Sam Wilson: Captain America #3 - A Review

Captain America is on the trail of Dr. Malus - one of many mad scientists using captured refugees fleeing to America as test subjects for their twisted experiments! But Malus is cannier than most and had a trap set for any heroes who came after him. Now Sam Wilson has become another of the bad doctor's experiments... and The Cap-Wolf has returned!

After two mostly serious issues dealing with current events, Nick Spencer delivers a story more in line with his usual comedic flair. Spencer revels in the lunacy of the Marvel Universe like few other writers and the humor takes center-stage this time around. After all, if you can't laugh at a flying werewolf Captain America, what can you laugh at?

Daniel Acuna does his usual fantastic job on the artwork, with an assist from Mike Choi this time around. Acuna's style is well suited to the stories Spencer crafts, being gritty and rough in design yet brightly colored.  Symbolically, it's as if the hope and idealism of America is shining through into the dark world that Sam Wilson inhabits.

Green Lantern #6 - A Review

Continuing the respective stories of Hal Jordan and Thal Sinestro, Green Lantern #6 shows two men trying to move on from their old lives but finding difficulty in escaping their past. In the case of Hal Jordan - who recently lost his position as a Green Lantern - this manifests in his seeking out danger and trying to help people, all while insisting to long-time love-interest Carol Ferris that he doesn't miss being a superhero at all.

Sinestro, by contrast, is tying up loose ends and tracking down Lyssa Drak - one of the last remaining members of his Sinestro Corps. He seeks the unlikely aid of Starstorm - a light-manipulating hero from a distant planet, whom he apparently fought several times in the distant past and eventually defeated soundly. But Starstorm is a broken man and only willing to take up his old role after much prodding and threatening.

As before, Sinestro's story is the most interesting of the two. It occurs to me that for all of the build-up Sinestro has gotten as an intergalactic menace, we've seen very little of him fighting cosmic heroes in the past apart from The Green Lantern Corps. It's an interesting conceit to see that there were other heroes on other worlds who fought Sinestro and declared him their nemesis but it makes perfect sense given his activities even before building The Sinestro Corps. Another point of interest is the latest prophetic vision (there's been a lot of these in Green Lantern, of late) which hints at just what is coming for Sinestro and the Green Lanterns as a whole.

Fill in artist Mike Choi is competent but I find his Human figures to look far stranger than his aliens - like a strange imitation of Frank Quietly. Hal Jordan looks a young boy! Sinestro looks odd in a few panels but generally fares better. It isn't bad but I'll be glad to have Ivan Reis back

Overall, this is a decent issue but it's a poor point for jumping on. Wait for the first Post-New52 Green Lantern collection in a few months or check your local comic book shop or e-store for the back-issues.