Captain America, Vol. 3

Captain America (2011) (Collected Editions)

by Ed Brubaker, Patrick Zircher (Illustrator), Mike Deodato (Artist)

Superstar penciler Patrick Zircher joins award-winning writer Ed Brubaker! Former super villains in Witness Protection are being murdered! Does this have anything to do with the return of an old foe and ex-lover into Captain America's life? Cap must unravel the clues and solve this mystery before he becomes a target himself - but how will he handle the shocking truth when the new Scourge's secret identity is revealed? Collecting CAPTAIN AMERICA (2011) #11-14.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

112 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

Ed Brubaker (born November 17, 1966) is an Eisner Award-winning American cartoonist and writer. He was born at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland.

Brubaker is best known for his work as a comic book writer on such titles as Batman, Daredevil, Captain America, Iron Fist, Catwoman, Gotham Central and Uncanny X-Men. In more recent years, he has focused solely on creator-owned titles for Image Comics, such as Fatale, Criminal, Velvet and Kill or Be Killed.

In 2016, Brubaker ventured into television, joining the writing staff of the HBO series Westworld.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, these latter-day Ed Brubaker/Captain America books are garbage, aren’t they? I think this arc is supposed to be about Cap’s continued battle against Bravo and the new Hydra Queen except they’re barely in it. Instead Volume 3 is a bland story featuring even more obscure, uninteresting characters nobody cares about.

A new Scourge (basically a less popular Crossbones) is picking off former low-ranking criminals in witness protection. Fuuucking hell, I don’t care! Here’s a good test to see if this comic will interest you or not: do you know who Dennis Dunphy or Henry Peter Gyrich are? No? Then you’ll be baffled like I was at how to feel about the “reveals” of these characters in the story and completely indifferent to the minor impact they have on Cap’s suddenly boring life!

This character you’ve never heard of isn’t secretly this character you’ve never heard of - no, they’re really another character you’ve never heard of! Watch as they fight yet another character you’ve never heard of until Cap steps in and punches his way to victory! What a simplistic and incredibly un-engaging book.

Both Patch Zircher (really, Patrick - “Patch”?) and Mike Deodato’s art are great but Brubaker’s really cranking out some duds on this run - The Winter Soldier seems like a long time ago, Ed!

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Several captured super villains and henchmen of evil organizations like AIM were given immunity and put into witness protection in exchange for their testimony against bigger threats. Someone leaked the names and locations and now Hydra is killing them off along with some help from a new Scourge.

It’s a quick and fun read, but it mainly functions as a smaller chapter in Cap’s on-going battle with Hydra. Brubaker uses the trick of incorporating a minor Marvel character from Steve’s past to give the story some quick emotional stakes, and he does a relatively good job of making the reader believe that Cap would give a crap about this guy.

[Subham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man the later Brubaker cap stories are so weak and its really taking everything from me to read it.

So here we have some new Scourge hunting down Criminals and cap has to stop him and we see serpent society and other villains involved and well Cap has to stop him and something with Gyrich and how this new cabal of Hydra maybe involved and then the eventual fight and when the identity is revealed, its a big emotional toll on Cap after what happens to him and yeah its bad. Its so boring honestly and idk i didnt feel much for the characters, I just want the big fight and hope this whole thing gets over. Its getting boring these last few issues of Cap of brubaker and a chore to read.

Umm yeah maybe skip this, and the last issue of the 80s cap thing was SO BAD omg his first team up with D-Man and umm that took me so much time to read. It has some moment but doesn't fit at all in with the rest of the stories of this trade, Marvel needs to stop doing this. Umm yeah its bad and maybe has some good moments and maybe the end fight with HYDRA Cabal will make the last 3 volumes a good read.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know my rating / review is influenced too much by the nostalgia factor, but damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead. Cap in action with able support from 'Dum Dum' Dugan, Sharon 'Damn It' Carter, and the eye candy formerly known as 'Diamondback'? Yes, please. References to the 'Scourge of the Underworld' storyline (a favorite from my tween years) of the '86-'87 era? Keep it coming. Conspiracy, murders, and boatload of action on North American soil? Right on! Maybe it was a somewhat lightweight story, but I enjoyed it.

All that was missing was the sound effect 'pum-SPAAK' (and maybe "JUSTICE IS SERVED!").

[Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't really anything to write home about.

Brubaker was on autopilot and it really reads. Weirdest of all, Steve gets upset with Sharon for a perfectly reasonable reaction to a tense situation. I didn't appreciate that. This was a very forgettable storyline, to be honest.

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hydra starts killing off retired AIM people. There's some more characters from Captain America's past that I guess we're supposed to care about? Close to three stars just because the action and art is great throughout, but this is a very forgettable comic.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

After two lukewarm volumes, this third volume takes Captain America back into his element. To me, this was more of what I like from Captain America. Not as much cosmic weirdness going on, but down to Earth action. A new Scourge has appeared, and he's got a list of former super villains in witness protection. He's hunting them down and killing them one by one, and it's up to Cap to stop him. But the identity of the new Scourge is someone from Cap's past.

I enjoyed this one, easily my favorite of this run.

[Aldo Haegemans · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,75/5

[Gavin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't a 3-star book. It's close, and more out of enjoyment of the artwork and residual love of Brubaker's epic Cap run.

There's someone hunting down ex-Super-Villains who are in Witness Protection...
It's Scourge...or at least, the new version of Scourge.

This is sorta a reboot of the Scourge of the Underworld from the 80s Marvel, who went around killing...yes, members of the Underworld.

This one is tied in with Madame Hydra, and doing things to make Cap look like he doesn't know what he's doing.

Dum Dum, Sharon Carter, and a few others show up, but really, the meat of the book is Cap discovering Scourge's identity, and the ramifications of that discovery and subsequent actions.

There's also included a classic (1987 Mark Gruenwald) Cap issue which ties into the current story.

More for the emotional toll that things take on Cap do I give this 3 stars...on the whole it could have been pared down a little.

It really feels like Brubaker is running out of gas, which seems to be what he's transferring to Cap in this, and if so, that's OK, because it is about the only interesting part of this.

Take or Leave, but it's not Brubaker's best, there's far more Cap stories that are better.

Get this review and more at:

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that this was a decent read.

[Dean Ryan Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

VISUALS: 5 stars!

Yay: A Captain America graphic novel never disappoints. This is one of them. Every page is in full color. The faces are clear, the speech balloons are easy to read and in caps and the action scenes are excellent that even young readers will love scanning and reading this over and over again.

Nay: Some speech balloons are written in one long sentence. These are boring to read.

STORY: 2 stars!

Yay: The flow of the story is similar with The Winter Soldier - the second film in the Captain America trilogy. A masked murderer is on the loose. Cap searches for him but when he uncovers his real identity, Cap is torn between his conscience and his social responsibility to save the world.

Nay: Nothing surprises me with the story. It is not the best and it is not the worst either. Just that, there are times the dialogue becomes tight.

[J.M. (Joe) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Art, good. Story, meh. I wonder if these are ghostwritten.

[Sik4 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aucun lien avec les deux premiers, les personnages secondaires ne sont même plus vraiment intéressants, agent 13 qui tue de sang froid, le scénario n'a toujours pas été écrit je dirais. aucun intérêt.

[Thomas Salerno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another great Captain America story from Ed Brubaker, but not as good as the previous volume. Volume 3 is not as kind to new readers or casual Marvel fans as Volume 2 was. While Brubaker continues to skillfully weave in exposition so that the reader does not feel lost, I still had to look up a few character bios on Wikipedia afterwards to get the full backstory.

The artwork is still amazing, and story has the same action-packed feel of the previous volume, albeit, on a smaller scale. This particular story is also much darker, as it is becoming clear that Captain America and SHIELD are losing the war against the New Hydra.

SPOILER WARNING:

While I thought the premise was interesting (a masked vigilante called "Scourge" taking out supervillains living under witness protection), I don't understand why they had to make the new Scourge (there's been more than one over the years) a former superhero. This character gets a really sad and ignominious ending that I felt was unnecessary. It's clear that he was as much a victim as anybody: A good person who got screwed over by Hydra. The fact that he was one of Cap's good friends makes it even more tragic. I don't want to give away too much, but I wish the ending had been handled differently.

Cap's awesome supporting cast comes through in the clutch again! Dum Dum Dugan, Agent 13 and Diamondback all see action.

Things promise to come to a head in Volume 4. Looking forward to seeing how this epic tale ends!

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked Vol. 1 and 2 better than this one, but I still enjoyed this one. There were some interesting twists and turns in the story, and the illustration here is just fantastic. Vol. 4 is sitting next to me, on the top of my to-read pile...

[John Yelverton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good art work and good story, but the story really seemed to come out of left field and it came and went with about as much fan fare.

[Jordan Lahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art is a big improvement over the last few volumes, and the story isn't bad. It's just not up to the usual super-high standards that you come to expect from Ed Brubaker.

[Kevin Findley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not impressed. The reprint of #328 from the original series was more entertaining.

[Brandt · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was a kid, my first experience reading Captain America was during the late Mark Gruenwald's run on the book, where he introduced us to the Serpent Society, Crossbones and Scourge among others. With the exception of Crossbones, who played a role in the early part of Ed Brubaker's Captain America run, I've felt that Brubaker's attempts to address the total history of Captain America showed more of an obsession with the Timely and Atlas versions of the pre-Marvel The Avengers #4 version of Cap, instead of dealing with characters from Gruenwald's own prodigious run on Captain America. Since Bucky, in the guise of the Winter Soldier had driven most of Brubaker's work up to this point, it makes sense, but those of us who discovered comics in the 80s and effectively grew up with Gruenwald's Cap, the lack of contemporaneous villains from Gruenwald's run has a been a disappointment to this point.

With this collection, Brubaker finally takes on the Gruenwald era Cap adversaries, as both the Serpent Society, sometime adversary/sometime ally Diamondback and the homicidal vigilante Scourge make appearances here, linked to the new version of Hydra that was introduced in Captain America by Ed Brubaker, vol. 1 . While this hits my internal ten year old me's happy buttons, it just feels that by this point in his Captain America run, Brubaker is running out of steam. His work on The Winter Soldier , which was published at the same time seems more vibrant and fresh, but in a way this makes sense if you believe as I do that Brubaker's favorite Captain America character is Bucky and not Steve Rogers. Also, it's not hard to believe that after almost ten years at the helm of some iteration of Captain America or another, it could be that at this point in his run, Brubaker was just running out of stories to tell. And that's OK.

Unfortunately, Brubaker set an impossibly high bar for himself with his first four years on Captain America culminating in The Death of Captain America arc, which was the high water mark for the run. However, like the band who releases that seminal record early in their career that everyone gushes about and can never seem to recapture the magic of that moment, so too with Brubaker's latter day Captain America. Perhaps such comparisons are unfair, and it is not that these arcs aren't enjoyable--it's just difficult knowing that somehow they could be better.

[Joshua D · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is part of my catching-up of the major Marvel titles, since, apart from reading a few books like Fraction's Hawkeye, I haven't really been following the Marvel canon since the "Heroic Age" era.

First off, the art is excellent. This arc probably has the best artwork in the entire run. It fits the tone of the book perfectly. I wish they had this team for the entire series.

On to the writing there's just something about Brubaker's style that gels with me. Even at his weakest he's still miles above most other writers in the field. This definitely isn't the best volume of the run, but it's a solid, almost self-contained little story, with the stake a little more down-to-earth (i.e. "street level") this time, which is how I prefer my Cap stories. The plot here is about someone taking up the mantle of the Scourge killing supervillains who Cap helped put into witness protection, and Cap has to figure out who's behind the whole thing. There's some connection to the Hydra Queen from the earlier arcs, but it's not really explored.

There's some focus on characters from Steve's (and the Avengers') past who'll only be familiar to a few of you, but you don't really need to know their history to enjoy it, since their relationship to Cap is explained over the course of the story.

I did think that the resolution felt a bit rushed. Cap finally gets into it with the new Scourge near the end of the arc, and just moments after discovering who he is, Sharon quickly takes him out. Cap is devastated at seeing his friend dead for a bit, he tells Sharon it's not her fault ("There is nothing to forgive"), and then we move on to the next arc.

[Alli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of my lack of enthusiasm about this one comes from not having all the Cap History. So when a character was introduced as having been a brainwashed former friend of Steve's, I was like, "... okay." Not knowing all the history can less the impact of a reveal if the leg work isn't set up. And this wasn't. :/

But, uh, the rest of the comic was great!

[Igor · Rating 5 out of 5]

My assessment is influenced of the scope feelings by Brubaker run, cause this volume is much better than previously.
Good story, murders of ex-enemies of society, comeback of old character.

[Austin Gorton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty routine mid-arc story, lifted a but by some pulls from Cap history.

[Casey Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Forgettable. SPOILER: feels like Brubaker is recycling his own story from winter soldier, brainwashed good guy turns bad guy.

[Jota Houses · Rating 1 out of 5]

Irrelevante tanto argumental como gráficamente.

[Dalton Wyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brubaker is really phoning it in for these last few issues of his run. Nothing interesting or memorable. This entire story arc is skippable.

[Sam Goyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not enough story to make a satisfying trade.

[Nicolas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Something about the Witness Protection Program... Look it was boring. There's no getting around it.

For more, tune in to this episode of Comic Book Coffee Break: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZxDU...

[Kris Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every Ed Brubaker book is like a can of Diet Mountain Dew. You crack it open and it is consistently excellent and never, ever disappoints. It's almost ridiculous how good his run has been, and this book is no exception. There is a new Scourge on the loose. We see a lot of old Cap supporting cast members from the Scourge arcs of the '80s return, such as Diamondback and D-Man. The always unlikable Henry Peter Gyrich also rears his ugly head. He's been brainwashed...or has he?

There is a witness relocation program for criminals who rat out other criminals, and this list has been compromised. In maintaining my spoiler-free-as-possible philosophy, I won't tell you which criminals, or the how and why of how they are ratted out. I also won't tell you who is behind the leaks, or what their ultimate motive is. You can find out spoilers elsewhere on the Internet. I'd rather give you an idea and, hopefully, nudge you into buying and enjoying this book for yourself.

Patrick Zircher is another in a long line of phenomenal artists who have collaborated with Brubaker on his run. He has a tremendous style and his action sequences are fluid and powerful. I love character driven stories and development as much as the next guy, but I also want to see some badass throwdowns. I want my cake and I want to eat it too.

Issue 328 is included because it features the origin of D-Man. I really enjoyed Mark Gruenwald's run on the title, and there are several trade paperback collections available. If you enjoy Brubaker's run and are looking for more great Captain America stories, the Scourge of the Underworld book would be a great place to start as it ties into the events in this book.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terrific art by Zircher, but it looked like he ran out of steam at the end with the last chapter and even the art assistance of Mike Deodato made the book look rushed and sloppy compared to everything that came before. I guess deadlines were of the essence. Brubaker's story doesn't appear to be heading to the swan song I'd imagine Brubaker would build toward, but he's been busy writing too many other books to care and the title has gone through quite a rotation of artists lately. While I still enjoy the book, it's no where close to being as great as it used to be when Steve Epting was drawing it month after month seven or so years ago. I can only imagine how awesome the book would have been if the writer and artist (his personal tragedy aside) devoted solely on this one book with no other corporate obligations required elsewhere.

Still, Ed Brubaker has brought a real-world view to Captain America like no other and it's in stark contrast to the Mark Gruenwald book--another author I liked in my high school days--with his brightly colored superhero'd version. The goofy plot of that Mark Gruenwald issue was very goofy as Captain America befriends a guy and goes to a gym to take a hetero-shower with him while all the dialogue propels the plot along.