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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 11:35:34 GMT -5
In the next few months I plan on reviewing the classic run by Roger Stern & John Byrne. It was supposed to be 12 issues but based on interviews with Stern there was some editorial decisions made & the last 3 issues that he plotted never were drawn & completed. It was supposed to be a 3 part story featuring the Red Skull.
All issues were done by Stern & Byrne with Joe Rubenstein as inker. It featured:
#247-249: Machinesmith, Baron Strucker & Dragon Man. #250: Cap is asked to run for President in an independent third party. #251-252: Batroc & Mr Hyde. #253-254: Baron Blood & Union Jack. #255: 40th Anniversary Issue. Bucky. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 12:21:12 GMT -5
IMO this was Byrne at his prime - from #255 pencils  |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 26, 2016 12:29:38 GMT -5
I read this not that long ago... defnitely a great (too short) run.. two great creators at the height of their powers writing a great character.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 12:55:44 GMT -5
 By The Dawn's Early Light. Page one Cap jogging across the Brooklyn Bridge. He leaps onto a bus & leans over to pay the driver(Jackie Gleason from The Honeymooners!). He jumps off & continues his way across the rooftops. His thoughts are of blank spots he has in his memory. In #225 he had them "restored" by a Dr Harding but lately (in #245) Steve has had conflicting memories. He is going to see Nick Fury to help him make sense of his "jumbled memories". Nick is not at SHIELD but Dum Dum Dugan sets out to help Steve. At this time Steve's false memories have him thinking he was a son of a diplomat who had a brother named Mike who died at Pearl Harbor. But Steve's real memories are returning. Cut to Nick Fury confronting Baron Strucker in a federal prison with papers to extradite him to Israel to stand trial for war crimes. Dum Dum calls Nick who instructs him to take Cap to Fort Dix. As he turns Strucker gasses Fury. Next we see Dugan & Cap at Fort Dix. Cap is going thru his Army footlocker. His first shield is on top. He finds his war journal & reads thru it. In it he finds the army implanted false memories to confuse the enemy in case of his capture. He recalls his real past & feels his confidence returning with this knowledge. Then Baron Strucker crashes into Fort Dix in Fury's flying car & him & Cap fight. When Fury comes to he helps Cap subdue Strucker who promptly explodes! It is revealed that the baron was a robot. The last panel shows Machinesmith watching these events in his lab on a viewscreen.... |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 13:35:58 GMT -5
Stern was a master. He tied up dangling plot threads from recent stories, set up a new status quo for Cap, had some action scenes & all in 17 pages!
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Post by Ozymandias on Jul 26, 2016 14:35:42 GMT -5
two great creators at the height of their powers writing a great character. I'd say Stern reached his full potential with Paul Smith and JRJR. Byrne peaked, as an artist, in his earlier FF issues (230s) and as writer, in AF. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2016 14:58:51 GMT -5
two great creators at the height of their powers writing a great character. I'd say Stern reached his full potential with Paul Smith and JRJR. Byrne peaked, as an artist, in his earlier FF issues (230s) and as writer, in AF. Maybe but at this point this was comics at their best. Perfect blend of writer, artist, character & concepts. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 26, 2016 15:18:16 GMT -5
Then Baron Strucker crashes into Fort Dix in Fury's flying car & him & Cap fight. When Fury comes to he helps Cap subdue Strucker who promptly explodes! It is revealed that the baron was a robot. The last panel shows Machinesmith watching these events in his lab on a viewscreen.... Thank God! I was wondering how he had survived the explosion of the Hydra base in NIck Fury's own mag, back when the dastardly monocle wearer wanted to free the Death Spore virus! (That's where his corpse was when he was revived in the early '90s). |
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Post by Action Ace on Jul 26, 2016 15:24:01 GMT -5
Another favorite run that was gone too soon.
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Post by Ozymandias on Jul 26, 2016 16:59:29 GMT -5
I'd say Stern reached his full potential with Paul Smith and JRJR. Byrne peaked, as an artist, in his earlier FF issues (230s) and as writer, in AF. Maybe but at this point this was comics at their best. Perfect blend of writer, artist, character & concepts. Slightly behind some Savage Sword, some Asterix, Mutant World, Dr. Slump, Charlie Moon, Mort Cinder, Les Passagers du vent, Historias de taverna galáctica, The Phoenix Saga, Paracuellos, or Miller's DD. (That I know of). Another favorite run that was gone too soon. Stern hasn't been exactly lucky. |
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Post by Phil Maurice on Jul 27, 2016 19:54:08 GMT -5
Stern hasn't been exactly lucky. True. Lucky pays immediately, but Visionary takes a while to see a return. This brief run was meant to re-acquaint Cap with Reagan-era readers, but in true Roger Stern fashion it's grasp far exceeds its reach. It was only nine issues, and to those of us who flipped through spinner racks all through the summer of '80, it was spell-binding. It was only nine issues, but much of it is canon. Canon!  |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 27, 2016 20:59:56 GMT -5
Will try to pull these out and play catch-up. Been really busy.
But you can count me as one who bought most of these off the spinner rack and loved them to pieces.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
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Post by Confessor on Jul 27, 2016 23:50:12 GMT -5
I'm not familiar with this run at all, but colour me very interested. I liked Stern's stuff on Amazing Spider-Man and this is definitely the right era for Byrne.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jul 28, 2016 5:32:18 GMT -5
I have the entire run but I'm afraid that I'll revisit it and find that Byrnes art isn't as good as I remembered it. That happened when I re- read The Batman/ Captain America crossover. It looked a lot more cartoony than I remembered.
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Post by Ozymandias on Jul 28, 2016 11:35:26 GMT -5
I liked Stern's stuff on Amazing Spider-Man and this is definitely the right era for Byrne. Not that good, but well above average, and the best thing is, the best issues are the first ones. |
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