This is a mini telling the story of the super soldier serum development, from a very different perspective. It starts introducing us to 3 characters, all African-American living their own lives in different parts of the USA.
Then they are drafted into the military and go to war (WWII). They end up in the same group, and that’s when things start to go wrong. They are part of the experimentation for the super soldier serum. Some of them die from the experiments, some of them survive.
This was a very grounded story, not at all a superhero story. It was very much about the discrimination against blacks and the culture at that time. So when one of the soldiers was reading a Captain America comic I was wondering if this story was in the Marvel Universe at all. I got my answer soon afterwards.
I really liked how this tied into the Cap story, and what he does in the present. Somehow I felt touched by the last issue.
My biggest problem is that I was very confused while reading this story. There is a lot of information in each issue, however not everything is spelt out for the reader. Some things are implied, some other things I just didn’t understand from the dialog. Luckily for me each issue has a “story so far” blurb, which is actually clearer than the comic pages.
The art by Kyle Baker is nice, but I could hardly distinguish the soldiers. Luckily he didn’t have to draw too many superheroes, I really don’t think his style is suited for a serious superhero comic. Maybe a parody though.
Monday March 15th 2010