HERO & HUMAN: CAPTAIN AMERICA- THE SHIELD OF SAM WILSON edited by JESSE J. HOLLAND

When Marvel Comics decided Sam Wilson would take over as the hero Captain America, it ushered in one of the more unique comic book heroes. As The Falcon, he was not only Marvel's first African-American hero, but served as a sidekick to Captain America, the original Steve Rogers. Unlike Steve or other who wore the uniform, he didn't have super strength from a Super Soldier Serum. The biggest power he has is a psychic bond with birds, particularly his trusted falcon, Redwing. The African American writers that editor Jesse J Holland assembled take to these complexities and others and run with them for the anthology, Captain America: The Shield Of Sam Wilson. published to tie into the movie Captain America: Brave New World. For those disappointed by what the movie lacked, this collection of stories more than makes up for.

Kyoko M. kicks it off in high gear with "Everyone's Hero". The SHIELD agency asks Captain America to assist in escorting a group of escaped super villains, including longtime adversaries Crossbones and Taskmaster, who another villains plans to bust out for his own agenda. After the set-up, the narrative goes all the way to the end with non-stop action.

Holland recruited two of my favorite crime writers for the collection. Gary Phillips prose conjures up a four-color adventure in "Surreptitious", putting Cap on a AIM controlled jungle island, fighting robots and and monsters in a a plot connected the evil organization and the alien Skrulls. He brings an old fashioned sense of fun, where anything can opo up. Gar Anthony Haywood takes Sam back to his Harlem roots with "By Any Means Necessary" as our hero tracks down a brutal superpowered vigilante who is a pawn in something bigger and badder. It reads like a great story that would be in annual with cameos by Marvel characters, a tight story, and thought provoking ending.

Other stories have him go back to Harlem as well. In Nicole Givens Kurtz's "The Way Home" he searches for the missing gay son of an old friend and is confronted by questions of his own identity. One of my favorites, "Plug In, Plug Out" by Danian Jerry has Cap trying to help a mutant who talks to computers get out of the gang life. It all ends in a showdown in one of Marvel's best known bad guys.

Sam is treated less better in small town America , SHIELD uses him to draw out a target known as Hate Monger by placing him in a former sundown town that hasn't completely shed it's old ways in Maurice Broaddus' "Everybody's Hero". One resident tells him to his face he isn't her Captain America. "Uniform" by Jesse Holland starts with a confrontation with a white Vietnam vet in a Georgia cafe that Johnny Walker, who also served as Captain America and now operates as USAgent struggles to descelate. Johnnie then hooks him up with a time traveling adventure that has him fighting with a black tank crew in World War Two, fighting horrible racism on all sides.

Sam teams up with Walker again, as well as Luke Cage, in "The Maltese Connection" by Glenn Parris The three track down the source of a street drug that gives you superpowers as if affects your mind. Another candidate for a great comic book story.

Sheree Renee Thomas contributed the story that stood out to me the most, "Exclusive Content". Sam and gal pal Misty Knight, the kick ass Pi with kung-fu skills and a bionic arm, go to nashville for the concert of a country-trap-rapper known as Xclusiv DYG. They soon discover the musician has his own powers and a sacred mission that has the two protecting him from Lady Mastermind and Sabertooth. It's an exciting and involving story that deals with the power of storytelling in one's culture.

Sam often struggles with the human side of being a hero in the stories.Gloria J. Browne-Marshall writes about him trying to mourn the death of an old friend while a world threat begs for Captain America's help with "Chaos Rules", Alex Simmons gives a last temptation to Captain America when he fights his way into an AIM compound to destroy their latest invention that turns out to be a machine that can manipulate time by erasing parts of history, like the separate murders of his parents. At one point Sam asks, :What America do I represent?"

Captain America: The Shield Of Sam Wilson employs it's hero and the comic book approach in storytelling to look at big ideas and themes in bg strokes. The original Captain America, Steve Rogers (who pops up in few stories) looked at the ideal of his country in contrast with the reality. Sam, who often challenged him with that reality, takes it deeper as he fights for a country he loves that always doesn't love him back.