The Creators – Mark Waid – Writer, Chris Samnee – Artist, Matthew Wilson – Colours, VC’s Joe Caramagna – Letters

The Players – Steve Rogers (Captain America)

The Story – Cap is on the road, heading back to a small town he saved ten years previous to save it once again and it is there he receives a bit of a surprise.

The Take – After Nick Spencer’s exciting and somewhat polarising run – some really enjoying it and some really not, Mark Waid returns to the character he once used to write and brings him back to his roots, a tale as wholesome as sunshine and cherry pie. While readers might think it strange to roll the character so far back, to present a tale such as this right after everything that went down in Secret Empire and before, it was exactly what was needed. After so much doom and gloom, a bit of lightheartedness was called for and Waid who has experience with the character, was the perfect man to tell it. It does not erase anything that has come before nor should it, but it brings Steve Rogers back to basics, back to what makes him work on a fundamental level. Gone is all the tampering by Kobik, the Nazi and Hydra influence and once again, Steve is that kid from Brooklyn who just wanted to serve his country and grew up to be one of the most inspirational heroes around, still fighting the good fight no matter anyone’s opinion. Framing it in a small town that holds a Captain America festival was a bit of genius as Waid is then able to have people give testimony as to Cap’s character and heroics and it works fantastically. There is still a big bad to fight of course, the book featuring a little bit of action to offset the drama that surrounds it. While featuring a group of Hydra-lite terrorists might not have been the best choice of villain, it was somewhat symbolic of Cap putting the past behind him and moving forward to whatever might come his way – a fresh start both for him and for the readers. The artwork by Chris Samnee is what one would expect – flawless and fantastic in every way, the man seemingly incapable of drawing a bad panel and thus making this first issue of Captain America’s latest arc a truly great jumping-on point.

Worth It? – Yes