The penultimate chapter in the new, ongoing Captain America saga, this collection of issues 12 through 16 explores the truth behind Captain America's lost years. Frozen for years after WWII, the erstwhile hero always thought his imprisonment was the work of a villain, but now it turns out the U.S. government was behind the conspiracy. This leads to a soul-searching dilemma about the nature of patriotism and Captain America's role in the world. And in the midst of all of this, he must face off with a villain from the past, a man directly involved in the hero's early disaster. Rieber and Austen have crafted a grave tale, full of melancholic monologues and angst-ridden flashbacks. This works reasonably well to create an atmosphere of suspicion and importance, but the work is slow moving and a bit heavy on the philosophy between fistfights. Lee's art is serviceable, photo-based realism, extremely dark and melodramatic in many places, but he tells the story with a film director's flair for scene and action. This is the fifth volume in the series, and readers would do well to tackle it only if they possess a healthy knowledge of the series' history.
