Marvel's efforts to gain attention for its products with hot-button editorial material recently succeeded in an unlikely way -- its Captain America comics were reviewed by Michael Medved on National Review Online, the Website of the conservative political magazine founded by William Buckley, Jr. The review, titled 'Captain America, Traitor?' calls Marvel's recent Cap titles an '...odd, unsettling direction' in which the lead character '...seems disillusioned, embittered, and surprisingly sympathetic to terrorists.'
Two Cap series are targeted -- Captain America: The New Deal, and Truth -- Red, White, and Black. The reviewer takes Marvel to task for drawing parallels between terrorist acts against the U.S. and actions of the U.S. government. 'We might expect such blame-America logic from Hollywood activists, academic apologists, or the angry protesters who regularly fill the streets of European capitals (and many major American cities),' he wrote. 'When such sentiments turn up, however, hidden within star-spangled, nostalgic packaging of comic books aimed at kids, we need to confront the deep cultural malaise afflicting the nation on the eve of war.' 
