The latest issue of Captain America is the first story in a three-issue story arc entitled "Old Friends And Enemies."  I was drawn (no comic-related pun intended) to read the comic in light of the past year's well-publicized death of Steve Rodgers, a.k.a. Captain America.  For those uninitiated readers, Marvel at this stage of the game has Cap's old sidekick, James "Bucky" Barnes, putting on the famed cowl and picking-up the shield to carry-on the famed Captain America legacy.

     Issue #46 begins with a first-page narrative that provides a backstory explanation that during World War II, Cap and Bucky rescued 12-year-old Chinese supergenius Zhang Chin, who as an adult scientist today has recovered the remains of the original Human Torch and is secretly racing to revive him as a slave.  The issue alternates between the present-day, where the new Captain America is traveling to China with The Submariner to try to stop the mad experiment, and two flashback periods: the original 1942 rescue of the boy-scientist by the heroes, and a 1968 botched assassination attempt on Zhang Chin by Bucky in his role as the Soviet-controlled Winter Soldier, which ended in the death of Zhang's wife.  An entertaining sub-plot has The Black Widow assisting the heroes in obtaining Zhang's whereabouts through her international espionage contacts.

     I was very impressed with Ed Brubaker's plotting of this story, which seamlessly combines the WW II-era activities of Captain America, Bucky and Submariner with their present-day actions.   It seems rare to me, at least, to come across a Marvel Comic story these days that isn't either squarely set in the present or alternately set completely back in the Golden Age.  Much credit is due to Brubaker for skillfully combining both eras into one competent plot.  Presented with Epting and D'Armata's quality art, and we have one very entertaining kick-off to this three- issue story arc. 

      My only criticism is that the issue's cover is very misleading.  While it's a beautiful rendering by Epting of Captain America and The Submariner battling each other in the water, it has nothing to do with the plot of the two working together as teammates to try and help The Human Torch. But its a minor point, which doesn't take away from an enthusiastic thumbs-up for this comic book that features two of Marvel's classic A-list superhero characters.

As part of the across-the-company Dark Reign series, Marvel has released issue #1 of a new Black Panther comic book series.  Black Panther was originally created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby back in the 1960's as T'Challa, ruler of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, a high-tech land based on the existence of a rare element known as Vibranium.  The ruler of the land traditionally wears the Black Panther garb as head-of-state, and has access to a rare herb that grants him super strength and agility.  The character has a long and storied past in many Marvel Comic series beginning with the Fantastic Four in the 1960's.  My personal favorite was the Black Panther's own Kirby-penned title that ran in the late 1970's, which involved interesting science fiction and time-travel themes.

     As mentioned above, the latest Black Panther comic takes place in the new Dark Reign Marvel plotline, in which Harry Osborne is taking control of national security issues.  The first issue storyline alternates between two sub-plots.  In the first, T'Challa's wife Storm, of the X-Men, witnesses a plane-crash in Wakanda, in which T'Challa is critically injured.  Its determined that the crash was caused by sabatauge, leading the royal family to realize that at least for now, they need to immediately designate a new Black Panther leader to don the costume and lead the nation against further possible attack.

     The second storyline consists of flashbacks over the previous day, as T'Challa has tense confrontations with both The Submariner and Dr. Doom over the Norman Osborn situation, hinting to the reader that these conflicts led to the deadly plane crash.  Although its not included by the end of the first issue, it's clear from the comic book cover as well as Marvel's advertising campaign that issue #2 will anoint an unknown female to take T'Challa's place as the new Black Panther.

     As a big Black Panther fan, I was happy to see this new comic line begin.  I found the flashback sub-plot well-paced and entertaining, but the main storyline surrounding the crash and leadership crisis dragged much too slowly.  By the end of the issue, we only know that a new leader needs to be appointed, with absolutely no reference yet to the main plotpoint of a new female leader emerging.  This extra-large, $3.99 issue concludes the story after 22 pages, followed by an extremely-detailed, 10-page historical chronology of the character, and then a 6-page "preview" of issue #2.  I suspect that Marvel had a deadline issue here, choosing to publish an incomplete story combined with filler to keep issue #1's publication on-schedule.

     While this is a high-quality production, we really are given only about two-third's of a normal issue storyline, which really isn't fair to the casual reader.  I recommend the comic to Black Panther fans who plan on commiting to reading the series beyond issue #1, but warn the casual reader that reading only this issue leaves you hanging with the feeling that part of the issue is missing.  Here's hoping that Marvel gives us more complete story segments in the upcoming issues, which both this fine title and the readers deserve.