huge fan of his work in Spider-Man (did he write Grim Hunt?) but I wouldn't be upset if he took over Cap after Brubaker left (didn't he do a run on Cap already though?).

I like the way he invokes emotion. It grounds his work in that classic "characters you care about" Marvel tradition. It's more than just BAM! ZIP! POW!

Also, did this mini get bumped up an issue? Could have sworn it was originally 4 issues.

[StoneGold]

In any event, he still does have two books of his own to write full time.

[Capt USA]

another example of why Waid should get more of a chance to write Captain America frequently. Fantastic issue again, and Waid really gets Captain America.

[Death Itself]

This series has been nothing but disappointing to me. The idea of Waid retelling Cap's reawakening seemed like it was destined for greatness, but has just been some very pretty mediocrity. I thought this issue might redeem the horrible idea that Cap would try to use time travel just to save one person when he's seen literally millions die when they open in Arlington. For as long as I've read Cap I've envisioned a scene where, upon his return, he goes to Arlington to see all the people he knew that have passed. Given this series is supposed to be stressing how out of place he feels (it's in the title), I expected a poignant dramatic scene (they even had it in the rain like I imagined). Instead we just get Thor telling him to pull his head out of his ass, something he should have said in the previous issue the moment he brought up that "Gonna go back and save Bucky" nonsense.

Then there's the main story of meeting General Simon which was fine. Complaining about the changes in the world is what old people usually do (I know I do) and it had a wonderful uplifting ending with his nurse, but the small points in it where Cap is looking through is past are completely awful.

We've seen hundred, thousands, millions of times just how important making a super-soldier is to pretty much every nation on the globe and what happens when the first, most successful one comes back? Nothing. Not a blip. No one, not even the US Government which at this time is currently trying to recreate him yet again with Ted Sallis in the Florida everglades cares to go to the living source. Jeckie and Lord Falsworth are clearly not up on current events or just don't believe it's him, not that it's addressed in any way why he's not on a plane to England immediately or trying to find any of the Invaders besides Namor. The lack of reflective sophistication has been an ongoing problem with this book and every time a modern detail like DNA testing to be sure it's Cap or the government looking immediately into who's in that uniform, it only draws attention to it's not showing up anywhere else. Examples:

President interested in Cap: as if government and military presence in his life would stop there. They'd be all over him on every level, on and off the grid as we've seen with Josiah Bradley. He wouldn't just be off alone doing his thing. The awful Ultimate Avengers cartoon did a better job showing him with a constant Secret Service detail. Whether he wanted it or not, that's what would happen. He's a walking national security risk. A hostile foreign power grabbing a piece of his DNA is a problem.

Modern media being criticized: that same media would also be all over the return of Captain America. We've had a 24 hour news cycle for over 20 years now. Again, the Avengers: Earth's Mightest Heroes mini retelling their origin did it better, having Hank reference the books he's read about Cap. He's not just another guy in a costume. He's so important he gives The Avengers legitimacy with the government by being on the team. Going by this story, no one seems to care.

Cap looks for his old friends: but none he can actually find, because he has to find them later, but no logical "in story" reason is given, like Nick Fury. I was critical of Nick Fury not showing up but addressing it here works because Nick and a few of the commandos are SHIELD agents so it's fine they're not available or their very existence has been covered up (like Sharon Carter). The Falsworths in England? Not so much.

Cap looks for his old friends II: doesn't use any official channels because again, that would produce results. Few within the government would turn down a request from Captain America as opposed to Steve Rogers. Technically, he's still a operative (he's still drawing a paycheck and has millions as we learn later) and would probably have access anyway. A scene that didn't insult my intelligence is Cap being led to a room in the bottom of the Pentagon and allowed to look at Bucky's file. Or again, speaking to his isolation in the modern world, asking about people he knew and being told over and over again, "Dead. Dead. Dead." And wouldn't "Steve Rogers" who was a classified operative requesting materials on other classified operatives set off red flags to begin with?

I'll say it again: he's written his Marvel equivalent of Superman: Birthright. A very disappointing retelling with some pretty art.

[Moose967]

This series has been nothing but disappointing to me. The idea of Waid retelling Cap's reawakening seemed like it was destined for greatness, but has just been some very pretty mediocrity. I thought this issue might redeem the horrible idea that Cap would try to use time travel just to save one person when he's seen literally millions die when they open in Arlington. For as long as I've read Cap I've envisioned a scene where, upon his return, he goes to Arlington to see all the people he knew that have passed. Given this series is supposed to be stressing how out of place he feels (it's in the title), I expected a poignant dramatic scene (they even had it in the rain like I imagined). Instead we just get Thor telling him to pull his head out of his ass, something he should have said in the previous issue the moment he brought up that "Gonna go back and save Bucky" nonsense.

Then there's the main story of meeting General Simon which was fine. Complaining about the changes in the world is what old people usually do (I know I do) and it had a wonderful uplifting ending with his nurse, but the small points in it where Cap is looking through is past are completely awful.

We've seen hundred, thousands, millions of times just how important making a super-soldier is to pretty much every nation on the globe and what happens when the first, most successful one comes back? Nothing. Not a blip. No one, not even the US Government which at this time is currently trying to recreate him yet again with Ted Sallis in the Florida everglades cares to go to the living source. Jeckie and Lord Falsworth are clearly not up on current events or just don't believe it's him, not that it's addressed in any way why he's not on a plane to England immediately or trying to find any of the Invaders besides Namor. The lack of reflective sophistication has been an ongoing problem with this book and every time a modern detail like DNA testing to be sure it's Cap or the government looking immediately into who's in that uniform, it only draws attention to it's not showing up anywhere else. Examples:

President interested in Cap: as if government and military presence in his life would stop there. They'd be all over him on every level, on and off the grid as we've seen with Josiah Bradley. He wouldn't just be off alone doing his thing. The awful Ultimate Avengers cartoon did a better job showing him with a constant Secret Service detail. Whether he wanted it or not, that's what would happen. He's a walking national security risk. A hostile foreign power grabbing a piece of his DNA is a problem.

Modern media being criticized: that same media would also be all over the return of Captain America. We've had a 24 hour news cycle for over 20 years now. Again, the Avengers: Earth's Mightest Heroes mini retelling their origin did it better, having Hank reference the books he's read about Cap. He's not just another guy in a costume. He's so important he gives The Avengers legitimacy with the government by being on the team. Going by this story, no one seems to care.

Cap looks for his old friends: but none he can actually find, because he has to find them later, but no logical "in story" reason is given, like Nick Fury. I was critical of Nick Fury not showing up but addressing it here works because Nick and a few of the commandos are SHIELD agents so it's fine they're not available or their very existence has been covered up (like Sharon Carter). The Falsworths in England? Not so much.

Cap looks for his old friends II: doesn't use any official channels because again, that would produce results. Few within the government would turn down a request from Captain America as opposed to Steve Rogers. Technically, he's still a operative (he's still drawing a paycheck and has millions as we learn later) and would probably have access anyway. A scene that didn't insult my intelligence is Cap being led to a room in the bottom of the Pentagon and allowed to look at Bucky's file. Or again, speaking to his isolation in the modern world, asking about people he knew and being told over and over again, "Dead. Dead. Dead." And wouldn't "Steve Rogers" who was a classified operative requesting materials on other classified operatives set off red flags to begin with?

I'll say it again: he's written his Marvel equivalent of Superman: Birthright. A very disappointing retelling with some pretty art.

I have to disagree. I think looking through his past at the modern world would be exactly what he would do. The government may be keeping him busy to the point that he can't look.

This series is on par with everything Bru is doing. Sorry you don't like it as well.

[Moose967]

Isn't that just a mini?

Hrist what have you thought of this series so far?

[T Hedge Coke]

So, again, a lot of awesome and moving stuff, but... all those crimes namechecked for Cap this issue, from drugs to identity theft? You think none of that existed in Cap's time, you're fooling yourself. And, I couldn't believe that Cap would be fooled, himself.

How cool was Thor's honor the dead bit, though? Or, Cap's one living friend (that he knows of) forcing his moral hand? The character development in Stark's method for pitching America Today?

[Hrist]

Hrist what have you thought of this series so far?

I only bought the first issue. I have the hardcover pre-ordered though. From the first issue, it just seemed like something I'd like to have in hardcover.