Friday, September 15, 2023

Captain America Finale #1 (2023)


[CAPTAIN AMERICA FINALE #1
Writers: Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly
Artist: Carmen Carnero
Cover Artists: Carmen Carnero and Alejandro Sánchez]

Well, it seems I was wrong. The Money and The Power did not kill The Love and The Machine, because here they are all back again at the Century Game table . . . 


[found at why-i-love-comics,
excerpted from a
larger post]

. . . where The New Revolution declares his final move.


[found at burninblood,
excerpted from a
larger post]

Meanwhile, the Invaders (now reduced to only Captain America, Destroyer and Nomad for some reason) reach the Shadow Capitol and easily fight their way through an army of supervillain mercenaries (including Crossbones in a wee cameo) bought by The Money and robotic soldiers created by The Machine. Just when things look dire, Ian Rogers, King of the Monsters, shows up to help his superhero Mom and Dad win.


excerpted from a
larger post]

Captain America confronts the monstrous Machine who, it turns out, was Dr. Agboje's mother in her human existence. She threatens to destroy everything but Steve activates Agboje's override in the Shield and initiates its kill switch sequence, destroying The Machine. 

And now it's Alpine's turn to shine as a superhero! She takes down The Money, viciously clawing him and then nonchalantly licking the blood off her paws.


[Alpine in Captain America Finale #1
found at burninblood]

As the entire Shadow Capitol explodes, Steve rescues Bucky and Alpine from certain death.



Cornered by The New Revolution and his gun, The Power taunts Steve that Bucky is still a killer and Steve should talk him out of it. But Steve leaves the choice up to Bucky, saying that if his call is to pull the trigger, "you're my friend, and I trust you." But it turns out that Bucky has another fate in store for The Power, turning him over to Doctor Doom who takes his revenge on Fortunov for his previous crimes against Latveria. Doom promises to make Fortunov's death last longer than the Century Game did.

And then Steve, Sharon, Bucky and Alpine all go back to New York and live happily ever after.

ASSESSMENT OF THIS SERIES

The story's overarching premise was too complicated and required an excessive amount of backstory to be comprehensible. There were way too many characters involved in this, and they took over the action at the strangest times (like MODOC). The plot veered wildly from convoluted to simplistic and silly.

However, the series did have some good moments of sporadic character development. Alpine finally got her due as Bucky's sidekick and was always a welcome presence when she appeared.

The best thing about this series was Carmen Carnero's outstanding art. Kudos to Carlos Magno's art as well. I'm now a fan and will watch for future work from both of them.

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