CAPTAIN AMERICA #600

Let's cut right to the chase: no, Steve Rogers does not return in the issue. That inevitable happenstance will take place in the upcoming CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN mini-series, so what's in this issue that makes it worth $4.99? If you want my honest opinion, nothing. It's just a standard issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA that marks the one-year anniversary of Cap's "death" (which occurred just over two years ago in real publishing time) and features several different characters, individuals and groups, and their feelings on the commemoration. The lone moment of note in the main monthly narrative is Sharon Carter figuring out something that will possibly — aw, who're they kidding? Definitely ! — allow Steve Rogers to be resurrected, and that revelation ends this month's chapter.

The rest of the issue is rounded out with filler material, including an Alex Ross/Paul Dini two-page origin recap (no pun intended), two okay short stories, a reminiscence by Captain America co-creator Joe Simon, the umpteenth reprint of the Golden Age Cap story "Red Skull's Deadly Revenge," and a laughable cover gallery that presents every Cap cover ever, each cover small in the first place, but ending up with the images being shown at sizes just smaller than your average postage stamp, in other words pretty much too small to see.

While I wouldn't call it a total ripoff, CAPTAIN AMERICA #600 is not worth the price tag. Though I like what Ed Brubaker's been doing on this book, I stopped reading the monthly book about a year or so ago, instead waiting for the next enormous CAPTAIN AMERICA omnibus. The series reads much better when taken in large doses and I recommend waiting for it in that format, so try to hold out.