Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #13: The Mission Never Ends

Bucky says it best in this issue, Steve Rogers is a mission.

Throughout the character’s history, Steve has moved from one fight to the next, never taking a moment to breathe and enjoy life in much of a meaningful way. Initially, that’s what this run was meant to do and address, giving Rogers time to find himself and remember what made Steve Rogers a man and not just the patriotic warrior. Unfortunately, the fight found its way right back to him. Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing have been taking readers on a wild ride with Steve and his various friends as they’ve tried to end The Century Game, turn Bucky back to the side of good and now rescue Steve and Sharon’s, son Ian Rogers – and it’s here in this penultimate issue of Cold War that Steve is able to reconcile both parts of himself in order to complete one of the most important missions he’s ever had. 

After the explosive fight that Sam and Steve have in the pages of Symbol of Truth, Steve lies in the snow and reflects on what’s most important to him. He realizes that his single minded focus on getting Ian back almost cost the lives of his friends and he needed to have the sense knocked back into him for him to see. It makes his later apology to Sam all the more heartfelt because he’s a big enough man to realize that he’s wrong and that he always needs people next to him just in case he falls. He understands that his laser focus has served him well as a warrior, but it’s the comrades that he’s willing to take into the fight with him that makes him the leader worth following, which is something we’ve seen repeatedly throughout this series.

A big part of this book is the outrospection that Bucky has when he’s conversing with White Wolf about Steve. Because Bucky has fought alongside him for so long, Bucky understands that, no matter what, Steve will survive anything that an enemy can throw at him if it means saving anyone: friends, family, random citizens, Captain America will protect them all from tyranny. Kelly and Lanzing write Bucky with a sense of regret for his actions, but also with an assuredness that everything Steve, Sam, Sharon and Misty are doing contributes to his own part in the Century Game. He recognizes that they’re the same in that regard, but Bucky is more willing to kill or put people in harm’s way for his idea of the greater good.

Alina Erofeeva’s art stands head and shoulders next to some of Marvel’s best artists today. There’s a very cinematic quality to the way that she makes the panels of the book flow with a good amount of wide wide shots that emphasize characters, body language and fantastically drawn backgrounds. It helps to sell the scope of the event itself with every single story beat building on top of the issue that came before as this book furthers character progression through exposition and solemn moments versus the intense action of the previous issue. Erofeeva places heavy emphasis on facial expressions in various scenes of the book to capture the emotion that Steve and Sam have been holding back since they made it to Dimension Z.

Her linework, as well, does a great job in elevating this book with how good it is. Characters faces and clothing are full of detail with lines that show depth, slight changes in expression from panel to panel and intricate focus to texturing which makes the characters and backgrounds feel three dimensional. One of the best examples of this can be seen in some of the later pages of the book when Steve and co. march right up to the monster’s front lines as the climactic battle begins. They occupy the fore and backgrounds and Everything pops against each other. Their silhouettes are identifiable, the backgrounds themselves are great to look at with a bevy of crystalline structures and snowy mounds, and the following panel with the z-monsters mirrors them perfectly as their own armors are chock full of lines, swirls and massive amounts of work to please the eyes.

Nolan Woodard’s colors do a fantastic job of uplifting the art of the book. While most of the book takes place in the ice and snow, Woodard does his best to make all of that white feel meaningful and serene in the opening pages of the book. Steve contemplates his actions from the last issue of the event and is given a moment to reflect, regaining the sense of purity that he temporarily lost as he lies in the white snow. There’s an even better moment as well when Black Widow and Peggy Carter confront each other and both women are placed in mostly opposing color backgrounds with Widow being set against a brown wall to show her being more down to earth and aligned with Steve’s values while Peggy is set against the blackness of the shadowed portion of the room, showing that following Bucky has lead her to a darker path.