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Operation: Rebirth Page 1

Writer Ed Brubaker killed Captain America two years ago in the aftermath of Civil War.  Since then, fans have wondered how and when Steve Rogers is coming from the dead (a given, considering the revolving door on Superhero Heaven and the impending movie).

Marvel announced today what everyone’s known: That the original Sentinel of Liberty is returning from the dead in the upcoming comic Reborn.

But I want to look back at the last time Cap returned from the dead: Mark Waid and Ron Garney’s Operation: Rebirth.

Captain America is dead.  The super soldier serum in his blood turned toxic and poisoned him.  He fought it, donning a suit of armor designed to keep him alive, but it wasn’t enough.

Steve Rogers was dead.

And that’s where Operation: Rebirth begins.  A group of men are doing Something with a lot of equipment around a block of ice.  The story then cuts to Captain America’s (ceremonial funeral, as his body is missing) funeral at Arlington and we hear a general eulogizing the fallen Avenger.

That’s when Cap shatters the block of ice.  From the inside.

That’s it.  Four pages into the storyline and he’s up and about again.  Of course, he’s not at his best.  After all, the man was dead.  We find out in short order that Sharon Carter, who until this point was believed to be dead, was instrumental in his resurrection.  She and “a certain someone” need his help to complete a mission.

The certain someone?  The Red Skull.  The only other person on the planet with the super soldier serum in his veins.  The mission?  You see, the Skull trapped Adolf Hitler in the Cosmic Cube.

You can see why he’d want Captain America along on the mission.

It’s interesting to compare the storytelling of the mid-nineties to that of today.  The book is only four issues long and incredibly fast-paced.  We’re shown the funeral and then he’s back.  With only a short explaination involving cryogenics and blood and marrow transfusions.  As Waid explains in his introduction, he’d intended the book to be more of a thriller/espionage style (something Brubaker would do a decade later) but his collaboration with Garney made it more “Jackie Chan.”  And it shows.  The book is packed with action and is just fun.  There’s some emotional moments, mostly between Steve and Sharon, though there’s a great section in the last issue with Cap in World War II.

Garney’s art is energetic and capable, nailing every single moment in the story.  The art suffers a bit from having four different inkers, robbing it of consistenacy, but none of it’s awful.  One of Waid’s strong suits is his ability to reference past events and not make it inaccessible to new readers.

(A confession/aside: I actually got this trade in 1996 when I visited the Marvel offices.  I’d read issues of Captain America before, but at the time, I was mostly an X-Men fan.  I read this and I loved it.  I had no problem getting sucked into the story, so much so that it’s remained on my bookshelf after thirteen years.)