Customer Reviews

Captain America by Jack Kirby, Vol. 2: Bicentennial Battles

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Back in the mid-1970's, Jack Kirby would return to the character that he had co-created, Captain America. Now comic hype was nowhere near what it is today. There was no internet...no magazines like Wizard, and yet the news of Kirby returning to Captain America was highly anticipated, even by a 13 year old kid like me! Heck, anything had to be better than the art of Frank Robbins who had been doing Cap for sometime Prior to Kirby's return. I believe Kirby made his return around issue #194, as Steve Rogers, who had quit being Captain America to become Nomad, once again donned the red, white, and blue to battle the Red Skull.

This run of Kirby, and specifically the issues in this book have very much the look and feel of Kirby's great work of the 1960's from Tales of Suspense. They only problem was that this was no longer the mid-1960's it was now the mid-1970's. Younger, hotter artists had first begun to really push the industry in the early 1970's. Guys like Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, Mike Kaluta, and others had ushered in a new era of gritty realism in comic art, and Steranko had done it on Captain America, albeit in a very limited run. And by this time John Buscema had really become the house artist at Marvel who others followed after, just as Kirby had been in the 1960's.

These Captain America stories have that 60's innocence about them and for nostalgia buffs and fans of Kirby, they will no doubt enjoy this book. But while I am a big Kirby fan there's no doubt that some of his dynamics were a bit lacking by this time. Still, it was great to see Kirby on Cap again after so many years.

I purchased the original tresury edition that features the Captain's Bicentennial Battles. It was true to the spirit of the character. In paticular Kirby, whose distinctive style made the title work. There are those who didn't care for his cartoony style. However, in an era of Neal Adams and John Buscema they look very out of place. What impressed me about Kirby? His stories had more truth and less pretense.

Kirby was the only artist/writer that made Cap's partner work. The Falcon was on equal footing as Captain America. Other writers made Falcon more of a follower of Cap's orders in later story arcs. Had Kirby been allowed to stay I believe he would have featured others from the Marvel Universe. As a young fan I was sad when he left because Captain America was never the same without him. Just as the Fantastic Four diminished without him as the artist.