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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2018 8:45:50 GMT -5
At the time this run was published Busiek was 19-20 yrs old & in college. His first comics work came 3 years later in 1983. OK. Because I thought I recalled that even in 1980, he was giving insider input as to how to resurrect Jean Grey. Oh he did. But as a letter writer/fan. How do you think he got noticed by DC & Marvel's editors?  |
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Post by james on Mar 9, 2018 8:53:45 GMT -5
Favorite Cap run. To be honest the only Cap issues I own.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 9, 2018 15:35:26 GMT -5
Yep, as far as I'm concerned, this little run is the best set of Cap stories, ever.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2018 15:42:25 GMT -5
Happy to see this review thread getting some interest again. I loved doing this one & the Englehart/Rogers Batman in Detective Comics review thread.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Mar 9, 2018 21:50:23 GMT -5
 "The Mercenary & the Madman" The first 3 pages are a nice recap of Cap's history. Cap is standing on a rooftop at sunset looking at NYC. He thinks about his life in WWII & being frozen in ice & revived by the Sub-Mariner & found by the Avengers. Fighting the Red Skull again & teaming up with Falcon. He also thinks about Sharon Carter...his one true love in his new life in this time. Then he returns home. Meanwhile at Ryker's Island Mr Hyde is broken out by Batroc. Hyde lied that he would give anyone that broke him out of jail $5 million. Batroc is furious but Hyde subdues him. Back at Cap's apt he is working on his ads & Bernie comes in to make him breakfast. While he goes to the bathroom she is startled at his taste in music - big band. The same stuff her father likes. She sees a picture of Steve with Sharon & Steve tells Bernie Sharon was special but she died recently (I don't remember when this happened). Meanwhile Hyde & Batroc capture a Roxxon Tanker & threaten to blow it up in New York Harbor. They demand one billion in ransom & Capt America as a hostage. Cap agrees & releases a knock out gas as Batroc gets near him. Batroc & Cap fight. Hyde intervenes & knocks Cap unconscious. Cap comes to & finds himself chained to the front of the tanker as Hyde plans to ram it into the docks & explode it.... Also Kurt Busiek has a letter printed in the letter column praising #247. Sharon Carter dies in a fire show in one ghastly panel in a issue during , I think Engel farts run. It was seen in flashback. It was a pretty terrible send off, which is why it was retconned away. Rude! But, agreed, nice write-ups (which I missed the first time around!) Interesting that Cap has two relatively short all-time classic runs. |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Mar 9, 2018 21:57:47 GMT -5
Ok, and I'm slowwwly starting to figure out why John Byrne is so popular. In the introduction to TwoMorrows "Modern Masters Volume 7: John Byrne" Walt Simonson talks about how great Byrne was at rendering and defining three dimensional space -and characters moving through three dimensional space - in two dimensions. There's an interesting quote later in the book (paraphrasing) where Byrne says something like "I love Kirby, I feel very protective of his works, but I can't figure out how to render his stuff in 3-D."
Nothing I would have ever noticed on my own, but now that I look for it I can really see it.
(Also: This is probably my favorite work from Stern, and if I didn't love Marvel Two-In-One so much it could be my favorite work of Byrne's.)
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 9, 2018 21:58:37 GMT -5
Ha. That was a typo, I like Engleharts work.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2018 22:19:11 GMT -5
Ok, and I'm slowwwly starting to figure out why John Byrne is so popular. In the introduction to TwoMorrows "Modern Masters Volume 7: John Byrne" Walt Simonson talks about how great Byrne was at rendering and defining three dimensional space -and characters moving through three dimensional space - in two dimensions. There's an interesting quote later in the book (paraphrasing) where Byrne says something like "I love Kirby, I feel very protective of his works, but I can't figure out how to render his stuff in 3-D." Nothing I would have ever noticed on my own, but now that I look for it I can really see it. (Also: This is probably my favorite work from Stern, and if I didn't love Marvel Two-In-One so much it could be my favorite work of Byrne's.) IMO Byrne was fantastic (pun intended) from the late 70's until the early 90's. I thought his art was so much better when he was inked by others. When he started inking himself in the 90's his art started to get sketchier & suffered as a result. Terry Austin, Joe Rubenstein, Karl Kesel, & others "softened" his art. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 10, 2018 3:27:37 GMT -5
"Softened"? Interesting way to describe it. I would say inkers like Austin in particular but also Tom Palmer did just the opposite, they seemed to sharpen Byrne's work.
However, I have to say I'm a big fan of Byrne's art pretty much across the board, and really like most of his (frequently criticized) work from the early '90s onward as well. For instance, I absolutely loved his work (story & art) on those Star Trek minis he did for IDW: Crew, McCoy, Romulans...
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Post by String on Mar 10, 2018 18:13:49 GMT -5
Okay, inspired by the bump for this thread, I just read #247 for the first time, a really solid fun issue.
Question though, since I've never really followed Cap's title, how often does he refer to himself in the third person? Early in this issue, when explaining about his recent memory confusion, he keeps mentioning 'Steve Rogers' as if that's a totally separate identity. I'm familiar with the Clark vs Superman (which is real?) identity argument or even the Bruce vs the Mask (which is real?) identity argument. But I've never really considered that an issue for Cap.
Implanted fake memories is a nice twist though the scene of Pvt. Rogers having those memories implanted reminded me of the old Bugs Bunny cartoon where a psychiatrist brainwashed Bugs into thinking he's Elmer: "My-name-is-Elmer-J-Fudd-millionaire. I-own-a mansion-und-a yacht."
Strucker's appearance and ensuing fight was great (oh no the triangle shield takes a beating!) but when Strucker revealed the Satan Claw he wore, my first thought was, how did he hide a gauntlet like that so snug under the glove he was wearing? Turn the page and lo and behold, Cap was thinking the exact same thing! Love it! Hahaha
Bryne's art, as ever, top-notch. Great start, will definitely check out the rest of their run now. Thanks!
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Post by rberman on Mar 10, 2018 18:49:16 GMT -5
Question though, since I've never really followed Cap's title, how often does he refer to himself in the third person? Early in this issue, when explaining about his recent memory confusion, he keeps mentioning 'Steve Rogers' as if that's a totally separate identity. I'm familiar with the Clark vs Superman (which is real?) identity argument or even the Bruce vs the Mask (which is real?) identity argument. But I've never really considered that an issue for Cap.  This is just a convention for the sake of readers to make clear that he's talking about issues that affect his personal life rather than his hero duties. Identity confusion, as you say, is not a big thing for Captain America. P.S. Shame on Sal Buscema for writing his name in that alley! |
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Post by Ozymandias on Mar 11, 2018 13:18:17 GMT -5
When he started inking himself in the 90's his art started to get sketchier That's because he was often inking over the blank page, take a look at earlier inks from Bizarre Adventures #31:   |
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Post by rberman on Mar 11, 2018 13:19:51 GMT -5
Sounds like a good argument for pencils followed by inks!
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Post by bdk91939 on May 23, 2018 10:09:04 GMT -5
John Byrne hitting his stride in the mid to late 70's. He was the premiere superstar artist in this era. And his work was inspired.
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