This issue is the first of three that focus on the story of the Scourge of the Underworld, a mysterious individual who has been killing minor villains across various Marvel titles for the last few months, including Captain America #311, in what was actually an editorial "housecleaning" mechanism designed by editor and current Captain America... Continue Reading →
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 fun graphic novel fleshes out the history of the Living Pharaoh, also known as the Living Monolith, a minor X-Men villain, and also introduces Apocalypse, a major X-Men villain, albeit in an anonymous appearance in one panel (only to be identified later). This graphic novel features no X-Men, but rather the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man,... 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 two issues of Captain America launch Mark Gruenwald's decade of writing the book, much of which sits among the very best Cap stories, but it gets off to a slow start: The first issue deals mainly with Cap's crime-fighting partner Nomad, and the second had to tie in with Secret Wars II, the first... Continue Reading →
This is a wild story that brings together the four men who have served as Captain America at this point in time. It is a spiritual successor to Jack Kirby's magisterial Bicentennial Battles from 1976, in which the enigmatic Mister Buda sent Captain America on a time-traveling adventure; it also capitalizes on Roy Thomas's exercise... Continue Reading →
This issue is one of my favorite from J.M. DeMatteis's several years as the writer of the title, in which he address Captain America's understanding of and relationship with the American dream. This story represents another epiphany for Cap, similar to Stan Lee's later stories (such as issue #122) and the end of Steve Englehart's... Continue Reading →
This issue wraps up the three-part story begun in issue #261, which finds Captain America in Los Angeles to investigate a new Nomad, only to find himself battling a terrorist group called the Nihilist Order and his old foe the Ameridroid (who killed Nomad in the last issue), all under the control of a mysterious... Continue Reading →
This issue continues the story begun in the previous one, in which Captain America traveled to Los Angeles, ostensibly to participate in publicity for a movie made about him. His true purpose is to investigate a mysterious person operating under the name of Nomad, the identity he assumed in issues #180-183 after the Secret Empire... Continue Reading →
This issue leads off a three-issue storyline that welcomes back several old foes as well as one previous identity, as you can see on the cover, although it's a mystery who's under the mask. More exciting, at least for me, this issue introduces one of my favorite Captain America writers, J.M. DeMatteis, to the title.... Continue Reading →
