Captain America Volume 3: Ice TPB (Captain America (Quality Paper)) [Paperback]

John Ney Rieber (Author), Chuck Austen (Author), Jae Lee (Author), Jose Villarrubia (Author)

Book Description

Series: Captain America (Quality Paper) | Publication Date: October 27, 2003

For decades World War 2 super-soldier Captain America lay in frozen suspended-animation, encased in ice, until he was revived in the modern world to again take his post of protector of the Red, White and Blue. But when a mysterious package arrives at his door and he crosses paths with a shadowy new villain named The Interrogator, Captain America learns that everything about this past, his memories, and himself, may not be what it seems!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The penultimate chapter in the new, ongoing Captain America saga, this collection of issues 12 through 16 explores the truth behind Captain America's lost years. Frozen for years after WWII, the erstwhile hero always thought his imprisonment was the work of a villain, but now it turns out the U.S. government was behind the conspiracy. This leads to a soul-searching dilemma about the nature of patriotism and Captain America's role in the world. And in the midst of all of this, he must face off with a villain from the past, a man directly involved in the hero's early disaster. Rieber and Austen have crafted a grave tale, full of melancholic monologues and angst-ridden flashbacks. This works reasonably well to create an atmosphere of suspicion and importance, but the work is slow moving and a bit heavy on the philosophy between fistfights. Lee's art is serviceable, photo-based realism, extremely dark and melodramatic in many places, but he tells the story with a film director's flair for scene and action. This is the fifth volume in the series, and readers would do well to tackle it only if they possess a healthy knowledge of the series' history.
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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Comics (October 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785111034
• ISBN-13: 978-0785111030
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 6.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #390,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty weird, but not bad.., February 11, 2005

By 

M. Ryan Murphy (NYC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Captain America Volume 3: Ice TPB (Captain America (Quality Paper)) (Paperback)

Alot of people trash Rieber for his views but I love what he's doing, although I have to agree the writing is a bit odd and Jae Lee's art isn't helping at all. I can never get used to Jae Lee. When you put Jae Lee with the writer of "Books of Magic", you should know what to expect.

It's an interesting spin on Cap, I say go for it, but just remember Rieber was going to build something out of this storyline, and he was never able to complete it, thus the volume after this goes in a totally different direction and will likely never touch upon these topics again. As far as I'm concerned it's an uncompleted work.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Story is Wanting, July 28, 2004

By 

Martha Washington "booknut" (Northeast) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Captain America Volume 3: Ice TPB (Captain America (Quality Paper)) (Paperback)

While not delving into the political aspects of this book or the reviewer who appears to take issue with those who disliked this book, I have to say this story misses the mark. Captain America is merely a one-dimensional character in this storyline. The dialogue is trying at times and the plot is jumbled. I have to say, however, that the artwork was more than acceptable. If you are interested in this character, there are some much better offerings out there. Pass this one up unless you are a completionist.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bit of a weak ending for the cool story started in volume 1, March 31, 2011

By 

Adriano1977 (Langen (Hessen), Deutschland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Captain America Volume 3: Ice TPB (Captain America (Quality Paper)) (Paperback)

This third collection of the so far stunning Marvel Knights Captain America book is definitely the weakest so far, as well as, thankfully, the last by scribe Chuck Austen.
Austen was all over the place in the early 2000's, but only, I imagine, by controversial writing choices and inexplicable fallacies for a guy involved in such high-profile projects.
In a nutshell, the Captain, who came back to the Marvel comics universe when the Avengers super-group found him frozen in a block of ice (sic) has now reason to believe he was sent on purpose to his death or accidental hibernation by his own army command, because they realised he wouldn't be manipulated into killing and so they had to get rid of him or he'd get in their way.
A perplex moment of silence afterwards, the reader has also to go through Austen's trademark rants about sexual freedom, moral relativity, how bad it is to live in a repressed culture, and in this particular case, what it takes for one's beliefs to break. A pity that Austen's handling of these themes diverges widely from the tone set by previous writer John Ney Rieber, who probably roughly plotted this conclusion of the narrative he started in the first volume, but sadly never got to see i through. That's also probably why the overall plotting makes sense, though so many smaller parts and details, in addition to the previously mentioned gratuitous rants, simply don't. Cliffhangers are weak or emotionally deprived, Cap goes from cocky to dumb: Whenever he has to explain himself, he concludes or begins with "I don't know" (a favourite of Austen's, since nearly every characters says the sentence at least once), he acts sexually repressed and sentimentally volatile...
However, I'll save the book because despite Austen's many faults, the story has a few interesting points (the conspiracy theory, Atlantis' Princ Namor's two-sided involvement, the potential horrific twist in Cap's origin) and, most of all, Jae Lee's fantastic artwork to carry it all and rescuing this from being a wreck. It really makes you want him to do the Inhumans again, though, more than appreciate this volume.
So the closing verdict is, as sadly too often with superhero comics: for fans / art geeks only...