Kubert’s style is very distinctive there’s plenty of dramatic shading, and line work that often looks like sketches, but they add a layer of depth to the artwork.
We get some excellently-drawn scenes, such as the first time Stephen Rogers calls up his magic shield the way the scene is lit from the gunfire and the glow of the spell creates a great effect that sells the moment. It adds a layer of characterization onto the Soldier Supreme that’s just different enough from the characters he’s based on to have an impact.Īrtistically, Adam Kubert does an excellent job with the character designs, action, and comic layout. A chilling moment comes in a subtle way when we see Dum Dum Fury tells Soldier Supreme he needs to do more than “fix our bodies up when we break,” and the following panels show us both sides of his head, including a bullet wound that seems to have gone right through it. Instead we see how things would play out differently with magic on his side – how a supernatural power can impact the course of a war. It’s hard to tell which of the halves that form him are more evil, and he serves as a great villain for the combined Soldier Supreme.įortunately, the story does not simply paste magic onto Captain America’s adventures. The design is excellent – a burning red skull and hands under a dark but decorative cloak – perfectly merging the most ominous aspects of both characters. Yes, it’s a combined Red Skull and Dormammu, and it works so well.
Yet those mediocre combinations can be forgiven when we meet his arch-nemesis, Dormammu Red. The amalgamated Dum Dum Fury is basically Dum Dum Dugan with an eyepatch, and even that goes away later. Even then, he’s inexplicably designed with the Winter Soldier appearance, metal arm and all, instead of the look Bucky had during World War 2. While combining Bucky and Wong makes perfect sense from a thematic standpoint, it doesn’t quite work as a character what we get is Bucky’s body and personality with Wong’s head. On the other hand, the new Howling Commandos of Hoggoth don’t work quite as well. There’s also a rather funny training sequence where we see the army testing just how much the shield can withstand, up to and including firing a tank at it. For instance, the way that the Soldier Supreme’s shield is formed of magic sigils is clever from a story and an artistic standpoint – it’s drawn as a magic circle, with a pentagram forming the iconic star and the mystic sigils within the circle’s shield shape. Some of these combinations work better than others. As such, we get an overview of his training and adventures in the war, while getting to see more of the amalgamated timeline. It’s definitely more on the Cap side of things, set in World War 2 and substituting science for magic. The first issue of “Soldier Supreme” is essentially a retelling of Captain America’s backstory with the mysticism of Doctor Strange thrown in. But Gerry Duggan still makes it work as best he can. Where do the characters overlap to make their combination successful? In this case, it sometimes feels like Doctor Strange and Captain America were chosen because their names are Steven and Stephen, and for the alliteration of their new title. When combining characters, first one must wonder where the synergy is. Classified 4-F by the military, Stephen Rogers was unable to serve his country in World War II…until a secret government program tapping into arcane sorcery transformed him into the Soldier Supreme, the magical warrior embodiment of the American spirit!
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