Review: Captain America #20- Government Is Not Your Daddy

Captain America #20- The Iron Nail: Part 4
Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Nic Klein
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Released: 14th May 2014

I decided to pick up a copy of Captain America this week after not reading the book for well over a year.  I’ve been avoiding the book because the last time I read a copy it was turning somersaults in an effort to avoid discussing any of the real issues of our times. With recent American history consisting of illegal wars, banker bailouts, sponsoring foreign coups and spying on their own citizens you’d think that good old ‘Cap’ would have something to say about it, wouldn’t you? But no, not a word, so I dropped the book, and moved on until I heard it was starting to deal with something resembling reality in 2014.

And so here I am with issue #20, a book I picked up after reading reviews that suggested to me that Captain America was out of fantasy land, and back on planet Earth. Another reason for me checking it out is that I really enjoyed the recent Captain America Winter Soldier movie. That movie amazed me by bringing up crucial topics such as the New World Order and Project Paperclip, two topics that have huge relevance to the mess of our world we find ourselves living in today. So would the Captain America comic book take a hint from the movie and start to deal with some real world issues? Read on, and I’ll let you know.

After a complex beyond belief summary of previous events, which is the usual way with a lot of Marvel comics it seems, I got straight into the story and knew exactly what was going to happen about thirteen pages before it actually did. All you need to know about the first thirteen pages or so of this book is that Captain America is in dreamland (they call it a ‘Mind Bubble’ this time) thinking about nice things. Dreamland is a prison construct, the kind of construct that’s extremely common place in comics, so common that the Justice League is currently in their own version of it in the DC universe. So I have to wait quite a few pages, and it all seems very pointless, as Cap breaks out of this false reality mind prison. The most memorable aspect of his time spent in said prison is his reminiscence of how great his Mum was, and his Dad, of course, is a useless drunk. That’s a regular theme in comics. Mums are always perfect, and Dad’s are always feckless losers. So what you have is a nation of superheroes with Daddy issues, and who’s the perfect father replacement? That would be the government. Put on the uniform kids, we’ll be your Daddy now. It’s a common theme, and in Captain America #20 you get it in the very first panel.

So far, so blah. So what happens when Cap breaks out of the mind prison thingy? He gets to punch a cartoon villain who keeps droning on about destroying America. The villains go on about America being a ‘Dying Empire,’ so at least they are tapping into some real world concerns here. The problem though is that the villains are evil foreigners who are setting up America to look bad so the rest of the world will, ‘Unite to dethrone you.’ Errr, call me a reality junkie if you like, but how exactly can America look any worse in the eyes of the world after what they have done over the past decade or so? A war in Iraq where millions died, all based on a lie, and all done to make corporate billionaires richer, whilst not benefiting humanity one single jot. Just look at the state of Iraq today. Suicide bombs are a daily occurrence; the country is in a state of civil war and has become an absolute Hellhole. And who is responsible? America. How is it possible to make America look any worse, and who exactly is going to come and destroy the evil empire? America has the biggest military in world history. It has the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world. If you attack America you are committing suicide. Everybody knows this, but apparently there is one exception. That exception is the writer of Captain America #20, Rick Remender.

In conclusion, Captain America #20 has an implausible plot, it’s very predictable, the villains are ill-conceived, barely believable and they have strange ideas of the world coming together to attack America for it’s latest moral outrage. I liked the art, it reminded me of the art when I was last enjoying Captain America, when Ed Brubaker was doing all of that stuff with the Red Skull and the Winter Soldier. But art alone is not enough, and this is yet another example of a Marvel comic that is out of touch with the times. Avoid it, unless you are a very small child. And if you are a small child, don’t believe all of the guff about Dad’s being useless drunks.  Government is not your Daddy; your Daddy is your Daddy. Rating: 3/10