As “Promised Land” nears its close, what can Jack Rogers do to save his son and the rest of the world in the face of a Kree invasion and the return of the Red Skull?
CAPTAIN AMERICA (2017) #703 “Promised Land Part 3”
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Leonardo Romero with Alan Davis & Mark Farmer
Letters: Joe Caramanga
Cover Artist: Michael Cho; variant covers by: Julian Totino Tedesco
Colorist: Jordie Bellaire with Irma Kniivila
Publisher: MARVEL COMICS
What You Should Know:
Future descendant of Steve Rogers, the historian Jack Rogers, finds himself entangled in a plot of government corruption. In seeking his missing ancestor in the ruins of Old Washington DC, however, Jack accidentally uncovers the Red Skull instead.
What You’ll Find Out:
Jack is interrogated by the Red Skull, whom Jack just inadvertently freed, as to the current state of the world. That state, of course, is that the Kree have infiltrated the highest levels of US government and turned the entire world into sleeper soldiers under the guise of using Captain America’s DNA to establish a utopia. Eventually, Jack takes an “enemy of my enemy” approach and uses his resources as a historian to show the various timeline events that led to the corruption to the US public, inciting revolution in the populace and pitting the Red Skull against the current leadership. In the ensuing chaos, Jack discovered something about his son Steve that may be the key to defeating the Kree and the Red Skull.
What Just Happened?
I tried to give Waid the benefit of the doubt with this arc, given that I like the vast majority of his body of work, but I’m starting to lose faith that this arc is anything more than just a farewell to Steve by the author. As the story progresses, it would seem that Waid is slowly awakening the “inner Rogers” in Jack, as he begins to reveal his ability to strategize and takes a stand for all of humanity, but for some reason, it seems to fall flat here. The guest-artist interludes are a nice touch but seem too disconnected from the rest of the narrative. This issue we get to see some nice Alan Davis Avengers renderings from an era well prior to Davis’ own Avengers work, and for me, that was the hands-down highlight this month. Overall, I expected something more special than what this arc has delivered, but perhaps the conclusion will tie everything together.
Rating: 6.5/10
Final Thought: I may have set myself up for failure here, given that I spent a large part of the week writing a Kingdom Come review, which you should check out if you haven’t!
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