Comic Book Review: Captain America: White #0

Real life superheroes Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale have returned to their Color series after a four year hiatus since Hulk: Gray. Issue #0 is a half-comic, half-interview prologue to the upcoming six part series about Captain America’s exploits with Bucky in WWII.

The first part of this issue is a 17-page retelling of the origin of Bucky as Cap’s sidekick. As to be expected from the Loeb/Sale duo, it is 17 pages of great writing and artwork. The dialogue between characters feels natural, and a lot is said through few words, both because Loeb knows how to trim down exchanges between characters while still retaining their meaning and because Sale’s drawings completely complement everything that is said on each panel. It is clear that the two of them know how to work together in almost complete harmony.

The second part of the issue is a combination of Sale’s sketches of Captain America and the covers for the upcoming series, and an interview of Loeb and Sale regarding the new series. As with the rest of their Color series, the color choice of this one was not random and will have meaning with the story. The topics of their previous collaborations, Captain America’s lack of romance, the modern day significance of Captain America, and a few other things are talked about in the interview, and rather than talk about them in detail I would just recommend getting this issue if you’re interested.

One thing I absolutely love about this book is that there are no advertisements in it. Nothing breaks the mood of reading a comic book like turning the page and having to look at an ad for some kind of “extreme” candy that shows an image of an anthropomorphic elephant on a skateboard wearing shoulder and knee pads telling me how radical this candy is and how it’s a flavor explosion in my mouth. No thank you elephant, no thank you. Thankfully there is none of that in this book.

Based on what is in this issue, and knowing of their previous work, this series is definitely something to look out for this winter.