This Is Not The Way — Reviewing ‘Sam Wilson: Captain Amierca’ #1

Another Marvel Studios film is on the way in a few months, so it’s time for the comics to synergize. Before Sam Wilson takes to the skies as Captain America on the big screen, he’s getting his own titled series again.

Unfortunately, Sam Wilson: Captain America #1 doesn’t so much soar as just kind of tumble through the air in a debut issue from Greg Pak, Evan Narcisse, Eder Messias, Valentine De Landro, Fer Sifuentes-Sujo, and Joe Caramagna.

I have been looking forward to this book since it was announced. It’s been far, far, far too long since Sam appeared as Captain America in his own solo book, rather than just Avengers and scattered events. Sadly, I cannot say that the end result lived up to the potential excitement of the wait.

This book just doesn’t work.

Some former arms dealer corporation claims to helping people (Black people and disabled veterans heavy among them) with free land grants. Captain America’s cousin drags him into checking it out (hoping he’ll sponsor it, so she gets a piece) after Storm dismisses him from an actual emergency — because it’s not like Captain America (the one actually on the Avengers) should be with them. It’s okay, they got the white one.

So much of the stuff here just feels tacked on to hit as many Black related aspects as possible.

Vampires attacking Harlem for some reason. A cookout that feels wasted because we spend no time actually seeing who brought what or playing what games or anything. Isiah Bradley is there and a reference to Josiah is dropped (since he’s set to appear here). Cousin Billie and War Machine have some verbal sparring match going on or something. All this Eaglestar stuff and the CEO that (surprise surprise) turns out to be the villain of the story.

Nothing really flows in a way that seems smooth. Just a lot of exposition dropping (Steve suddenly being all guilty about Isiah and others) and story points all leading to a plot that feels threadbare. Pak and Narcisse clearly have plans, but I’m not sure how well they are gonna float.

Also, don’t get your hopes up if you were looking forward to some Thunderbolt Ross Red Hulk in this book. It’s the “We have Red Hulk at home” version of the character I forgot even existed for a moment in time.

Art wise: things are fine.

There is a roughness or grittiness to what both Messias and De Landro offer up here. Some of it gets a bit muddled at times, with some facial stuff being harder to make out and read the emotions. Both styles are very similar in many aspects with enough depth and weight to them to keep the pages moving. The few action scenes at least flow pretty well, even if some bits are a little hard to figure out.

All the colors are also really heavy as Sifuentes-Sujo brings in a darker style of palette. Shadows and darker tones help with the rough textures throughout the issue. Even the more vibrant colors feel heavy because they have those darker tones mixed into them. It’s an interesting choice all around as this doesn’t necessarily feel like a heftier type of story, but it still works.

A lot of the dialogue feels stilted and a lot of it is exposition dumping. Visually, though, it feels fine because Caramagna is a really good letterer. Giving it all its right flow and space across the page, trying to condense things as much as possible so it doesn’t become too overwhelming. Personality isn’t really on display with this story, characters kind of just fitting a role in the plot, so there isn’t a lot of that energy to be found in the words. Overall, though, Caramagna makes it all work.

Sam Wilson: Captain America #1 is now available from Marvel Comics.