Massive Spoilers for Captain America 30 herein:

Second post in a row inspired by someone else's review! Wow!

Warning. This post contains MASSIVE SPOILERS for Captain America #30. MASSIVE.

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Okay, this post is largely in response to part of pervyficgirl's Captain America review.

Okay, while Pervyficgirl has many interesting things to say, I couldn't help but disagree strongly with her Captain America review...specifically this part:

Captain America, which is almost always awesome...was not this week. If Sharon Carter is really pregnant that will make me stop reading this series. Oh, Ed Brubaker, why have you forsaken me? Bucky is adorable, Sam wins at life, but Sharon used to have more of a purpose than to cry, be suicidal, and be mind-screwed. I have comics which prove this. Unfortunately, the Ed Brubaker run is not included in them. Look, my thing against the Sharon plot isn't even a feminist concern at this point (though, possibly the pregnancy nonsense is.) It's more along the lines of the same disgust I have for the Parallax plot line. Yawn, yawn, mind control. Standard comic book cliche. But it's only interesting if the character eventually is able to overcome the nonsense. And I know it's not the end, but this storyline has gone on and on and on, and the woman is still sobbing in the shower.

Mostly because I strongly feel that over the past few issues, Sharon's done a lot more than just sob in the shower. She's quit SHIELD, gone around ass-kicking with the Falcon, and been generally her usual kickass self.

She HAS spent an inordinate amount of time in the shower as well, but I think that tends to be understandable if you've been mind controlled into killing Captain America.

I'd also like to point out that while mind-control is a standard comic cliche and Sharon's not overcome hers yet, this is the same issue where Bucky Barnes got taken down by a well-placed "sputnik". Pretty sure that overcoming the mind-control's the way they're going here.

The part that bothers me though is the antagonism to the pregnancy storyline. Not so much the dislike of pregnancy storylines in general, since they do tend to be of dubious quality, but more the implication I get that suddenly this reviewer thinks that Sharon being pregnant is WORSE than all the mind-control and other things.

... Am I the only one bothered with finding anti-feminist themes in PREGNANCY? I mean, sure, it's one thing if EVERY woman in the comic were suddenly spawning offspring left and right. But Black Widow certainly isn't having that trouble while being kickass, and neither is Sin. But okay, acknowledging that a woman pregnant with her dead lover (which, come to realize, doesn't HAVE to be Cap. She was seeing that man who died before her reunion with Steve) is a bit cliched...

(I've always thought Brubaker an incredibly cliched writer. Which isn't intended to be an insult, as he tends to take the cliche, spin it around, and make it utterly satisfying.)

Pregnancy is a woman's issue. Pregnancy can happen to the best of us and the most kickass of us. Sometimes accidently. Now is a time when a pregnancy can do nothing but really fuck everything up even more for her...but you know...sometimes that HAPPENS. And really, the whole implication of pregnancy being anti-feminist sounds like a damn good way to alienate a LOT of women from feminist idealogy. Moreover, it completely ignores the fact that there can be a lot of interesting feminist stories to come from this development (including the decision of whether to keep the baby, give up the baby, abort the baby, or try to be a kickass agent mother...not even getting into when Steve comes back...all those issues strike me as very centered around womanhood and yes, feminism.)

It doesn't help that one of commenters adds:

However, Sharon being pregnant? Please, dear comic gods, kick Brubaker in the head so that he can start writing Sharon like the kick-ass woman she is. Maybe that'll rattle loose an idea for him to bring Sharon back to her kick-ass period.

Okay. Someone needs to go watch Farscape: the Peacekeeper Wars. Now. Because that's a very clear indicator that yes, a woman can be pregnant AND kickass at the same time. (How about giving birth DURING a firefight, gun in hand?) Heck, Aeryn Sun was even MORE kickass pregnant. She had even more to protect. Also, pregnancy hormones.

Seriously, if you don't think pregnant women are scary/kick-ass, go find a 8th month pregnant-to-the-point-of-waddling lady and hand her a gun. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Sharon's always competent and kick-ass and I think it'd be a shame to write her off because of a pregnancy before we even see where it takes her.

(Ten bucks says she's totally going to be shooting people while IN LABOR...I hope Steve's not in there...)*

*Not actually wagering ten bucks here, I'm a broke college student. You think I have that kind of money? Yeesh.