In this day and age, it seems an odd complaint that there's too much going on in a story, but that's the feeling I got from the second issue of Kirkman's Captain America. I noted that there were too many elements in the first issue, but thought maybe it was a symptom of having to do a lot of direction-changing and setup for the brief arc. Instead, it seems like Kirkman is trying to pack a year-long run into four issues, which means that as fast as something is introduced, it's pushed off the page and replaced by something else. The result, while still kind of fun for an old school Cap fan like myself, is more than a little unsatisfying, especially when Kirkman seems to be "goofy-ing" up the concepts a little too much for my taste.
In this issue alone, we've got Batroc, Red Skull, the Serpent Society and a coup within SHIELD (again?)... that's a lot to cover, and as a result, none of it really gets the full attention it deserves. Perhaps most disappointing to me is that Kirkman, whose sensibilities would seem ideal for Batroc, misses the mark on the character completely. Batroc at his best should have a cheesy accent and goofy costume, but his role as a villain should be played fairly straight, and Kirkman flip-flops that, ditching the cartoon French accent but playing the villain as a goof who can't even stand up to Captain America, and as a result the scene just wasn't much fun for me.
I'm also a little nervous about the way Kirkman is playing Diamondback. He's brought back this character that old school fans like myself wanted to see again, but she doesn't really seem terribly in-character, as her willingness to work with the Red Skull would indicate. There's a clue in here that maybe she's not who she pretends to be, a shapeshifter or something along those lines perhaps, and that would be the only way to salvage the subplot for me, but it would also disappoint me in that I really wanted to see the character back in Cap's life again, preferably long-term but at least for a short while.
I find myself conflicted about much of this book, actually. On the one hand, it was a real joy to see the Serpent Society again, as I have a strange fondness for these admittedly kinda lame villains, and Eaton does a great rendition of the large cast of villains, but on the other hand, the way they enter the story is far too abrupt, and aids the sense that Kirkman is cramming too much into the book at once. I enjoy the notion of Red Skull "teching up" to deal with Cap, and actually kind of like the armor/force field helmet that Eaton has cooked up, but the guys trying to run a coup read like the Three Stooges, and a coup within SHIELD is one of those things we've seen hundreds of times before. I love seeing Cap old-fashioned in some ways but modern enough that he will sleep with his girlfriend (something that will send some of the real traditionalist old school guys into foam-at-the-mouth fits, I'm sure), I just wish that his girlfriend wasn't secretly the villain's pawn, another old chestnut and a misuse of a good character in my estimation.
All told, after my enthusiasm for Kirkman's first issue of Captain America, this issue was kind of disappointing for me. I'll still be reading the rest of Kirkman's run, if only because I know what he's capable of on stuff like Walking Dead and Invincible, and because Eaton and Geraci are turning in a pretty solid performance on art. Unfortunately, though, the compressed story arc means that I don't think Kirkman is going to be able to bring his full bag of tricks to bear, and this second issue lends some support to that notion in my mind.
