This penultimate issue turned out to be one of the better installments of Captain America/Iron Man. Read Full Review

Bits and PiecesCaptain America/Iron Man #4 connects all the dots to reveal the villain's master plan, but it's a convoluted mess. Landy goes out of his way to prove that the shortest distance between two points looks like an unspooled ball of yarn gathered in a heap. That said, there's plenty of great rock 'em, sock 'em robot smashing. Buy it for the visuals, but save yourself the headache and ignore the mess of a story. Read Full Review

I like the ideas present in this issue. Like that superheroes hold a ton of power and they can be more dangerous than helpful. If you're at all cognizant about power balances and hierarchy, the idea of super powered individuals is concerning, if it were somehow made real. This issue doesn't *really* explore that too much, but it's there and that's neat. Poor Fifty-One.

The whole cast teams up to laboriously explain the true plot. It's a complicated writing job, and it's carried off with admirable skill and clarity.

But there's a bigger question: Did the plot *need* to be this convoluted? The sheer volume of words crammed in this issue suggests to me that no, it did not.

The core premise is intriguing. Veronica Eden has considered the risk/reward balance of superheroes and come up with a conclusion at odds with the Marvel universe's usual take. Thus, she's become a villain with an arguably righteous cause.

However, there has *got* to be a better way to explore that premise than this series' "punch-joke-punch-joke-talk-talk-talk-talk" structure.

My highest kudos go to the artist, who almost single-handedly gives a feeling of ongoing conflict to what is, in reality, an issue-long plot debriefing. more