Captain America: Unforgiven #1: Red, White, Blue, and Hungry

CAPTAIN AMERICA: UNFORGIVEN #1 is as equal a finale to Tim Seeley’s one-shot trilogy as it is a stand-alone read. However, it is very lore dense and a little impenetrable, even for readers who’ve read both Spider-Man: Unforgiven and X-Men: Unforgiven. The story follows up with the tease at the end of the last book, exploring how Cap’s support and general beliefs have helped to shape The Forgiven’s life as beings living on both the outskirts of humanity and vampire-kind.

Seeley pulls from character history very well. Seeley accurately portrays Cap and The Forgiven’s history to stories of days past and weaves it naturally into the issue’s narrative. The plot in this issue demands a certain level of care for The Forgiven here, which the previous issues didn’t build up all that well. The plot eventually glazes over; action and cute character moments are the true meat on the bones of this bland, exposition-heavy skeleton.

While Seeley may not have found a way to hook readers into The Forgiven, he certainly has a grasp on the guest hero in this book—his voice for Steve Rogers and his impact as Captain America is stellar. Overall, this Unforgiven series has felt like a try-out book for Seeley at Marvel, and he’s proved his understanding of all the characters in this run of books. If you slacked on Cap recently for whatever reason, this issue does supply a story for him that both showcase the best parts of his character while not feeling out of place in the narrative.

Sid Kroatian’s art is still a tough go; however, when backed by Edgar Delgado’s colors, it helps to bring about the spooky atmosphere. This book shoots while effortlessly merging it into the bombastic action sequences of superhero stories.