Captain America: Winter in America

After finishing Black Widow, my holiday reading continued with Ta-Nehisi Coates and Leinil Yu's Captain America: Winter in America.

Taking place in the aftermath of Secret Empire, Steve Rogers struggles to find his place in an America that was conquered by Hydra, whose Supreme Leader shared his likeness. Now, distrusted by Government and public alike, Cap goes it alone (well, almost) when copies of the villain Nuke begin their attacks.

I enjoyed this series, which felt like a spiritual successor to the Winter Soldier (my favourite MCU film) in terms of its political thriller vibe. Coates, best known as a political journalist, once again (as with Black Panther) leans into what he knows best crafts an intriguing story focused on the ideas of trust in Government.

Coates depiction of Cap is possibly my favourite part of the trade, as he struggles to deal with the fact that he is seen as immaterial after his views (and face) were twisted to a place where they effectively consumed his country. As a result, it was refreshing to see Cap on the back foot, attempting to prove an allegiance he never wavered from to those who now see him as a pariah.

That said, while the story is an entertaining one, there were some things about it which just felt like they went over my head. While the core concept of the trade made sense to me, I struggled to understand the villains' goal in all of this. Also, while it added an additional layer of conflict, the appointment of certain villains to positions of power over Cap also made no sense. I guess this is Coates attempting to reflect a sense of corruption and incompetence within government. However, I must admit it just made it a little too bleak for my taste.

Leinil Yu's artwork is solid stuff throughout and his rough, scratchy style helps convey a sense of the titular winter darkness into the plot. However, I have to admit that it took time for me to get on board with his work, as felt his style had an too much of an almost horror look for my liking. As I said though, I did get used to it and it ended up working rather well, especially with the cold colours Gerry Alanguilan (I assume) provides.

All in all, this was a good read, even if it was maybe a little too politic heavy for me to follow perfectly. However, with a final twist (which I hope is a feint) revealed at the end, I'm intrigued to see what happens next and so might add the follow up to my wish list.

Black Widow: S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Most Wanted

I've gone on holiday for a few days and, per my tradition, I've filled my tablet with a bevy of comics and graphic novels to fill my time.

Well, it seems I have a bit of time to fill because on my first night, I read Mark Waid and Chris Samnee's Black Widow: S.H.I.E.L.D.'S Most Wanted.

This trade follows The World's Deadliest Avenger as she is forced to steal from her own agency. Now on the run from S.H.I.E.L.D., Natasha Romanov must find a way to get herself out from under the villainous 'Weeping Lion' in a tale of action and espionage that sees her cross paths with a new incarnation of the organisation that made her: the Red Room.

I don't remember when I picked up this trade (I wanna say that it was a freebie during the early days of COVID) but, suffice to say, it's been a while. Yet, despite the fact that the team of Waid and Samnee, creators of maybe the best Daredevil run I've read, are behind it, I've never felt the urge to sit down with it.

However, now I know that this was a mistake because Black Widow is a fantastic, action-packed espionage story about the ghosts of out pasts always haunting us.

Waid and Samnee (who did joint writing duties here) have (spy)crafted a story which has all of the wit, charm and depth of their Daredevil run, but with a lot more darkness and brutality to reflect the Widow's tragic origin.

Indeed, Mark Waid, who I said previously seems to hold one of the greatest encyclopedias of knowledge in comics, again uses an abundance of Widow's canonical backstory and merges it with that of others to add another layer of her life before the Avengers in a real shocking twist.

Meanwhile, Chris Samnee, pulling the art duties alone, applies his style perfectly to make Black Widow and truly beautiful comic of almost Darwyn Cooke proportions. As with Daredevil, Samnee applies the action scenes fantastically, giving an almost living aspect to this set scenes and showing off Natasha's ballet skills with some fantastically kinetic fight scenes.

And then there is Matt Wilson's colours which I love as they give the art a bit of a Francesca Francavilla flair (reminds me of Black Panther: Man Without Fear). I also think that his colours enhance the tone to better show darkness of the story.

By the end, I'm annoyed with myself. Not for reading this trade but for waiting so long before I did. Black Widow vol. 1 is quintessential Waid/Samnee storytelling. I was captivated, amused and entertain in equal measure and I have to get volume two to see how the conclusion to thus story plays out.

Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #6

I've reached the end of a week of Pull List comics today by reading the second of the two comics (so far) for ugust; the Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #6.

From Tom Taylor, Clayton Henry and Jordie Bellaire, the finale of the Son of Kal-El's six issue jaunt to the Injustice universe comes to an end as Jon attempts to rescue that Universe's versions of Batman and Harley Quinn, both of whom are facing execution. However, to do so, he'll first have to get take on the Justice League.

Whereas almost all of the issues prior to this have been incredibly quiet and slow reads, I felt that this one really ramped up the action. However, Tom Taylor certainly put a wonderful Superman spin to it as he showed that, for Jon Kent, being Superman is about more than throwing punches.

Unfortunately, that is really the only positive I took away from this issue as the ending felt rushed and the art from Clayton Henry, while solid, didn't really wow or resonate with me (although his depiction of the aforementioned twists certainly elicited something of 'go Superman' feeling).

I do wonder of reading this series as a whole rather than piecemeal might connect with me better, if only because the 'It's a Wonderful Life'-esque moral that's hinted at the end certainly intrigues me that I want to give it another chance.

However, while the final page hints at another mini-series to come, for the moment I think I'll probably be giving it a miss.