Captain America: Sam Wilson #1 (Marvel)
From December 2015
writer: Nick Spencer
artist: Daniel Acuna
Lately Marvel has been given a whole franchise to one writer, be it Brian Michael Bendis and Iron Man or Nick Spencer and Captain America. Recently, Spencer debuted his second series, Captain America: Steve Rogers, which ignited a lightning rod when he revealed Steve has kind of been a Hydra agent all along (pay no attention to the Cosmic Cube behind the curtain). So what about his Sam Wilson series?
Following on the heels of the earlier Sam Wilson/Captain America (which featured artwork from Stuart Immonen), this reboot picks things up in medias res, quite literally, with Sam in big trouble with everyone because he dares ask Americans to pay attention to crime around them. Anyway, it's Spencer's bid to make Sam's Cap socially relevant.
If you had no idea why Sam even was Captain America, this issue is not going to help you. It's part of Marvel's increasingly clumsy efforts to keep sales good by rebooting every series without a good reason, because for a lot of these series, the only thing changing is the creative team, such as the case is here. Otherwise, there's no reason to have a new first issue if there's nothing but some engineered controversy to try and make it stand out.
That makes it ironic that Spencer's own Steve Rogers series has a real controversy, but then, it also has a rejuvenated Steve Rogers, who for a little while was an old man without super-soldier serum anymore. This one just has Sam Wilson, randomly being Captain America, because he used to be his partner, as the otherwise totally unrelated Falcon (who has a falcon as an ally).
Sorry, I'm sounding negative again. I swear I'll tone that down.
The art is from Daniel Acuna, who's been a Marvel guy for a few years now, but I still best remember as a DC guy, doing Freedom Fighters comics. Here his work, whether intentionally or not, evokes Stuart Immonen's. (See the note above.) Still, I like his work and won't complain about that.
What's wrong with sounding negative? Besides rebooting this is part of Marvel's clumsy attempt to pander to minorities: Miles Morales Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Lady Thor, Totally Awesome Hulk, and Iron "Man" being the latest one. They've basically turned their superhero lineup into Disney's Small World ride.
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