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daydreamerdrew · 7 months

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Comics read this past week:

Marvel Comics:

Young Avengers Presents (2008) #1 and Captain America Comics 70th Anniversary Special (2009) #1

The Young Avengers Presents issue was published in January 2008, according to the Marvel Wiki, and was written by Ed Brubaker, penciled by Paco Medina, and inked by Juan Vlasco. It was about Elijah Bradley, who is the Young Avenger Patriot, and Bucky. I don’t have much experience with Elijah but I liked what I saw of him here. I thought the opening of the issue where he says, “Sometimes it’s really hard not to hate this country. Hell, sometimes it’s really hard not to just hate everyone in the whole world, actually,” was compelling. And I think his dynamic with Bucky is conceptually interesting. Unfortunately, the writing of their conversation at the end of this issue fell flat for me.

The Anniversary Special was published in April 2009, according to the Marvel Wiki, and was written by James Robinson and drawn by Marcos Martín. It told the story of how Steve Rogers was chosen to receive the super-soldier serum, framed through Bucky reminiscing on his knowledge of the event before a mission during WWII. It turns out that right after Steve was marked 4F and rejected by the army, he stumbled into a plot to steal the formula for the serum and saved it for the United States. I didn’t find this explanation of how Steve was chosen or how he was characterized during that part of the story to be interesting. Bucky’s ultimate conclusion, that “the thing that makes Captain America great… is Steve Rogers,” has potential, but I’m not actually convinced just yet from what else I’ve read that that’s how Bucky views Steve.

Captain America (1968) #600-601 and Captain America: Reborn (2009) prologue and #1-6

These issues were published across June 2009 to January 2010, according to the Marvel Wiki. Captain America #600 was an anthology book with 64 pages of original comic stories from a variety of creators, some of which was used to set up the events of Captain America: Reborn. All of Captain America: Reborn was written by Ed Brubaker, penciled by Bryan Hitch, and inked by Butch Guice. And Captain America #601 was written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Gene Colan.

Of the most interest to me in Captain America #600 was a 2-page story written by Alex Ross and Paul Dini and painted by Alex Ross. It was an explanation of who Steve is that was written from his perspective. Of taking the super-soldier serum, he describes, “As my body radically grew and changed, the simple man that was Steve Rogers died. In his place was born a new being, less a man than an ideal. An inspirational symbol of the glory that is America. With the invasion into occupied Europe, I became the living extension of every American’s outrage at the tyranny of the Third Reich.” Generally speaking, I enjoy stories about characters dehumanizing themselves to fulfill a role.

Captain America: Reborn told the story of Steve Rogers being brought back to life after he’d been killed off back in Captain America (2005) #25, which was published in March 2007. It’s explained that Steve has been lost in time, but also that he’s linked to Sharon Carter and she’s the key the bringing him back, which the Red Skull had previously been trying to do in order to take Steve’s body for his own. Sharon’s confusion over what exactly she did when she broke free from the Red Skull’s machine in Captain America (2005) #42 parallels her confusion over killing Steve in Captain America (2005) #25. Her thought process at the time had been, “What… What is this…? What am I seeing? Something alive? What is… is it growing…? Is that my… is that…?” It was the brief belief that she was seeing her baby that gave her the strength to break free, which was really interesting to me because at the time she had been hypnotized into forgetting she was ever pregnant, and she wouldn’t realize that she’d been pregnant and had a miscarriage until months later when she finally noticed the scar from the stab wound on her stomach.

Steve describes the experience of being lost in time in issue #2 as, “Mostly it’s like I’m a passenger in my own body… Or an extra consciousness in my own mind… Like I’m watching myself go through the motions exactly as I did before…” He’s afraid to try to change anything for fear of the unknown repercussions to the future. We see him re-experience things like D-Day, his mother’s death, and receiving the super-soldier serum and then subsequently failing to stop Dr. Erskine’s death. In issue #3, while Steve was reliving being frozen in the ice, he thinks, “Two hours ago I watched a president betray his country and gave up my shield to become Nomad. Why do I say two hours? Time has no meaning now… Now? Now…? Yesterday- today, someday- I met Sam Wilson on an island out at sea… But I wasn’t me then… Then…? Was…? I’m losing my mind… This has to stop… Trapped in the ice again… How many times have I been here before? So helpless… If only my eyes had been frozen shut all those years…” He manages to send a message to his friends about his situation by briefly taking control in the middle of the Kree-Skull War and explaining it to Vision and then telling him to forget it and bury the the memory deep in his storage until it’s needed. I really enjoyed this because complicated fantastical experiences of time or identity really appeal to me. The best part of this was in issue #4 when Steve relives the day that he got frozen and Bucky ‘died.’ He starts of the scene thinking, “Oh, god… Not this one… Not this moment. I can’t do this again. I’ve relived this day so many times… in my mind… in my nightmares… over and over again… This is the worst day of my life.” Then he decides to forgo not risking unknown repercussions to the future and ends the scene desperate to stay in that moment: “I can’t do it again. I can’t let it all happen again… I have to save him. Maybe I’m crazy… I don’t care… But I just can’t- No- Not again! Don’t take me now!” But the moment had actually been playing out exactly as it had before.

In issue #6, while Steve is fighting the Red Skull for control of his body, Steve says, “You think you can kill me, Skull?! Then let’s do it! […] Cause if I die, you’re going with me!” His ultimate declaration is, “After everything I’ve been through… I don’t care anymore! […] I’m done playing your games, Skull! So, come on- let’s die together!” Also, in issue #5 Steve attempted to encourage Bucky to shoot when Bucky was hesitating to kill the Red Skull because he was in Steve’s body. Later, once Steve is safely in control of his body and the Red Skull has finally been killed, Sharon Carter tells him, “I knew you’d come back… I knew it…” Steve responds, “How could I not? There’s so much left to do…” I really like this characterization of Steve as hiding his less palatable feelings from his friends. My expectation is that Steve having been ready to die isn’t going to be prominent later on, but it did make me think of how Bucky said in Captain America (2005) #50, “It’s funny… In some ways, Steve accidentally cursed me when he told the cosmic cube to give me my memories back. He brought me back to the world, but… it’s been hard to accept that I belong here. Sometimes I forget he was trying to save me.”

Captain America (2005) made me interested in Sharon Carter in a way I hadn’t expected. I think it makes sense that her feelings since breaking free from Dr. Faustus’ control have been dominated by the horror of having killed Steve, but now that he’s back I’m hoping that other complicated parts of that situation will be delved into more, like that Dr. Faustus had been manipulating her into falling more deeply in love with Steve and that it was under those circumstances that she became pregnant in the first place. Sharon emphasized, as she was struggling with subtle manipulation from Dr. Faustus in Captain America (2005) #22, that, “I live in the military. I live by orders, Doctor… And any good soldier knows that orders come before friendship,” and, “I’m not the kind of person to choose love over duty.” I’d like to see that part of her character become relevant again.

Captain America #601 was a recounting of a time Steve and Bucky fought vampires during WWII, through the format of Bucky telling the story to Nick Fury in the modern day. Of particular emotional significance to Bucky was that the final vampire they had to kill was a little girl. This came after the killing of multiple other vampires made from adults, soldiers and one U.S.O. girl, which, while difficult, was seen as straightforwardly necessary. Bucky describes this as, “So like I said, I’m no stranger to friendly fire… an’ there aren’t many things uglier… killin’ a little girl- even if she was a vampire- being one of them.” Then the final panel of the story, as Bucky was leaving, depicted him not as he looks in the modern day but as the teenager he was during the war.

Captain America: White (2008) prologue and #1-5

This series was written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Tim Sale. The prologue was published in July 2008 but then the issues of the main series were published across September 2015 to December 2015, according to the Marvel Wiki.

I’ll admit I was a little thrown at first because this book didn’t take inspiration from how Bucky and Steve were portrayed in the WWII flashbacks in Captain America (2005), which is the version of the characters that I was familiar with and already attached to. For example, in Captain America (2005) that Bucky became Captain America’s sidekick after discovering his secret identity by walking in on Steve changing into his costume was reimagined as an invented propaganda story, and Bucky was actually specially trained and his partnership with Steve was arranged. Whereas in Captain America: White that original Golden Age origin story is maintained. But I liked what this book did with Bucky and Steve’s dynamic. In the depiction of that origin story in the prologue, before the discovery happens, Bucky complains to Steve, “What am I gonna do when everybody else ships out?” In issue #3, as Steve is reminiscing on that event, he compares Bucky’s position of being too young to fight to his own experience being deemed unfit to serve. Steve thinks that the look on Bucky’s face when he discovered Captain America’s secret identity was one of “opportunity” and that it provided “a chance to stand up when all your life you were told to sit down.” I also found the portrayal of Steve mourning Bucky to be really effective. The narration of the book is largely addressed to Bucky. In issue #1 Steve says, “If there’s a chance you made it out too… or somehow… up there… you can hear me… I just want to talk.” In issue #4 Steve asks, “With you gone… without you to back me up… what has my life become?”

the Captain America stories in Tales of Suspense (1959) #64-67

With this batch of Captain America stories I went from January 1965 to April 1965, according to the Marvel Wiki. All were written by Stan Lee and penciled by Jack Kirby. The stories in issue #64 and #67 were inked by Frank Giacoia and the stories in issue #65-66 were inked by Chic Stone. All of the stories were 10 pages.

The stories in issues #64-65 were both retellings of stories from Captain America Comics #1 and the stories in issues #66-67 were both original stories set during WWII. The most significant was the story in issue #66 because it was the reveal of the Red Skull’s backstory, through the format of him telling it to Captain America. Steve was unsympathetic, interrupting to say, “Lots of people had tough lives! My early years were no bed of roses, either! But I don’t waste time telling sob stories!”

There was also a line in issue #64 which stood out to me, in which Steve says, “I’ve heard that even Hitler fears you! Even he can no longer control you- for you’ve grown too powerful! But I’m not Hitler! I’m an American- and my breed just doesn’t scare easily!” Last week’s batch including a retelling of Steve’s origin story of becoming Captain America, which got me thinking that it would actually have been pretty bad if things had gone according to plan and Steve was only the first of an enhanced army of super-soldiers. Because it seems that in the modern day the super-soldier serum is a big deal and that the people who’ve been enhanced by it are particularly formidable, and I can’t imagine that if there were many super-soldier serum-enhanced men that came home from the war and then started having super-soldier serum-enhanced children, that that would not have serious repercussions. Not to mention how the Red Skull apparently became fixated on taking Steve’s enhanced body for his own. But even this emphasis on Steve’s natural superiority due to being an American is iffy.

Timely Publications:

the Captain America stories in Captain America Comics (1941) #6 and All-Winners Comics (1941) #1

With these issues I read 4 Captain America stories. The All-Winners Comics issue was published in Summer 1941 and the Captain America Comics issue was published in September 1941, according to the issue cover dates. These stories ranged from 9 to 16 pages.

Fawcett Comics:

the Captain Marvel stories in Whiz Comics (1940) #80 and Captain Marvel Adventures (1941) #67 and The Marvel Family (1945) #6

With this batch of 7 Captain Marvel stories I read the Captain Marvel appearances published in November 1946, according to the issue cover dates. These stories ranged from 7 to 11 pages.

#comics read this past week #my posts

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