Earlier in the week, I had been discussing Cap with a Facebook friend who found the jingoism and morality simple-minded and even a little offensive. Of course, I was brought up on the "Man Out of Time" version: the guilty, grief-stricken survivor who hunted down Baron Zemo and forged the Kooky Quartet into a team. Like Monroe, Cap is an icon of Americana but also, a symbol of idealism. Britain has a radically different, more ironic, psychological make-up as a culture; perhaps that's why our Captain Britain was always most successfully portrayed as a bit of a buffoon. But we've looked to the States for over a century to paint our dream lives with sex and colour.
Cap is a Marvel character whom I grew to like better as I grew older. Take a quick tour through the issues that I read from the spinner rack in the Silver and Bronze Ages:
The "album issue" shows the paucity of Cap's enemies in the Sixties. Aside from the Red Skull and his Exiles (Baldini with his deadly, er, scarf pictured) we've got the Swordsman and the Living Laser, two C-listers from the Avengers and the Trapster from FF. The earliest villain I remember was a loser in pink called the Tumbler; I remain inordinately fond of him. I never warmed to the Falcon until he got his red and white colours- the wings were a mistake, though: Angel and Nighthawk already had that gimmick.
My next copy was from the sexy 70s: here, this rather generic hippy villain is a drug mule who got powers from a bad case of sunstroke and eating peyote. Heavy. However, this really does feel like Marvel's answer to the Green Lantern and Green Arrow team.
I bought up several of the back issues of the Secret Empire/Nomad sequence in the early 80s. The audacity of Englehart's plotting is worth recollecting. Steve Rogers had abandoned Captain America before but here the scripter had a thinly-veiled Richard Nixon commit suicide in the White House!
But, flashing back to the 70s, I had continued to pick up the odd issue when Kirby returned to Marvel, starting with the Night People of Zero Street. The first of two annuals placed Cap in a sci-fi horror story that seemed more in keeping with the King's 2001 series. The second was a bizarre clash with Magneto. I first encountered the grotesque and almost comic Arnim Zola in the issue below in '77.
What was with all those yellow covers ? Some years ago, I finally got round to buying Captain America's Bicentennial Battles on ebay: a wild Kirby trip through Space and Time. I certainly didn't respond to its patriotic charms as a kid, even though it went on sale here.
I was quite keen on the Byrne version of Cap at the end of the decade; it was a pretty straight-forward superhero strip. Here, the colouring evokes Solomon Grundy but it's really Thor and Daredevil C-Lister Mr. Hyde.
It's interesting that the conspiracy elements from Englehart's day have been ramped up for the modern era but it's the Mark Millar super-soldier from the Ultimates that the movie seems to be presenting.
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed The First Avenger, even if the discrepancy about Bucky's age bothered me- and his (apparent) death didn't match the canon. The villains were despicable and sinister, Peggy Carter was sassy and brave; and Chris Evans, eminently punchable as Johnny Storm, portrayed an innocent nobility as Steve Rogers. The Howlers were an added bonus (even Jim Morita was there!) as was Howard (Hughes) Stark and the glimpse of Prof. Horton's Torch. Sadly, no Namor.
With X-Men First Class and especially Thor, Marvel movies are hugely entertaining and respectful of the source material. I was particularly receptive to this film because I've also just finished Invaders Classic Volumes II and III.
This was one of my favourite series in high school. Aside, of course, from Continuity King Roy Thomas, bringing in Marvel's Dracula and Frankenstein, Atlantis, the Wagnerian gods, and a bevy of Kirby Kovers, there was the unique, frenetic style of Frank Robbins. An acquired taste, I didn't like him on Detective Comics or later on Morbius. But something about the stylised anatomy and of course, the hugely detailed aircraft, made it enormously appropriate for an atmospheric period piece. I was also wild about these new Golden Age British heroes - Spitfire and the Mighty Destroyer (later, the second Union Jack).
Unfortunately, Robbins left after a lengthy serial that pitted a modernised version of the Young Allies (here, the "Kid Commandos") against Agent Axis ( the Boy Commandos' old foe- how did that work, anyway? Oh, I've just pictured an All-Star Squadron/ Invaders crossover!).
Thor showed up next in a two-parter with a young Victor Von Doom (which meant that, in 1978, Reed and Ben were probably in their early 50s!) and UJ gained rather arbitary electrical powers. (I didn't like it any better when Amazing Man obtained magnetic powers in the late 80s!)
The Invaders limped on without Robbins until cancellation in the autumn of 1979, by which time the team resembled the Golden Age All-Winners Squad (or indeed the line-up predicted in What If #4) However, that first couple of years was a moody, nostalgic ride; there was something unpredictable and ballsy- downright explosive about the Invaders, compared to the swanky, clubby Justice Society.
Dammit, thinking about Frank Robbins made me want to write about the Human Fly!
Next: Beyond The Ultimate Adventure!!!
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