In this issue—a fill-in before the legendary run by Roger Stern and John Byrne begins in the next issue—Captain America once again encounters a villain with more to his story than he initially appreciates, emphasizing the theme of mercy made at the end of the last issue. The issue opens with a NYC school board... Continue Reading →
This issue sees our hero manipulated by a fiend known as—wait, "the Manipulator," really?—who puts him through a series of set-ups and illusions to try to break him mentally. Although the Manipulator pushes all the right buttons, some of them enabled by Cap's innocent gullibility, it is no surprise that at the end Cap emerges... Continue Reading →
This issue serves as an aftermath to the six-issue storyline, which began in issue #231 and ended in the last issue, involving Captain America fighting against the white supremacist Grand Director (who ended up being someone from his past—see the last issue if you don't know who), his National Force, and the man behind it... Continue Reading →
This issue of Captain America marks the end of the story about the National Front that began in issue #231, and finally reveals the identity of its leader, the Grand Director. It also finishes Daredevil's three-issue guest appearance, including the answer to the most pressing question of 1979: Can DD actually fly a plane? The... Continue Reading →
As we continue the story, begun in issue #231, of Captain America fighting the white nationalist Grand Director and his National Front, we finally learn the identity of the person behind the hate movement (who was glimpsed in silhouette in the last issue) as well as a hint as to who the Grand Director himself... Continue Reading →
These two issues shift from the "Who Is Steve Rogers?" storyline that concluded in the last issue and launches into "Am I Still Captain America?" beginning from that issue's cliffhanger ending: Cap's super-soldier serum was apparently neutralized, leaving him no longer a perfect physical specimen, but rather the original scrawny Steve Rogers, as we see... Continue Reading →
This second of three team-ups of Captain America and the Thing in the pages of Marvel Two-in-One is no less wild than their first (in 1974's issues #4-5), but it does have more meaningful content relevant to Cap's ethics (if somewhat dodgy at times, as we shall see). We'll skip the opening one-page splash of... Continue Reading →
These three issues of Avengers return us to the Korvac Saga, begun in issue #167, but again with minimal involvement from Captain America (and, to be honest, very little to do with Korvac in the first two issues, which deal more with Jocasta and Ultron). In fact, the one image from issue #172 is simply... 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 →
This issue wraps up the storyline involving the Hood (actually Baron von Strucker, actually a robot) and the supposedly reborn Bucky Barnes (who seems, based on the cover, to have grown considerably upset since the last issue). It also manages to introduce yet another level of WTFery to this already convoluted tale, courtesy of everybody's... Continue Reading →
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 