Captain America #288 (Marvel, December 1983, 60 cents)
"Mazes" Scripter: J.M. DeMatteis, Penciler: Mike Zeck, Inker: John Beatty, Colorist: Bob Sharen, Letterer: Diana Albers, Editor: Mark Gruenwald, and Editor in Chief: Jim Shooter.
Captain America is a decade in the future, following his guide Godwulf with the cyborg Deathlok through the streets of New York City circa 1993. They witness the aftermath of a corporate takeover of the United States by Roxxon Oil and the Brand Corporation, its clandestine group the Nth Command sending the country's superheroes into "hostile realities" to kill them, ridding the world of heroes.
Some pockets of humanity found safety from the warring factions and the madman Hellinger. Godwulf leads the two to a group of his friends, including Sage, Swashbuckler, Gentle Sam, Big Man, and Iron Butterfly, who carries a guitar strapped to her back.
Hellinger is in fact Harlan Ryker, a Brand researcher who focused on bionics and cybernetics, creating Deathlok out of Luther Manning. Godwulf's friends and other survivors rally around Deathlok and Captain America to take the fight to Hellinger, now a cyborg himself.
They arrive at his headquarters in upstate New York and gain entrance to his fortress, where they encounter an automated, ever-changing maze. Only Captain America and Deathlok make it through the labyrinth to face Hellinger.
DeMatteis's script is exposition heavy, which is necessary to situate the issue. While I haven't read the other comics in this storyline, there's a lot of potential here, and the idea reminds me of the "Days of Future Past" storyline in The Uncanny X-Men. Zeck's artwork is strong, and the large panel featuring Hellinger on page 19 is excellent. It'd be worth seeing where this storyline started -- and what repercussions it'll have on life back in 1983, especially given Scarlet's hypnotic kiss with Nomad.
The issue also includes ads for ABC and NBC's Saturday morning cartoon lineups, Victory Games's James Bond role-playing game, TSR's Star Frontiers, and a letter column featuring four letters of comment.
Read Also: Marvel Spotlight #33 and Marvel Two-in-One #27.
Availability: This issue is collected in Marvel Masterworks: Deathlok Vol. 1 and Deathlok the Demolisher: The Complete Collection.
Showing posts with label Captain America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Captain America. Show all posts
Saturday, November 16, 2019
Monday, December 11, 2017
Seeking Help from Dr. Faustus
Marvel Super Action #9 (Marvel, August 1978, 35 cents)
"If the Past Be Not Dead" Script: Stan Lee, Pencils: Jack Kirby, Inks: Syd Shores, Letters: Artie Simek.
My coverless copy of this reprint book offering again the November 1968 Captain America #107 is also missing several pages. This review is based on only 13 of the 18-page story, already two pages shorter than the original publication.
Without Captain America's awareness, Dr. Faustus has prescribed him a nightmare tablet every evening in order to drive him mad. Already coping with the many changes that occurred while he "was in suspended animation for two decades," Steve Rogers is seeing people he knows on the street: a Sharon Carter lookalike and a police officer who looks like the Red Skull.
Seeking help from Dr. Faustus, Rogers is taken prisoner by Nazis—only to be revived by Faustus. "Snap out of it!" Prescribing more pills, Faustus plans to end his "little game" that night. Rogers wakes to find himself aged, now elderly. "I've grown old—overnight!" Bucky arrives to enlist the elderly Cap to stop enemy agents "try to steal our new missile plane!" To Faustus and his lackeys' surprise, Rogers mind is not yet broken and shattered.
What an awesome story. This is why you should read coverless comics when you come across them. Who knows what you'll find. Kirby's artwork is wonderful: four-panel pages (p. 7 and p. 14), p. 11's Red Skull, the Nazis on p. 13, the elderly Rogers on pp. 21-23 (astounding with a page turn!), and pp. 27-28—and that's not even the complete comic! This is a great issue.
Marvel Super Action was an odd little reprint book that lasted 38 issues. After a 1976 non-reprint black-and-white one-shot magazine, the 1977 series reprinted Captain America starting with #100 before changing to Avengers reprints to pick up where Marvel Triple Action left off. Unfortunately, the reprints often shortened the original stories—so even if reprint book back issues are less expensive, you sometimes won't get the full experience, coverless or otherwise.
Availability: Captain America #107 has also been reprinted in Essential Captain America, Vol. 2, Marvel Masterworks: Captain America - Volume 3, and Captain America Omnibus, Vol. 1.
"If the Past Be Not Dead" Script: Stan Lee, Pencils: Jack Kirby, Inks: Syd Shores, Letters: Artie Simek.
My coverless copy of this reprint book offering again the November 1968 Captain America #107 is also missing several pages. This review is based on only 13 of the 18-page story, already two pages shorter than the original publication.
Without Captain America's awareness, Dr. Faustus has prescribed him a nightmare tablet every evening in order to drive him mad. Already coping with the many changes that occurred while he "was in suspended animation for two decades," Steve Rogers is seeing people he knows on the street: a Sharon Carter lookalike and a police officer who looks like the Red Skull.
Seeking help from Dr. Faustus, Rogers is taken prisoner by Nazis—only to be revived by Faustus. "Snap out of it!" Prescribing more pills, Faustus plans to end his "little game" that night. Rogers wakes to find himself aged, now elderly. "I've grown old—overnight!" Bucky arrives to enlist the elderly Cap to stop enemy agents "try to steal our new missile plane!" To Faustus and his lackeys' surprise, Rogers mind is not yet broken and shattered.
What an awesome story. This is why you should read coverless comics when you come across them. Who knows what you'll find. Kirby's artwork is wonderful: four-panel pages (p. 7 and p. 14), p. 11's Red Skull, the Nazis on p. 13, the elderly Rogers on pp. 21-23 (astounding with a page turn!), and pp. 27-28—and that's not even the complete comic! This is a great issue.
Marvel Super Action was an odd little reprint book that lasted 38 issues. After a 1976 non-reprint black-and-white one-shot magazine, the 1977 series reprinted Captain America starting with #100 before changing to Avengers reprints to pick up where Marvel Triple Action left off. Unfortunately, the reprints often shortened the original stories—so even if reprint book back issues are less expensive, you sometimes won't get the full experience, coverless or otherwise.
Availability: Captain America #107 has also been reprinted in Essential Captain America, Vol. 2, Marvel Masterworks: Captain America - Volume 3, and Captain America Omnibus, Vol. 1.
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
The Man Who Rules the Wheel
Secret Empire #0-6, #8-10 (Marvel, June-October 2017, $3.99-$4.99)
I'm not always intrigued or impressed by the big publisher tentpole events (case in point, DC's Convergence), but the very idea behind this miniseries—and resulting tie-ins—written by Nick Spencer is genius. The buildup in the pages of Captain America: Steve Rogers also piqued my interest successfully.
That idea? Kobik, a Cosmic Cube, rewrites reality so Steve Rogers has always been a Hydra sympathizer and, as Captain America, is its supreme leader, "the man who rules the wheel." I've long loved the machinations of Hydra, and the scale and scope of such a betrayal would reverberate widely.
And it does. These 10 issues—I somehow missed #7—range widely and include several wonderful events and ideas. The Chitauri invasion, the emptying of Pleasant Hill into the streets of New York, and the Sokovian coup (it's like a game of Legendary!) conspiring to divide and conquer the heroes open up the opportunity for Cap to be given control of all law enforcement and military forces.
Add to that a planetary defense shield; Blackout (Cloak and Dagger are put to amazing use here); the resulting police state; the Las Vegas underground; Arnim Zola, Doctor Faustus, and Baron Zemo (!!!); Rick Jones; a Tony Stark AI; the Kingpin; seeking help from the Kree and Skrull; a modified Henry Pym; a reborn Bruce Banner; Doctor Strange's real estate negotiations; and a nigh-unbeatable Cap—so much stuff happens over the course of the series. Characters even make Civil War jokes.
On the whole, the story is your standard smash-and-grab collection plot—the heroes and villains race to collect as many pieces of the Cosmic Cube as they can. Each month, the story tied into nine to 15 additional titles, so there was plenty of side story following the main plot, as well as events Beyond the Shield and in Darkforce New York.
In the end, the heroes are re-established as heroes, the villains as villains, and the world returns to more or less the way it was. Skipping #7 left at least one unresolved plot thread—who was the old man rescued in #5, the original Nick Fury again? An illing Bruce Banner? My favorite issues included #3-4's Henry Pym appearance and #2's Darkforce New York and Kingpin focus, both of which resonate well with the most recent Secret Wars, and the latter setting up recent developments in Daredevil quite nicely.
Availability: Secret Empire #0-9 have been collected.
I'm not always intrigued or impressed by the big publisher tentpole events (case in point, DC's Convergence), but the very idea behind this miniseries—and resulting tie-ins—written by Nick Spencer is genius. The buildup in the pages of Captain America: Steve Rogers also piqued my interest successfully.
That idea? Kobik, a Cosmic Cube, rewrites reality so Steve Rogers has always been a Hydra sympathizer and, as Captain America, is its supreme leader, "the man who rules the wheel." I've long loved the machinations of Hydra, and the scale and scope of such a betrayal would reverberate widely.
And it does. These 10 issues—I somehow missed #7—range widely and include several wonderful events and ideas. The Chitauri invasion, the emptying of Pleasant Hill into the streets of New York, and the Sokovian coup (it's like a game of Legendary!) conspiring to divide and conquer the heroes open up the opportunity for Cap to be given control of all law enforcement and military forces.
Add to that a planetary defense shield; Blackout (Cloak and Dagger are put to amazing use here); the resulting police state; the Las Vegas underground; Arnim Zola, Doctor Faustus, and Baron Zemo (!!!); Rick Jones; a Tony Stark AI; the Kingpin; seeking help from the Kree and Skrull; a modified Henry Pym; a reborn Bruce Banner; Doctor Strange's real estate negotiations; and a nigh-unbeatable Cap—so much stuff happens over the course of the series. Characters even make Civil War jokes.
On the whole, the story is your standard smash-and-grab collection plot—the heroes and villains race to collect as many pieces of the Cosmic Cube as they can. Each month, the story tied into nine to 15 additional titles, so there was plenty of side story following the main plot, as well as events Beyond the Shield and in Darkforce New York.
In the end, the heroes are re-established as heroes, the villains as villains, and the world returns to more or less the way it was. Skipping #7 left at least one unresolved plot thread—who was the old man rescued in #5, the original Nick Fury again? An illing Bruce Banner? My favorite issues included #3-4's Henry Pym appearance and #2's Darkforce New York and Kingpin focus, both of which resonate well with the most recent Secret Wars, and the latter setting up recent developments in Daredevil quite nicely.
Availability: Secret Empire #0-9 have been collected.
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