American Dream #1

May 9, 2008

American Dream #1 (Marvel Comics)
By Tom DeFalco, Todd Nauck, Ron Frenz

The latest Spider-Girl spin-off focuses on the heir to the shield of Captain America. Shannon Carter, a.k.a. American Dream, is starting to feel a litte disconnect from the world. Her teammates in the Avengers all have normal lives in their secret identities — other friends, other interests — and she’s stuck wondering if she has any identity behind her mask. Complicating matters, however, are Red Queen and Ion Man, the remnants of the Revengers, who plan to destroy the Avengers starting with their “weakest link”: the non-powered American Dream. This is a nice start. Shannon’s dilemma is very evocative of problems Steve Rogers has had over the years, as is the idea of villains underestimating our hero just because she doesn’t have any super-powers. Todd Nauck, of WildGuard fame, is a perfect choice for this miniseries — he does teen superheroes and sci-fi tech extremely well, and the characters fall just perfectly into his style. Good first issue, enough to make me look forward to issue #2.
Rating: 7.10