Captain America in 1969
Steranko! I was starting to read these issues in a daze until I opened a page of the February issue and noticed Jim Steranko’s unmistakable style. I flipped back a page to the credits — yup, that’s him.
What a complete shot in the arm. At once, Cap tussles with the Hulk, Rick Jones suits up as Bucky (temporarily), and Hydra insert themselves into the story. Yes, I am very much a member of the Steranko cult. His art has this way of capturing the moments between time, if that makes sense.
Holy hell, it just remains incredibly silver age, yet adds so many pop art elements to it.
Hydra has also blown the series wide open. The shadowy cult organization just oozes this sort of romanticist James Bondian international intrigue. For Captain America, it just works incredibly well.
I also really liked the extensive story about Red Skull getting the Cosmic Cube again and making Cap’s life hell. On the other hand, getting ahold of near limitless power twice and not being able to make much use of it makes Skull look like kind of a dimwit.
Overall, I’m putting this year right up against the best of Fantastic Four and Spider-Man during this decade.
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