Marvel has lost a lot of momentum in 2025. For years, the publisher was completely in control of the sales charts, but that changed in 2024, when DC’s Absolute books dropped. The House of Ideas doesn’t really feel like it has a lot of great ideas right now, and this has definitely affected the books we’ve gotten. However, there are definitely diamonds in the rough of the company’s publishing line and a book that is proving to be amazing month in and month out is Captain America, by writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Valerio Schiti. While it’s only ran for four issues, it’s impressing readers every month and is shaping up to be something very special.
Videos by ComicBook.com
There have been some amazing Captain America stories over the years, and the character has a rich history. Many of the greatest creators in comics have worked on the Sentinel of Liberty’s book, big names like Jack Kirby, Mark Gruenwald, Ron Lim, Mark Waid, Ron Garney, Andy Kubert, Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, John Romita Jr., Rick Remender, and more. Captain America has morphed and changed over the years, as much as America has, and his best comics deal with that change. That’s what makes the current run so amazing and why it could become the greatest Cap run ever.
The Newest Volume of Captain America Uses Marvel’s Sliding Time Scale in a Bold Way
So, to understand why this book works so well, one first has to go back to Zdarksy’s first major story starring Cap: Avengers: Twilight. Avengers: Twilight is a flawless Avengers story, taking readers into a future where the final battle against the Avengers foes allowed a fascist government to take power. The book starred Steve Rogers as he joined the rebellion against the new government, bringing together a new team of Avengers. It’s an amazing look at the team and what it can be, but what makes the book so good is it what it says about the United States.
Zdarsky is a Canadian, but he seems to have his finger on the political pulse of America. Avengers: Twilight is a book that features an enemy (I won’t spoil it for you) that uses everything he can to create a fascist government that the people don’t even realize is fascist, and it honestly feels like what is going on in the country right now. The political subtext brings an interesting dimension to the story, giving it more depth, which is important. Zdarsky is doing the same thing in Captain America, except instead of talking about the current state of the US, he’s dealing with the way that the country has changed since 9/11, drawing parallels between it and WWII, while also showing the differences.
One of the great thing about Captain America comics is the way that creators have used them to talk about the United States. In the ’70s, we got the disillusionment of a country affected by the Nixon Administration. The ’80s would see Cap again become disillusioned with a country that was becoming more conservative and violent. In 2002, we got a run that was heavily influenced by 9/11 and how the recent tragedy affected the country. After this, Cap books were all about him working with SHIELD or the US government, showing the jingoistic patriotism of the time. This is one of the things that make Cap such an interesting character; sure, you can get some pretty cool run of the mill superhero stories, but the character is best when he’s reflecting what’s happening in the United States.
Zdarsky’s run is doing that by using Marvel’s sliding timeline to change the history of the Marvel Universe. Now, Captain America was awakened after 9/11, during the Iraq War, and in the interim the country tried to replace him with a new supersoldier, whose origin mirrored Steve Rogers’. Cap’s first mission is a black ops mission, one where the scars of 9/11 and Iraq affect everyone involved. Usually, Marvel doesn’t really go into the changes wrought by the sliding timeline, but this time Zdarksy’s making that idea a focus of his first story arc. He’s using the changes to the US over the 21st century to change Cap’s history, and it’s a brilliant idea. Captain America hasn’t felt this vital in years.
Captain America Is Giving Readers the “World Outside Their Window” in the Best Possible Way
One of the reasons that Marvel become so popular in the ’60s was a devotion to “realism”. Stan Lee liked to say that Marvel was the world outside the readers’ windows, and it worked. However, in the years since, the publisher hasn’t really been doing that, instead trying to get MCU fans to read their comics and mostly failing. The House of Ideas works the best when it’s using ideas from the real world, and combining them with superheroes. That’s why Zdarksy’s Captain America is so amazing. It’s using the character of Steve Rogers and idea of Captain America to talk about how 9/11 affected the country as a society.
Captain America is at the height of his popularity, thanks to the MCU, but calling his comics great has been a bridge too far. There have been some good Cap runs since Brubaker left the book in the early ’10s, but none of them have been great. This newest volume of the book is going in a tried and true direction with the character — using the character to talk about the US — while also giving readers great superhero action (the first story arc pits Cap against Doom, and it’s fantastic). It has style and substance, which isn’t something Cap gets all the time, and if Zdarsky can keep the current energy the book has going, it will go down as not just the greatest Captain America run ever, but one of the best Marvel runs ever.
What do you think of Zdarsky’s Captain America? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
Most Viewed
-
Image via THQ Nordic -
Image courtesy of 2th Century Studios -
image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
