Wowzers, who could have seen this coming? I barely had a single comic to read and review this week. Maybe because Wednesday fell on the 31st? Either way, there’s only one, and it’s Captain America. Mostly because I’m not about to pay any attention to what’s happening in Amazing Spider-Man anymore.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Captain America: Symbol of Truth #13 because it’s the only comic I read this week, and it’s fine. I had a busy week.

Meanwhile, what do you want from me? I’m gonna be playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for a very long time, and I’m still very much in that. Haven’t beaten the game, probably not even close. I’m just doing a lot of wandering, checking out some YouTube videos for new things to build. It’s all just great. Though I did manage to find time to watch Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and it was amazing! Tune in on Wednesday for my thoughts/review.

Comic Review: Captain America: Symbol of Truth #13.

Captain America: Symbol of Truth #13
Writer: Tochi Onyebuchi
Artist: R.B. Silva
Colorist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

I skipped the previous issue in the story because it had been a busy week. I’m caught back up, and I didn’t miss much. Also, the next Captain America writer has been revealed for a September relaunch, and it’s freakin’ J. Michael Straczynski!

The Captains America, Misty Knight and Sharon Carter have entered Dimension Z on their quest to rescue Steve’s son, Ian. They were ambushed by an explosion. Steve is hellbent on charging straight to the castle to rescue Ian, even forgoing the friends who just got hurt in the explosion. Sam tries to get him to slow down and think and the Captains come to blows. Sam wins while delivering some hard truths, and he rejoins Misty and Sharon as they’re recovering. Then White Wolf sends some monsters at them.

Comic Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.

I just haven’t really been feeling this crossover very much. This is still a good comic book, with great art and strong writing. But the overall story just isn’t hooking me. I think my problems are twofold. First, I don’t care about Dimension Z or Steve’s son Ian. That storyline, by writer Rick Remender, happened a decade ago and I didn’t read it. And it was never brought up in the Sentinel of Liberty comic that I’ve been reading for the past year or so. So to hang this entire crossover on some storylines that are both super old and entirely brand new to this volume of the ongoing series just doesn’t work for me. It doesn’t matter how many times they say that Cap spent a decade there, or that he’s fanatical about rescuing his son, all they can really do is say it because none of it has been addressed until now.

Second, there’s just not much to this crossover. The bad guys are holed up in a castle, so the good guys just march towards that castle, punching whatever gets in their way. The “Cold War” aspect of this crossover is that several issues took place in Alaska, and now there’s a blizzard in Dimension Z. So it’s…just literally cold out. In the build-up to Cold War, I thought we’d get a bunch more espionage and warfare stuff, befitting a cold war. But, again, it’s just kind of a straight forward adventure with stakes that don’t resonate for me.

Thankfully, as I said, the writing and art remain strong, so it’s a good enough read.

TL;DR: The overall story hasn’t hooked me, and it relies too much on prior stories from a decade ago, but this is an otherwise perfectly readable part of Cold War.

The comics I review in my Hench-Sized reviews are just the usual comics I grab from Comixology any given week, along with a few impulse buys I might try on a whim. So if there are any comics or series you’d like me to review each week, let me know in the comments.

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