This four-part story is light on ethically relevant material, focusing instead on Captain America's battle alongside the Falcon, Sharon Carter, and Nick Fury against the uninspiring Grey Gargoyle. (Only one shade to this fella, and it's a drab one.) However, it does start with some soul-searching on Cap's part, inspired by an intriguing offer from... Continue Reading →
In this issue, Captain America finally gets away from Nick Fury, Sharon Carter, and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D., hopping a motorcycle (as he is wont to do from time to time), not so much to find America... as to find himself. (If you didn't "aww" at that, I'm not doing my job.) But before we... Continue Reading →
Don't let the cover, featuring Spider-Man's foe the Scorpion, fool you—the first five pages of this issue are dense with existential introspection and political musings that could keep us busy for days (and which I quoted quite a bit in my book). And later, we see a good old-fashioned fight with an injured Cap... and... Continue Reading →
This issue continues the storyline begun in issues #115-116, in which the Red Skull uses the Cosmic Cube to switch appearances with Captain America, ruining Cap's sterling good name and leaving the real Cap to face his friends and foes in the guise of his worst enemy. At the end of the last issue, the... Continue Reading →
As you undoubtedly remember from the last post, the Red Skull interrupted Captain America's melancholy over his identity and purpose in the world to remind him what was really important: his arch enemy holding the Cosmic Cube! (Again.) This begins a five-issue storyline that will test Cap's resolve and sanity, and also introduce a major... Continue Reading →
In the aftermath of Captain America's faked death and his subsequent return—sans his Steve Rogers identity—in the last issue, the Sentinel of Liberty finds adjusting to life somewhat difficult. And that's only until things get really wild on the final page! As the issue opens, Steve "Don't Call Me Steve Rogers" Rogers is wandering the... Continue Reading →
This two-part story shows Captain America trying to solve his existential crisis of purpose and identity in an extreme way—and also proposing to Sharon Carter before learning her real name. Issue #95 opens with Cap busting two thugs named Turk (not Daredevil's Turk) and Whitey (not One Tree Hill's Whitey) looking for their boss with... Continue Reading →
This story finds Captain America going against AIM, finally reconnecting with Sharon Carter while constantly patronizing her, and meeting MODOK for the first time. Issue #92 opens as all great comics epics do… at the airport, where our hero bemoans his mess of a life. Isn’t that little girl creepy? Who’s she waving at? STOP... Continue Reading →
I’m taking these four issues together because they all deal with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ... kind of. Notably, the first three issues introduce a new reason of Cap to despair his past—the loss of a woman he knew and loved during World War II, whom we now know to be Peggy Carter—and a new reason... Continue Reading →
This issue sees the Avengers fight Doctor Doom for the first time, which should have been epic, but ol' Vic was not then the majestic villain we now know him to be. Furthermore, little of the material of interest to us here has to do with Doom, one of the few comics villains I find... Continue Reading →
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 