Broken Frontier

The death of Captain America reverberates throughout the Marvel Universe, and Wolverine doesn’t believe the living legend is dead.

For most of us, the recent death of Captain America is still a hot topic of debate. Some feel that killing Cap off was a mistake and others applaud the direction Marvel has taken with this. I for one prefer to see Cap alive and well in the Marvel Universe and so does it appear that Wolverine feels the same way.

In fact Wolverine is so convinced that Cap’s death is nothing more than a big ruse that he goes off on a hunt to find the truth. He starts out by visiting with the Winter Soldier, who flat out tells Wolverine that Captain America is dead. Of course Logan doesn’t buy that, so he decides to find Daredevil and asks him to come to the Helicarrier to aid him in locating Cap’s body. Daredevil agrees and with the magical help of Doctor Strange, the pair enters S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters only to have Logan turn the tables on the operation. He doesn’t really want to find Cap, but rather seek out Crossbones for retribution against killing the living legend. Of course though, nothing is as it seems here and once Wolverine confronts Crossbones, he may not like what he discovers.

Now for all this is worth, the story is just a quick glimpse into the minds of some of Marvel’s elite, and in Wolverine’s case the answer is simple. He believes there is something misleading here and his instincts smell of conspiracy. Writer Jeph Loeb did a decent job of chronicling this tale, and his dialogue served to probe the questions surrounding Cap’s demise. He laid the framework for this story to make as much sense as it was perplexing, and at least in one mutant’s mind Cap is indeed alive and well. Is this a sign of things to come in the near future? Maybe it is, but at least the story got you to see a different perspective as opposed to what we have been accustomed to with the threads previously established in Civil War and Captain America’s own title.

The big plus for me was the standout art of Leinil Yu. Now this is one artist that really understands the power of high octane visuals, and in the earlier pages he managed to establish Wolverine as a man on a mission. He was able to top that off with a big splash page of Logan colliding with Daredevil that you couldn’t get any better than until the climax when Wolverine confronts Crossbones. Almost every page was filled with soaring movement and his high level of storytelling worked to set the stage for what should be an interesting perspective from these series of one-shots that comprise the Fallen Son concept.

Altogether, this series should be an interesting examination of Captain America’s legacy in the Marvel Universe, and I am sure it will serve to build upon his everlasting mystique. At first I was thinking this may be cheesy cash-in for the series, but after reading through this issue I was pleased with what I read. Differing points of view are always welcoming in a series like this, and I am sure once the entire run of Fallen Son one-shots hit the stands, we will get the straight dope on how the superhero community sees things. So far we know that Wolverine believes Cap will ultimately return to action, but the big question to ponder is how the other heroes set to debut in the one-shots will see things. I guess only time will tell.