Broken Frontier

Captain America's own dreams turn against him.

Longtime Captain America scribe Ed Brubaker continues his break from his familiar, darker, grounded tone and accepts the stranger and wackier aspects of the superhero genre.  Captain America #6 sees Steve Rogers facing self-doubt in the wake of his nightmares come true as he finally plummets down the rabbit hole.

After a month or two had passed and provided me with enough time to adjust to Brubaker’s new direction for Captain America, it is safe to say Cap is unlike any other book on the stands.  Steve Rogers’ battle against vengeful allies returning from the past, his adventure into “The Land of Nowhere,” and his nightmares turning against him are a welcome break from the “gritty” and “realistic” tone of many superhero books.  Issue #6 is much more than just popcorn battles, however, as Brubaker forces Rogers to confront his greatest fear of returning to his weakened and less than heroic days.  This nightmare, as debilitating and heart wrenching as it is for America’s greatest hero, gives readers an opportunity to peer into the hero’s mind; after all of the battles Rogers has fought, after the friends and allies lost, and after countless doomsday scenarios foiled, it is the until now slight chance of falling from heroic glory that truly scares Captain America more than anything else. 

Replacing previous Captain America artist Steve McNiven is Alan Davis, whose style matches fairly well in most places and excels in others.  Several of Davis’ panels are structured in highly stylized shapes that not only add excitement but guide the eye across the page, leaving styled pages in the dust.  When it comes to the characters themselves, however, certain faces can appear flat or oddly shaped, but Davis recovers in his rendition of the nightmare stricken Rogers whose emaciated body brings the horror of the Captain’s dreams to life.

As this volume of Captain America continues on, it is quite clear that Ed Brubaker is striving for something new with the Marvel Universe’s most heroic man.  Issue #6 leaves Cap in an incredibly vulnerable state, depowered, physically and mentally broken, completely at the mercy of his enemies.  It is rare to feel concerned for a superhero, even at the most dire of situations, but now with his enemies closing in, and his dreams turned against him, the stakes are reaching a new high for Captain America.