Comics Q&A: Captain America and the Struggle of the Superhero
Kyle Roberts and Matt Price talk to Robert Weiner in this week’s Comics Q&A, about the book “Captain America and the Struggle of the Superhero,” and the appeal of the Captain America character through the ages.
It’s Captain America week at Marvel.com
Marvel.com has announced it is “Captain America Week” at the web site, and art debuts and creator interviews are scheduled.
Executive Editor Tom Brevoort and writer Ed Brubaker go in depth about what’s next for the Sentinel of Liberty at http://marvel.com/news/comicstories.7688
Noted in the story is that classic Marvel artist Gene Colan joins Brubaker for issue #601 of “Captain America.” That’s certainly good news for longtime Cap fans!
- Matt Price
Comics vodcast: Captain America 49, Amazing Spider-Man 591, Rampaging Wolverine 1, Uncanny X-Men 508
Kyle Roberts and Matt Price discuss Captain America 49, Amazing Spider-Man 591, Rampaging Wolverine 1 and Uncanny X-Men 508. Meanwhile, Kyle’s claws come out.
Comics vodcast: Final Crisis 7, Captain America 46, Batman: The Brave and Bold 1 and New Avengers 49
Kyle Roberts and Matt Price discuss the final issue of “Final Crisis” and a new comic based on the animated “Brave and Bold” cartoon. The New Avengers get involved with Dark Reign in “New Avengers” 49, as Cage seeks his child. And Captain America teams up with Namor in “Captain America” 46.
Ed Brubaker talks Captain America and Daredevil
Writer Ed Brubaker talks about how Bucky has been accepted as the new Captain America, and the Lady Bullseye arc in Daredevil. There’s also a tease for the next “Daredevil” story arc at the end of the video.
“Chronicles of Narnia” writers tapped for “Cap”
According to Variety, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have been hired by Marvel Entertainment to write the screenplay for the upcoming “Captain America” film. The pair wrote the screenplays to both “Chronicles of Narnia” movies.
– Matt Price
“Captain America” gets director
According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Joe Johnston has signed a deal to direct “The First Avenger: Captain America” set for a 2011 release.
Johnston previously directed “The Rocketeer” and “Jurassic Park III,” and was the art director – visual effects on “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
“Captain America” is planned to be a World War II-era film, with the character also appearing in “The Avengers,” planned to be a modern-era piece. In the comics, Captain America was frozen in a block of ice near the end of World War II before being revived by the Avengers many years later.
– Matt Price
My favorite election-themed comic book
Admittedly, I’m not sure how many election-themed comics there are, but I’m going with “Captain America” #250, by Roger Stern and John Byrne, as my favorite, in which a third party attempts to draft Captain America as a presidential candidate.
Marvel has the issue online here. (You might have to be a member.) It’s also available in the “War and Remembrance” trade paperback, which collects the Stern-Byrne run.
– Matt Price
“Captain America: The Chosen” spurs patriotic response
From the July 4 edition of The Oklahoman:
By Matthew Price
Assistant Features Editor
As the United States celebrates its independence, Marvel Comics has released a collection of a popular “Captain America” story.
When Captain America was killed in Marvel’s line of comic books in 2007, the character received more publicity than ever. “Captain America: The Chosen” is a miniseries written by The New York Times best-selling author and Rambo creator David Morrell, with art by Mitch Breitweiser. It sold out its first issue nationwide. “Chosen” now is available in a hardcover collection from Marvel.
“Captain America: The Chosen” is part of Marvel’s “Marvel Knights” line. The line explores alternate and more sophisticated versions of the characters, as in recent miniseries “Spider-Man: Reign” and “Silver Surfer: Requiem.” In “Chosen,” an aged Captain America is dying, but Cpl. James Newman, deployed to Afghanistan, thinks he sees the captain alive and well, and helping Newman escape from scrapes.
Breitweiser, from Arkansas, told The Oklahoman in a phone interview that the death of Captain America probably helped the sales of “Chosen,” but that he had no advance knowledge of the plan.
“Marvel’s more secret than the CIA,” Breitweiser said. “I didn’t know about the death of Cap that day, when it happened. I called (Marvel’s) office, and they didn’t expect the amount of media coverage they were going to get from that.”
Breitweiser said the commotion about Captain America’s death inspired him to improve his art even further.
“Cap meant a lot to a lot of people, even those that weren’t reading comics, as an American icon, and I think that hit a chord with the public consciousness,” Breitweiser said. “I was still finishing the book up at the time, and that inspired me even more to just knock it out of the park.”
Morrell talked about the series on his Web site, www.davidmorrell.net, at the time of the first issue’s release:
“Throughout the story, these words function as a constant refrain: ‘Courage, honor, loyalty, sacrifice.’ Those are the military virtues, and in my opinion, the world would be a better place if all civilians practiced them.”
Retro review: Captain America 194
Captain America (and the Falcon) #194 is the second part of the “Madbomb!” story, which marked Jack Kirby’s return to the character he co-created.
The 18-page story is called “The Trojan Horde,” and Kirby packs in quite a bit of action into the 18 pages.
This February 1976 issue marks the first appearance of “Captain Steven Rogers,” the modern Captain America’s ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War against the Brits. Falcon reacts somewhat negatively to Captain America’s praise of his ancestor, saying, he probably owned slaves. Steve says there’s no record of that, but Falcon seems like he doesn’t totally buy that.
In this issue, it’s revealed that Rogers killed Sir William Taurey in the Revolutionary War — his descendant has now sworn to kill the descendant of Rogers, who Taurey has found out was a weakling who was 4-F in World War II. (The story being in 1976, even without Cap’s ice-capades, he’d only have been roughly 56 years old, as opposed to the 86 he would be now.)
Coinicidentally, Taurey also seems to be behind the A-plot — his group of elitists want to overthrow American society using the Madbomb. One Madbomb has already been set off, driving a city crazy. Cap and Falcon must track down the rest, including the “Big Daddy” which threatens society as we know it.
Cap and Falc open the issue being innundated by Madbomb waves from SHIELD, to increase their tolerance for the rays.
The plan is for Cap and Falcon to get captured, in civilian clothes by the bad Madbombers and figure out what’s going on.
Cap finds out that captured SHIELD agents are getting turned into mad, raging powerhouses, and decides they can’t wait any longer — he and the Falcon must spring into action!
There’s so much happening in this issue, that even though it’s wacky and a little hard to believe, the amount of ideas and energy crackling from the page make it great fun for Cap and Kirby fans.
The whole “Madbomb” storyline is available in trade paperback format.
– Matt Price
