Welcome, all, to the first of four blog posts in which we’ll be commemorating May, 1976 as “Marvel Milestone Month” — a month in which, in a manner both unprecedented and (to the best of my knowledge), never repeated, four major Marvel Comics titles all celebrated a significant numerical milestone (“significant” being defined for our purposes as “a multiple of 50”) within a couple of weeks of each other. Read More
Last October, at the end of our post concerning Captain America #193 (Jan., 1976) — a comic which, you’ll remember, featured the return of artist/writer/editor Jack “King” Kirby to the star-spangled hero he’d co-created with Joe Simon back in 1940 — your humble blogger invited you all to return in May, 2026 to see how the eight-issue, Bicentennial-themed storyline that had kicked off therein would turn out. Four months later, however, I’ve come to the realization that trying to cover seven chapters’ worth of Kirby’s epic in a single go would likely result in a post of such length as to try the patience of even the most indulgent followers of this blog — and so, I’ve decided to break up the remainder of our “Madbomb” coverage into two posts, the first of which is presented here. (Of course, given that this piece is still aiming to hit the high points of four individual comics, it’s still likely to be a pretty long read… though not quite as much of an imposition on your time as our originally planned Captain America #200 mega-post would have been, so at least there’s that.) Read More
In July, 1975, Marvel Comics readers who turned to the Bullpen Bulletins page running in that month’s books were greeted by the following banner headline:
Assuming you weren’t a Marvelite of especially recent vintage, “‘Nuff said!” was pretty much on the money, at least in regards to the identity of “The King”. In the context of Marvel comics — and maybe of American comics, period — there was only one person that phrase could possibly be referring to. Still, if any confirmation was needed, it was immediately forthcoming via the latest edition of publisher Stan Lee’s monthly column: Read More
Art by Gil Kane and Joe Sinnott.
The last issue of Captain America we discussed in this space, was, as I’m sure you’ll remember, a highly significant one for the series, featuring as it did not only the tragic death of Roscoe, the young man who’d attempted to replace Steve Rogers in the titular role, but also Steve’s inevitable response to that tragedy: the abandonment of his briefly-held “Nomad” identity to once again take up the shield of Captain America, as he prepared to deal with the return of his greatest arch-enemy (and the man who’d brutally murdered Roscoe) — the Red Skull.
Interestingly, however, issue #183’s letters column devoted at least as much attention to the hero who shared the series’ title logo with Cap (even if the book’s “official” title, per the indicia, had been, and would remain, simply Captain America) — namely, the Falcon. In response to a missive from reader Bob Stenson that included a brief, vaguely critical remark about the Falcon’s decision not to come to the aid of his erstwhile partner Steve Rogers against the Golden Archer back in CA #179, the book’s anonymous letters-page answerer (identified by the Grand Comics Database as series scribe Steve Englehart) took the opportunity to preview some upcoming — and ominous-sounding — developments in regards to Marvel Comics’ first Black American superhero: Read More
Fifty years and one month ago, on the final page of Captain America #182, writer Steve Englehart promised his readers that the next issue would feature “The Return of Captain America! Eight months in the making, and worth every second of the wait!” That bottom-of-the-page blurb struck an unmistakably triumphal tone — but it was a tone that was significantly tempered by the full-page splash panel that immediately preceded it, in which the Red Skull — Captain America’s greatest foe — was shown not only to have returned, but also to have gotten the drop on Cap’s longtime partner, the Falcon, as well as his would-be replacement, a Brooklyn youth named Roscoe — both of whom now lay helpless at the Skull’s feet. Clearly, the return of Steve Rogers to the role of Star-Spangled Avenger wasn’t going to be purely an occasion for celebratory fireworks and parades — a message that would be visually underscored when CA #183 showed up on stands in December, 1974, featuring a brutally dramatic cover by Gil Kane and Joe Sinnott. Read More
The cover of Captain America #182 — drawn by Ron Wilson and Frank Giacoia (with probable touch-ups by John Romita) — offered few, if any, hints of major surprises to be found within its pages. Here’s Steve Rogers in his new heroic identity of Nomad, continuing his ongoing battle against the Serpent Squad, with a symbolic (and huge) representation of his former (and, of course, much better-known) costumed alter ego looming in the background. Pretty much what anyone who’d been following this title for the past several months would expect.
But upon turning to the issue’s opening splash page, we readers of November, 1974, learned that changes had indeed come to Captain America… Read More
Last month, in our post about Captain America #180, we covered the debut of the former Captain America, Steve Rogers, in his brand-new superheroic identity of the Nomad. As regular readers will hopefully recall, the Nomad’s initial outing was somewhat less than completely auspicious, as he tripped over his own cape and failed to prevent the kidnapping of the president of Roxxon Oil by the new and improved Serpent Squad. Of course, that misstep ultimately did nothing to discourage or deter our hero, who immediately ditched the offending costume piece with no regrets, vowing as he did so that the Squad would get what was coming to them the next time they met — completely unaware that the group’s roster was about to be enhanced by the addition of the evil Warlord Krang of Atlantis, who came bearing the ancient, sorcerous Serpent Crown of Lemuria, no less. Read More
Last month we took a look at Captain America #179, in which Steve Rogers’ former Avengers teammate Hawkeye — after spending most of the issue disguised as the presumably villainous Golden Archer — managed to convince him that just because he no longer wanted to wear the colors and bear the name of his country, that was no reason he couldn’t still live the life of a costumed hero. Via the final page’s “next issue” blurb, we even got the name of Steve’s new secret identity-to-be: Nomad!
Now, thanks to issue #180’s cover (pencilled by Gil Kane, and inked by Mike Esposito and/or Frank Giacoia), we get our first glimpse of Nomad in costume — albeit in the form of a quasi-symbolic image that allows the artists to provide a shot of Steve in his more familiar red-white-and-blue togs as well. Read More
Cover art by John Romita.
Cover art by Ron Wilson, Frank Giacoia, and John Romita (?).
At the conclusion of the last issue of Captain America we looked at on this blog, the classic #176, our star-spangled hero, reeling from the revelations about the United States government that had emerged in the wake of the Watergate scandal downfall of the Secret Empire, decided to renounce his costumed identity — “forever!” As we discussed briefly in the closing paragraphs of our post about that comic, Steve Rogers’ decision held firm throughout the next two issues, as his former partner, Sam Wilson (aka the Falcon), was forced to go up alone against Lucifer — a relatively obscure antagonist of the X-Men who’d upped his game by splitting himself in two. The Falcon ultimately triumphed over the villain(s), though not without a sudden, spur-of-the-last-moment intervention from Steve, who went into action wearing a ski-mask and slinging a garbage-can lid in lieu of a shield — an action that Sam, having been earlier rebuffed by Steve when he asked him to reconsider his decision to give up being Captain America, wasn’t thrilled about… Read More
In his 2016 introduction to Marvel Masterworks — Captain America, Vol. 9, Steve Englehart refers to the cover John Romita produced for the subject of today’s post as “iconic”. That’s become a rather overused word in today’s culture, I grant you; all the same, I find it hard to disagree with him. For this grizzled old fan, it’s virtually impossible to think about this particular era of Captain America comics without the image shown above leaping immediately to mind — and that’s close enough to iconic for the word to fit, at least in my book. Read More