More pleasant surprises to be found

Batman No. 250
DC Comics
Creators: Frank Robbins, Irv Novick, Dick Giordano, Elliot S. Maggin and Frank McLaughlin
Cover date: July 1973

Frequent visitors to this blog know I have purchased a number of back issues and trades throughout my comics collecting history that get tossed on a pile to read “sometime.” During times when my monthly collecting habits ebb, I manage to get more of those “sometime” books read, and this happens to be one of those times.

Most recently, I’ve been reading some older issues of Batman and Detective Comics, specifically ones from the 1970s. Several of these books have held promise of one form or another, be it an oft-seen, familiar cover for which I’m finally getting to read the story behind or a fondly remembered childhood read I’m re-experiencing. Of course, it is always best when the actual read lives up to the anticipation.

The main story in this issue, “The Deadly Numbers Game!” by Frank Robbins, Irv Novick and Dick Giordano, is a decent, entertaining tale about the Dark Knight that showcases his detective skills nicely. But I was surprised to find that this regular-sized comic included not one story but three.

The second story in this magazine is a quick six-page Robin story by Elliot S. Maggin, Irv Novick and Frank McLaughlin. I’m a huge Dick Grayson fan, so I was delighted to see a Robin solo story. But the plot of this story involves Dick’s pre-Robin life, as indicated by its title, “Return of the Flying Grayson.” The story begins with two young boys marveling at an old poster of the Flying Graysons circus act. The boys know Dick Grayson as the Hudson University student tutors one of them, but they doubt the tutor is any relation to the acrobats depicted on the poster. Dick overhears their comments as he is in the same store, staking it out, hoping to catch some art thieves. Then later, when Robin stops the fleeing art thieves, he must also save the two boys who happen to be nearby during the take-down.

As fun as the Robin story is, though, the gem of this issue is the six-page final one. The story, “The Batman Nobody Knows,” by Frank Robbins and Dick Giordano is a simple tale of philanthropist Bruce Wayne taking three inner-city youths camping. Sitting around the campfire, the boys see a bat flit by in the moonlight and begin to share their ideas of who or what the Batman is. If the story sounds familiar to more modern audiences, it is because it was adapted into an episode of “Batman: The Animated Series,” specifically “Legends of the Dark Knight,” episode 19 of the third season of the show. The framing sequence and the children’s tales differ in each version, but both stories involve Gotham City youth relating how they each see Batman.

I had no idea such a significant story was hiding in the back of this issue, or at least, I don’t recall knowing that when I bought it. So it was a very pleasant surprise indeed to “discover” it.

History Really Does Repeat Itself

Essential Captain America Vol. 4 (collecting Captain America Nos. 157-186)
Marvel Comics
Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, Roy Thomas, Tony Isabella, Mike Friedrich and John Warner, writers
Sal Buscema, John Verpoorten, Frank McLaughlin, Alan Weiss, Frank Giacoia, John Tartaglione, George Roussos, Vinnie Colletta, Frank Robbins, Tom Orzechowski, Herb Trimpe and Mike Esposito, artists

These massive, black-and-white collected volumes — Marvel's Essentials line and DC's Showcase editions — can be a great way to experience classic stories at a reasonable price. Or they can be a bit cumbersome to get through if you don't really have an appreciation for the character, group or time period being presented.

This volume is one of the good ones. Despite the abundance of names listed above, the vast majority of this volume is the brainchild of writer Steve Englehart and artist Sal Buscema, and that helps this volume maintain a unified voice throughout. The books reprinted here come from the mid-1970s when the title featured both Captain America and the Falcon on the cover and the real-life America was in turmoil. The creators used those turbulent times as a backdrop for an identity crisis of sorts for Captain America himself.

This series of issues brings Cap and Falcon into confrontation with a villain named the Cowled Commander and then a new version of the Serpent Society. The heroes quickly thwart the villains' plans only to have one of the Serpent Society hatch a new plan to drive a wedge between the pair and discredit Captain America in the eyes of the public. That latest plot unfolds over several issues leading into a battle with a new group named the Secret Empire, which in turn leads to yet another incarnation of the Serpent Society.

Captain America and the Falcon aren't the only heroes in these pages. Various members of the Avengers make a number of appearances, along with Nick Fury and various agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., both named and unnamed. The Black Panther and the X-Men also show up for several issues each. And a number of villains, both old and new, also make appearances at various times forcing our heroes to keep on their toes. These nefarious figures include names like the Porcupine, Madame Hydra, Yellow Claw, the Tumbler, the Eel, the Viper, Stoneface, Lucifer and, of course, the Red Skull.

The stories collected in this volume are some really great reads, but it surprised me, reading through a number of these issues for the first time, how many modern ideas began here and how many themes explored in these pages have also been explored in more recent Cap stories. For instance, issue No. 170 is where the Falcon first gets his Wakandan-engineered wings. Before that issue, he used a rope to swing around the rooftops like other non-flying heroes. And while this earliest version of his wings merely helped him glide, they look quite similar to the modern pair he wore right up until he assumed the role of Captain America in the most recent Marvel Comics issues.

Cap's girlfriend in these pages is former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter, the same as in current Cap comics, although her back story has undergone some revisions over the years. But Cap's former World War II-era love interest, Peggy Carter, is re-introduced in these stories and becomes a current agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., somewhat mirroring events from the modern "Captain America" films and the "Agent Carter" television series.

The conclusion of the confrontation with the Secret Empire — particularly the revelation of the leader of the terrorist organization — leaves Cap shaken in conviction and spirit. This is when Cap first decides to stop being Captain America and creates the identity of Nomad, the man without a country. The Nomad identity would return in several story lines since this time, but also, during this period when Steve Rogers is Nomad and there is no Captain America, a number of others try their hands at wielding the famous shield in his absence. The fates of these folks who try to be the new Captain America are quite different from any of those following the death of Captain America in Ed Brubaker's Cap run from a few years ago or of the Falcon assuming the mantle in the most recent comics, but there are also similarities.

These are really some great stories and some very key issues in the history of Captain America. Much of the credit for that goes to writer Steve Englehart, again the writer or co-writer on almost all of the stories from this era of the character. That single narrative voice allows the various story lines to weave in and out of each other and interconnect in a way that multiple writers would find harder to pull off. This book alone represents two-and-a-half years worth of Captain America comics at the end of Englehart's run on the title; he also wrote several of the previous issues, collected in Essential Captain America Vol. 3.

On a side note, one of the fill-in issues collected in this volume, No. 168, is a nice little diversion co-written by Roy Thomas and Tony Isabella titled "... And a Phoenix Shall Arise." This story, minus a few references to then-current continuity that dated the story, was turned into a Captain America Power Records book and record set, a copy of which I still own. If you aren't already familiar with Power Records, you should check out Rob Kelly's excellent Power Records blog (http://powerrecord.blogspot.com/) for more on these great little sets.

Switching to the art side of things, Sal Buscema lends his considerable talents to giving the look of these stories the same cohesiveness Englehart's writing does on the story side. Buscema had several different inkers on the issues included here, but the consistency in the pencils gives all of the characters distinctive looks throughout. Buscema's Cap is a strong, muscled defender of the American ideals and the quintessential silver age heroic ideal.


The drawback to that consistency shows up to horrible effect in four of the last five issues collected in this volume when penciller Frank Robbins takes on the art chores. I don't mean to attack the man's skill; I am no artist myself, so I have little room to criticize. More importantly, I have seen some absolutely gorgeous Frank Robbins art in some other titles. But his work in these issues of Captain America looks very rough throughout and downright awkward in a number of action panels. I've included a couple of the worst panels. The one on the left shows Steve Rogers in his Nomad guise traveling across the rooftops in a very strange pose, and the right one shows one of the Captain America wannabes traveling in the same manner with the Falcon. Neither image makes the subject look very comfortable, natural or heroic. These images are not typical of Frank Robbins' art in other venues, but his art on these final issues is the only downside I see in an otherwise great Captain America collection!