Jailhouse Brawl: Captain America #9 Reviewed
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Alexa Lukin pays a visit to a news executive, and Sharon Carter meets with the Daughters of Liberty in the hopes of planning Steve Rogers’ escape from Baron Strucker’s prison, Myrmidon. Dryad, Spider Woman, Mockingbird, Toni Ho, and Invisible Woman cobble together a plan involving an inside man. Meanwhile, Captain America himself faces the guilt of inaction as the Myrmidon guards viciously abuse other inmates.
Captain America #9 finds Cap and the Daughters of Liberty continuing their struggle against Baron Strucker and the machinations of Alexa Lukin.
Like much of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Captain America so far, there is a cold detachment to a lot of the story. We’ve left Steve Rogers as the main POV, and we’re just left to watch as these things happen around him over which he has little to no control.
It doesn’t make for an especially tense or grabbing issue as a result. Too much attention is paid to the conspiracy and not the people in it. Even the grand reveal of the Daughters of Liberty hasn’t shifted the focus away from the broad strokes of the plot.
It’s still not a bad comic. When things are more focused on Sharon, Cap, or some of the Daughters, things are far more engaging.
Alexa Lukin still falls short as a villain. Baron Strucker isn’t even the comic all that much, but his vicious sadism still gives him far more of a presence than Lukin.
Adam Kubert’s artwork continues to give the comic an appealing grittiness, especially effective considering much of it happens in a super-prison. It’s grim, expressive, and off-putting. It all serves the narrative especially well, and Frank Martin’s color work supports it with a similarly grim color palette.
Captain America #9 doesn’t do a lot to snag the reader, but it has strong points and is supported by excellent work from Kubert and Martin. I can’t give it a strong recommendation, but feel free to check it out if you’ve enjoyed Coates’ Captain America or are just generally jonesing for some new Steve Rogers reading material.
Captain America #9 comes to us from writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, artist Adam Kubert, color artist Frank Martin, letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna, cover artist Alex Ross, and variant cover artist Pasqual Ferry.