Captain America: the Man with No Face


By Ed Brubaker, Luke Ross, Steve Epting, Butch Guice & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3163-2

Captain America was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby at the end of 1940, and launched in his own title (Captain America Comics, #1 cover-dated March 1941) with overwhelming success. He was the absolute and undisputed star of Timely (Marvel’s early predecessor) Comics’ “Big Three” – the other two being the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner – and one of the first to fall from popularity at the end of the Golden Age.

When the Korean War and Communist aggression dominated the American psyche in the early 1950s he was briefly revived – as were the Torch and Sub-Mariner – in 1953 before sinking once more into obscurity until a resurgent Marvel Comics once more brought him back in Avengers #4.

This time he stuck around, first taking over the Avengers, then winning his own series and title. He waxed and waned through the most turbulent period of social change in US history but always struggled to find an ideological place and stable footing in the modern world, plagued by the trauma of his greatest failure: the death of his boy partner Bucky.

Eventually, whilst another morally suspect war raged in the real world, during the publishing event Civil War became a rebel and was assassinated on the steps of a Federal Courthouse.

He was replaced by that dead sidekick. Bucky had been captured by the Soviets and used as their own super-soldier assassin – The Winter Soldier. There’s no truer maxim than “nobody stays dead in comics”…

This thoroughly readable and exceedingly pretty romp explores the shady past of the Winter Soldier as well as the World War II experiences of James Buchanan Barnes as one of the troubled hero’s worst enemies and biggest mistakes comes back to haunt him…

Collecting issues #43-48 of Captain America volume 5 (from 2008 if you’re as confused as I usually am… are, is) and written by Ed Brubaker the action kicks off with the three part ‘Time’s Arrow’ (drawn by Luke Ross with inks from Fabio Laguna, Rick Magyar, Mark Pennington & Butch Guice) as the substitute Star Spangled Avenger battles Batroc the Leaper and fails to prevent the theft of a highly contentious package from the United Nations. His face exposed during the fracas, Bucky had inadvertently drawn the attention of someone with a long-standing grudge against his previous persona…

Interspersed with revelatory flashbacks to his wartime career in the Invaders and his Russian Black-Ops missions the story of Chinese mad scientist Professor Zhang Chin and his monstrous associate “The Man with No Face” grimly unfolds and the new Cap is forced to finally confront the atrocities he committed in his previous life…

The drama and horror intensifies with ‘Old Friends and Enemies’ (illustrated by Steve Epting and Guice) as Zhang Chins’s plans are revealed.

The mysterious package contained the remains of the original Human Torch which the aged scientist has now weaponized into an incendiary virus, and it takes the combined might of the new Captain America, Black Widow and old Invaders comrade the Sub-Mariner to overcome the professor’s invincible faceless man, save the world from flaming contagion and rescue their dead ally’s remains from even greater desecration…

This is a dark, gripping extravaganza that depends far too much upon a working knowledge of Marvel continuity but, for those willing to eschew subtext or able to ignore seeming incongruities and go with the flow, this sinister super-spy saga is genuinely enthralling and well worth the effort. This tale leads into the long-awaited return of the original Sentinel of Liberty (see Captain America Reborn) and if you a full-on fan of the fights ‘n’ tights crowd you’re assured of a thoroughly grand time.

© 2008, 2009 Marvel Characters Inc. All Rights Reserved.