Review- CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 4: THE IRON NAIL

CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 4: THE IRON NAIL (Marvel, First Printing 2015; Softcover)

Collects Captain America #16-21 (cover dates April- August, 2014)

Writer: Rick Remender

Artists: Pascal Alixe and Nic Klein

Colorists: Edgar Delgado, Antonio Fabela, Israel Silva, and Dean White

This was another one that I checked out of the library. Remender has studied Brubaker's run closely, and he does a very good job at keeping the tone and feel going in terms of suspense and building development on top of development. In short, Remender gives “the kids” what they want, and there's nothing wrong with that.

S.H.I.E.L.D. has, shockingly, lied to everyone again, hiding their umpteenth doomsday weapon from even their highest ranking people. Gungnir is basically a Transformers ripoff with the power to battle a Celestial. For the sake of suspension of disbelief let's pretend that S.H.I.E.L.D. are smart enough to not contract stuff out and wind up with an Edward Snowden type who would be willing to air their dirty laundry to the world, and that this weapon could exist all of this time undetected. Two also previously unknown super soldiers, The Iron Nail and Dr. Mindbubble, are here to give Captain America and the Falcon a real run for their money.

Further complicating things is Jet Black, Arnim Zola's daughter who returned with Cap from Dimension Z. The Red Skull tried to woo her, but she is seemingly determined to stay on the side of the heroes for now. The Iron Nail plays his hand, and it ultimately strips Captain America of the Super Soldier formula, leaving him a feeble old man. Even though the heroes beat him and Dr. Mindbubble they lost, as their foes were playing a larger game than this battle. Again, this is another tip of the hat to Brubaker's brilliant run on the title.

This was free from the library so the only thing that I had to worry about was whether or not I enjoyed reading it. Once upon time that is all that comic books were to me. I am trying to get back to that mindset and away from worrying about continuity and stuff.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone-

Paper stock: Good weight coated stock with a slight sheen.

Binding: Perfect bound trade paperback.

Cardstock cover notes: Laminated cardstock cover.