By Zack Quaintance — Captain America #0 arrives today, delivering an over-sized story that also works to lay ground work for not one but two new comics starring these characters. One is to be based around the Sam Wilson Captain America — the current Cap, it should be noted, in Marvel’s cinematic universe — and the other around Steve Rogers. With that in mind, I found myself essentially evaluating this book on both whether I had fun reading it (yes) as well as what it says about Captain American comics moving forward (that one is more complicated).

I definitely think this issue reads well as a relatively standalone story, one that features Steve Rogers as Captain America teaming up with Sam Wilson also as Captain America to defeat a plot by Arnim Zola. The artwork is fantastic, with Mattia De Iulis showing clear Alex Ross influence with a stronger sense of kinetic movement. You can see it in the preview pages here, but the opening to Captain America #0 is a great encapsulation of what to expect from the entire issue. Zola opens giving a tried villain speech, waxing verbose, before interrupting himself with Oh come the #*@& on. Cut to a great splash page of Cap hurling a shield at his face.

As with that exchange, the rest of the book is heavy on familiar superheroing ratcheted up to 11, with a fun dose of almost self-awareness to it. It works well as the two Caps banter, sling shields, and move through a fast-paced and fun dispatching of Zola’s plans. It’s a story that feels familiar in its concept, yet does all the small connective things well that it never feels too familiar, staying interesting and fun throughout. If you’re looking for a relatively self-contained, quick Cap adventure, you’re going to have a blast here.

While that is all unfolding, the book is also working hard to lay groundwork for the dual series launching out of it. I’m a little more mixed on that conceptually. It’s not that this book does any of it wrong. It actually really impressed me with the way it felt coherent yet segmented, making clear that while they bare the same mantle and have the same priorities, Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers are different heroes poised to do different things under different circumstances. The contrast there is interesting, and the creators lean into that.

But where I’m left scratching my head a little bit is with the Steve Rogers book spinning out of this event. I tried to put myself in the place of a reader who mostly knows the Marvel movies (which yeah, I know, might not even exist, but still…) and the presence of a youthful and vital Steve Rogers in the mainline Marvel continuity just seems like it would be confusing. I know it can be controversial, but I’ve always found it interesting when a new character takes over an established mantle. I like the idea that individuals will age out of their superheroing, and will give their blessing to replacements who extend their concept and story. Wilson certainly fits that bill, having spent decades supporting Cap in these comics.

While I have faith in all the creators involved here to make both books interesting moving forward (all the work in this prelude attests to that), I still can’t help but wonder what going all in on Sam Wilson as Cap with a retired Steve Rogers would give us narratively. This is a question that has cropped up for me across Marvel’s line, most directly with the Spider-Man comics, where I vastly prefer the Spider-Man: Miles Morales title to anything the publisher has put out in recent years starring Peter Parker. It feels more vibrant, less predictable, and like a natural extension of the story.

And it works on its own, but it feels like it would be less encumbered if Peter wasn’t still having relatively similar adventures elsewhere. In the Venom book, for example, Eddie Brock has ceded his starring role to his son Dylan, sticking around (in a way) as support, and the series is all the better for it. Long-time fans grumbling online and in shops that their favs are being replaced certainly doesn’t help things, leaving out as it does whether or not the storytelling has gone stagnant with anachronistic heroes remaining under masks and capes. Keeping these legacy characters headlining things elsewhere in continuity sort of robs newer heroes of prominence and urgency, too.

And it’s this concern that lingers with me upon finishing this book. What if, I wondered, Steve had rode off into the sunset here as he did in the films? To me, that makes Sam’s story all the more interesting. I’ll get over it though, especially if the work in the two forthcoming Captain America books is as strong as the team-up here in this prelude issue.

Overall: This is a good-looking and fast-paced Captains America team-up adventure, one that also does a great job laying track for not one but two series to launch out of this book. 8.0/10

REVIEW: Captain America #0

Captain America #0
Writers: Tochi Onyebuchi, Jackson Lanzing, and Colllin Kelly
Artist: Mattia De Iulis
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Publisher: Marvel Comics
When Arnim Zola launches a catastrophic attack on New York City, he meets his match - in Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers! In the explosive battle that follows, two Captain Americas prove better than one, and Sam and Steve decide they might just keep a good thing going...
Tochi Onyebuchi (BLACK PANTHER LEGENDS), Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly (KANG THE CONQUEROR) and Mattia De Iulis (THE MIGHTY VALKYRIES, INVISIBLE WOMAN) kick off an incredible new CAPTAIN AMERICA saga, and you won't want to miss what comes next!
Price: $4.99
Buy It Here: Digital

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He has written about comics for The Beat and NPR Books, among others. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.