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 →
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 →
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 →
These four issues, continuing from the storyline in issues #206-208 that ended with Captain America and his new friend Donna Maria Puentes meeting Arnim Zola, brings Sharon back into the fold in a big way and also "welcomes back" a classic Cap villain with an equally classic devious plan. (Yes, I'm being coy about the... Continue Reading →
These three issues tell the story of Hector Santiago, a.k.a. "the Swine," a vicious Latin American prison warden/warlord who actually doesn't survive issue #208, and appears very little in this post at all. However, the story does leave us with another character who is perhaps the greatest contribution that Jack Kirby gave to the... Continue Reading →
This two-part story is starts out with an epilogue of sorts to the saga of the Night People in the last three issues (as that story did with the Madbomb tale that preceded it), but soon transitions into a yarn about a strange being named Agron (no relation to the Glee actress, as far as... Continue Reading →
The three issues of Captain America covered here make up the second extended storyline of Jack Kirby's return to the character he co-created before World War II (not including the massive Bicentennial Battles Treasury Edition and Captain America Annual #3). Our story starts in issue #201, in which Cap and Falcon take on the "Night... Continue Reading →
Amongst the 22 regular issues of Captain America that Jack Kirby write and drew in 1976 and 1977, he also produced two annuals and the massive Bicentennial Battles Treasury Edition. (If you think this is a lot of output, consider that this was not the only book Jack was writing and drawing at the time.)... Continue Reading →
These three issues finish out Jack Kirby's "Madbomb" storyline, with which he began his return to writing and drawing Captain America earlier in 1976. As I explained earlier, Kirby's 1976-1978 run was light on explicitly ethics-related content, so I cover these issues in batches and fairly quickly. In fact, the most interesting part of these... Continue Reading →
These three issues continue Jack Kirby's "Madbomb" storyline that he began in issue #193 upon his return to writing and drawing the character he co-created in 1940. Just in case you didn't read the last post on this series—and if so, why not?—Captain America and the Falcon are looking for Madbombs, devices that emit mental... Continue Reading →
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 