Would you believe it, I’m behind in the blog department again. I read this ages ago and have had trouble finding the time to write this post. So, yet again, I’ll have to keep this short, sweet and to the point.
This review is for the Captain America by Jack Kirby Omnibus, which reprints:
Captain America Annuals 3 & 4
Captain America Bicentennial Battles
Captain America 193-214
All printed in 1976 & 1977 and it weighs in at about 570 pages.
This is the first time that Kirby was left solo with Cap, he was writing and pencilling the book and that gives it a different flavour to any of his previous runs.
Throughout this volume we have, what I consider to be, Kirby at his prime. Whilst I love Silver Age Kirby, when he was working for Marvel in that period, he had a very high output of pages, as dynamic and iconic as his Silver Age work was, to my mind, it was often obvious that he had to rush through many of the pages resulting in some books that were quite sparse, particularly in the backgrounds. By the mid seventies he wasn’t putting out so many pages on a monthly schedule, so the ones that he was producing look that little bit more refined. I should also say that my first exposure to Kirby was his work done in this period, so for me, this later mature style, with all of those exaggerated Kirbyisms, is the style that I most strongly associate with him. So, yeah, I’m biased, but this is perfect Kirby for me.
 |
| Cowboy Cap from Bicentennial Battles |
Kirby’s writing and dialogue is often said to be his weak point, but early in this volume we’re treated to the giant Bicentennial Battles and the time hopping adventures of Cap through American history. Whilst the story itself is a very loose affair, with Cap moving from adventure to adventure, often within a few short pages, the payoff is fantastic. Kirby really plays on the heart strings in those last few pages, it’s entirely sentimental and you see it coming from a mile off, but it works perfectly, nostalgia and hope for the future are deftly amalgamated in one of the most emotional (if slightly corny) scene’s of Kirby’s, that I’ve ever read. There’s even an appearance by a younger version of the King Himself (not Elvis) that any fan with half an eye will spot and have a knowing smile at.
 |
| CA 193, Not scanned from this volume. |
Into Madbomb, and Kirby just doesn’t let you take a breath. The pacing for this run is a little off, with a fair amount devoted to a half baked love interest plot that clearly isn’t going anywhere, but the meat of the tale is so brilliantly bizarre that only Jack could have pulled it off. The story revolves around an elitist extremist attempting to take control of America, with the intention of reverting to a rigid class system. I’ve read a negative assessment of the ending for this story, but in my opinion the final scenes were quite powerful and bravely executed. Rather than the usual fisticuffs, Kirby, through Cap, exposes the pathetic cowardice of the main villain, resulting in this once seemingly powerful figure being left entirely impotent and devoid of menace, with only the most condescending of pity registering with the audience. There is no glorious defeat at the hands of the Hero, only the nerveless shell of the Villain is left.
 |
| CA 208, Not scanned from this volume |
The final major arc is a real jumble of events that sees Cap bouncing from one story to another in a way that offers little sense of completion. Previously collected in a volume called Captain America & The Falcon: The Swine, which is certainly a misnomer. Initially Cap is drawn in to an investigation of a South American dictator, subjugating the population in extremely hard labour prisons, he is the Swine. But Kirby switches the action part way through, with a dramatic change that lacks resolution and we are suddenly confronted with the outlandish Arnim Zola and his inhuman creations. As the action plays out we get to the core of the story when we learn that Zola’s benefactor is (at last) The Red Skull. Kirby weaves several disparate threads together into a satisfying whole by the close of this story, I wonder if his intent with this tale was to experiment with the multi-book storytelling of the Fourth World stories, but condensed into one title following various protagonists. If that was his intent, I don’t think it worked as well as the Fourth World epic, but the off kilter story does pull itself together in the final pages, which are intentionally repulsive using the ultimate manifestation of Zola’s experiment as a literal visual device to mirror the horror contained in the Red Skull’s philosophy.
As a whole package this volume contains some superb examples of Kirby’s mature phase. I wouldn’t describe it as hit and miss, but some of the arc’s and experimentations work better than others. One thing that definitely cannot be said is that Kirby allows the stories to stagnate. Yes, there are highs and not so highs, but this volume is constantly playing with the tropes of the genre and medium. There’s the emotionally driven ending of Bicentennial Battles, the lack of a physical confrontation at the climax of Madbomb and the mid story shift of The Swine. All of which are unexpected and show a creator willing to take a chance with his audience rather than playing it safe with a tried and tested formula.
There’s no question that Kirby’s Captain America, whether it be from the Golden Age, Silver Age or Bronze Age should take up space on your bookshelf. Many have tried, but no one could do it like Kirby because not even Kirby does it like Kirby more than once.
Mad Thinker Reads..............
Three Ages of Kirby Greatness
.
No comments:
Post a Comment