Captain America-70th anniversary special
So we finally get a commemorative issue for Steve that's not from Paul Jenkins,
And I know that sounds awful, but reading Jack Robinson and Marcos Martin's take on Steve pre-Serum made me understand why Paul's take on Steve feels so off Yes, it's a nostalgia piece and yes, it opens with a somewhat cheesy and predicatable monologue--standard it's the man beneath who makes the superhero fare. But Robinson's and Martin's take on Steve was just fun The shift from Captain America leading a group of men into a mission, to a frighteningly gaunt Steve Rogers was beautifully done.
It's also turns out to be fun Right after walking out of the recruitment office, Steve, skinny and gaunt, runs into conspiracy that results in a wild goose chase through the streets of New York. And skinny and frail as he is, Steve is clever and determined and you can see why they picked him to be their super soldier. I liked that. It wasn't just that he turned up at the office and impressed them with his vehemence and talk of patriotism, he proved himself too.
(and I kind of want to do an HDM rewrite of this, because the intrigue/action is very Pullmanesque, and I want to see what Steve's Daemon would be.)
It's not that I think Paul is insincere in writing the character, but reading his Steve stories in the Theatre of War series, and in Mythos, it's as if, having found that he struck such a terrible cord among fans with the infamous conversation between Sally and Steve, he's overcompensating as a result. "Of course I think Steve is awesome," he seems to be saying, "look here! See? I'm writing him that way!" So he writes Steve determinedly going to the recruitment office, because he's always wanted to be career military like his father (except that doesn't make sense, because aren't the Rogers family immigrants? And two decades after the Great War, wasn't the social climate then---among migrant and established families--- vehemently anti-war?). He has Steve watching over his ailing mother, and "fading away" despite her son's best efforts (and never mind that it was Sara's strength and pragmatism that helped the family survive after Joe died, that neither being ill, and not having the resources to cure her suggests a lack on Sara's part). He has Steve watching out for a cowardly young soldier in one of his Theatre of War stories -- because Steve believes he would have been that soldier, had it not been for the serum. To the point where he's baby-sitting him, and probably to the detriment of the survival of the others.
Compare that to Jack, who in the Special, points out Steve had always been a brave, gutsy, clever young man before he was turned into a super soldier. Without having to resort to creating mothers who can do nothing more than waste away, or a cowardly counterpart.
And I know that sounds awful, but reading Jack Robinson and Marcos Martin's take on Steve pre-Serum made me understand why Paul's take on Steve feels so off Yes, it's a nostalgia piece and yes, it opens with a somewhat cheesy and predicatable monologue--standard it's the man beneath who makes the superhero fare. But Robinson's and Martin's take on Steve was just fun The shift from Captain America leading a group of men into a mission, to a frighteningly gaunt Steve Rogers was beautifully done.
It's also turns out to be fun Right after walking out of the recruitment office, Steve, skinny and gaunt, runs into conspiracy that results in a wild goose chase through the streets of New York. And skinny and frail as he is, Steve is clever and determined and you can see why they picked him to be their super soldier. I liked that. It wasn't just that he turned up at the office and impressed them with his vehemence and talk of patriotism, he proved himself too.
(and I kind of want to do an HDM rewrite of this, because the intrigue/action is very Pullmanesque, and I want to see what Steve's Daemon would be.)
It's not that I think Paul is insincere in writing the character, but reading his Steve stories in the Theatre of War series, and in Mythos, it's as if, having found that he struck such a terrible cord among fans with the infamous conversation between Sally and Steve, he's overcompensating as a result. "Of course I think Steve is awesome," he seems to be saying, "look here! See? I'm writing him that way!" So he writes Steve determinedly going to the recruitment office, because he's always wanted to be career military like his father (except that doesn't make sense, because aren't the Rogers family immigrants? And two decades after the Great War, wasn't the social climate then---among migrant and established families--- vehemently anti-war?). He has Steve watching over his ailing mother, and "fading away" despite her son's best efforts (and never mind that it was Sara's strength and pragmatism that helped the family survive after Joe died, that neither being ill, and not having the resources to cure her suggests a lack on Sara's part). He has Steve watching out for a cowardly young soldier in one of his Theatre of War stories -- because Steve believes he would have been that soldier, had it not been for the serum. To the point where he's baby-sitting him, and probably to the detriment of the survival of the others.
Compare that to Jack, who in the Special, points out Steve had always been a brave, gutsy, clever young man before he was turned into a super soldier. Without having to resort to creating mothers who can do nothing more than waste away, or a cowardly counterpart.