CAPTAIN AMERICA #183
March, 1975
CAP #183 is a great comic book, the concluding chapter in Steve Englehart’s Nomad saga. But when it was first published, it was one of a couple of comics that completely put me off Marvel as a company. (THOR #233 and MARVEL TEAM-UP #16 were two others…)
As a new, young reader coming in, I was totally confused. In the course of the story, Captain America is killed and crucified, and then this Nomad guy becomes Cap. I didn’t have the background with the character to understand that Roscoe, the guy in the Cap costume who’s killed by the Red Skull, was only a substitute. The book utterly baffled me.
On top of that, the artwork by Frank Robbins and Frank Giacoia was scratchy and harsh, so unlike the clean, friendly style I was used to in the Schwartz-edited DC books. And worst of all, the story was continued next issue (which was a major concern at a time when I could never be assured of getting the following issue.)
For years thereafter, I actively denounced Marvel Comics as being lousy.
But it really is a very good comic book…
