cap_ironman | Reborn Issue 3 Recap

It's not so much that I hate it, so much as I don't feel like it's living up to its potential. Completely setting aside the plot device (the tachyon thing had really poor timing for me, since I had just seen Land of the Lost), there's so many places that seem horribly neglected to me. Steve's bouncing back and forth through time, but they haven't really done anything with it--no revelations about his past, no character development, no real plot. He just seems to be living a flashback episode. The Bucky angle of the plot has some pretty good merit, but it seems to have happened mainly to give Sharon a reason to turn herself over to the Green Goblin, and while I know Sharon is still shaken from being brainwashed and held captive, that's sort of a wallbanger to me. But other than Bucky, Natasha and a few pages with Reed and Namor, most of the heroes seem to be sitting around talking.

I do like what's going on with the villains. For me, they're the best part so far. That much, at least, flows very naturally. It's believable, and pretty much drives the actual plot. But the villain scenes are such a small part of it in terms of page count that it's hard for me to work up enthusiasm based just on that.

It's pretty much a YMMV thing, but mostly, I just wish they'd used those opportunities that I keep seeing left to dangle.

*nod* I can see some of those points. I think the plot device is totally fair -- it's not like comics are strangers to plot devices, and Brubaker has outright admitted he's doing this as a tribute to Vonnegut -- and I also think the flashbacks are important. This is going to be a jumping-on point for new Cap fans, and it's important to refresh everyone's memories of the important moments in Cap's past, so they see where and who he's been. Plus, Steve is so lost that I think HE needs to remember who he is, too. I'm sure the plot will come to a head, but for now I'm enjoying seeing this tour through Cap's history through Brubaker's lens.

I just get frustrated because I feel like a lot of fandom is just annoyed that Tony isn't a part of it, and while I shop that pairing wholeheartedly, I don't see any reason why this story should be about him. Their reunion and working out their issues will come later.

Oh, seated next to Pym Particles and the Fantastic Four, the plot device is totally fair--I think those tend to get a pass because they're such old stories. My major argument with the Tachyon thing is that it feels retconned--a large chunk of the first issue explaining "what really happened" didn't help that. From a marketing standpoint (like you said, a jumping off point for the new Cap fans), the flashbacks are needed. But from a storytelling standpoint, it feels like wasted space. I can't shake the feeling that they could have used it better. If it is that Steve needs to remember who he is, then that point completely passed me by, which is a shame because that could have made me like the flashback scenes a lot more.

I sort of feel a little cheated on the Tony thing. Tony is such a huge part of Steve. Cutting him out feels like they're missing something important. Even having just a brief, no-dialog shot of him in issue three was a giant relief on that angle. I would take more of that in a heartbeat. With what's going on in Iron Man, it's completely possible that we won't have Tony when Cap does finish coming back, or at maybe not a Tony capable of having a reunion. I think that makes the fandom a little nervous about Cap's story. It definitely makes me nervous!

I understand that an exposition dump about what really happened may not have been the way to go, but I don't think retconned is the right word. Retconned implies that Brubaker deviated from his original plan, and that isn't the case. As I told the commenter below, he always planned to bring Steve back, and much more quickly than actually happened; it was only when Marvel turned the death into an event that he stretched the story out longer. That means that he always had an idea of how he'd bring him back (almost immediately, at the time) from the death, and had planted clues (like the weirdness with Steve's body's decomposition) that things weren't quite what they seemed. So from the moment Brubaker killed Steve, he knew how he'd bring him back, and this is the Vonnegut-inspired device he'd chosen for that purpose. It's fair to say it was awkwardly explained, but to say it's a retcon is like saying the reveal in Pride and Prejudice that Wickham is a bad dude was a retcon. It was always the author's plan, even if the audience and characters didn't yet know about it.

As for Tony -- yes, he's important. But so are all of the other people in Steve's life. He's not the be all and end all, and, as you said, considering what's going on in Tony's own book, it isn't really possible for him to have a present-day part in this story. (When it comes to the flashbacks, he's simply one more layer in the past Steve remembers.) But Steve WILL come back, and so will Tony (he's not going to stay lobotomized!), and they're going to reunite. Have you seen the previews for Marvel's Siege? That's going to be ALL about Steve, Tony, and Thor reuniting to take down Norman Osborn, and it'll be written by Bendis -- who, as you know, gave us The Confession. I'm not worried about Steve and Tony not getting a reunion. It's going to happen.

I can definitely see how it slots together in some ways—like you said, there's little clues, and I do remember seeing confirmation that this had been long in the works—but it reads like a retcon to me. The presentation is what threw me, I think, and it makes it hard to shake that "thrown together" feeling. It might have been better for the story if they had done it right away, since that might have saved us from needing pages of "and this is what happened". :\

Oh, I never expected any real presence from present-time Tony, not with the way his story is going. Even though Reborn seems to step out of continuity, that would have been too much by far. But all we've gotten is three mentions/appearances, when as far as we know Cap's last memories would be of the tag end of his and Tony's Epic Break-Up. Granted, mostly the flashbacks seem to have covered Cap's distant past so far, so there's still time for a couple more mentions. Maybe it's just part of the over-all pointlessness of Cap's drift through time. (Though I do have hope for something there after what happened in issue 3.)

I had not heard about Siege, and it's a huge relief! \o/ I was twitching in fear that they might end up setting Tony aside to deal with Iron Man Without Tony Stark or something similar. Thank you for giving me the heads-up! ♥

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Reborn Issue 3 Recap

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