Captain America: Disassembled

Captain America: Disassembled
Captain America: Disassembled

By Robert Kirkman & Scot Eaton and Priest & Joe Bennett (Marvel Comics)
ISBN: 0-7851-1648-6

A few years ago the “World’s Mightiest Heroes” were shut down and rebooted in a highly publicised event known as Avengers Disassembled. Of course it was only to replace them with both The New and The Young Avengers. Affiliated comic-books such as the Fantastic Four and Spectacular Spider-Man ran parallel but not necessarily interconnected story-arcs to accompany the Big Show.

The Star Spangled Avenger’s portions of that imbroglio are more or less collected in this volume, and originally ran in Captain America and the Falcon #5-7 and Captain America volume 3, #29-32, but be warned: if you’re a new or casual reader, that doesn’t include the beginning of the tale and the CA&TF portion is bewilderingly unclear. The book simply starts midway through an adventure.

Written by Priest and illustrated by Joe Bennett and Jack Jadson, the heroes are pursuing and protecting a young man who has been experimented on by the US Department of the Navy to create their own Captain America – kind of a Super-Sailor, if you will. All the while Nick Fury and the Daily Bugle are squabbling in the background, Cap is on the run and experiencing hallucinations of his dead sidekick Bucky and an overly-amorous Scarlet Witch driving a taxi!

Meanwhile over in Cap #29-32 (by Robert Kirkman, Scot Eaton and Drew Geraci) a series of nostalgic battles with Hydra, Mr. Hyde, Batroc the Leaper and the Serpent Society distract our hero as much as his returned paramour Diamondback, which is a shame as the red Skull and Modok are lurking with murder in mind. But are even they the real villains here?

Glossy and competent the book looks good and reads well, but the overall effect is truly marred by excluding the opening chapters from the collection. Would it have hurt so much to just have included it all?

© 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.