With this issue we reach the culmination of the Red Skull's most recent and very personal campaign against Captain America, whom he considers his equal and opposite (as we saw in the last two issues), and with whom he is locked in eternal battle to the death (helped by the fact that he poisoned both... Continue Reading →
This Avengers annual, which reunites the team with former members Hank Pym, She-Hulk, and the Beast, is most notable for its art team: Steve Ditko on pencils and John Byrne on inks, which makes for a very interesting combination, especially with a script by the Avengers writer at the time, Roger Stern, which helps maintain... Continue Reading →
These two issues comprise the penultimate episode in the Red Skull's most recent campaign against Captain America, which began in issue #290. The first issue is mostly the Red Skull recounting his origin story to Cap, whose reactions and responses are of more interest to us, and the battle itself starts in the second (culminating... Continue Reading →
In this issue, Baron Zemo takes over from Mother Superior in trying to break Captain America, as they and the Red Skull have been plotting since issue #290. As is suggested by the cover, he does this by forcing Cap to relive his greatest failure and loss at the hands of Baron Zemo the Elder... Continue Reading →
This issue sees the Red Skull, Mother Superior, and Baron Zemo continue their psychological campaign against Captain America. Specifically, Cap finally faces off with Mother Superior—and, in the process, discovering who her father is—and Nomad comes to an astonishing realization (more than hinted at on the cover). You'll no doubt remember that, at the end... Continue Reading →
This issue continues the ongoing plot of the Red Skull, Mother Superior (his daughter), and Baron Zemo—as well as their new compartriots, the Sisters of Sin, seen on the cover to the right—against Captain America and his amazing friends. Their techniques take a distinctly psychological turn, building on what they did to Dave Cox in... Continue Reading →
These two issues contain a fairly standard alien invasion story—just look at the cover to the right—one that, in terms of Captain America, serves mainly to show his growing concern over the Vision's odd behavior (which only gets worse, as we will see when Cap next appear in this title in issue #251). In issue... Continue Reading →
This issue continues from the last, which ended with Captain America having been subdued by the Slayer—a.k.a. Captain America's pacifist friend Dave Cox after being transformed radically by Mother Superior and Baron Zemo—who has now turned his sights to Nomad. If that's not enough pulse-pounding action for you, Steve and Bernie have the talk after... Continue Reading →
This issue reintroduces a character from way back when (and possibly earlier), about whom Nomad has doubts. I won't reveal now whether or not the character or any doubts about him contributed to Nomad's poor state of affairs on the issue's cover to your right, but our young friend does rub Captain America the wrong... Continue Reading →
In this post, we're looking at the entire 12-issue Secret Wars series, the first major line-wide crossover event in comics, which expanded significantly on the model of 1982's Contest of Champions and cast the mold for the subsequent annual crossover event comics at both Marvel and DC. (You can read more on the origin and... Continue Reading →
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 