Captain America #5: A Few Useful Idiots

After several issues of dominantly set-up and exposition, things are starting to really heat up in Coates and Yu’s run on Captain America. Coates is playing the long game with this series, it would seem, tying up all loose ends from Secret Empire and reestablishing a status quo for the character. There is an underlying social narrative at work here as Coates holds a mirror up to current United States social structures, but the mirror does not project the reflection one may think.

Across the dreaded internet I have seen first hand the sheer volume of readers who reject this narrative as more far-left propaganda, having perhaps read an issue or two before abandoning the title. I would argue, rather, that the balance achieved in this series between the left and the right, liberal and conservative, (as well as action versus exposition) serves as a shining example of what happens when the veil between “us versus them” is drawn back, exposing the truth of the battle– Us versus Us. As Steve struggles to understand his true foe, given little to no real meaningful information, Coates points to the nature of perspective villainy and the shaky footing for the battle of “good versus evil.”

Also of note here is the use of a retrospective narration, something I have not noticed thus far in the series. Where before, it appeared we were inside Steve’s head in and of the moment, now it would appear we are with Steve at the end of the story looking back on how we got where ever it is we are going.