This amazing four-part miniseries—the first devoted solely to Captain America—is written by Fabian Nicieza and drawn by master of facial expressions Kevin Maguire, and elaborates significantly on Cap's earliest days, providing additional details and emotional weight to Steve Rogers' desire to serve his country, the Project Rebirth procedure and the training that preceded and followed... Continue Reading →
Avengers #326 (November 1990)
This issue is the first of three that, among other things, introduce a new character named Rage who will play an important part in the title going forward. Also, these issues prominently feature Iron Man, a founding Avenger if not a currently active one, who nonetheless receives the "guest-star" treatment, with prominent cover placement. (And... Continue Reading →
Avengers #317-318, Silver Surfer Annual #3, and Black Knight #1 (May-June 1990)
These two issues of Avengers finish up the five-part story begun in issue #314 that features new Avengers Sersi and Spider-Man... although only one of them makes it out of this story as a member of the team! Plus: The Silver Surfer updates Captain America about Thanos (after he paid him a visit in Silver... Continue Reading →
Avengers #305-307 (July-September 1989)
These three issues start with the assemblage of a new Avengers line-up (as well as a change in the status of the West Coast Avengers) before turning to a fight against the Lava Men (first seen here way back in Avengers #5). Issue #305 starts with Captain America welcoming almost all current and former members... Continue Reading →
Captain America #341 (May 1988)
This issue follows up on the "disagreement" between Iron Man and the Captain in Iron Man #228 over Tony's ongoing campaign to reclaim or disable all of his tech in other people's hands, including the U.S. government, and by whatever means necessary. This is just one of many examples of Tony's utilitarian approach to ethical... Continue Reading →
Captain America #340 (April 1988)
This issue follows directly from Iron Man #228, in which the Captain and Iron Man fought about Tony's attempts to get his tech back from the U.S. government—specifically, breaking into the Vault, a prison for superhuman convicts, to disable the Stark-designed armor of their Guardsmen. For all his claims to be a futurist, Tony either... Continue Reading →
Captain America #326 (February 1987)
This Halloween issue takes us out of the current storylines about Nomad, ULTIMATUM, and John Walker—for the most part—and instead returns us to Skullhouse, the setting of "the death of Red Skull" from issue #300, where Captain America will see some ghosts, revisit some memories, and engage in a lot of internal monologue. (A lot.)... Continue Reading →
Captain America #305-306 (May-June 1985)
These two issues contain the first significant meeting between Captains America and Britain, after some minor appearances together in Captain Britain's Marvel UK title and the licensed book Rom. It also finishes off Mike Carlin's short "interlude" run on Captain America, following J.M. DeMatteis's epic run and preceding Mark Gruenwald's decade on the book that... Continue Reading →
Captain America #302-304 and Uncanny X-Men #190-191 (February-April 1985)
These three issues of Captain America, written by Mike Carlin, are part of the short transition between the legendary runs of J.M. DeMatteis, which ended with issue #300, and Mark Gruenwald, which starts with issue #307 (and lasts, with the exception of one issue, to #443!). Although we won't see him much here, this story... Continue Reading →
Captain America #297 (September 1984)
In this issue, Baron Zemo takes over from Mother Superior in trying to break Captain America, as they and the Red Skull have been plotting since issue #290. As is suggested by the cover, he does this by forcing Cap to relive his greatest failure and loss at the hands of Baron Zemo the Elder... Continue Reading →