Fresh from their crossover in the recent Avengers and Fantastic Four annuals, the two teams meet once again in their regular titles in a story that—no surprise, given the FF cover—reintroduces Jean Grey, who seemed to perish during the "Dark Phoenix Saga," and in turn leads into the first X-Factor series, starring the reunited original... Continue Reading →
This issue of Avengers sees Captain America and his fellow Invader, Namor the Sub-Mariner, meet once again, brought together by the most pedestrian of circumstances that nonetheless prompts some interesting discussions. Also, we have the latest installment of Secret Wars II, for what it's worth. (If you've read our previous coverage of this series, you... Continue Reading →
This issue of Avengers is both the aftermath of their recent adventures with the Skrulls in issues #259-260 and the recent Avengers and Fantastic Four annuals, as well as the title's second Secret Wars II crossover, a more substantial encounter with the Beyonder than his sudden surprise appearance in the first (issue #260). This is... Continue Reading →
These two annuals represent a unique experiment on the part of writers Roger Stern and John Byrne (who also handles pencils or breakdowns): They represent two separate stories that intersect in the third act, at which the issues cover the same events from each team's point of view, with several panels and pages effectively duplicated... Continue Reading →
I warn you now, this will be one of the shortest posts on this blog—even for Avengers issues in this period, there is much less Captain America than usual. Perhaps that's because of the outer space setting, which also continues into the Avengers and Fantastic Four annuals that follow it (as well as issue #261),... Continue Reading →
These four issues, like most Avengers comics of this period, contain only occasional content relevant to this blog, and not much of it having to do with the adventures shown on the covers above. We do, however, see Captain America interacting with teammates and colleagues, reacting to calamitous events, and lashing out at government agents...... Continue Reading →
This post brings the long "Absolute Vision" storyline to its conclusion, as the synthezoid Avenger finally kicks his plan for world control into motion. (See the last post for a quick recap, because Captain America had not been in the book for a while before issue #251.) In issue #253, we see Cap still addressing... Continue Reading →
This post and the next together bring the "Absolute Vision" storyline to a finish. Quick recap: As we saw in issue #233, Vision was knocked unconscious, only to be revived later by Starfox and ISAAC, the computer that runs his home planet of Titan. ISAAC's corrupting influence, combined with a malfunctioning "control crystal" implanted by... 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 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 →
