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You would think that restarting a title four times in the last eight years means sales must not be so hot in the comicbook business. Along with several other titles, Captain America has gone through this gauntlet. We had the vaunted Liefeld and Loeb in 1996. Then a year later, the Marvel pantheon is killed off. But we get our “Heroes Reborn,” and that only takes us to 2001. Reiber and Cassiday come along with a new series in 2002. Captain America and the Falcon launched earlier this year. And then, just this month, we have yet ! another Captain America #1. From the outside, cynics can argue about the woes of marketing and business in the comicbook world and that it seems to be a good time for mercenary #1 hoarders.

But from the inside — ya gotta look inside. This launch by Brubaker and Epting is worth not only a look and $2.99, but it justifies all those previous clunky incarnations if that was what it took to get to this point. You’ll want to collect this series, if the first issue is an indication of what’s to come.

Let’s start with the cover: Can anyone say, “Jim Steranko"? That’s the feeling I get looking at Epting’s iconic (yes), perhaps even standard symmetrical layout of this dynamic red-toned cover. The association with Steranko and the Captain America of the late 1960s continues as we see Nick Fury, Sharon Carter, the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier and a mysterious red skull looming in the background.

Now, it’s obvious that Marvel keeps going back to its roots and twists them around in order to try to capture the Marvel Magic (and sales) of the sixties — the Ultimate series, for example, and those Flashbacks from a few years ago. But instead of just going backwards and retelling, Brubaker brings us into the present with everything we face today: terrorists, weapons of mass destruction being sold off by ex-Soviets, and, also in keeping with the times, psychological problems.

Cap seems on the verge of developing a Punisheresque darkness in his soul. Agent Carter of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been assigned to evaluate Cap because of his reckless behavior. But come on, Sharon, one man can only be the epitome of what is good and right, the quintessential rule follower, for so long. Cut him a little slack. If you’ve been fighting hordes of evil for decades without making apparent headway, you might start getting a little reckless too. (OK, she has been fighting a long time, but she was “dead” awhile, too, and I’m sure that was refreshing.)

Add to that the involvement of rogue ex-Soviet generals, terrorists and the returning menace of our favorite villain, the Red Skull, who is well on his way to owning (again, shades of the late ‘60s) the Cosmic Cube — a metaphysical device capable of changing reality itself — and you have a memorable confrontation in the works. The intrigue and the action, combined with the human backstory, promise a fulfilling tale. And one can imagine the possibilities of the Cosmic Cube in a story called “Out of Time.”

Epting’s art is topflight. The Skull’s skull looks – well, skullish! We can see that boney exterior. And Cap’s mask fits over his face realistically, and not as if it’s all glued onto his skin, while his hauberk is actually three dimensional, with the scales sticking out like real metal would instead of just having the figure drawn with a bunch of U shaped loops.

I, for one, am looking forward to #2.