Captain America #8: The Hunt for Salvation

Thus far, Chip Zdarsky’s run on Captain America has managed to perform a pretty excellent balancing act between its sociopolitical commentary, its build toward the next big Marvel event, telling a personal tale for Steve Rogers, and revitalizing the espionage thriller tone that defined the 2000s era of Marvel Comics with their heavy use of S.H.I.E.L.D. Unfortunately, in its effort to stage a new shift in ethos for Steve and the arc itself, Captain America #8 is where the tightrope begins to wobble, with a noticeable dip in consistency across the book.

I did enjoy the use of a three-act structure to fully develop why Cap would decide to take on the troubles of Latveria, with or without the help of Nick Fury. That build, and the time he spends coming to understand the perspective driving the “Latverian Liberators,” whose actions challenge Steve’s own moral fortitude, is effective in giving him the motivation to stand against those looking to pillage what remains of Latveria for their own gain, or reshape it in a way that ignores the people and culture they’ve cultivated.

That being said, the issue unfortunately has to dogwalk Steve into understanding this, rather than letting him arrive at the conclusion through his own intelligence. Captain America isn’t the kind of political character who needs to be shown a mass grave to recognize fascism or tyranny. In trying to tell the story it wants, this issue almost deliberately sets Steve back so it can land a big, shocking reveal of Salvation’s “true evil,” when that evil has been plainly visible from the start. It’s disappointing, especially when the run has otherwise done such a strong job layering the many hands vying for a piece of the Latverian pie. Violence is one of the laziest ways to showcase a political entity as villainous, and it’s disheartening to see Zdarsky lean on these tropes as a crutch.

Jan Bazaldua’s art gets the job done, but it doesn’t transition seamlessly from the previous penciller’s style. There’s been a certain atmosphere in this book that has elevated its material a great deal, but with Bazaldua’s stripped-back, straightforward approach, it loses some of the visual nuance earlier artists brought to the table. It’s not bad by any means, but it does leave this otherwise strong Marvel penciller feeling more like a fill-in than a true guest artist. Their work in the final third of the issue is the strongest, which isn’t surprising given how much more it leans into traditional comic book action. Throughout the issue, however, their layouts are consistently great.