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Captain America is published by Marvel Comics

Captain America: Theater of War 2010 (SC & HC TPB) 152 pages

Written by Paul Jenkins. Illustrated by various.
Colours/letters: various

Reprinting: Captain America: Theater of War one-shots "America theBeautiful," "To Soldier On," "Ghosts of My Country," and "Brother in Arms"

Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5)

Number of readings: 1

Reviewed: April 2017

As Captain America is a super hero literally forged in the fires of war (and I guess we're supposed to see the "captain" as an actual rank) Theater of War was a series of double-sized one-shots featuring Captain America in mostly war-time settings. Although all were collected in a volume, initially there was this four issue set featuring just the tales written by Paul Jenkins (working with different artists). The other comics were by other writers.

Now "pretention" is definitely the word of the day for these stories (the non-Jenkins issues were actually a little more plot/adventure oriented). That is to say these aren't gee whiz swashbucklers of Cap battling the Red Skull and other assorted comic book goons. Instead they're sombre conflict dramas that evoke more something Robert Kanigher or Garth Ennis might do. Essentially using the super hero Captain America as simply the sugar coating over "very special" comics tales.

I have some mixed feelings about that. Oh, I'm all for using comic books -- and super heroes -- to tell serious tales and to tackle important issues. But the danger is it can end up seeming a bit like it's trivializing it, juxtaposing a supposedly serious sequence of men on the front line with a spandex wearing hero who can race through enemy fire with nary a scratch. While equally feeling like they're exploiting Cap (and his fans) by putting his name on the cover, when the insides aren't really typical Cap adventures, and where Cap himself often isn't even the front and centre protagonist.

But the other problem is that all too often these sorts of tales can seem to get too high on their own hubris, offering more pretention than true profundity.

So in "America the Beautiful" Cap reflects upon a WW II GI who was a bit of a sad sack loser (barely passing basic training and the like) and his fate on the battlefield. You could easily imagine it as some Sgt. Rock and Easy Co. tale Robert Kanigher might have penned decades ago about a misfit new addition to the company. Except Kanigher would've told it in 12 pages, not 37. Because it's not really that Jenkins builds much upon the premise, in terms of character exploration, or plot twists.

"To Soldier On" is the only tale to focus on a more recent conflict, set during the second Iraq War. Here it's told entirely from the POV of a soldier serving a tour of duty in Iraq who gets grievously injured, the story then shifting to a focus on his rehabilitation and recovery. It's all very serious and well-intentioned -- but again doesn't really dig beneath the basics. It's less a "story" than it is an earnest public service spot.

Jenkins clearly intends this all as a tribute to the men in uniform (even dedicating some issues to real people he knows who one assumes are soldiers). But where's the line between earnest homage -- and simplistic propaganda? Jenkins' depiction of the Iraq War gives no hint of the conflict's moral and legal controversy. Jenkins wants to tell a story focusing on American GIs -- so no other perspective need apply.

Jenkins, himself, I believe is originally from the U.K. (and maybe still lives there, I don't know) which might make the American jingoism seem odd -- but equally, there's the old idea that no one is quite as zealous as the convert (plus British comics themselves I believe are often heavily rooted in a military/military SF mindset). Now it might seem odd to criticize a comic book called Captain America for its jingoism -- but other writers have managed to walk a subtler line of celebrating American virtue without ignoring its vices (though maybe that was decades ago, with the likes of Stan Lee, Steve Englehart, and Jack Kirby).

Warfare and jingoism particularly collide in "Ghosts of My Country" which doesn't even pretend to be a "plot." It's a series of vignettes leaping through American history while the spirit of Captain America looms over the scenes. It starts out with the Declaration of Independence, but mostly stops in on battlefield scenes. It gets more melancholy as it progresses -- which one might see as an argument against my complaint about jingoism. But it's still pretty one-sided (looking in on the War of 1812 while conveniently ignoring the American attempted annexation of the Canadian colonies). Strangely one of the most morally ambiguous scenes is when Jenkins depicts the American Civil War, with Jenkins perhaps seeing it as a tragic case of brother against brother -- but given the whole slavery aspect, you could argue it was actually one of the least morally ambiguous conflicts in American history! (Whatever Confederate apologists might claim).

But as an interesting contrast and compare, consider this story next to Jack Kirby's Captain America Bi-Centennial epic (reviewed on the other page) which also involved brief glimpses of American history -- and despite being written over 40 years ago, I'd argue was more powerful and thought-provoking.

The most conventional tale is arguably, "A Brother in Arm," at least in the sense that Cap is a central character throughout -- although it too can feel like an old Robert Kanigher Sgt. Rock tale expanded from 12 pages to 38. Set during WW II, it has Cap and a unit of soldiers holed up in a deserted, bombed out European town fending off a unit of German soldiers, Cap and his group trying to hold the line. An added complication is that the Americans have a German POW and Cap has to keep a rein on some of his men who don't see why they should be keeping the prisoner alive. It's a story that does play around a bit with ambiguity (some of the Germans are decent -- though most aren't -- and some of the Americans aren't as noble as Cap). But, again just considering its length, it doesn't really develop the plot or the personalities much beyond the minimum. But it's probably the best at blending the idea of a Captain America adventure with a serious front line drama.

Throughout the art is mostly good, generally in a straightforward, realist way. Nor is it that the stories themselves are especially terrible -- you can turn the pages easily enough. But my issue is, as I say, the self-conscious pretention, with comics that sacrifice the simple storytelling of a superhero adventure without really stepping up and delivering a smart, adult drama in its stead.

But maybe that remains a dilemma when reviewing comics, and judging them by who they are aimed at. Although modern comics are certainly written for an older audience than comics of old, they are still maybe assuming a youthful readership. And maybe to younger readers, fed a diet of gee whiz adventures and video games, these stories will have a profound impact. But for someone like me, they can feel like thinly plotted stories with bare bones character development that we are supposed to see as profound.

Captain America vs. The Red Skull 2011 (SC TPB) 264 pages

Written and illustrated by various.

Reprinting: Captain America #143, 226-227, 261-263, 370, the lead story from Captain America Annual #13, and stories from Captain America Comics #1, Tales of Suspense #79-81, and Captain America: Red, White & Blue (1941-2002) - with covers

Rating: * * * * (out of 5)

Number of readings: 1

Reviewed: June, 2011

Just in time for the motion picture, Marvel released this sampling of tales of Cap battling his arch foe throughout the years. And it's a better than decent collection.

The stories selected range from as far back as the very first Captain America comic in 1941, to a tale from the 2002 graphic novel anthology Red, White and Blue. These aren't, of course, the entirety of the Red Skull's appearances, reflecting perhaps a selection of stories that haven't been reprinted too much elsewhere, and are short enough that they can be squeezed in -- yet even then, most are of a fair size, with some multi-part stories and a couple of double-length tales.

The stories also allow a glimpse of the evolving mythos of the two characters, if only through passing references to adventures not included here. Although the opening 1941 story both has the Red Skull die and be unmasked as an American industrialist-turned-Nazi spy, something which I'm not sure is explained away in the later stories here where the Skull is both alive, and clearly German (it might've been, I just don't remember if it was -- I read this collection off and on over a few weeks).

A problem with recurring foes is that one story can seem pretty much like another -- same villain, same motive, same modus operandi. Surprisingly, though, that isn't too much the case here. The Red Skull is not the most nuanced of villains -- he is a Nazi, after all, and if he had a mustache he'd be twiddling it malevolently. But the various plots and schemes can have some variety to them -- indeed, the Skull is often a manipulator, staying behind-the-scenes as his latest plan unfolds. Though that can make for an ironic problem as in a number of these stories the Red Skull's involvement is often treated as a mid-story surprise!

Among the best tales here are a Lee and Kirby storyline serialized in three 10 page chapters from Tales of Suspense. It's enjoyable and fast paced, and first introduces the Cosmic Cube -- a device later to recur in other comics (though none reprinted here). It even has the added appeal that the first chapter is slightly isolated from the next two, meaning it can actually feel like two Lee/Kirby stories, not just one. Roger McKenzie and Sal Buscema's story of Cap aboard the SHIELD heli-carrier populated by agents transformed into an army of Red Skull clones (#226-227) is suitably exciting and tense (one chapter is appropriately named "This Deadly Gauntlet!") with some nice character introspection (Cap temporarily loses his super soldier induced strength, reverting to "frail" Steve Rogers). The Roy Thomas-written Annual (#13) reflects Thomas' sometimes fetishistic obsession with continuity, but effectively so here. While Cap and the Skull are locked in a modern-day race to uncover a long lost Nazi doomsday weapon, the Skull reflects back on his previous attempts to acquire it, cuing flashbacks to World War II and the 1950s, incorporating more than one Skull and Captain America (the two characters' mythos having evolved to include temporary substitutes over the years). The result is a fast paced, highly enjoyable tale, mixing real life historical minutia and past comic book mythology, to seem effectively epic and grand...not muddled and incoherent (as it easily could). It's illustrated by Arvell Jones and inked by Dan and Dave Day competently enough.

In ways, J.M. DeMatteis can be one of the better mainstream comic book writers, often imbuing his superhero tales with themes and philosophical musings. With that said, his three parter from #261-263 isn't as impressive as I hoped he would be. His take on Cap here is a bit bland (as the character can easily be, writers too keen to write him as the unflappable embodiment of the American ego, as opposed to a flesh and blood man in a costume) and the dialogue and such merely okay. Yet it's a reasonably enjoyable effort involving Cap coming to Hollywood at the request of a movie studio making a movie about him (appropriate given this collection was released to coincide with the new movie) only to find L.A. plagued by an anarchist cult and with a new hero to defend the city, Nomad -- a hero that raises Cap's suspicions, since Nomad was actually an identity he had used a few years earlier. So there's a lot going on, from the action, to the obligatory satirical jabs at tinstletown, to character stuff, and references to past adventures (one of his foes is a giant-sized Captain America robot he'd fought before -- the Ameridroid) all orchestrated by a mysterious cowled villain -- hmmm, wonder who it could be? Adequately illustrated by Mike Zeck, the very length allows for a certain richness to the plotting.

Mark Gruenwald and Ron Lim's "House Calls" is a story that isn't really good, or bad, it just is. It's more an interlude type tale, but as a snapshot on a creative era, with plenty of references and recapping, it perhaps serves okay as a filler in such a collection, as it throws in a few secondary characters inspired by the Red Skull (including Crossbones). As a reflection, not so much of a creative era, but a socio-political one, Gary Friedrich and John Romita, Sr.'s "Power to the People!" could've been quite promising. A double-sized adventure (published during a month where Marvel expanded all its comics to 34 pages) it's rooted in its early 1970s period of social unrest in a way that I like in comics from that time -- but the results are problematic. Romita's art is a bit rough, lacking the clean finish another inker might bring to it, and Friedrich's dialogue is clunky and his Cap rather bland. And the whole thing borders on offensive as it involves Black Militants rioting at the behest of a masked agitator (guess who!). Friedrich does throw in a few token nods to moral complexity toward the end -- but it mainly comes across as a comic made by a bunch of white reactionaries nervous about the Black Power movement. It can come across as patronizing, almost racist -- though I'm not saying Friedrich or Romita are racist (it's unwise to assign too much import to a single story churned out to a deadline more than three decades ago!) It's the story I had actually looked forward to the most in this collection...and it turned out to be one of the more disappointing. Still, it does reflect both its historical period, and a time in the character's life (partnered with The Falcon, and working as a cop in his alter ego) so it serves a point in this decades spanning collection.

The opening story dates all the way back to Cap's very first comic, with a story by his creators Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. Obviously it reflects its time, with simple writing and art, and narrative logic tenuous. But it's neat seeing the Skull's first appearance, where Cap hasn't met him before (though, as mentioned at the start of this review, I'm not sure how it relates to overall continuity). While the final story, a 10 page short form Captain America: Red, White & Blue written and illustrated by Tony Salmons, is a suitable book-ends piece, once more taking us back to World War II -- but it's a forgettable piece, one of those comics common to the modern era of comics which seems oddly self-important...even as it is basically just mindless action.

Despite hit and miss quality of the stories selected, the decent-to-good reads outweigh the middling-to-poor ones, and even the lesser stories are forgivable sandwiched between the others, and themselves reflect different creative and political eras, which is surely the point -- the fun -- of a collection like this. The stories themselves -- even with continuity references -- are mostly self-contained, making for a perfectly good collection of Cap stories to be read when the mood strikes for some red, white & blue action. And the assemblage of talent is more than satisfactory, most of these writers and artists familiar names to long time comic book readers, and to Captain America fans specifically.

A good collection.

Cover price: $__ CDN./$24.99 USA.

Captain America: War & Remembrance 1990 (SC TPB) 194 pages

Writen and co-plotted by Roger Stern. Drawn and co-plotted by John Byrne. Inked by Joe Rubinstein.
Colours: Bob Sharen, George Roussos. Letters: various. Editor: Jim Salicrup.

Reprinting: Captain America (1st series) #247-255 (1980)

Additional notes: intros by Stern and editor Salicrup; cover gallery; rarely seen six (wordless) pages from the aborted, never published "10th" issue by Stern-Byrne.

Rating: * * * * (out of 5)

Number of readings: 1 (some more)

War and Remembrance collects the complete run of Captain America comics by Roger Stern and John Byrne (and inker Joe Rubinstein). Their run being limited as they had creative differences with the then-editorial regime and left the comic *. It was first collected in 1990, in the days when TPB collections were meant to be noteworthy -- as opposed to now where, well, everything seems to end up in a TPB eventually.

Admittedly, there's little here that stands out as "classic" or "must have"...but it's an entertaining collection. And it's a relatively self-contained read, with little in the way of nagging sub-plots left dangling by the creative team's abrupt departure (the only thing that comes to mind is a letter Cap receives from the army, which maybe was supposed to lead into something).

Stern and Byrne seem heavily into Cap's history, resulting in recurring themes that act as unifying threads. The collection begins with a story in which Stern rewrites a bit of Cap's history (suggesting a previous story of his childhood was a false memory) in one of those retcons that are soooo common in comics...and ends with a re-telling of Cap's origin, creating a book-ends feel to this collection. Inbetween, there's a story wherein Cap reunites with some now-aged British members of The Invaders -- the WW II team he fought with. In this collected form, it actually feels like it's all part of a master plan.

Along the way, there are appearances by some regular allies (Nick Fury and SHIELD), familiar foes (Batroc, Mr. Hyde, and Baron Strucker -- sort of), and the non-super then-supporting cast (introducing love interest, Bernie Rosenthal). One of the best arcs in this collection is the opening one, in which the foe (seems to be) relatively original and it even builds to a pathos-tinged surprise ending. That story arc follows upon some earlier stories, but not in a way that it's really crucial to have read them. Which is why I say that this is kind of self-contained. Despite the recurring foes, the references to Cap's history, and the few asterix'd footnotes -- it's all explained, not demanding you bring an encyclopedia of Cap lore to the table.

I've complained before that Cap can be a problematic figure, depending on the writer's impulses -- and Stern and Byrne's Cap is decidedly of the more bland, unsubtle variety. That being said, he's not an unpersonable character. As a Canadian, I've never had the knee-jerk response to the character that, I suspect, American readers are supposed to. And some runs -- notably Stern's -- suffer from too many brazenly jingoistic captions reminding us how great Cap is, and how awe-inspiring he is (funny for a guy with no powers: in an early scene where Cap is running down the street, you realize just how truly ineffective he would be in reality -- on foot, it would take him most of the day just to cross part of the city).

But now that Cap/Steve Rogers has been killed off by the editorial "geniuses" at Marvel, I find I can regard these stories with more nostalgic affection (admittedly, Cap has been ressurected). As well, in a sense I was unfair -- Cap here was less supposed to be a propagandistic representation of American reality...and more a symbol of the nobler American ideals.

Part of the appeal of these issues is, of course, John Byrne's art. I used to be a huge Byrne fan (in his '70s/'80s X-Men days) but had kind of moved away from his camp, becoming a little too aware of the stylistic shortcomings (a kind of flatness to the figures) and as his style evolved into a looser, sketchier form (the cover to this collection demonstrates some of that). So even though I picked this up, partly thinking "Cool -- Byrne", another part of me thought "Oh, wait -- Byrne". But reading these, I'm reminded of the "Cool -- Byrne!" mentality. The art is good, and solid. There's a much solider line work and (in combination with inker Joe Rubinstein) a greater use of shadow -- making for some richly textured, atmospheric scenes, particularly useful in the Invaders-themed story as Cap takes on the vampire, Baron Blood (a solid two-parter mixing action, character, and some surprise twists and turns).

There's also a largely actionless story where Cap is wooed to run for president. It's an interesting idea, not badly handled...but not especially well handled. Cap's decision doesn't seem to derive from anything that occurred in the story itself. Ironically, Cap decides not to run because he feels that he must support the ideals of America...but a politician must be prepared to compromise. Isn't that Cap really denouncing his own ideals if even he is, essentially, saying they are impractical in a real world context?

The collection comes to an end with a retelling of Cap's origin. Before TPB reprints proliferated, the idea of retelling origins periodically made sense, for those who missed 'em the first time -- but, I'll admit, I've already read Cap's origin a few times...and it just ain't that complex or interesting. In an introduction, it is said they were "challenged" to tell Cap's origin in a single, cohesive issue...but it's not like there are really a lot of disparate threads and ideas that need to be tied together (heck, a few years later, there was whopping 200 page mini-series of it...and it still seemed lacking in embellishment and nuance). Perhaps they were inspired by The Untold Legend of the Batman, which came out around that time -- but Batman's origin had been added to so much over the years, putting it together in one story did make sense.

The Stern-Byrne take reads like a kind of Coles notes version, hitting all the necessary marks, but not really making it breathe. I rather liked Lee-Kirby's telling of it from Captain America #109 (collected in Essential Captain America 2 -- reviewed on the previous page), but though Stern and Byrne even repeat much of the same dialogue, it just doesn't seem to live and breathe. Ultimately, they reiterate the material, but bring nothing fresh.

Interestingly, in Marvel Super-Heroes #3 (a 1980s anthology comic) there was a story retelling Cap's origin...by inserting an"untold" story into the middle of it involving Steve Rogers (prior to becoming Cap) encountering Marvel's 1930's era adventurer, Dominc Fortune. It was a neat story because it added to the mythos, not just repeated it (if Marvel collected in a TPB Captain America #109, Marvel Super-Heroes #3, and maybe one or two other stories that might likewise add to the legend, they could craft a far more interesting "definitive" origin...than simply getting creative teams to re-stage the same scenes over and over again).

And, of course, viewed through modern eyes, there's just something so wrong about fighting a war gainst a regime that believed in a master race...by creating a blonde, blue-eyed, "super" man.

Anyway, despite some ups and downs, this emerges as a solid collection -- nothing classic, but an agreeable page turner and a snap shot of a creative era. It's one of those books that I came upon in the store, unaware such a collection even existed, and picked it up on a whim...and am kind of glad I did. (The Cap-Baron Blood story, and the Cap-for-president story were earlier collected in a black and white pocket book format).

* The "why" Stern and Byrne left the series has had a few explanations. The most common one, and which is repeated in one of the introductions to this collection, is that editor-in-chief Jim Shooter started restricting the number of three part (or longer) stories in comics, and Stern having already plotted his next three-part story, quit rather than edit the tale. The restriction on longer tales might seem Draconian -- and, if true, proved a short lived policy -- but could've been Shooter's attempt to curb lazy writing, where meager plots are stretched out over many issues. It has also been suggested that in the days of irregular newstand distribution, multi-parters could prove impractical. HOWEVER...later, Stern himself suggested it was because he and Byrne were in danger of falling behind their deadlines, and a "fill in" issue was going to be substituted. Stern, feeling that fill ins lost the momentum -- and the readership -- a regular team was trying to build up, and -- somewhat more mercenarily -- a fill in would mean he wouldn't get the bonus given to creators who produced x-number of consecutive issues, decided to just quit. So those are at least two semi-official explanations (semi-official in that they were offered by the people involved).

Original cover price: $__ CDN./ $12.95 USA 

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