Captain Action Collected Season 1
Written and Illustrated by: Fabian Nicieza, Marv Wolfman, Steven Grant, Mark Sparacio
Released by: Moonstone
OK this is probably wrong of me, but when I first saw the cover I thought Captain Action was a former member of the band the Village People. He’s wearing what looks like an all leather suit, with a jaunty little policeman’s hat, and even has what looks like a microphone next to his mouth. Thankfully he’s not a former member of the Village People and instead he’s a superhero. This is another revival by moonstone of a series from the 1960’s and in a nice twist even though the original Captain Action is still around its his son that dons the costume now and this series is set in the present day. This book is the collected volume of the first six issues, which make up season one.
We discover that in the 1950’s a microscopic alien has invaded earth and is taking over high-ranking officials. Across the globe, politicians, military leaders, and others are all now under the power of the Red Crawl. A shadow government is formed to lead and stop the threat. They form A.C.T.I.O.N. which studies a cache of alien technology and use it to create their own superheroes: Captain Action, Crescent, Green Circle, Savior, Offshoot, and Flashpoint among others. Captain Action has the ability to take on the powers and appearances of other superheroes and helps lead the team until the Red Crawl is seemingly defeated. And then Savior attacks and destroys A.C.T.I.O.N. headquarters and the original Captain Action with it. Only one hero remains, Caption Action’s son Cole, who hasn’t donned the mantle in a while and was kicked out of the service. Now, however, he retakes the mantle of Captain Action and jumps into the fray. He begins the task by taking down Green Circle and slowly moving through the group of former heroes attempting to subdue them. Savior however is proving very difficult to take down and the battle moves towards a mysterious base codenamed Valhalla. When all appears to be lost the original Captain Action returns and joins the battle. He defeats Savior at the last minute and saves his son and reveals what’s happened. They begin seeking a cure of the fallen superheroes and begin a plan to stop the Red Crawl once again. In the final issue Cole, now Captain Action for good, takes the place of a Secret Service Agent to watch and guard the president. He stops the president from being infected by mysterious aliens and takes the president’s place while Obama is cured. And alien ships watch from overhead.
What I like best about this revival is that they didn’t put it back in the 1960’s and they gave us our own Captain Action to follow with a few new powers. I also really liked that they set it in the present day with presidents and other leaders that we can recognize from the modern world, which should really help draw in readers. The writing style is great and the story was easy to follow without having any previous knowledge of the original Captain Action. They did a nice job of bringing us up to speed in just a couple of pages of who this group was and why they existed. It’s also a pretty nice plot twist to have the alien technology turn on them and I won’t say more because you should really read it.
The artwork is pretty phenomenal with some nice renderings of the human figure and making them look like they could walk off of the pages. They feel particularly realistic and their movements feel natural and their faces have a great range of emotions. Its easy to tell what they’re feeling and why. They also did a nice job of caricatures of more famous personas like Obama and Richard Nixon and you don’t need words to tell you who they are. They also do some nice special effects, such as when Captain Action is taking on the appearances of other superheroes. I’m not going to say it looks realistic, but it doesn’t look cheesy or forced.
This is a pretty fantastic series and I really liked the fact that I got to read it all in one get go without having to wait for additional issues…well at least for the first season. I look forward to reading future issues and would recommend this series to anyone.
I think you were pretty spot on when you started thinking of the Village People. Seriously spot on.
heh, glad to know that 🙂
any time ^_^