The good news? Morales and Bachalo have created a Captain America who is considerably less whiny and introspective than the character that has moped around this title for the first year and a half of its run. The bad news? It still doesn't feel much like Captain America to me, but rather a sort of action hero take on him, with a bit of modern politics mixed in for relevance. Like so many of Marvel's books these days, it feels like the movie treatment of the icon, and while there are without a doubt some interesting ideas and a couple solid action sequences in the book, ultimately its the flaws that I remember more than the strengths.
One of the big flaws, unfortunately, is in the artwork. Bachalo is slowly struggling back to coherent storytelling, with some nice work especially on the quiet scenes featuring Steve Rogers in a diner or talking with military superiors. Where the story really drops the ball, and this is a pretty important element, is in the action sequences. There's certainly a sense of a blur of motion, and there are some exceptionally cool panels (the one with Cap emerging from a wrecked car firing guns is worthy of a Tony Scott flick), but the overall sense I get is "what the hell just happened?" Given that Morales's script seems to get that Captain America is a very impressive guy in action, it's a shame that Bachalo can't capture that in a more clear way while maintaining the energy that his art undeniably carries.
That doesn't mean I'm entirely pleased with Morales's take either. This may be me showing my traditionalist colors, but when we had Captain America firing a pistol and a rifle at his aggressors, I stopped believing that it was the Steve Rogers that I've read about. Combine that with Captain America acting like an actual military soldier rather than an independent hero with a patriotic streak and you've got a take on Cap that just doesn't work for me. I stop short of saying its not a valid take, but its a reinterpretation that doesn't really seem to get the core of what makes the character cool, and instead attempts to transform him into an action movie hero. Based on reading this issue, I think I'd be interested to read an action story by Morales, but I'm not sure I want to read his Captain America.
Mind you, while I miss the borderline corny hero's code of honor and the colorful adversaries, I can't deny that there is something intriguing about Morales's plot here. The one defining aspect of Captain America that I felt Morales absolutely nailed was the notion that this guy is a universally-trusted icon amongst the American people, even when they don't trust their own government. It's intriguing that the military and government would try to play on Cap's patriotism to help assuage that distrust, but I hope that this is leading in a direction that will see Cap aware of being used rather than seeing him duped by the military. I'd be very surprised if Morales is aiming for a sort of right-wing "support your government, even if they seem insanely criminal or criminally insane" type of message, though.
The other problem I have here is that Morales's writing is a little too blatant. Having Cap part-own a diner right out of the '50s seems a bit on the nose, and the setup of this new young girl as a potential love interest seems clumsy and obvious. Ditto the acknowledgment that the U.S. government isn't as good-hearted as Cap himself with the revelation of what would happen to the girls who were bound for slavery. Having that go on, with Cap able to do little more than grimace, makes him look more ineffectual than anything else.
