Captain America: The First Avenger - Super Bowl TV Spot HD

First look at the upcoming Cap movie starring Chris Evans as the Star-Spangled Avenger. The reenactment of the Super-Soldier experiment looks really good - something that even Jack Kirby would be proud of. We also get a quick glimpse of the Red Skull. This is really getting me excited. :)

Review: Essential Captain America Volume 3

Finished reading this phonebook-sized collection of 1970s Captain America stories late last night. Took me quite a while to finish it. As usual, it's another Essential volume of black-and-white reprints that total up to about 600 pages! Cap was in a transitory stage when these stories were written - we were moving from the short run by Jim Steranko (collected in Vol. 2) back to Stan Lee again and then some truly great stories by Gary Friedrich, some not-so-great work by the young Gerry Conway before Steve Englehart came on board as one of the truly great Cap-scribes. The beginning of the Englehart run is collected here but the true gems of his run (i.e. the "Secret Empire" and "Nomad" arcs) can only be savoured in Volume 4.

Despite the change in scribing duties throughout this volume, the whole thing actually connects in a seamless manner throughout. The writers set up three sets of supporting characters for Cap to interact with: 1) S.H.I.E.L.D. (featuring on the love/hate relationship between Cap and Nick Fury, and the soapy/mushy romance stuff with Sharon Carter - with Contessa Val thrown in to mess up the kitchen), 2) the Falcon and the Harlem area (with Leila thrown in as mouthpiece for the racial tensions in '70s America) and 3) the police force (where Steve Rogers had his day-job as a beat cop). As for villains, the Red Skull appears again and again and again in this volume. It's like, whenever a new writer comes on board, he has to do his own *definitive* Red Skull story. So we get the Red Skull messing up with Cap's relationships in S.H.I.E.L.D., the Red Skull messing up the Kingpin's relationships in Hydra and the Red Skull masterminding the black-racist activist group that involved Falcon and Leila.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, we even get a cosmic baddie Jakar (the Stranger?) kidnapping kids in Harlem by hiring Batroc and his Brigade. We always knew those stinkin' French guys with the corny moustaches were up to no good, don't we? Of course, Batroc later teamed up with Cap and the Falcon to defeat the cosmic baddie and freed the kids. Scorpion and Mister Hyde also put in a memorable appearance to both tie up a story began in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man and Iron Man as well as to showcase Cap and Falcon at their grittiest best when the villains kidnapped Sharon Carter. After that, Cap and Sharon Carter helped Nick Fury and Contessa Val get over their mutual jealousies before taking a vacation in the Bahamas! What amused me to no end was how Cap actually faked his SICK LEAVE with the police because he wanted to take his girlfriend for a holiday - all that in the middle of a huge police scandal wherein Cap's boss, Sgt. Muldoon, was accused of police misdemeanour!

That afore-mentioned vacation was cut short with the appearance of the 1950s Captain America and Bucky. Steve Englehart was roped in to tie up one of the most buggin' continuity glitches in Silver Age Marvel. You see, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby did Cap in the 1940s. Cap was so popular that he was published throughout the 1950s as well. Problem was, Stan Lee told the world (in Avengers #4) that Cap and Bucky disappeared in the 1940s - sometime before Hiroshima! Who then were the 1950s Cap and Bucky as seen in comics such as Young Men #24 (December 1953)? Englehart came up with a creepy tale about a fan of Cap who had plastic surgery to look like Steve Rogers - even using cut-and-paste John Romita panels from Young Men #24 to explain how all that happened. See? Englehart was using this technique long before Bendis employed it in "Alias"! :)

The artwork throughout were by Gene Colan, Gil Kane, John Romita and Sal Buscema. All of them were Silver Age greats who did very reliable and clear action-packed storytelling. Nothing really cutting-edge like what Jim Steranko did before them but they served their purposes as storytellers first, innovators second. Overall, this is a very enjoyable volume and should definitely be read by today's fans who think that Ed Brubaker is the best writer on Cap! Truth is, many of these old tales were far more appealing than anything that Brubaker has ever written.

Note: Young Men #24 (the Cap and Bucky tale) is reprinted in the John Romita Sr. Visionaries hardcover.

Deadpool and Vegans

Review: The Marvels Project

Before I read "The Marvels Project", I thought that it was unfairly overshadowed by the more high-profile "Siege" event. After I finished reading the entire 8-issue series by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting about 5 minutes ago, I must conclude that the whole thing, while undeniably an important addition to the Marvel Canon, really isn't as good as expected.

Perhaps the problem was because my hopes for this series were unreasonably high. Firstly, it's set in the Golden Age (more accurately 1938-1942) and I'm a huge fan of Golden Age mystery-men tales. Secondly, it's really the first attempt to tie in the various Golden Age issues together to present a seamless and official "origin" of the Invaders. I'm a huge fan of the Invaders having recently picked up the "70th Anniversary Timely Comics" hardcover along with the "Avengers/Invaders" hardcover. Thirdly, I'm also a huge fan of Brubaker and Epting's work on the regular "Captain America" series. That being said, I found myself largely bored and uninterested in this series. The reason for this is that "The Marvels Project" is really not a story at all! It's very much a by-the-numbers retelling of how the various Golden Age Marvel (then known as Timely) characters got together and formed the first super-group to fight the Nazis. If that was all there was, I remember that Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross did a far better job years ago in the first issue of "Marvels".

Speaking of "Marvels", there are obvious similarities with that work. Dr Thomas Halloway aka The Angel serves as narrator here much as Phil Sheldon did in "Marvels". The work is also reminiscent of the other Alex Ross classic, "Kingdom Come". Here, the dying Two-Gun Kid (who has seen the future of the 616-Marvel Universe) prophesied the coming of that glorious heroic age much like the Golden Age Sandman, Wesley Dodds, prophesied the coming of the dark age in "Kingdom Come". There are also obvious parallels to Alan Moore's "Watchmen" and James Robinson's "The Golden Age". As the progeny of such luminaries, you would expect "The Marvels Project" to be something truly special, right? Truth is, I really wished that it was. In fact, I even put on classic 1940s jazz while reading it just for that added flavour.

The problem with this work is that while Epting managed to capture the mood and atmosphere of the Second World War in his artwork (his pencils also resemble Alex Ross' pencil work in many ways - and that is a definite bonus), the pacing throughout is abysmally slow. You feel that Brubaker has so many things to show the reader - from the familiar unveiling of the Human Torch by Prof. Phineas Horton to the Super-Soldier Serum that created Captain America to the grand superhuman battle above the skies of NYC between the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner and finally to the gathering of the Invaders in the White House. Problem was, while Brubaker and Epting had so much to SHOW, they really had very little to SAY. There wasn't any grand theme that tied the piece together - like the theme of ordinary humans' distrust or discomfort with superheroes in "Marvels" or the fascistic authoritarianism of "Kingdom Come". In fact, I'm a tad frustrated after reading the work as a whole in one sitting because I know that Brubaker is capable of delivering far greater work. I mean, the flashback scenes to the Golden Age in his "Winter Soldier" arc are far more moving and poignant compared to the entirety of "The Marvels Project"! Furthermore, if you are looking for the Invaders kicking the Nazis or the Red Skull, there's nearly nothing here to that tune. The closest we got was Cap, Bucky, Namor and the Angel fighting some rebel faction from Atlantis while the Human Torch and Toro fought a losing battle against the Japs to prevent the Pearl Harbour bombings. That was supposed to be the grand battle but there wasn't any real emotional payoff. In fact, it's ironic that about the only character that displayed any real emotions was Jim Hammond, the android Human Torch. The other iconic heroes simply strutted around being iconic!

As an "origins" story, it more than did its job but there is little more to the tale. Therefore, the tale can only aspire to the level of say, Paul Jenkins' "Mythos" series or Joe Casey's "Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes". In other words, a retro take on a familiar myth or a retelling of a story of how our heroes began their careers. Does it then warrant the hardcover treatment? Well, I wouldn't argue with that since I'm a sucker for beautiful hardcover collections anyway. After all, the story is an important one and Brubaker will most likely build on some of the elements here in future Cap stories. In other words, I'll give the work an 8 out of 10 for its importance to the overall Marvel Canon but as a standalone story, it's at best only a 6.5 out of 10 (though I'd say that Epting's beautiful artwork earns a 9 out of 10).

Hi, I'm a Marvel... and I'm a DC: The Musical

This is possibly my favourite video of all time on YouTube! Enjoy... :)

Captain America Fan Film

Enjoy this fan-made "Captain America" movie that is loosely based on Ed Brubaker's "Death of Captain America" arc.

Highlights From The Latest Marvel Solicitations (Oct 2010)

It's the convention season again so Marvel has decided to delay the release of their latest solicitation previews until the big announcements in the convention. Anyway, the latest solicitations are finally up and you can check them out at CBR.

Some of the items that caught my eye are:

• Uncanny X-Force #1 by Rick Remender (Punisher) and Jerome Opena (Moon Knight). Wolverine is leading the X-Force to kill Apocalypse. This is a no-brainer and I'm definitely jumping on board!



• Ultimate Thor #1 by Jonathan Hickman and Carlos Pacheco. Hickman is fast becoming my favourite Marvel writer with his excellent stuff on Fantastic Four and S.H.I.E.L.D. Carlos Pacheco is among my favourite artists ever - check out "Avengers Forever" if you still need to be convinced. But it's Ultimate Thor. I don't know. Thor was my favourite character when I was a kid. Now? Not so much. Maybe the upcoming movie will reignite my love for the Asgardian? Hmmm....



• Chaos War #1 & 2 by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente featuring the return of Hercules. I'm so there already! Thor guest-stars.



• Captain America Lives Omnibus - I'm glad I stayed off the "The Man With No Face", "Road To Reborn" and "Reborn" trades. Marvel is reprinting the whole thing in an omnibus edition. This is a must-have for anyone who had already purchased the first two omnibuses.



• Atlantis Attacks Omnibus - I'm glad to see this huge storyarc finally in an omnibus. It was one of the biggest stories when I was a kid. I read an issue here and an issue there. That's the tragedy of growing up in a town without a comic-retailer. I had to pick up my stuff off the newstand. Anyway, I don't remember much about the story - only that it featured Namor and the Atlanteans flooding the whole Marvel Universe.



• Doomwar Hardcover - The Black Panther/Doom crossover (more accurately Wakanda/Latveria crossover) gets the oversized hardcover treatment. I haven't been following Black Panther for some time so I'm not so sure about this.



• Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty Hardcover - I'll get this one over the Reborn hardcover above. I have a softspot for Mark Waid's Cap and it's good to see his WWII/Invaders stuff from the 1990s finally given the oversized hardcover treatment.



• X-Force: A Force To Be Reckoned With - I've always wondered why the Liefeld X-Force issues have never been reprinted in a hardcover collection. Love him or hate him, no one can deny the impact that Liefeld made in the early 1990s with X-Force. Pick this one up with the Cable hardcover and relive the era of shoulder-pads, ginormous guns and constipated facial expressions.



• Thor: Worldengine - This is the 4-issue arc from the mid-1990s by Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato. I read a review recently saying that Deodato sucked in the 1990s and that he's really good now. I don't know what the reviewer was smoking when he wrote that. Deodato was fantastic in the 1990s. Check out his work with William Messner-Loebs on "Wonder Woman" and "Thor". Time was, Deodato's art was clear and powerful. Time now, he hides behind large shades of inking. Pick this one up for the classic Deodato artwork.

What If Superheroes Looked Like The Rest Of Us?

Review: Captain America (Operation Rebirth)

Blame it all on Mark Waid. He was the one who got me to actually like Captain America.

Now, mind you, I was a kid who grew up in the glorious 1980s and saw the episodes of the Cap cartoon on TV. I could even sing the theme song - "When Captain America throws his mighty shield..." But I never liked Cap when I was growing up. Well, Avengers was my favourite book but I was really in it for characters like Thor, Hercules and even the Wasp. Of course, it didn't hurt that John Buscema and Tom Palmer were the artists on the book when I was growing up. I did pick up some of the Gruenwald Cap issues but never felt any real attachments to them.

Then Mark Waid and Ron Garney got on the book in the mid-1990s. I heard everyone and their grandmothers talking about the book but I still did not pick it up. Then came the Rob Liefeld run and I actually picked up several issues of that! Finally, we had the return of Waid and Garney to the book and I followed that second run religiously all the way through. I even picked up the issue where Bob Harras got some stooge to rewrite Waid's script (on the Red Skull's origin) and effectively pissing off Waid so much that he left the book.

Anyway, one of biggest regrets was never having the chance to read the original Waid/Garney run from 1995-96. The two TPBs reprinting the run were more difficult to locate in these parts than the Holy Grail.

You can imagine by elation when I finally picked up the "Captain America: Operation Rebirth" TPB yesterday at 20% off cover price at my local comicshop.

It was about 10:30pm. I had a long day studying for my Criminal Law exams and teaching an English Lit. class. I just had my dinner and the only thing I looked forward to was a good night's rest. But I made the mistake of flipping through the copy of the Waid/Garney TPB that I just bought.

Big mistake.

I couldn't put it down until I finished the whole damned thing.

10 glorious issues - 2 story arcs with two single issues as prologue and epilogue to the whole thing.

Rarely does a "run" on a title feel so complete... so self-contained. This was Waid and Garney at the top of their game. Their second run after the "Heroes Reborn" thingy got me to like Cap. This original first run blew my love for the Star-Spangled Avenger into the stratosphere.

If you're getting tired of Ed Brubaker's super-serious espionage stuff and you're looking for portrayals of Captain America as the ultimate action hero, you'll find no better example than in this book. More than everything, Waid's and Garney's take on the book is a lot of fun. It was the Clinton Era and in a way, ol' Bill (pre-Kenneth Starr) was the real villain in the book! It wasn't a time for deeply introspective examination of the American identity. It was a time when people were rich and comfortable enough to simply kick off their shoes for some good, clean, action-packed fun.

So we get the Red Skull and Adolf Hitler in the first arc ("Operation Rebirth") and Machinesmith and Bill Clinton in the second arc ("Man Without A Country"). We get the cosmic cube in the first arc and all of America's nukes in the second arc. Impossible odds? Tell that to the man who simply won't give up unless he put the baddies to sleep and keep the world safe again - even at the price of his citizenship!

Another plus is the inclusion of Sharon Carter in the title (she was thought dead prior to this). In fact, it wouldn't be wrong to say that Waid was the one who brought Sharon back into the limelight again and allowed later writers such as Brubaker to continue fleshing out her character. Of course, that also led to manufacturers sculpting oversexed statues of the beloved S.H.I.E.L.D. agent such as the one below:

Finally, who can forget the one-liners? My favourite is the one from the final few pages where Cap tells Sharon to lead the fugitives to safety while he "holds off the army". And he does. Single-handedly. Cap is possibly the only non-powered hero to be able to say that with a straight face.

That was pre-911, pre-Afghanistan, pre-Iraq. Time was, kids my generation grew up with "Rambo" and "Commando" and "Independence Day". We were conditioned to believe that the army hasn't been assembled that America cannot confidently hold off. We believed that one strong man of ideals could turn the tide of an entire war - even holding off an army single-handedly. In fact, we even believed that American Presidents should be men-of-war and cheered Bill Pullman in "Independence Day" when he piloted the fighter jet to kill aliens. That was before Bush Jr. came along and made the American War President the stench of the world. That was before Obama came along and showed us that being President really means grappling with tiresome health policies and the economy all the time.

All in all, it was a fun time to live in. We could afford anything. We could even afford to be stupid. Even Rob Liefeld could afford to model for a jeans commercial one day and convince himself that he could be the artist to relaunch Captain America the next day. It was 1995.

Captain Corset?!?

Wonder no more. Steve Rogers was Captain Corset once upon a time in this page from the Golden Age of Comics. Ah... the things one does for truth, justice and freedom! :)

Doctor America: Occult Operative Of Liberty

The scans below are from the parody comic "Who Will NOT Wield The Shield?" by Brendan McCarthy (with assists from Matt Fraction). It's a comic that combines Doctor America with Satan Science and proves that comic books are really incense to Satan. Also, the Bucky-Goat! How can you not like this stuff? [Note: Click on the scans to enlarge the pics.]