Those of you who read my posts my be surprised to see me writing about this volume, which shipped today. I have had many favorite characters over the years. I have frequently identified the Incredible Hulk as my "first favorite" character, but I couldn't possibly ever list them all, at least not in order. I don't think I have ever named my second (in sequence, not ranking), but it was Captain America. I started collecting that particular title just after Jack Kirby's mid-'70s tenure and, when I collected only three titles via subscription for three years, Captain America was one of them. I missed John Byrne's tenure on X-Men in it's entirety as well as the beginning of his Fantastic Four run, but I was right there, before and after, for the Captain America he did with Roger Stern. Shortly after that, J.M. DeMatteis and Mike Zeck took over, and Captain America became not only my favorite character but my favorite series.
But nothing lasts forever, and eventually Jim Shooter pulled Mike Zeck off the title to illustrate his own pet project (at least that's the way I saw it at the time). DeMatteis left the series as well, and I settled hopefully in to await their return. but that never happened. I wanted to like my (former) favorite title after that, but I just couldn't. Mark Gruenwald took over the writing with #307 and I eventually came to find the title unreadable... not virtually unreadable, but unreadable (as evidenced by the fact I still have ten or so issues I bought but just couldn't bring myself to read). I eventually dropped it, but I still cared (deeply) about the Marvel Universe back in those days, and I still checked in from time-to-time just to keep apprised of current events. For example, of the issues collected in this volume, I bought (and read) #332-333, 341 and 350. after that I bought very few issues until Mark Waid and Steve Garney took over with #444.
So why am I taking another look at this run of issues now? Well, I have (long since) become disillusioned with today's Marvel Universe and long for the days of yore when I actually enjoyed reading Marvel Comics. Comics will never be what they once were, but these omnibus editions give one the opportunity to revisit past eras he might have missed. Mark Gruenwald was a bigger fan of Captain America than I ever was, plus he knew more about the Marvel Universe than I do today. I have recently come to re-evaluate and reassess the comics of my youth, and I thought Mark Gruenwald's Captain America would be a good place to continue. I mean, objectively speaking, how bad can it be really?
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Just checking in with a progress report and to respond to one of Captain Comics' comments. First, though, now that I have refreshed my memory, I realize I misremembered some things in my initial post. I know now that I bought, and read, up through Captain America #323, but dropped the title cold turkey at that time. I did buy (and read) #332-333 back in 1987 (because they were "significant" and I still cared about such things at the time), but I just finished reading #333 (#324-331 for the first time). Regarding the issues I read before, they are pretty much as I remember them: Serpent Squad, Scourge, Cap's toll-free nationwide hotline, Steve Rogers becoming a comic book artist (illustrating Captain America for Marvel Comics, no less). Regarding the issues I hadn't read, I now have a better handle on D-Man and the Super-Patriot (the man soon to become the next Captain America). Regarding the former, all I really knew about him (from 1998's Avengers #1) is that he smells bad; I had no idea why his costume was an amalgam of Daredevil's original one and Wolverine's. Regarding the latter, I knew that character mainly from his stint with the West Coast Avengers (where he was better developed) during John Byrne's tenure; I had forgotten that, in John Walker's earliest appearances, he was actually villainous.
I remember thinking at the time Gruenwald was writing Captain America that the comics weren't very good. But I don't remember why.
I think I know the answer... or at least an answer, my answer.
By the 1980s, we had become used to reading comics such as Frank Miller's Daredevil, Walt Simonson's Thor and John Byrne's Fantastic Four. You know how I'm always railing about "All Ages" comics actually being strictly for children? I think Captain America at this time represents Gruenwald's efforts to write an "All Ages" title, but rather than one which would appeal only to children in elementary school, he came closer to the stated mark by writing one which would appeal to those in junior high school as well. I think if either one of us had read this comics when we were twelve, we would have been just fine with them; we may even have remembered them as some of our favorites. They simply weren't as "sophisticated" as those we had by that time become accostomed to reading. That's my answer. What do you think?
There are still 18 issues (including Iron Man #228) left in this collection, and yes, I do stil intend to read them all.
I knew this was going to happen. I got as far as #338, then completely lost interest as soon as I figured out why I didn't care for this run in the first place (see above). Now a second volume has been solicited. I do still intend to read them, but will I ever get around to it?
For me it would be a re-read, and life is too short to re-read this run, that I didn't much enjoy the first time around. I'm already regretting buying the first volume of something that I will probably just have to re-sell somewhere down the road without ever getting around to that re-read.
As to your theory, it's probably true. I can't confirm or deny, since I didn't do the re-read, and don't remember much from when I read it the first time, a quarter-century ago.
I do remember Gruenwald's run.
It followed J.M.DeMatteis, which was not a favorite of mine, and was a clear improvement at first, but really lost moment as time went on.
A big part of that was a refusal to take situations to their logical consequences, particularly in characterization. At times it feels like Cap has just forgotten that Diamondback used to be a villain, or that USAgent is around using the black costume that served him well as The Captain. At one point he loses the superserum, then it turns out that he can't lose it if he wants to. It is much too stable a run despite nominal attempts at shaking the status quo. Even Bernie Rosenthal seems to forget that she is in love with Cap; when the Cap Direct Line is established she simply becomes one of its workers and begins to call Cap "Cap" just like everyone else. Nothing seems to have the power to move the status quo from a very predictable, boring baseline.
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