In addition to ramping up the Serpent Society storyline that has been slithering behind the scenes of Captain America since Mark Gruenwald took over as writer with issue #307, this issue also features a new development in the artistic career of Steve Rogers, which will comprise most of the coverage in this post (and the... 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 →
This issue is more of a story about the Cosmic Cube (or Cubes, as it were) than it is about Captain America, but there is still a little character work about Cap to discuss here. (I will skip a lot of background about the Cube Cosmic, though, so I recommend picking up the issue in... Continue Reading →
This issue of Captain America concludes the storyline with Baron Zemo that started in issue #276, although it leaves one thread to be resolved in the next issue (as we'll see on the final page of the main story). It also wraps up the back-up storyline dealing with Sam Wilson's struggles with his past persona... Continue Reading →
This issue marks the end of the run by Roger Stern and John Byrne and celebrates the 40th anniversary of Captain America by presenting the canonical version of his origin, reconciling previous versions (especially from Captain America Comics #1, Tales of Suspense #63, and Captain America #109) together with the history of young Steve Rogers... Continue Reading →
The two-part story beginning in this issue reintroduces some old friends and one villain from Captain America's past (and a beloved series covered in its entirety at this very blog)... After opening on the discovery of a murder north of London, England, and a glimpse of the issue's special guests, the focus turns to our... Continue Reading →
These two issues of Avengers continue the storyline about Wanda and Pietro's past, while our interest is mainly in Captain America's leadership of the Avengers in Iron Man's absence—about which more in the Iron Man issue that precedes them—as well as continued tensions with government liaison Henry Gyrich. Although the Cap content in the two... Continue Reading →
No, you didn't stumble onto my The Tao of Iron Fist site. (Not yet, at least.) Much more than your average guest appearance, this issue near the end of Iron Fist's first 15-issue series (following nearly a year's run in Marvel Premiere, all collected here) is more like an issue of Marvel Team-Up or Marvel... Continue Reading →
This issue introduces a dastardly duo that will reappear in a much more important storyline later, setting up yet another villain... I really like to see how writers adapt and build off the works of their predecessors. Plus, Cap gets back to giving martial arts lessons, gives us a couple classic panels—and takes a crack... Continue Reading →
Captain America’s second issue back from the frozen deep is fairly light on explicit demonstrations or descriptions of his virtues, but nonetheless there are interesting (or at least funny) things to note. And as a bonus, the Avengers appeared in the same month’s Fantastic Four #26, so I will describe them together. (Twice the value... Continue Reading →
