This two-part story shows Captain America trying to solve his existential crisis of purpose and identity in an extreme way—and also proposing to Sharon Carter before learning her real name. Issue #95 opens with Cap busting two thugs named Turk (not Daredevil's Turk) and Whitey (not One Tree Hill's Whitey) looking for their boss with... Continue Reading →
We wrap up the relevant issues of Avengers in the 40s, and the title's first annual, in this post, which closes with Cap once again leaving the team (although not for long). The annual sees the first gathering of the original and current Avengers teams (minus the Hulk, natch) to battle a group of their... Continue Reading →
This sequence of four issues from Nick Fury's "Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." series in Strange Tales (which he shared with a particularly strange doctor) featured Fury and Captain America as written and drawn by the legendary Jim Steranko, who would do the same for Cap's own title in early 1969 with issues #110, 111, and 113.... Continue Reading →
This story finds Captain America going against AIM, finally reconnecting with Sharon Carter while constantly patronizing her, and meeting MODOK for the first time. Issue #92 opens as all great comics epics do… at the airport, where our hero bemoans his mess of a life. Isn’t that little girl creepy? Who’s she waving at? STOP... Continue Reading →
These three issues of Avengers continue the fairly fallow period for Captain America, as he was in and out of the book to attend to his own life and events in Tales of Suspense and Captain America. Accordingly, this and the next two Avengers posts will be brief. (You were warned!) Issue #42 opens with...... Continue Reading →
In this four-part tale, we get the return of the Red Skull and a rare example of Captain America actually using the black-and-white ethical thinking he’s so often accused of—accusations against which I defend him in The Virtues of Captain America. (You’re making me look bad, Cap!) Plus, welcome artist supreme Gil Kane to the... Continue Reading →
These three issues contain self-contained Captain America stories that, while decent—issue #85 more than the other two—are frankly unremarkable from the viewpoint of ethics-based content, so I’ll move through them quickly. Issue #85 finds Cap looking for Sharon Carter and finding himself facing… This means, of course, an issue of fantastic Kirby fight choreography, and... Continue Reading →
With this run of seven issues of Avengers, issues #34 through 40, we reach a rather fallow period for Captain America as far as ethically interesting content is concerned—in fact, Cap does not appear in issue #39 and in only one panel in #40, warning his fellow Avengers about something that happened in his own... Continue Reading →
This story introduces the Adaptoid, a creation of A.I.M.—the organization that also brought us the Cosmic Cube and evil beekeeper suits—that takes Captain America’s form but finds out that stunning good looks are not enough to be the Sentinel of Liberty. (But they do help.) As many early stories both in Tales of Suspense and... Continue Reading →
These two issues are not heavy on ethical content related to Captain America specifically, but it is a particularly timely story... unfortunately. It deals with a white nationalist movement that, under the cartoonish guise of the Sons of the Serpent, rallies populist fervor and gains some mainstream respectability until the Avengers reveal them for the... Continue Reading →
THE VIRTUES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 