This post brings the long "Absolute Vision" storyline to its conclusion, as the synthezoid Avenger finally kicks his plan for world control into motion. (See the last post for a quick recap, because Captain America had not been in the book for a while before issue #251.) In issue #253, we see Cap still addressing... Continue Reading →
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 →
This post and the next together bring the "Absolute Vision" storyline to a finish. Quick recap: As we saw in issue #233, Vision was knocked unconscious, only to be revived later by Starfox and ISAAC, the computer that runs his home planet of Titan. ISAAC's corrupting influence, combined with a malfunctioning "control crystal" implanted by... Continue Reading →
In this post, we're looking at the entire 12-issue Secret Wars series, the first major line-wide crossover event in comics, which expanded significantly on the model of 1982's Contest of Champions and cast the mold for the subsequent annual crossover event comics at both Marvel and DC. (You can read more on the origin and... Continue Reading →
This issue picks up where the last one left off, following a violent confrontation between the neo-Nazi group holding a rally on Long Island and the Jewish Protection Organization who were protesting it, as well as Bernie Rosenthal realizing that Captain America is actually the man she loves, freelance artist Steve Rogers. We deal with... 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 of Captain America revisits a number of recent storylines as well as an important topic raised in issue #269, one that remains all too relevant in the real world of today. (Cap also had a short story in the anthology title Marvel Fanfare this month that makes a valuable point, but very simply,... Continue Reading →
This two-parter by regular fill-in writer David Anthony Kraft reunites Captain America with Nick Fury and his Howlin' Commandos from World War II to face a common enemy they assumed was dead—and in the end, they lose one of their own. Issue #273 opens with Cap meeting old friends and making new ones, all the... Continue Reading →
On the surface, this issue seems like an editorially-mandated lead-in to a series based on a toy line—which it most certainly is—but there is still plenty to talk about in terms of Captain America's ethics, thanks to masterful writing on the part of J.M. DeMatteis (complementing the beautiful line-work of Mike Zeck). We start our... Continue Reading →
This story in this issue of Captain America, which concludes in Defenders with an aftermath in the next issue, is one of two follow-ups to issue #264 (the other one being Avengers #218), all written by regular Captain America and Defenders scribe J.M. DeMatteis. In Captain America #268, after an introduction to the Defenders' part... Continue Reading →
