Recently in Captain America Category

Captain America hurls his might shield in this 1982 cover to The Comic Reader #204 by Bill Sienkiewicz (in his Neal Adams period) and Bob Layton.  You must YIELD!  Nuff Said!

I don't talk about modern comics very much--there's tons of other blogs that do everyday much better than I can.  But I do get a box every month from Discount Comic Book Service, and Amazing Spider-Man is always in there.  I think one of the most talented artists working at Marvel these days is Marcos Martin. 

Marcos Martin brings a crazy, kinetic style of energy on Spider-Man that hasn't been seen since the days of Steve Ditko.  Coupled with Dan Slott's high-energy mania, this is a creator marriage made in comic-book heaven.

I was particularly bowled over by the above splash page, where Spidey is standing over a craps table.  The story title and credits are cleverly laid out along the table grid.  A very clever idea!

I really find Martin's innovative use of logos (such as the blood dripping off Spidey's masthead on issue 619) to be very much in the vein of Will Eisner.  Eisner did all kinds of things with the Spirit's logo (or logo-forms as Alan Moore called them) by shooting them with bullet holes and having all kinds of liquids dripping from them.

The cover to the forthcoming Amazing Spider-Man Annual #37 does another twist on the logo, by turning it into a neon sign.  Again, this cover seems very Eisner-like to me, with Spidey and Cap standing on different levels of a building.

You have to dig the old-fashioned shout-out to "Collector's Item Classic" here as well!

Marcos Martin has also done outstanding work on Dr Strange (The Oath mini-series with Brian K. Vaughan) and the Captain America 70th Anniversary special.  Here's the black and white version of a page where Cap addresses the troops on a WW2 aircraft carrier.

There's a cool interview with Martin over at The Beat by Michel Fiffe.  Like his fellow countryman, Carlos Pacheco, Marcos Martin appears to have respect for the creators who made these characters great.  Nuff Said!

Every comics company loves to give their heroes a new look from time to time.  During the Shooter-era of the 1980s, the Marvel heroes were re-designed with new looks and costumes.

Spider-Man: Black costume from Secret Wars, sans the symbiote.

Iron Man: Tony Stark designed this red and silver armor in Iron Man #200.

Hulk: Grey Hulk from Peter David’s tenure on the series.

Thor: Walt Simonson designed this new battle armor and let the Thunder God grow a beard.

Captain America: Steve Rogers put on this costume and became a free agent for a while.  Later on, US Agent wore this costume whenever a team needed a third-rate Captain America—like the current Mighty Avengers series.

Were these Marvel makeovers as bad as shoulder pads and mullets?  I liked the Grey Hulk the best out of this lineup.  Nuff Said!

Here’s a nifty little pinup that John Romita Sr drew, featuring Captain America, She-Hulk, and Spider-Man standing together in a group hug.  I think I saved this scan from Romitaman.  Nuff said!

My big plan to do a weekly review column was too ambitious.  I haven’t reviewed a modern comic since July!  The problem is that I switched to a monthly discount comic book service.  Out of the stack that I just received, here’s what I liked the best.

Captain America Reborn #3 continues to amaze with Steve Rogers becoming unstuck in time while his friends and enemies try to fish his body out of the time pool.  I won’t reprint the amazing wraparound Hitch cover that you’ve all seen—but I think this alternate John Cassaday cover featuring his take on the Invaders is pretty nifty.

The Slaughterhouse Five device allows Bryan Hitch to revisit classic Marvel moments, such as the one above where Namor accidentally releases Captain America from his icy entombment.  This scene was originally presented in the classic Avengers #4 by Jack Kirby in a few panels.  Hitch opens this scene up in breathtaking cinemascope, as you can see in the above double page splash.  Ed Brubaker described his experience working with Hitch on Word Balloon (Part 2 The Brubaker Testimony Sept 2009).  Sequences such as these were supposed to last a page or two, and Hitch opened them up and added even more to the action.

The best thing about getting a monthly package is reading four issues of Amazing Spider-Man in one sitting, including ASM # 606-607, which features the return of the Black Cat.  This story by Joe Kelly is pure fun, with great execution by artist Mike McKone. One of the great things about the new Brand New Day era is seeing Peter Parker’s romantic entanglements.  Peter’s made a faux pas after sleeping with his roommate Michele, and in this story, spends the night with the Black Cat.  As a result of Mephisto’s gift (yeah I don’t call it a curse, you One New Day whiners)—Black Cat has no memory of Peter’s identity.  Since she’s more enamored with his costumed persona, they make love in the dark.  We’ll see if she made good on her promise not to look at his face while they were asleep.

Dark Reign The List Daredevil has really proved that I have to continue buying this comic now that Andy Diggle has taken over.  The idea of Matt Murdock leading the Hand is just too irresistible.  Diggle has placed him against both the Kingpin and Norman Osborne, with Bullseye and Lady Bullseye also in the mix as well.  The final splash page by Billy Tan, showing Daredevil leading the Hand (now with new hornhead-inspired ninja costumes) promises great things to come.

Not to mention this lineup of Liltin' Landmarks: 

Ghost Riders Heavens on Fire #2:  I’ve loved Jason Aaron’s Ghost Rider since he took over the series.  Any comic that features the Son of Satan (Daimon Hellstrom) teaming up with Johnny Blaze is great in my eyes.  They’ve restored a lot of Hellstrom’s classic elements—the inverted Satan symbol on his chest, his trident pitchfork, and even his hellish chariot made an appearance in the first issue.  The only thing I don’t like is that Hellstrom looks Anton LaVey (Aaron’s idea) now.  I had no idea how Johnny Blaze was going to get to heaven, but we learn how by the end of this issue: Danny Ketch has sold his soul to the Devil.  Yikes, now I gotta wait a month to see what happens.

Spider-Woman #1:  I honestly wasn’t sure Alex Maleev was the right artist for this series.  Hoo boy, was I wrong, Maleev’s art is superb.  He does the inking and coloring as well.  I have to say that Maleev’s work has never been better as a result, as you can see in the above panel, with Jessica Drew in Madripoor.  Bendis’ story is wonderfully I-Spy in the Marvel Universe, as Agent Brand from SWORD recruits Jessica to hunt down all kinds of nasty aliens lurking in the dark corners of the world.  Bendis is also interviewed on a recent Word Balloon (Part 2 The Bendis Tapes Fall Edition 2009) where he says that Maleev should always color his own work—I wholeheartedly agree!  Nuff said.

Beginning in 1991, Marvel started publishing an annual series of Swimsuit magazines, full color pinups of heroes and villains in skimpy beach ware.  Modeled after Sports Illustrated, each issue took place in one of Marvel’s fictional locations.  The first issue took place in the Savage Land.  Here’s a trio of pinups from 1991 featuring the Avengers.

Captain America and Diamondback.  Although it’s not signed, I believe this was drawn by Michael Golden!  The other Swimsuit issues often featured Cap in a red white and blue speedo, but this was probably the best one.  If you like that sort of thing…not that there’s anything wrong with that.  Diamondback was Cap’s gal pal during this period.  I have fond memories of her.  She’s featured in all the other swimsuit issues as well.

Thor and Sif relaxing as Loki lurks in the background.  Drawn by Ron Frenz and Joe Sinnott.  Thank goodness that Frezy didn’t draw Thor in a speedo.  Hard for me to imagine a Thunder God on the beach in a resort:  Verily, I’d like another Pina Colada.  What would Loki do?  Make it a virgin?

Here is one of the best illustrations in all these swimsuit specials: Scarlet Witch by Mike Mignola.  She’s sexy without being voluptuous and Mignola’s use of shadows and blacks really makes the magic seem wonderful.  Nuff said.

No matter how critical you are of Marvel (and judging from the message boards on various websites, fandom is very critical), you've got to admit that Marvel has their shit together about shipping comics.

Captain America #600 was released on June 15th and now Captain America Reborn #1 was released on July 1st.  There were many covers released for this one--my favorite was the Bryan Hitch cover that you see above.

The story by Ed Brubaker weaves together a lot of dangling plot threads from the regular Captain America series.  In the conclusion of the Red Skull arc, we saw that Arnim Zola had attached Sharon Carter to a crazy device.  I was left with the impression that this machine had something to do with Steve Rogers...and Reborn proves that I was right.  The device was a Doc Doom style time machine designed to bring Steve Rogers back from the past into the present.  Sharon upset their plans in that story, and now Rogers is unstuck in time--shades of Slaughterhouse Five, as Brubaker mentioned in a tweet this week: "Trying to remember if Vonnegut wrote Final Crisis or Lost... or was it Slaughterhouse Five?"

This is a really top notch comic book, with great artwork by Hitch and Guice, and superb color.  The opening scene of Cap in World War 2 (on D-Day) makes me think that there isn't that much difference now between the Ultimate Cap and the regular Marvel 616 Cap.  I also liked how this story involves the rest of the present Marvel Universe, including HAMMER and the Dark Avengers.

I'm wondering if the secret to Captain America's return is to pull him out of the past into the present?  That would kind of push the big reset button, having Cap experience that fish out of water feeling all over again.  Lots of problems to solve there, although I am sure Brubaker could pull it off.  I could be wrong--Marvel tried this stunt with Captain Marvel during Secret Invasion.  I was excited about that gimmick as well.  I guess I'm easy--any excuse to bring my favorite characters back and I'm happy.

Marvel's cosmic event, War of Kings, has also been well orchestrated, with new chapters being published every one to two weeks.

War of Kings #5 propels this story to its climax.  Lilandra really is dead and riots are erupting all over the Shi'Ar homeworld.  Vulcan's megalomania has threatened his throne--now his allies, such as Talon (from Darkhawk) are ready to withdraw their support.  On the other front, Black Bolt has decided to end the war by launching a T-Bomb (Terrigen powered) at the Shi'Ar.  It's a crazy plan.  The bomb will uplift the Shi'Ar and somehow this will transform them into a peaceful society.  And Black Bolt has to commit suicide in order to launch the bomb.  It's crazy, but really imaginative.  You have to give Maximus a lot of credit!  He's become my favorite nut in the Marvel U.

On the very last page of this issue, we are teased with the big showdown we've been waiting for, when Vulcan finally meets Black Bolt.  Next issue we'll see those two powerhouses duke it out.  It should be a great fight, although Vulcan seems much more powerful than Black Bolt.  Wouldn't he win easily just by dragging the Inhuman king into outer space, where his voice would be useless?

We've certainly seen a lot of Matt Fraction's X-Men recently--almost one new issue every week!  Last week's Uncanny X-Men #512 was an excellent done-in-one story about the Beast's team travelling back in time to discover the origin of the mutant species.  And causing the 1906 San Francisco earthquake in the process! 

Uncanny X-Men #513 is a good first act to the war between Norman Osborn and Scott Summers.  This is really a great excuse for Fraction to turn Cyclops back into bad-ass Mr. X-Man.  However, in this chapter, Cyclops pretty much watches the TV coverage of Osborn's mutant crackdown on TV.  He even applauds Osborn for being an excellent chess player.  Hopefully he will spring into action in the next chapter.

Chapter 2 of Utopia (the Dark Avengers vs X-Men event) introduces the Dark X-Men: Emma Frost (now wearing black instead of white), Daken, Cloak, Dagger, and Namor were all evident from the cover.  The Angel looking dude is really Cal Rankin (surprised that he is still alive), and if you think about mutant shape-shifters, you will realize who is impersonating Charles Xavier.  I have to believe that Emma has a plan for undermining Osborn--why else would she bring the Sub-Mariner on her team?  Namor has got it in for Osborn as well.

There are many cool elements in the Utopia storyline.  Setting it in San Francisco, where people protest at the drop of a hat, makes it a natural place for people to protest for Mutant rights.  The initial mutant confrontation with the Dark Avengers takes place in the Castro district.  A curfew in San Francisco?  No way that people would obey that.  Simon Trask is also running around, turning people into human Sentinels.  But worse than Sentinels--Norman Osborn may be the greatest enemy the X-Men have ever faced.  Because he's not only using force against them, Osborn is also using public opinion and political forces.  He's worse the Magneto.  Fraction has really concocted a great threat here, let's see if he can pull off a good second and third act as well.  Nuff said.

How to celebrate July 4th, Marvel style?  With Steve Rogers, Captain Amercia, of course.

This cover, to Captain America volume 1 #454 in 1996, marked the end of Mark Waid and Ron Garney’s first run on the character.  Rob Liefield would re-launch Cap in his twisted vision of Heroes Reborn a short time later.  Fans like me were disgusted—Waid and Garney’s take on the character was very well received.  Fortunately, a year or so later when the Marvel heroes finally returned, Waid and Garney were back.  Nuff said.