Captain America #21

Written by: Rick Remender
Pencils by: Nic Klein
Colors by: Dean White

I’m not sure how I feel about The Iron Nail. Initially he was compelling, frightening even, in his passion and fury. It helped tremendously that he is the lead in the equally compelling Winter Solder: The Bitter March. Unfortunately, the past few issues he’s taken quite a dive. He’s become a cartoonish villain shouting platitudes at Captain America, and I’ve complained about this before, but his “evolved” design is ridiculous in a bad way. Even with The Bitter March serving as backstory I still don’t understand why the Iron Nail’s is motivated to take up this mantle and try to change the world in such a horrific way. But without reading The Bitter March he becomes a jumbled mess, a non-threatening, uninteresting character. On top of all this, they don’t explain his evolved state or how he’s able to do all these crazy things. Because of this The Iron Nail arc has been the worst by far of the series so far. Granted it does set up an interesting route for the story to take.

Luckily, Nic Klein and Dean White rock this issue in the art department. They’ve consistently brought greatness to this book. Klein’s style is interesting with everything taking on a broad and flat look. It’s hard to explain, but it’s visually arresting by allowing the colors to really pop everything into place.

Captain America #21 may not be the best in the series, but the art team remains killer and the book takes us in an interesting direction.

F.D. White is a true blue America. Go, Cap, Go! You can follow him on Twitter @fdwhite19