Cap #45-46 at Couture's

(exclusive and never before seen in Advanced Iron)

CAPTAIN AMERICA #45-46

«America Lost» - September & October 2001

Story & pencil art : Dan Jurgens
Inks : Bob Layton!!

The Red Skull has gotten his hands on the helicarrier, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top secret flying fortress, and all efforts to try and locate it have failed.

So who does Cap turn to when he needs help in the high tech department? His friend and fellow Avenger: the invincible Iron Man of course!

Shell Head starts digging in the Avengers' databases with no success until he suddenly stumbles upon reports that an unusually large number of fish have been dying throughout the Gulf of Mexico. Turns out that the chemicals found in the fish are consistent the exhaust and waste material emitted by the giant helicarrier! But figuring out where it is was the easy part. Retrieving it is another story entirely, as Cap will soon find out at his expense.

These two comics are the first two chapters of a four-part storyline, and as the main action takes place in the present, Jurgens jumps ahead in the future to show Nick Fury, Dugan, Carter and the Avengers show up to someone's funeral. Everything appears to point to the casket belonging to Captain America, but since I didn't buy the end of the story, I can't confirm that.

Well, the story is all right, but far from great, in my most humble opinion. As for the art, although it is absolutely fabulous in issue 45 (thanks in great part to Layton's skilful inks - Iron Man looks great!), the following issue is far from it. I didn't buy the two final instalments.

First of all, these comics have so little words in them that I went from front to back cover in record time. There's just not enough dialogue.

But the thing that annoyed me the most was the story's lack of consistency and depth . Like the fact IM discovers the location of the helicarrier in minutes while no one could figure it out for months. Why the heck didn't they come see him before then? Didn't it occur to anyone that the Skull might use it against the U.S.?

Or take for example another highly annoying detail: IM's switch of armors between issues 45 and 46. Why? That doesn't make any sense! The process that led Stark to develop his S.K.I.N. suit took quite some time, and yet only hours seem to have passed between both issues. The whole story with the Mad Bomber taking place in the pages of IM could not have happened so quickly. On top of it, Jurgens obviously had very little detail about IM's new suit because he very simply got it all wrong! It looks awful, ridiculous even! Him and Layton were doing such an amazing job drawing Shell Head in the first issue, why did he have to go and ruin everything by switching to a new suit neither artist was familiar with? Whatever the reasons behind this decision, the results are disastrous, and Iron Man looks just as bad in issue 46 as he looked great in the previous one.

As for Iron Man staying behind while Cap dives in the Gulf of Mexico to tackle the high-tech defences of the helicarrier, that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. He'd be a lot more helpful right there by Cap's side! Stark helped design and build the damn thing! But no, instead, he stays cosy at Avengers' mansion and keeps radio contact with Cap while playing with various knobs and doohickeys. That was the final straw for me, that's when I decided I was not spending another penny on this series.

For you Iron fans (like me) who feel melancholy for the Bob Layton era of Iron Man and would love to see him tackle our favourite character again, I recommend issue 45. You can't go wrong with that one. But my advice to you is, stay away from the rest. Don't say I didn't warn ya!.

Iron Man asks: "You sure you don't want me to fly in?" Cap answers: "Not yet. Right now you're more valuable as tech support." (yeah right, as if Iron Man didn't have all the scanning equipment he needs right there with him in his very armor, or couldn't connect to the Avengers' computer from a distance… give me a break.)

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