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Another super soldier in the making! The Falcon on the run from the law! The return of MODOK! Cap and Wanda Maximoff?

Christopher Priest, award-winning British novelist (The Inverted World) and comicbook scribe (Black Panther), has designed a tale with several subplots involving a cryptic, ominous message that appears to people in Germany and real-life issues involving Guantanamo, illegal drug trade, and official corruption. You’ll also see an appearance by the creepiest freak in Marvel Comicdom, MODOK.

Captain America and the Falcon continues the familiar motif of Cap’s maintenance of his moral compass in a world where the morality of others fluctuates. The two protagonists are clearly portrayed with different attitudes, problems, and a separate hierarchy of goals. The Falcon has a mysterious weight that curves his judgment and actions in an inexplicable way that Cap can’t fully understand.

In the Captain America and the Falcon series of the mid-1970s, the pair worked together without question. At present, the relationship is strained, as Cap is once again torn between duty to the government and love of his country. The almost anachronistic purity of his motives is at odds with the reality of his situation using the rather trite (but never irrelevant) vehicle of corrupt government circles.

If you haven’t read previous issues, you’ll feel that you’ve missed a few things. But that coincides with Cap’s PhilDickian suspicions that he remembers doing things he didn’t do. Plus, the immediacy of the action and the speed of the plot development both keep you going. The gaps in the story are more intriguing than annoying (though a trip to your local comicbook shop to pick up the previous issues may be worthwhile).

The use of foreign languages keeps the situations real and are superior to the hackneyed <I’m speaking in Latverian> typography. It provides something extra for those who know the languages but doesn’t detract from the story if you don’t.

The artwork by Andrea DiVito (The Mighty Thor) and Scott Koblish (Venom: The Hunger) is fair. Cap’s scale mail looks slightly more authentic than in previous years and his gauntlets are more streamlined. The bold pencil work is reminiscent of the 1960s, but appropriately serious enough for the storyline. One of the two full-page panels disappointed me as the action blur obscured the potential for satisfying graphic detail, but the other’s portrait-like symbolism and shading provided an effective closing page.

The cover is redolent of Michelangelo’s Pieta and rendered by Joe Bennett (Amazing Spider-Man) and Jack Jadson (Birds Of Prey Secret Files).

Quote of the Week: "He’s a big head dude with tiny arms. Don’t know how you fight the thing without cracking up."