My thoughts on Reborn

Ah, Summer, it’s a beautiful time of year. The sun shines high and things are easy. Well almost everything is. Seems no matter what time of the year the super heroes just cant’ catch a break. Even though Marvel doesn’t have any epic 8 part crossovers with 20 books per month this year there are still plenty of eventful things going on. Ultimate Spider-man may be dead, in outer space kings are warring, Norman Osborne will be going to his own war with the X-men pretty soon here even.

Though it seems the biggest event this Summer won’t have any tie-in books ore major crossovers but is a simple 5 issue mini-series coming out July 1^st. Reborn has been teased and hinted at and as of Monday this week the secret is out, Steve Rogers will be Reborn in just a couple of weeks.

I’ve already mentioned in a prior post that I will be checking out Reborn since I always did like Captain America and I really am curious to see where this goes. Though I also like some of the pitch, with Cap returning in a different Marvel U. One thing I like most is how Dr. Doom will apparently play a big role in this book and I’m a huge fan of Doom and I’ve really wanted to see Brubaker’s famed portrayal of the master villain outside of Book of Dooms.

It was a smart move of Marvel to put Captain America on hiatus for Reborn as this might as well have been a story arc in Captain America.

I guess my one real worry for this book is that it will just be one chapter in an ongoing story, so it won’t be new reader friendly or end on a high note closing the story of Reborn and letting the aftermath happen in Captain America. That Reborn might as well just be some story arc of Captain America and lose all it’s uniqueness from not being a story arc in that book which is something that could easily happen.

Then there’s the fact that 2009 is a big year for rebirth as it is, Barry Allen’s return being the most prominent right now though Cap’s return nearly matches it. The only difference is Barry has been gone for an incredibly long time, whereas Cap ahs been out of commission for only 2 years. Even Batman has Reborn in the title of it’s headlines right now.

One thing I must admit is great is how this is only 5 issues, rather than Marvel trying to stretch it out into 8 to cash in on the fact that this will no doubt be a high seller.

I do like the talent behind it. It makes sense to give Ed Brubaker, the guy who’s been writing Captain America for the last few years, the story that brings the original back to us. While I’m not the biggest fan of Bryan Hitch I must say his art from the preview and cover looks really amazing so I’m even excited to see what he does with this book.

Of course the biggest complaint is that Steve Rogers is already back like we all knew he would be as soon as he died. I was really hopeful that Marvel would let Rogers rest in peace and that they’d finally stopped using Cap’s death as a sort of gimmick to pull on fan’s heart strings. Now it seems that just as that’s over, we bring him back when we’re finally settled down with the fact that he’s dead which is simply frustrating.

Then there’s the question of how. Will it be by magic? Science? Freaky alternate dimension hopping? My money is on something with science, like the Red Skull bringing Steve back only for him to escape. The possibilities are thick and since I didn’t pick up Captain America #600 I’m in the dark.

There’s also the question of how will Bucky react to Steve’s return? Will he quit? Will the two both share the title as Captain America? Reborn has a lot to answer and hopefully it can cover it all.

Despite it’s possibility for error, I’m really looking forward to Reborn #1 coming July 1^st and I look forward to reviewing it for you all as soon as possible.