This issue is a big deal for several reasons. In general, it launches the short run (nine issues) by Roger Stern and John Byrne, which not only remains one of the premiere runs on Captain America to this day, but also leads to a tremendously rich extended period on the book featuring writers such as... Continue Reading →
These three issues of Avengers are great action-packed superhero comics, but not ones with a lot of ethically interesting Captain America content, except for demonstrating his strong leadership. (These issues are perhaps better known for setting up the extremely controversial issue #200, as we'll see near the end of the post.) As an added bonus,... Continue Reading →
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 →
As you can guess from the cover, this issue elaborates on the backstory of Steve Rogers's neighbor Anna Kapplebaum, who survived the Holocaust (with the help of a young Captain America, as recounted in issue #237). However, much of what we'll cover in this post deals with Cap's interactions with his community, as drawn by... Continue Reading →
These six issues—only one of which even has Cap on the cover—have very little ethically interesting Captain America content, but they do include the Falcon leaving the Avengers, the new Ant-Man meeting the team for the first time, the introduction of the Taskmaster, a badly beaten Man without Fear, and Cap confronting a new and... Continue Reading →
These three issues are three separate stories, the first of which is most interesting from our point of view, but all with something to offer fans of this blog. As with most of the recent issues, the relevant underlying story threads are Cap's leadership of the team (in Iron Man's absence, as explained in the... 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 →
Most of the "action"—as far as this blog is concerned, that is—in this post comes in the first issue, when government liaison/busybody Henry Gyrich imposes conditions on the Avengers for official privileges, the most controversial of them regarding membership, with one requirement that the Falcon is distinctly uncomfortable with. Actually, it is Sam's issue with... Continue Reading →
This issue begins a six-issue storyline that includes a change in Sharon Carter's status quo, a reunion of the Winghead-Hornhead team, the return of a forgotten character, and most important—as can be seen clearly on the cover—very disturbing words and images of race hatred, always a poignant topic in Captain America stories and one that... Continue Reading →
In this issue, we finally learn the secrets of what is supposed to have been Steve Rogers's life before he underwent Project Rebirth, which we later learn are false details, explained away in issue #247 and replaced in issue #255 by the now-familiar ones. This issue starts with the aftermath from the last, a horrific... Continue Reading →
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 