5BC: Five Times DC Referenced Marvel Characters in Interesting Ways

We've been talking a lot about the unofficial crossovers between characters and the homages that were done. But beyond that, there's a whole other category of instances in which one company either appropriated or parodied or referenced the characters of another. These instances tended to take many different forms--there was one memorable instance, for example, … Continue reading 5BC: Five Times DC Referenced Marvel Characters in Interesting Ways →

BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #221

I bought this issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA on my regular weekly trip to the 7-11 on New Comics Thursday, as I had the previous two issues. As we'll see, this was a bit of a patchwork issue, the result of pages not being completed in time for the prior one. Marvel was having shipping difficulties … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #221 →

BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #210

I had a kind of love-hate relationship with the work of Jack Kirby in the 1970s, in particular the work that he dialogued as well as illustrated. I wasn't a fan of it, there was something rough and harsh and uninviting about his characters and stories and the way is people talked. But at the … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #210 →

Blah Blah Blog – My Aunt, My Sister

A post from my now-defunct Marvel blog replying to a question concerning how we updated the relationship between Peggy and Sharon Carter to account for the passage of time. My Aunt, My Sister... April 28, 2007 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General Received a letter on CAPTAIN AMERICA #25 that I wanted … Continue reading Blah Blah Blog – My Aunt, My Sister →

BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #220

In 1978, CAPTAIN AMERICA was a series in a bit of trouble. After Jack Kirby's much-heralded return to the series a few years earlier ran its course, not quite capturing the classic Marvel flavor that was hoped for, a succession of different creators came on to helm the series, often on an almost ad hoc … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #220 →

BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #219

I bought this issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA from my regular 7-11, though I'm not sure exactly why. I wasn't at this point a regular reader of the title (though I would become one with this issue) and the one issue that I'd sampled previously ad been a reprint of a 1960s Human Torch story. But … Continue reading BHOC: CAPTAIN AMERICA #219 →

Making The Shield Into Captain America

Captain America was not the first patriotically-themed super hero to appear in comic books. That honor is reserved for The Shield, headliner of PEP COMICS for MLJ (eventually ARCHIE) who first appeared in the inaugural issue of that series, the creation of Harry Shorten and Irv Novick. Like most of the early super heroes, the … Continue reading Making The Shield Into Captain America →

The Last Bucky Story

As 1949 started, it seemed as though Timely's attempt to spark renewed interest in its super hero titles through the addition of new shapely female sidekicks for its heroes really hadn't gotten the desired effect. Sales hadn't increased--if anything, they continued to slide--and so at least in the case of Captain America, the decision was … Continue reading The Last Bucky Story →

The Death of Bucky!

By 1948, things were growing progressively more difficult for super heroes on the sales front. In te aftermath of World War II, other genres--crime, romance and horror chief among them--were increasingly popular, and the fad for super heroes had just about run its course. Over at Timely Comics, things were no different. As a bulwalk … Continue reading The Death of Bucky! →

Captain America Musters Out!

The postwar era provided challenges for many of the super-powered costumed crusaders who filled the pages of the nations comic books as, without a ready-made national enemy to fight, they were faced with a crisis of irrelevancy. And none encountered this existential ennui more directly than Captain America. Cap had been created to win the … Continue reading Captain America Musters Out! →