ROGERS (proof-of-concept)

An unmasked Captain America, with his back to the viewer, reminiscent of the pose in which Alan Ritchison stands in the REACHER season 2 promo poster. The title, “ROGERS” (in a font, again, reminiscent of the REACHER streaming show title font), is visible at the bottom of the image.

Inside of an unnamed bar, in an unnamed city, a police officer (“played” here by an action figure of Peter Weller from the first Robocop film) waves to get the attention of an approaching homicide detective (“played” here by an action figure of Jamie Lee Curtis from the 2018 Halloween rebootquel).

They shake hands, and the officer leads the detective into the bar.

As they walk back to the crime scene, the officer and the detective discuss how this particular bar is not usually a hot spot for any trouble, especially of this kind.

The officer brings the detective to a pool table, that has a dead body sprawled out on it. The officer identifies the deceased as, “Antoine Triplett,” which is not a name that means anything to the detective.

The officer asks her several different ways, but none of the result in the name of the deceased meaning anything to the detective.

The officer pulls out a hardbound copy of “The Hare and the Tortoise” from among Triplett’s belongings.

As the detective flips through it, she finds an inscription, and after reading it, asks, “Who the hell is Steve Rogers?” A crime scene technician (“played” here by an action figure of Randall Park from the MCU) is incredulous at this, and tries to explain while, simultaneously, Rogers walks through a street (presumably nearby, but unknown for sure).

The tech describes what happened to Rogers after he was presumed dead at the end of WWII as Rogers continues to walk, and we eventually see the determined look on his face.

Rogers stands outside of the bar, as his virtual disappearance from the world is described. “How do you find a man like that?” the detective asks.

The technician gets a radio call; someone tells him that Rogers is outside the bar. Rogers enters, and immediately starts describing the Antoine Triplett that he knew to the police (as well as Antoine’s grandfather, who, if you don’t know, was Gabe Jones, one of the original Howling Commandos).

Rogers, it turns out, headed for the town independently, when he did not hear from Antoine on a prearranged schedule, and just happened to show up at the same time as the detective.

The credits for the comic strip, citing the Unsplash users whose photographs were the background art, the use of fonts by Blambot, the ownership of Marvel by Disney, the creation of Marvel characters by actual human beings, and the figure photography/script/lettering by me, Phil Wrede.

I’ve never read a single Jack Reacher book, so serious fans of the character might consider my opinion on the movie and TV adaptations invalid, but between the Tom Cruise movies, and the Amazon show, I definitely prefer the first of the movies. The first Jack Reacher is unhinged in a way I didn’t expect a 21st century Tom Cruise movie to be; his deadly serious delivery of lines like, “She inferred hooker, but I meant whore,” and the now-immortal, “I will beat you to death and drink your blood from a boot,” turns it from a solid, by-the-numbers dad action fantasy into a something approaching a declaration of war from a major movie star against his fanatically managed public image (an approach that, I think, Hugh Jackman would adapt in Logan, with somewhat less success, five years later). Cruise stands ramrod straight (all 5’7″ of him) against onrushing chaos, the only smart man who has ever lived in the world, and who chooses to fight it because… the bus doesn’t leave for a while, and he doesn’t have anything better to do, today.

Plus, Werner Herzog’s in it. I can’t say no to Werner!

As for the show… when the show is funny, it’s clearly meaning to be funny, which I certainly enjoy, but its more discernible intent makes it less weirdly charming than the first movie (to me, anyway). Alan Ritchson’s great, of course, and as an avid fan of iZombie, I’m always excited to see Malcolm Goodwin in anything. I’m not finished with the second season, but it, much like Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, seems to lack some of the snap the first go-around had. Maybe familiarity’s breeding contempt, once again. I guess we’ll find out, after I’ve seen the season finale!

The genesis of this comic was a pretty simple one; if you’re better clued into all things Jack Reacher than I am, you won’t even need an explanation. It’s that this Captain America action figure, in his unmasked state, looks suspiciously like Alan Ritchson (again, to me). The whole comic came together uncommonly fast, after that thought leaped into my head. I’m working on a properly longer version, but I hope this proves the idea can work.

Well, all those comics Mark Gruenwald wrote already proved this idea works, the ones where where Cap was roaming around the country in his color-changing van, coordinating with his team of volunteer computer nerds to solve problems, wherever they reared their heads!

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