You know those montage pages at the end of DC books like Superboy #1 this week that foreshadow a couple of storyarcs worth of major events? That’s sort what this $3.99 first issue of Captain America: Man Out of Time from Mark Waid and artist Jorge Molina felt like. Waid’s dialogue was in great form throughout, and although I don’t mind having my expectations toyed with from a miniseries that I was expecting to be a straight-up “Year One”-style Cap tale, I got out of this issue mostly scratching my head over whether each individual section I’d just read was A) a hallucination being experienced by Steve Rogers B) a real Marvel U history flashback C) a ret-con of something that previously existed as history in the Marvel U or D) something I must have missed in a previous Cap arc.
The other problem that comes with this fractured series of vignettes is the $3.99 tag on the cover here. I bought three fewer books this week than I would have if the books I did buy had been priced at $2.99 instead, and I feel like kicking a mini off in this way is basically asking me to take another chance on issue #2 to see if I like the story that hasn’t been clearly introduced yet. Depending on what comes out the week “Man Out of Time” #2 hits, I’m not sure I’m willing to roll the dice with four more dollars to take that chance. I may wait for reactions and reevaluate after it’s out, but right now I think I’m going to be a little wallet-shy about picking it up.