What If? Featuring Captain America #1

Writer: Tony Bedard
Art: Carmine DiGiandomenico
Inks: John Stanisci
Colors: Lovern Kindzierski

In What If almost anything is possible and these endless possibilities explode from a simple question: What if something different happened during a Marvel character’s past that sent their story in a completely different direction? In this, the first in a series of six brand new What If tales, the question asked is “What if Captain America Fought in the Civil War?”

Through the years there have been a couple What If series, the last one ending in 1998 Recently Marvel has revived the series as a yearly event, releasing a series of annual one-shots that show their characters in completely new and unfamiliar situations. In both of the previous series a character called Uatu, a being from an ancient alien race called the Watchers, whose primary duty was to observe and record the history of all possible realities, presented the tales. In this latest series Marvel introduces us to an entirely different Watcher, Hector Espejo, a hacker who has the ability to hack into websites from alternate realities. I thought this was a pretty interesting twist on the old “Watcher” idea. But my enjoyment of this particular story ends right there.

The premise of the story was interesting enough; with disenfranchised young Union soldier Steve Rogers being betrayed by his own commanding officer. However there were just too many ludicrous and heavy-handed elements in the story. At one point Rogers manages to escape certain death thanks to a bald eagle swooping down and goring Rogers attacker. The American-Indian ceremony that gives Rogers his powers, the shoehorned appearance by Sam Wilson who performs the ceremony, the transformation of Rogers commanding officer into his arch-nemesis, the White Skull, it’s all way too coincidental, convenient and all together hokey to enjoy. On the plus side, I did enjoy Carmine DiGiandomenico’s artwork.

Though this first book was pretty much a waste of time, there are a couple of books in this latest What If series that look promising. Hopefully they won’t all be as bad as What If? Featuring Captain America.

Special thanks go out to Jeremy Shorr, owner of Titan Comics for allowing us to use his advance preview books for review purposes.
 

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