Captain America (Vol. 3) #19

TITLE: Captain America (Vol. 3) #19

PUBLISHER: Marvel

COVER DATE: July 1999

COVER PRICE: $1.99

22 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

Mark Waid and Captain America were like chocolate and peanut butter back in the latter half of the 90's. I still remember picking up issue #444 and being blown away. In fact, the only memory I have of Waid's Captain America run that is more vivid than that was hearing that he was off the book a year later to make way for the Heroes Reborn stunt. That's a discussion for another day, however, for Waid's run ended up affecting my collecting habits in three ways.

To start with, it was the first time that I actively became a Captain America solo title reader. The best Avengers books always had Cap in them, but for some reason that never prompted me to pick up his solo book. That all changed with this issue, and lasted up until the post 9-11 relaunch.

Secondly, it made me a Ron Garney fan for life. Yeah, I had enjoyed his work on the Midnight Sons side of the Marvel Universe previously, but this work was on a whole different level. It's just too bad that he's pencilling books I really don't care about these days, as I miss his stuff. Seriously, I'd kill to get him and Jason Aaron on anything other than another Wolverine book.

Thirdly, it cemented Mark Waid firmly into the category of trying anything new that he does. That's held true for the last ten years until just recently with him joining the post-Brand New Day Spider-Man universe. I hear good things, but I'm just not that big of a Spidey fan to invest in a whole new continuity.

Back to this issue then, four years later, and Mark Waid is back on the title after it's relaunched (again) after the Heroes Reborn story ran it's course. This issue has Andy Kubert on pencils, who stepped on board after Ron Garney left. I'd totally forgot that Andy Kubert had a nice run on this title, so I'm looking forward to seeing some of his pencils again.

The Kubert's work on DC recently has been so spotty that it seems like it's been ages since I've enjoyed their pencils. Hell, there was a time when you could pick up a Marvel book, and nine times out of ten it would be drawn by a Kubert!

Wow, that's a long pre-amble. I hope I didn't bore you too much with my stroll down Memory Lane. Let's stop pumping up Mark Waid's ego and check out the actual book itself, of which I remember surprisingly little of the plot.

Triumph Of The Will

• Writer: Mark Waid
• Penciler: Andy Kubert
• Inker:Jesse Delperdang
• Colorist: Greg Wright
• Letterer: Todd Klein
• Editors: Matt Idelson and Bobbie Chase
• Editor in Chief: Bob Harras

Sharon Carter awakens to the reality that the Red Skull is now in possession of the Cosmic Cube. The Earth is doomed, as soon he will become unbeatable.

Thankfully, she also sees Captain America rise to stop him. He rushes forward, morphing his electroshield into a sword, raising it to strike the Red Skull.

Did I mention that this book is from the 90's? No? Then I guess the electroshield gave that away. Seriously though, Mark Waid made it work. In the hands of any other creator, it probably wouldn't have. It's just another case in point that there are indeed good books from this decade.

Sharon's not the only one watching these events unfold, as the Watcher stands in the shadows. He has urged Captain America to take down the Red Skull once and for all, and now that he's about to strike he lets out a smile.

The smile is short lived, as at the last moment Cap morphs the sword into a bo-staff. His strike glances off of the Red Skull's armor, allowing the Skull to fight back and sending Cap flying backwards.

He lands at the feet of the Watcher and Cap manages to surprise him for a second time by seeing through his disguise. That's right, it's not really the Watcher, but Korvac!

Korvac has been playing Captain America, tricking him into killing the Red Skull and siphoning off his cosmic cube infused power for himself. In a series of flashbacks into an alternate future we find out that Cap continues to hound Korvac, only to have Korvac continually reset the timeline whenever Cap gets close to defeating him.

Even books from 1999 can't escape the curse of 90's costume design asthetics! That's a nice Cap though.

During these constant battles, Cap tricks Korvac into going back in time to before the Skull attained the power cosmic in an attempt to get the power for himself. That's where we pick up the story in the present, with Korvac revealed and the Red Skull nigh omnipotent.

The Red Skull presses the advantage, forcing Korvac to flee to his ship in earth orbit with Cap and Sharon in tow. Korvac is ready to flee the solar system, but Cap calls his bluff and convinces him that he is Korvac's only hope against the Red Skull.

With the power of the cosmic cube now fully assimilated, the Red Skull takes the earth as his own. From the mountains to the oceans, it is all his...but there is still one thing that distracts him, and that is Captain America.

Now that he has become like a god, he can sense the deception that Captain America is planning on board Korvac's ship in orbit. One quick teleport later and he is on board the ship, spreading Korvac thin across six dimensions with the power of the cube.

He has come to finish off Captain America personally, for even though the Skull has won...Captain America has not lost completely and totally...yet.

Before he assimilates the knowledge contained in Korvac's ship, the Skull will take one more stab at ruining Captain America. He possesses the soul of Sharon Carter and forces her to fight Cap. For him to get to the Skull, he will have to kill the woman he loves.

Cap tries to go easy on Sharon, fighting mostly on the defensive, trying to break the hold that the Skull has on her. He finally does it by admitting that he loves her. She breaks the Skull's hold momentarily, and Cap takes the advantage with a haymaker punch that knocks her out cold.

It's all too late, however, as the Skull is now moments away from entering the data stream of Korvac's ship and assimilating all the knowledge contained therein. As he steps in, he's rudely awakened as Cap's true plan comes into light. It wasn't the data stream they were standing in front of after all, it was the anti-matter engine core.

Realizing the gig is up, the Red Skull decides to that if he is to die, he will take Captain America with him. Using the last of his power before he is disintegrated, he starts a chain reaction that begins to destroy the ship. In a desperate gambit, Cap jumps headfirst into the anti-matter core and grabs the cosmic cube that is left floating where the Red Skull was just moments ago.

Using the power of the cube, Cap wills himself and Sharon to safety on the earth. They arrive just in time to see Korvac's ship exploding in the sky. As he ponders if the Red Skull had the same idea and saved himself, Cap turns to Sharon only to see her disappear before his eyes.

The Red Skull has been defeated, but at what cost?

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

I really miss reading a good Mark Waid book. When he clicks with a character and a fellow creator, he makes some damn good comics. Captain America was one of those books. He really took Cap out of the craziness of the 90's and brought him into the world of modern storytelling. It's just a shame that his run got cut off early to make way for Leifeld and company. They tried to recapture the magic, but never quite got the old magic back.

Even though, this was still a pretty entertaining issue. Of course, it's hard to go wrong when you have Cap, the Red Skull, and the cosmic cube all in the mix together. The fact that Andy Kubert is on board to handle the pencils makes the loss of Ron Garney easier to take. They have complimentary styles that makes the transition seamless, but he has has a dynamism that is all his own.

In fact, I had such a good time reading this issue that I'm tempted to go back and reread Waid's entire run. That is something that definitely needs to be collected in a nice omnibus trade. I doubt it will ever happen as long as Brubaker keeps kicking ass on his version of Captain America, but until then I still have my single issues.

All characters should have such dilemmas...should I read the awesome, current version by Ed Brubaker or the seminal work done by Mark Waid. Decisions, decisions...

All characters and artwork reproduced are (c) Marvel Comics

Related links for your surfing pleasure...

• Mark Waid's official website
• Captain Ameriblog takes a look at the wide variety of Cap merchandise available over the years
• Comics Should Be Good! takes a look at some iconic Red Skull covers
• The Daily P.O.P. goes in depth into a study of The Red Skull
• They actually made a trailer for this? Who knew...

Comic Book Review: Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #23

TITLE: Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #23

PUBLISHER: Marvel

COVER DATE: May 1991

COVER PRICE: $1.50

23 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

Nick Fury's a badass...that's what I remember.

In a perfect world, that's all you need to remember. Unfortunately, the world has not been a perfect place for Nick Fury. I was too young (read not born yet) for the classic Lee/Kirby and Steranko stuff. My golden age for Nick Fury begins and ends with this title.

Jackson Guice brought me in (as recalled here), and I've been a fan ever since. It's been a rough couple of decades since then. When Fury has not been outright ignored, he's been mis-handled. Jonathan Hickman has been doing the best with the status quo he was given recently, but the jury is still out on Secret Warriors.

So what was it about these issues that jaded my view of all Fury comics since then? Was this run that good, that I was browned off of all future interpretations?

Let's stop messing around and find out...

Storm Warning

• Writer: D.G. Chichester
• Penciller: Jackson Guice
• Inker: Doug Hazelwood
• Letterer: Phil Felix
• Colorist: Steve Buccellato
• Editor: Mike Rockwitz
• Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco

We open up with a speedboat cruising down a river through Moscow. On board is Fury and a small team of operatives, along with one of his old Soviet army pals from WWII. Yuri Spetsburo has called on Fury to help him track down some rogue K.G.B. agents, for as he comments, "A scandal at this time within the Soviet Union could set back all of the gains from Glasnost and Perestroika."


Nina, the precog on the team, gets a mental impression of one of the rogue agents. It seems they are chasing a Miss Rosa Kleb, formerly of the Soviet Glavnoe Razvedyvatelnoe Upravlenie. I hope her telepathic powers came with a spell checker, cause that right there is a lot of consonants and vowels all scrambled up.

They track Miss Rosa down to an abandoned cargo ship at the edge of the river. Nick Fury, ready to put an end to this chase, jumps out and into the cargo ship. Not ready to sit on the sidelines either, Yuri charges in shortly thereafter.


In a foreshadowing of the double cross to come, Fury catches Yuri sneaking up behind him. Yuri recalls their past associations and comradeship and brushes it off as Nick overreacting. Fury must obviously be getting too jumpy in his old age. They decide to split up, in a hope to find the girl faster.

Fury comes across her first, and quickly has to dodge the wildly flailing pipe that she comes out swinging with. So wild and uncontrolled are her strikes, that the floor gives way beneath them, sending them falling deeper into the cargo ship.


This is another one of those pages that I have forgotten about over the years, but as soon as I turned the page I instantly remembered it. There's something about the way this page is structured and laid out that I liked at the time, and still enjoy.

Back into the action, Nick manages to grab hold of a crossbeam and snags Rosa's arm, saving her from falling to her death. He heaves her over to some planks to safety, while Nick makes the climb back up himself.


Something about her blackmail plot just doesn't sit right with Fury, so he channels his best James Bond suaveness in an attempt to get her to talk. I already highlighted the most entertaining pick-up line of the issue here, but old Nicky keeps laying it on.

No one can resist the charms of Nick Fury!

She is just about to explain how they were secretly working for someone else, when Yuri sneaks up behind her (it's apparently his signature move) and snaps her spine with his prosthetic hook hands.

Did I mention that he had a prosthetic hook for a hand? Honestly, what good double-crossing espionage villain worth his salt doesn't have a prosthetic hand.

Paralyzed, Rosa is unable to defend herself as Yuri shoves her out into the open towards Fury, yelling that she's armed. In all the confusion, Fury takes the shot, relying on his military training and reflexes.


Yuri "explains" to Fury how she had come at him in the dark and just barely managed to hold her off until Nick saved he day. It doesn't sound like Nick buys his story, but it's apparently convincing enough for him to not notice the blatant lack of a sidearm that she was supposedly brandishing. Ah well, Yuri, whatever you say...

We now take a complete 180 with this story and head over to a convention hall, where A.I.M. is holding a weapons and technology expo. It seems that A.I.M. has cut its ties to Hydra and is trying to rebrand itself as a weapons manufacturer, minus all of that "world domination" nonsense.

I was going to recap this scene, but I can't draw any logic about how an ex-criminal organization which specializes in weapons manufacturing is holding an expo which caters to "individual malcontents right up through aggressive nations." How any of this is legal, or allowed to happen so openly is beyond me. It's not like they're trying to be inconspicuous about it, as a reporter from Modern Warrior Magazine is on the scene because their "readers are very interested in learning more about A.I.M.". I'm sure the U.S. Government is too, hopefully they have a subscription as well.

The reporter continues to interview the A.I.M representative down on the show floor, as we see a bald man shopping for weapons in the background. Just as he finds the biggest (and also conveniently loaded) rocket launcher at the show, the reporter shows her true Hydra colors by assassinating the A.I.M. rep with her secret camera gun. The bald man uses the rocket launcher to blow a hole in the ceiling as Hydra agents parachute down and secure the entire area.


Enter Baron Von Strucker, who praises his agents for an operation well done. All of A.I.M.'s prototypes and their full inventory of weapons is now his. Everything is now in place for his war on S.H.I.E.L.D.

But wait, the issue's not over yet. What good Fury story is complete without a visit from The Red Skull, and that's just what we get in the last three pages.

It seems our friend Yuri from the first half of the book was double-crossing Nick Fury for The Red Skull. The whole "rogue K.G.B. agent and blackmail plot" was a ruse to keep Fury occupied so Baron Von Strucker could take out A.I.M. without any interference from S.H.I.E.L.D.


Yuri was nothing more than a reluctant double agent, as he was being blackmailed by The Red Skull. It seems The Red Skull had some papers that implicated Yuri as a Nazi sympathizer back in WWII and was threatening to release them unless he helped The Red Skull distract Fury. Now that the mission was complete, the documents are Yuri's as The Red Skull bids a fond farewell.

In the end, Yuri learns an important lesson about dealing with supervillains, as the papers that he sold Nick Fury out for turn out to be completely blank. The double crosser gets double crossed. Despondent, he turns his gun on himself, unable to live with what he has done.

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

The big takeaway that learned form this issue is that typing out anagrams are a pain in the butt. In this issue alone we have S.H.I.E.L.D., the K.G.B., and A.I.M. all doing their best to wear out the period key on my laptop. Although, now that I think about it, it's easier than typing out Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage Logistics Directorate every other paragraph.

In the end, that wasn't enough to distract from my enjoyment of this issue. If you ignore the rather silly premise of the A.I.M. convention, you end up with a nice little espionage tale. This is a story that works well on it's own, but is also obviously part of a larger storyline.

D.G. Chichester (no, not more initials) does a good job setting the scene and keeping you guessing as to who is actually working for whom. Yeah, for the most part the double-crosses are telegraphed well in advance, but I did enjoy the final three pages with The Red Skull. I had forgotten about our boy Yuri by this time, so it was nice to see Chichester bring it all back together.

I've already expressed my admiration for Butch Guice several times already, so in lieu of sounding like a stalker I'll just say that I enjoyed his work here. It wasn't the strongest work I've ever seen him produce, as the consistency was spotty, but it was good nonetheless.

At the end of the day, we have a solid Nick Fury storyline featuring A.I.M., Hydra, Baron Von Strucker, and The Red Skull. You can't ask for much more than that.

All characters and artwork reproduced are (c) Marvel Comics