1/22/2024 0 Comments Comics falcon captain americaOn the creative front, after seven years of writing Cap (first in Tales of Suspense and then in his solo title), Stan Lee had given up that role. Quite a lot had happened in the two years I’d been gone, obviously. I liked those comics, and I liked the Falcon but perhaps my general dissatisfaction with the title’s direction made it easier for me to abandon the book when Marvel instituted a new line-wide “no continued stories” policy at around that same time - a policy whose period of implementation would, not so coincidentally, closely correspond to a run of months from late 1969 through early 1970 when I bought hardly any new comic books at all - and maybe my residual dissatisfaction also made it easier for me to ignore the series when I returned to buying comics in force in mid-1970, even as I began to routinely pick up Marvels that I’d paid relatively little attention to prior to taking my hiatus, such as Iron Man and Sub-Mariner. Those included Captain America #118, featuring the first foray into superheroic action of one Sam Wilson, aka the Falcon (who’d technically debuted in the previous issue, #117). I did - at least, I enjoyed those installments I was able to find and buy (somehow, I missed three out of the saga’s five chapters, including the conclusion). That shouldn’t be taken as meaning that I didn’t enjoy the Red Skull-Cosmic Cube storyline that wrote Rick out of Cap’s book on its own merits. I liked the Captain America-Rick Jones combo, and I was irked that it ended the way it did. Nor was I mollified by Rick’s subsequently landing on his feet as the new partner (so to speak) of Captain Marvel, courtesy of Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, in issue #17 of the latter stalwart’s title. And thus I was displeased when, within just a few issues of Steranko’s departure, scripter Stan Lee (in collaboration with artists/co-plotters John Romita, John Buscema, and Gene Colan) contrived matters so that Rick was summarily rejected as partner by “Cap” - who was actually a body-swapped Red Skull. As I’ve written about in earlier posts, back in 1968-69 I was fully invested in the plotline developed by Jim Steranko (beginning with the artist/co-plotter’s first issue, Captain America #110) in which Rick, a longtime supporting character in both Hulk and Avengers, had, after years of hints and teases on Marvel’s part, finally suited up in Bucky Barnes’ old gear to become Cap’s new partner. Hulk remained a tough sell for your humble blogger, except for those occasions when his series crossed over with other books I followed, like Avengers.) In September, 1971, I bought my first issue of Captain America in almost two years today, fifty years later, I’m not sure how to account for my long abstinence from the adventures of the Star-Spangled Avenger, especially considering that I was buying every other superhero title Marvel Comics was putting out at that time.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |