The Four Color Media Monitor

What's this here? David Morrell, the author who'd created Rambo, is writing some kind of miniseries about Captain America ("The Chosen") as seen through the eyes of a soldier in Afghanistan, and which, yes, does appear to be just a flashback story. But there's at least two reasons to keep expectations on this to minimum: one, because Morrell may be chummy with Max Allan Collins, who if memory serves, supported the anti-American steps taken with Cap a few years ago by writing an introduction to the trade paperback of the Marvel Knights series at the time in which he attacked "jingoism". And two, because this miniseries, just like the Marvel Knights series, seems to put Cap into real life settings in ways that could trivialize the tragedies in real life:

Another unique element of Morrell's Captain America story is the story's setting. "My story could have happened anytime after 9-11 because there are a lot of references to 9-11," Morrell said. "There are pictures of the Cole after the hole was blown into it and pictures of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. There's one of the Madrid train bombings and one of the London bus bombings so it's very contemporary. This story could have happened any time in the last couple of years and could be considered to predate what happened in 'Captain America' #25."

"Captain America: The Chosen" takes place in a country tied to those events, Afghanistan. "There's an initial big battle in a village but the bulk of the story takes place in a cave," Morrell stated. "The point here is that since this is a dark, psychological examination of Captain America the cave is very appropriate. We're getting into the darkness and the depths. That's the metaphor I was trying for."

I've heard the whole tale about dark before, and something tells me that this miniseries may be a boomerang on the grave errors that were made with Cap before again. Including when you take into consideration that, since this is the MCU, Captain Britain and Excalibur could surely have been around to battle the vile scum threatening the UK just like the superheroes in America could've been around to battle the vile scum threatening that part of the world.

Accompanying Captain America and the reader on their journey into the darkness and the depths is a new character, a corporal in the United States Marine Corps named James Newman. "He's in Afghanistan and he's been over there so long and has been in so much fighting. He has a wife and son who live in San Francisco and he's at the point now where all he wants to do is go home. You can't tell the good guys from the bad guys over there and he's just absolutely overwhelmed with the combat and the conditions. It's under there circumstances that he and Captain America cross paths."

Uh oh, do I detect a possible anti-war position on the horizon here? And surely we haven't heard that whole absurd story about being unable to distinguish between good and bad many times before?

And now, uh oh, I think I may have found another clue that this may not be anything good:

Morrell is aware that a realistic toned Captain America adventure that occurs after 9-11 may sound familiar to readers of John Ney Rieber's run on "Captain America" from a few years ago. "I know those stories and that's kind of the tone we're going for," Morrell said. "The one that really stuck in my mind was kind of a hymn to all the emergency responders and all the pain that was there and how Captain America was working trying to save people there. I had bought that issue about the World Trade Center as soon as it came out. I made a bee line to get it. That kind of realism is what I wanted. The difference is my story is intended to be a self contained plot. The kinds of arcs that I would use in a novel are what I use here."

Ugh! I think the clues he's given here are enough to turn me away from this miniseries indefinitely.

"Captain America: The Chosen" is Morrell's first comic book project and there's a good chance that it's not his last. "Marvel and I have talked about doing something else," Morrell said. "It's just a matter of if we can all make things come together the way we want."

It may not be his last comic book project, but if this does turn out to be just more anti-war propaganda, that's why it'll be the last thing I'd want to hear about that Morrell's writing.

Update: here's another article that doesn't really impress me:

Asked if Captain America is pro-war, Morrell said Captain America is a lot like the Rambo character he created in 1972, whom he considers a reluctant warrior-hero. "I see Captain America in the same way," he said.

But I don't. One more reason then why I'm starting to see Rambo as an overrated creation to begin with.

Labels: Captain America, marvel comics