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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Jack Kirby's best stories, and one of the best visual novels in comics, October 24, 2008
I think "Madbomb" is one of Kirby's best stories. It is well paced, has a strong thematic underpinning, and some very interesting dialogue between Cap and the Falcon about race relations and growing up in a ghetto. The dialogue in not at all realistic, and tends to hover on an operatic level, which I understand is off putting for some readers. The characters tend to talk in grand terms, because Kirby is presenting a story that takes place on a large stage with grand themes
Although there is personal drama in the story, and that drama is also operating on an operatic level. There are some truly poignant moments between the young, bed ridden woman - Carol - and Captain America. The sub-plot of Carol, and her father who is helping the new American fascists in order to earn the money to get her medical care, is an interesting multi-faceted story.
Jack's dialogue works for his stories. Madbomb is not operating on the same level as your typical Lee-Kirby Cap story, where he is fighting Zemo or the Red Skull, who are trying to take over the world with robots. Only the cosmic cube story approaches the level of the Madbomb, but even there, the story is about one megalomaniac trying to take over the world. Kirby's characters speak on an operatic level in order to get the larger than life drama and themes across that he is dealing with. What passes for "realistic" dialogue in the comic book world is generally not at all realistic, it is instead, merely casual, or very clipped and dry. People nor more talk in real life like Stan Lee written dialogue than Jack Kirby written dialogue.
"Madbomb" is about freedom, it's about race, it's about growing up and out of the ghetto, it's about the hurt and pain of illness, falling in love with someone who is trapped in evil. It's about doing wrong to save your child, and it about finding redemption. It's about the American ideal, the fact that America was build on good ideas but didn't get it right at the beginning, and still has work to do to get it right, but is a far better country then if it had been ruled by the tories, and the elite. The dialogue matches these sorts of concepts.
The loneliness of Cap and Carol is palpable in their dialogue - her perceptive abilities are uncanny - and later we find out why - not because she's superpowered, but because she is all to human. Carol is contrasted with the spoiled brat Cheer, who tho it is never stated in either the captions, or in the dialogue, obviously has a thing for Captain America. You can see she finds him attractive in the way Kirby renders her facial expressions when she looks at him, the way she holds herself. But she doesn't see the true Captain America, she only sees his surface beauty. She doesn't want him for an equal partner, she wants him for a house boy. A metaphor for the elite in the story.
"Madbomb" is perhaps is the best expression of what Kirby's Captain America stands for - liberty, individuality, freedom of thought, responsibility, and duty. We the people must always strive to make a more perfect nation and not just leave it to the hands of the politicians. When I read Kirby's Captain America and The Falcon, that's what I see - a striving to further flesh out the American dream, to route out racism, to further improve the lot of the poor, the need to take on personal responsibility to ensure our freedoms, and to look within to our attitudes about race, American history, and our own responsibility in caring for each other.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Jack Kirby and Action Art, December 7, 2006
This compendium has Kirby returning to Captain America without his long time collaborator, Stan Lee. Without Lee's control over the oft-enthusiastic Kirby, what comes out is a torrent of action and fast-paced plotting, unfettered by the more soap opera approach of Lee. Although very rough dialog sometimes inhibits the appreciation of the story, on balance, the reader is rewarded by non-stop action. It is a study in action art by the man who perfected action art, albeit the King is in the twilight of his career during this period.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Madbomb" is Captain America by Jack Kirby, Vol. 1, September 19, 2006
This book contains Captain America & The Falcon #193 (1976) - #200 (1976). This book begins Jack Kirby's mid 70's run on CA, with the "Bicentennial Battles" book being Vol.2
This volume contains Jack Kirby's pencils for each cover as well as the finished cover art for each book.
For more information about other books containing Captain America by Jack Kirby, please see my list.
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