This post corrects an egregious oversight: specifically, the baker's dozen of issues of the weekly Marvel UK comic Captain Britain in which Captain America guest-starred in early 1977, which I seem to have skipped. It's a fun, fact-paced story that calls back to Cap's early adventures in Tales of Suspense, and I'm happy to bring... Continue Reading →
These three issues—really two, because the first is a reprint with only one new page—continue the "Who Is Steve Rogers?" storyline that began in issue #215, in which Captain America searches for information about his life before Project Rebirth. This leads into a Newfoundland adventure starting in issue #218 that eventually reveals some new... Continue Reading →
These two fairly light issues—straddling issue #24, which reprinted a Golden Age tale—involve a sidetrip to Egypt during the ongoing struggle to save young Toro's life (after his critical injury in issue #21) and sets up the next storyline with tremendous resonance for the World War II era as well as today. (We'll see a... Continue Reading →
With this issue, the Captain America series launches an examination of "Who is Steve Rogers?", which unfortunately is not the sort of juicy existentialist dilemma that might interest us here, but merely a matter of Captain America being unable to remember anything about his life before Project Rebirth transformed him into the Sentinel of Liberty.... Continue Reading →
Once again, this batch of six comics contains only patchy Captain America content—much less ethically interesting content—so I'm doing them all in one post. The three Avengers issues comprise a single story pencilled by John Byrne, who would soon begin his legendary run on The Uncanny X-Men with writer Chris Claremont, later to return to... Continue Reading →
These two issues, the last of Jack Kirby's 1976-77 run on Captain America, continue (just barely) from the storyline in issues #206-208 and #209-212. Here, the Falcon takes center stage while Captain America recovers from his temporary blindness following his fight with one of Arnim Zola's creatures in issue #212, as they both face a... Continue Reading →
The first three of these four issues tie up the storyline from the last post, with the fourth exploring the origin of Toro (with minimal Cap content). The most interesting part may the return of a former Invader, as seen on the cover to issue #20 above... but did Lord Fallsworth get better, or... Continue Reading →
This comic—the only issue of What If? that takes place in the mainstream "616" Marvel Universe rather than creating new timelines with alternative versions of canonical stories—represents what may be the pinnacle of writer Roy Thomas's original sense of retroactive continuity (or retconning) at Marvel, filling in details in old stories to address inconsistencies and... Continue Reading →
These three issues reintroduce another Golden Age Timely Comics hero to the book, and Captain America has a Superman/Captain Marvel moment when he discovers a comic book character with a strikingly familiar origin to his (and I'm not talking about his own portrayal in the Marvel Universe version of Timely Comics). All of this... Continue Reading →
This annual, published between Captain America #212 and #213, contains a self-contained story that, similar to Kirby's last annual, focuses on a strange and mysterious creature, this time not an alien from space but a mutant—which brings in Magneto, whose devious plans are contrasted with Captain America's compassion. Apparently Cap keeps on eye on the... Continue Reading →
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 