Category: Captain America

Best of Marvel: Week of July 3rd, 2019

Best of this Week: Captain America and the Invaders  – Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Jay David Ramos and Joe Caramagna

What better way to celebrate American Freedom than by having Captain America inspire us to keep the country safe from Facist, Authoritarian rule of the dirty Nazis?

Reuniting two of the co-creators of DCs All-Star Squadron, Captain America and the Invaders tells a one-shot story of an adventure in the Bahamas Triangle a short time before the team actually assembles. With fantastic art by Ordway and perfectly campy writing, this book captures the feel of both the 1940s books and the stellar 80s works that these two are famous for.

Beginning with Captain America, Steve Rogers, bursting through and interrupting a meeting of home grown Nazi-sympathizers, the book manages to set the stage for what the action and dialogue will be like for the entire issue. Captain America is certain of his every action, punching and jumping over obstacles to take down the bastards and when one tries to escape, Steve sets upon him with fervor as the FBI emerges to arrest the Nazis. Once they’re taken down, Cap gets his next assignment, Protection Detail for President Roosevelt as he meets the Duke of Windsor as he governs the Bahamas..

We get the background that the Duke stepped down as King at the request of Winston Churchill for getting too cosy with the Nazis after being guests in Germany. President Roosevelt hopes to sway them to America’s side by offering them protection from Nazis. Ordway makes sure that everything looks absolutely of the time. Cars and some structures look exactly like they did in the 40s, however, the US Navy Sailor uniforms he and another sailor by the name of Jim Hammond wear for the undercover assignment, are not. Captain America himself looks very good in his original costume. 

After a nasty storm, the President’s ship arrives on the island and not long after, he, The Duke and his wife are met by Baron Heinrich Zemo, the father of Helmut Zemo. Zemo takes everyone hostage as his men kill all of the Sailors protecting the President aside from one draped in the American flag and another who can become living fire. The Human Torch looks absolutely awesome “flaming on” to contrast the cloudy night sky. His flames are seen from the house and he proceeds to fly into the air and burn several Nazis alive. I’ve always loved the old look of a mostly naked Torch with bright oranges and yellows for the flame and his body with hatch lines for details.

As Zemo prepares to kill Roosevelt, the lights in the house turn off and a mysterious agent proceeds to knock out Zemos men while the Baron runs away. The rain picks up and Hammond’s flame goes out as other Nazis escape into a U-Boat. Rogers catches up to Zemo who uses a Death Ray of some sort to fight the American and is goaded into fighting in an enclosed space during the chase. Cap gets one good punch in, sending the Death Ray out of Zemos hands, causing the roof to fall on Caps head as Zemo makes his escape.

Cutting back to the escaping U-Boat, the Nazis think they’ve made the escape from America’s living flamethrower as their ship is torn through by an unknown assailant, Namor showing up to make sure that they didn’t get away. Cap and Hammond get back into their uniforms and make up stories about what happened to them during the night as they rejoin the protection detail with their flimsy excuses before musing to each other about meeting up again in the future.

This book was a fun little romp in a simpler time and definitely had less seriousness than the current Invaders series, but did have the heart given that Thomas co-created the team way back in 1969. It felt like he was slipping back into his old baseball glove and found that it still fit. Ordway’s art was well complimented by Ramos’ colors and looks amazing. I know he’d done some cover work recently, but his panel to panel art was certainly fantastic, like he hadn’t missed a step at all.

Flying the flag high and on Independence Eve ensures that this book is a must-read!

Best of Marvel: Week of May 22nd, 2019

Best of this Week: War of the Realms – Land of Giants #1 – Tom Taylor, Jorge Molina, Adriano di Benedetto, David Curiel and Joe Sabino

Leave it to Tom Taylor and Spider-Man to make me almost tear up about horses.

An upside and downside to these one-shot team up books is that they put on very unexpected teams together. The Darkforce Avengers are okay, but the War Avengers are just awful. The team sent out to rescue Thor, consisting of Captain America, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, however, are perfect. These guys know each other and play off of each other very well, making them an impressively cohesive unit.

Spider-Man sits at the heart of this team, acting as the narrator and the only one that chooses not to kill the Frost Giants. Everyone else does of course, and this even affects their weapon choices later in the book. Cap takes Thor’s axe, Iron Fist takes twin swords, Luke takes a hammer, Wolverine is his weapon and Spider-Man takes a shield and Wolverine gives him a helmet.

Each man mounts a flying horse and with Daredevil’s help, enter Jotunheim, the land of the Frost Giants. Immediately they’re attacked by archers who kill every horse aside from Spider-Man’s, who he has affectionately named Buttercup and protects with fury. After the fight, Spider-Man finds that the helmet allows him to communicate with Buttercup, revealing herself to be named Queen Arctorious, leader of the horses. She sends the group away to find Thor and says a prayer for her fallen comrades.

What Tom Taylor does especially well is weaving these somber moments into this action packed and sometimes jokey story. Spider-Man is written like a goof here, but when he needs to be serious, he’s treated as the most honorable and bravest of the team. The others are also written well enough with Luke and Danny being their monk and hard selves, Logan being the morbidly hilarious one and Cap taking the lead as always.

Coming upon Thor in a Berserker Rage, all of the team, sans Spider-Man, remark of times when they’ve gone into similar states of blind fury. They then help Thor tear through the armies of Frost Giants. Throughout the book, Jorge Molina struts his stuff as an artist alongside Curiel and Benedetto. While hits and falls don’t feel like they have the serious weight that they should, everything is beautiful to look at. Colors are bright and stand out greatly against the mostly white backgrounds and of course every hero is distinct by body type and fighting style. Even the art depicting the deaths of the horses is amazing.

The very end of the book is extremely heartbreaking and really makes this particular one-shot worth reading. While War of the Realms is very expansive and has to give a little bit of focus to everything going on at once, it is nice to have these stories being smaller scale. High recommend!