Viper

Captain America #182 (February, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

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

Captain America #181 (January, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

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

Captain America #180 (December, 1974)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

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

Captain America #113 (May, 1969)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As readers of my post about Captain America #110 a few months back may remember, my eleven-year-old self read and enjoyed that comic book — the first in a classic trilogy of issues by Jim Steranko — when it came out in November, 1968, and I finished it ready and waiting to buy and read the next one.  However, for one reason or another (either it never made it to any of the retail outlets in Jackson, MS, where I bought my comics, or I just didn’t manage to get to the store before it sold out), I never saw, and thus couldn’t buy, Captain America #111.  Because, seriously — how could I have passed up a book with a cover that awesome, if I had seen it?

That issue continued the storyline created and developed by Steranko, who plotted as well as drew these issues (supported on the dialoguing end by writer-editor Stan Lee) in which Cap took on a new partner, Rick Jones, while also confronting the threat of the newly resurgent terrorist organization Hydra.  Issue #111 had ended with the apparent death of Captain America, showing the Star-Spangled Avenger’s silhouetted body struck by a hail of bullets as he dove from the roof of a waterfront building into New York City’s East River.  Read More

Captain America #110 (February, 1969)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

You know, I could have had the whole run of Jim Steranko’s Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. — all four issues of it! (seven if you include the three he only did covers for) — bought new off the stands, back in 1968.  If only I’d had the smarts, or the good taste, or the foresight to buy ’em at the time.  Alas, for the road not taken…

Just to clarify — I’m referring here to the titular Nick Fury comic book series that premiered in February, 1968, and not to the whole run of the legendary artist’s work on the “Nick Fury” feature, which began with his providing finished art over Jack Kirby’s pencil layouts in Strange Tales #151.  Although, come to think about it, I could have started buying Steranko’s work even as far back as then, if I’d wanted; that issue came out in September, 1966, after all, and by that date I’d already been buying comic books for a little over a year.  But Strange Tales was a Marvel comic, and in 1966 I was only buying DC’s books (with the odd Gold Key thrown in here and there).  By early 1968, however, things had changed.  I had started buying a couple of Marvel comics (Amazing Spider-Man and Daredevil) regularly, and was considering sampling some others.  And, as veteran Marvel readers and comics historians well know, 1968 was the year that Marvel Comics finally got out from under the thumb of their distributor (who also happened to be their primary competitor, DC Comics) and significantly expanded their line.  Over the first three months of that year, Marvel took their three “double feature” titles — Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, and the aforementioned Strange Tales — and split them up, resulting in six “new” titles — Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Sub-Mariner, Doctor Strange, and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.  Three of the books continued the numbering of the titles they’d been spun off from, while the other three (including Nick Fury) started with brand new issue #1’s.  What a great opportunity for a young comics fan to get in on the ground floor of some exciting new series, right?  Read More