Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #12 Review

Written by: Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly
Art by: Alina Erofeeva
Colors by: Nolan Woodard
Letters by: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover art by: Carmen Carnero, Alejandro Sánchez
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: May 17, 2023

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #12 begins the fight to enter Dimension Z when Captains America, Sharon Carter, and Misty Knight fight their way to the only portal open to save Ian.

Is It Good?

If you haven’t heard the news, this series will be ending in July 2023, so that means we have two more issues to go before Captain America goes on a break to retool and bring on a new creative team. Whether or not the cancellation and retooling should have happened sooner is up to you. If Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #12 is any indication, it’s ending just in time.

When last we left the Captains in the Cold War “event.” they narrowly survived an onslaught of Outer Circle soldiers and Dimension Z monsters by hiding in a mine. Now, the monsters and soldiers turn on each other, giving the Captains an opportunity to approach the Dimension Z portal in a bid to rescue Ian from White Wolf and the New Revolution aka Winter Soldier aka Bucky Barnes. Meanwhile, the Outer Circle starts getting snippy with each other over Bucky’s plans.

On the whole, Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #12 is an okay issue. You get a rock ’em sock ’em battle in a snowfield. You get lots of grumpy faces and a little shouting among the Outer Circle members. And you get an enjoyable hand-to-knife fight between Bucky and the guest-appearing Black Widow. If you’re looking for standard combat action, this is a solid comic.

Of course, the action is due mostly to Alina Erofeeva’s rock-solid art. The figure- and line work is excellent, Nolan Woodard’s coloring is outstanding, and the overall look of the book is above average in every aspect.

What’s not so great? The main criticism I’ve had of this arc is the omnipotent nature of the Outer Circle and the writers’ inability to create a clear path for our heroes to follow. In this issue, the Outer Circle is shown to be cracking under the Captains relentless assault, and it feels like a forced downgrade to give the heroes a chance of success. How does a globally-reaching secret organization that supposedly has influence over every other secret organization and world government get flustered so easily when they’ve dominated every aspect of the Captains’ lives up to this point? They won’t unless the writers simply make the Outer Circle weaker out of the blue, so here we are.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Bits and Pieces

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #12 delivers plenty of solid fighting action, good dialog, and quality art to bring the Captains closer to Dimension Z. That said, the omnipotent Outer Circle is suddenly showing cracks under the pressure, which feels like a contrived convenience.