Comics Recap #7: Odds & Ends Part 2

I finally got through all the comics I bought around the holidays, so I haven't been reading as many lately.  Here are a few I did pick up:

Golden Age Captain America Vol 1 by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby:  Golden Age comics are fun to read sometimes.  It was a simpler time back then when plots and characters were kept simple because they were intended mostly for kids.  In this case we get the humble origin of Captain America, when he was actually a man IN time.  The actual origin of his powers is almost an afterthought in the first issue.  There's no thought given to why Steve Rogers is there to get the serum or where he comes from or who his parents are or anything like that.  He's just there and gets injected with a serum that makes him superhuman and then a saboteur kills the doctor before Cap stops him.

Despite the famous cover of Cap punching Hitler, he actually does almost no fighting overseas.  The focus of the book is on Nazi saboteurs.  Private Steve Rogers operates out of an Army camp in New Jersey with his young pal Bucky and either the bad guys come to them or they read something in the newspaper and go investigate.  There's no government oversight or Nick Fury or any kind of direction to it.  Steve's army life seems pulled from Beetle Bailey for the most part.  In a bit of irony, the main female character's name is Betty Ross, the same name used for the Hulk's girlfriend about 25 years later.  Anyway, one of these saboteurs is the Red Skull who is just some guy in a red sweatsuit with a swastika on it and who wears a red skull mask.  The first time he appears there's a Scooby-Doo ending where they pull off the mask to see who he really is.

It's all very simplistic and yet campy fun, like watching Superfriends or Adam West Batman.  And for the $3.99 I certainly got my money's worth because each issue has at least 3 illustrated stories plus a "novelette" written by some guy named Stan Lee.  And there are two back-up comics featuring Tuk the Cave-boy and the Hurricane, who is a Greek god who fights the devil.  On a side note, for people who make disparaging remarks about Batman and Robin's relationship, Steve and Bucky actually share an army tent, where they sleep only inches apart.  Modern cynicism would have a lot of fun with that.  (4/5)

X-Men Season 1 by Dennis Hopeless:  This is basically a reboot of the original Stan Lee version of the X-Men, when they all had matching yellow-and-black suits like the ones they used in the First Class movie.  Only this is set in present day.  It has the familiar set-up where Charles Xavier wants to show the world mutants aren't dangerous so he rounds up five of them to make a superhero team.  There's Cyclops with his optic blasts, Angel with his wings, Ice Man with ice powers (duh), Beast with his um beast powers, and Marvel Girl (Jean Grey) with her telekinesis.  They do battle with Magneto--and with each other.  If Marvel ever wanted to do a teen-oriented show as DC has done (and continues to do) this would be a good place to start because there's a lot of teen angst mixed in with all the punching and optic blasting.  It mostly comes in two forms:  worry about fitting in with the outside world and crushing on someone, often someone on the team.  Like any reboot it's mostly familiar but fresh enough not to feel like a complete rerun. (3.5/5)

Punisher Enter the War Zone by Greg Rucka:  This was apparently the end of Rucka's run with the Punisher so he decides to go out with a bang by pitting Frank Castle against the Avengers.  After the Punisher steals one of Spider-Man's web shooters and uses it to help escape from a tight spot, Spidey convinces the Avengers they should finally go after the Punisher.  If they really went after him at full-bore it wouldn't be much of a fight.  To drag it on through five issues they first send Black Widow after him, but she gives up when the Punisher leads her to rescue a bunch of enslaved kids in Africa.  Then Thor goes to pound a few ales with him and convince him to quit, but he doesn't.  So finally the whole team gets involved, but Castle has a few surprises in store for them.  It was OK but really feels like it was playing with loaded dice since the whole thing could have been wrapped up in one issue.  I mean all that needed to happen was Thor shows up and fries him some lightning or pounds him into paste with his hammer.  And since it mostly focuses on the Avengers, I think the Punisher has maybe ten lines (other than grunts or screams or whatever) through the whole thing.  So not exactly a character building exercise there.  Anyway, I'm sure by now the Punisher has escaped from the Avengers's clutches so it really doesn't mean a lot.  (3/5)

X-Men: Curse of the Mutants by Victor Gischler:  A while back I read the Namor portion of this storyline since it was on sale.  When they put the main story on sale, I figured I might as well buy it.  The set up for this is that San Francisco is beset by vampires led by Dracula's son, who has taken the vampire throne by chopping off the old man's head.  His idea is that by teaming up, vampires and mutants can take over the world.  What should be an epic showdown between vampires and mutants turns out to be a turkey shoot, so really after four issues building it up it ends with a sad trumpet sound or maybe that loser music from the Price is Right.  But I guess it is pretty obvious when you have guys who need to bite people in the neck going up against people who can turn their skin to metal or diamond or stone.  Blade joins in on the vampire slaying fun, though he's not a mutant.  I'm not sure what the title is even supposed to mean since there's really no "curse" in this.  Anyway, it was kind of disappointing. (3/5)