Captain America: Sam Wilson Vol. 1 - Not My Captain America

by Nick Spencer

[Quirky Cat]

So I really wanted to love this series, I adore the character Sam Wilson and was really excited that he got to take on the role of Captain America. Unfortunately I was only so-so on the plot in this volume; I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. With any luck volume two will be better? I think what really gets me is that there’s just so much potential to the series, so with any luck that potential doesn’t get wasted.



So first of all, I’d like to give credit to the series for taking a risk; Captain America has always been considered one of the more “safe’ characters, facing relatively minor changes over the years (Yes, I know Winter Soldier as stepped in as Captain America as well, which is also awesome). Before anybody worries, Steve Rogers isn’t dead; he’s just aging and needed to step down, at least for a while. And frankly they picked one of the best replacements possible for Captain America this time around; Sam Wilson.
I didn’t love the plots/antagonists for this volume. Some of the comparisons felt heavy handed, with obvious references to America’s current political state (which is fine – I just would have liked to see it more subtly/cleverly done). The Serpent Society never really felt like a threat, despite all the attempts at making them appear to be so. The only good thing I have to say about the Serpent Society and their experiments is we got a new Falcon out of the mix, which is pretty fantastic (and seeing Sam Wilson’s reaction to that was priceless). Some weird things did happen as well though, such as Sam Wilson becoming a werewolf temporarily. I mean, what? It was classic comic cliché all over the place. Thankfully that’s as bad as it got.
Misty Knight was amazingly badass as usual – frequently coming to Sam’s rescue. There’s an implied interest between the two, which I’d be interested to see how that goes. There are half a dozen other cameos as well, from Maria Hill to Steve Rogers.
I think my absolute favorite part was actually when Sam Wilson was simply thinking to himself; he was realizing that he and Steve Rogers are very different people, despite everything he had thought, and therefore make very different Captain Americas. Where Steve Rogers truly believes push comes to shove, people will do the right thing; Sam Wilson can only hope that they will. He doesn’t have the same blind faith that Rogers does. In the end it’s the differences that make them interesting, and I’m glad that moment got highlighted.


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