Review: Captain America/Iron Man #1

Any comic can be a new reader’s first comic. Put an amazing cover featuring Cap and Iron Man around it and it’s even more likely to be. The worry of course is that the first comic they pick up is as bland and pointless as this one. This issue mixes concepts we wanted to forget with a bland house style story-telling and leaves a completely uninteresting product that would put any reader to sleep.

On the surface a team-up book with Steve Rogers and Tony Stark is a great idea. These are characters we all love and care for. They have decades of shared history, battles and camaraderie. So seeing the issue spend time on Cap rolling his eyes at Tony’s stubble and Tony dealing with a walk of shame gone wrong feels like a wasted opportunity.

Veronica Eden begins as a character we have seen too often, a former flame of Tony and a SHIELD agent secretly working for Hydra. She faces her trial and breakout with humor and an eye-roll which sets her apart. She is freed by one of the members of the Fifty State Initiative, named Fifty-One. No one ever needed to hear about the Fifty State Initiative again. Here we are reminded of it once more when the Paladins show up to fight Fifty-One. They are former Fifty State Initiative members who left government service to strike out on their own. It’s completely unclear why the Fifty State Initiative should ever be mentioned in a comic as there is just way too much complexity in explaining why that exists.

The art throughout the battles and dramatic rescues feels blurred and rushed. The characters and backgrounds are over-simplified. Veronica has some potential to be interesting, it feels like the writers are channeling Harley Quinn a bit. But even as she escapes the book just sinks under the weight of all of the other dull characters and concepts around her.

Writing: 1 of 5 stars
Art: 2 of 5 stars
Colors: 2.5 of 5 stars

Overall: 2 of 5 stars

Writer: Derek Landy
Art: Angel Unzueta
Colors: Rachelle Rosenberg
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Author Profile

M.R. Jafri

M.R. Jafri was born and raised in Niagara Falls New York and now lives with his family in Detroit Michigan. He's a talkative introvert and argumentative geek. His loves include Star Wars, Star Trek, Superheroes, Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Transformers, GI Joe, Films, Comics, TV Shows, Action Figures and Twizzlers.