John Ney Rieber

This is issue 14 (Volume 27) in Marvel’s “Ultimate Graphic Novels Collection” and collects issues one to six of Captain America, volume four, which were originally published between June and December 2002. This is a powerful, thoughtful, political novel that captures the response to the 9/11 terrorist atrocities in New York and Washington. Written by John Ney Rieber, “The New Deal” was an attempt by Rieber to encourage readers to think about America’s place in the world and also show more to articulate his thoughts about America’s response to the attack. The story begins with Captain America at Ground Zero helping the rescue and recovery effort. Nick Fury turns up and “invites” Captain America to undertake a mission to enter a town called Centreville, where all the inhabitants have been taken hostage by terrorists. He arrives in the deserted town and begins to take-out the terrorists one-by-one. The overall surface story is therefore a relatively simple adventure yarn, but within that there are discussions and symbols that make this a highly thoughtful and poignant read. The town for example has been taken over by the terrorists because it houses a munitions factory. In an exchange of dialogue between a hostage husband and wife, the wife asks her husband who works in the factory: “This is how you feed our baby? With bombs? You make bombs?” The husband avoids her eyes and says “No! Components. We make components”. The implication around involvement and complicity is clear. In similar vein, Captain America meets a young Muslim boy and warns him that he should get off the street. The boy says he’s not afraid but is soon afterwards attacked. Captain America intervenes and berates those attacking the Muslim – the implications again are fairly clear. There were many who felt that Rieber’s approach was too political or not black-and-white enough or that Captain America should be clear and resolute in his purpose, but it is in the shades of gray and in the ambiguities that the power of the story lies. Rieber’s story is brilliantly accentuated by the excellent artwork of the great John Cassaday, who provides a superbly clean line and a slick, precise approach to the storytelling. The precision of the artwork does much to reveal the nuances of the Rieber’s story. As ever in the “Ultimate Graphic Novels” series the packaging is excellent – hardcover; glossy, colourful pages and a range of “extras” including John Ney Rieber discussing 9/11 and “The New Deal”, a cover gallery and an overview of the origins of Captain America. An excellent story in an excellent package. show less

Was surprised by how uninspiring this was. Beautiful art in which most of the characters are indistinguishable from each other. A storyline that zips along so fast you don't really know what is going on and has gaps in it you could drive a truck through (for example, if a small team of normally armed humans could defeat most of the Decepticons, how have they been able to conquer and destroy most of the world?), and devotes significant chunks of the story to a subplot wherein two men fight show more each other across the island for reasons that unfold unsatisfactorily and is quite boring and you don't really know what is going on. This might have been a good comic if it was twice the size, but editing this story down lost a lot. But we can't blame the editing. Some stories need space, and a writer who writes long story and then chops it into a short one can kill it, as happened here. If I had come to this new to either franchise, or the author, I wouldn't have touched another one related to them. show less

Wonderful.This third volume in Tim Hunter's story finally lives up to my admittedly high expectations--and in some ways exceeds them. Though his story remains non-linear--this is more a series of vignettes from Tim's thirteenth year than a straight narrative--the stories collected in Summonings feel more like gorgeous dream-snippets than disconnected, frustrating fragments. I suspect part of what makes this the most successful volume yet is the strong emotional undercurrent. Each story here show more is, at its heart, the story of nascent emotional connections between Tim and other (often female) characters. His relationships with Molly O'Reilly and the succubus Leah and Marya are thorny and complex, but still quite interesting. Tim sometimes doesn't do the right thing, but he's consistently well-intentioned, turning him into a sympathetic, realistic boy rather than a flat stock character hero. Surprisingly, my favorite story was a small, self-contained one, where Tim triumphs over his childhood imaginary friends turned monstrous.Though of course Neil Gaiman had essentially nothing to do with this volume, Summonings feels like the best of his work: surreal, heart-wrenching, but utterly true to the human condition. I love what Rieber's done with the character and the series so far. show less

Considering that my general taste runs the exact opposite of telepathic dinosaurs from outer space with tyrannical tendencies, I surprisingly enjoyed reading this series. The content may not have been up to my normal intellectual standards, but the romp through this highly imaginitive universe was very entertaining.