Customer Reviews

Captain America by Jack Kirby, Vol. 1: Madbomb

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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.

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.

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.

In 1975-76, King Kirby was reunited with one his greatest creations, Captain America, with very satisfactory results. The King still had grand ambitions to make comix stories that were powerful, wide in scope, and with potent social-political commentary, but had learned some painful lessons from the '4th World' series at DC, and also had some quasi-editorial support from Marv Wolfmann for this project. And The King never forgot how to make his material action-packed and emotional.

This story-arc deals with a covert plot by the wealthy elite of America to seize power and impose a dystopian feudal state over the continent. Not only did King Kirby accurately predict the events of the year 2000, he was also amazingly prescient regarding the incitement of mob violence and the re-emergence of lynching symbolism that besets our nation in 2011.

There are a lot of nice touches here, such as Kirby's preference to draw the SHIELD agents wearing regular street clothes, as would real secret agents, as opposed to the spandex tights that had been favored in Marvel comics since the Steranko days of 1968.

Also of note is one chapter, titled 'Captain America's Love Story,' in which the rythym of fight scenes and explosions is temporarily interrupted long enough for Our Hero to befriend a beautiful damsel, tragically afflicted by a terminal disease...not to spill the beans here, but this chapter is integral to the plot.

This book is recommended to fans of comics of this era, to fans of Kirby, to students graphics and to those who might study the means by which social commentators must deftly smuggle their messages to the world.

This is a real comic's classic.
First time I read this story was in the XX century, and, In my opinion, the best story of CAPTAIN AMERICA.
Here in Brasil, when this story was published (70-80?), the brazilian editor (EDITORA BLOCH)choiced to use a diferent size for the mazazine (smaller then US tradicional comics size).
Anyway, this Jack Kirby's classic catched me in the first contact.
The story was all published along some months, and, I remember the hard moments I had to suport untill the end finally comes.

Even in a smaller size, the art of the great disigner master was superb!
Watching and reading those comics I learned important lessons of drawing. (But, unhapiness, the quality of my drawings never reached the quality of the art o JK)

Sometime later, I loose my CAP's comics, and this story was no longer republished in Brasil, not even by other stronger editors that came with marvel titles and heroes in South America.

Whell, my waiting finished last week when I finally got in hands the all whole MADBOMB in one single edition!
The quality of the comic, and, the vivid colors put me in a real time travel to my past.
The story stills great and the art, fantastic!

If you are a CAP's fan, and, still didn't have the oportunity to meet the MADBOMB, don't waste your time, run for AMAZON, and get your own MADBOMB, not only because this is (in my single opinion) the best CAPTAIN AMERICA's story, but, also because this is a limited edition that, even reprinted, is almost SOLD OUT not only in USA but, in all over the world!
Even in the bests brazilian book's stores you wont find this title anymore.

Sorry for my poor English, friends.
Excelsior!

....1975..ahhhh nostalgia....
i remember reading my older brothers issues of Captain America #193-199 over and over again....
...the stories in this tpb by the King himself (Jack Kirby) are nothing short of classic....and i finally was able to read #200 after 30 something years..!!!!
FACE FRONT!!!

Jack Kirby's 70s Marvel work is very much under-rated, and largely unknown by a whole generation of readers. This is a shame, because in this collection is some fine story-telling unique to Kirby. Kirby mixes his own unique blend of action with some very sharp story-telling. If you haven't seen this material, you owe it to yourself to give it a look.

From DC and back to Marvel again. I wish Kirby had stayed on Captain America from the time he began in 1975. It was one year prior to his super size Bicentennial Battles Treasury Edition comic. It was a run I'll never forget and this is the story that started it all. For those of you don't know who this artist is check this book out. Though the stories can be heavy handed they do tell a lot about the artist and his point of view. I only wish younger readers of todays Marvel comics would rediscover what an important influence Kirby was to Marvel Comics because without him there would be no Marvel!