Thunderbolts #32

Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
November 1999
***

An aristo-fascist conspiracy airs the ol’ gladiator trope. Like so much of this mag, both in writing & art, it’s well-crafted convention—but compare this melée of zaps & thunks to Kirby’s original (a killer roller-derby)! Thru it all, I’m still not a Bagley fan: his style is pretty, but he never surprises me.

last issue: Thunderbolts #31
next issue: Thunderbolts #33

also indexed for Nov. ’99
Avengers #22
Avengers Forever #11 of 12

Thunderbolts #31

Kurt Busiek // Mark Bagley
October 1999
***

Encyclopedic Busiek goes all-out on the Roy Thomas Approach, tying a quasi-fascist conspiracy from Kirby’s ’70s Cap to Englehart’s Secret Empire. Like Bag’s art, the tale’s fun but generic, lacking the political conviction of those earlier writers; these are simply heavies trying to conquer America.

last issue: Thunderbolts #30
next issue: Thunderbolts #32

also indexed for Oct. ’99
Avengers #21
Avengers Forever #10 of #12 

Captain America & the Falcon #200

Jack Kirby
August 1976
***
Cap stares down the royalist conspiracy’s leader; the Falcon destroys the WMD that would’ve driven America insane. And so the 8-issue Madbomb Affair ends, a formulaic superspy arc. Tho’ Kirby drops plot threads & skimps on character, his stylized art & superb pacing adds tension to the operation.
[last issue: Captain America & the Falcon #199]
[next issue: Captain America & the Falcon #201]

Captain America & the Falcon #199

Jack Kirby
July 1976
***
Great as Kirby is (you can feel the heat of the cover’s explosion), his bicentennial arc centering on a royalist conspiracy just isn’t catching fire. The best part’s the Madbomb, an ingenious piece of Kirbytech whose mechanical brain drives men to violent insanity & whose inventor defects to SHIELD.
[last issue: Captain America & the Falcon #198]
[next issue: Captain America & the Falcon #200]

Captain America & the Falcon #194

Jack Kirby
February 1976
***
Cap stumbles onto a royalist conspiracy in modern America. It’s anti-aristo, a four-color parable for populism. But Kirby follows Englehart’s more relevant view of 1970s politics in Cap, so good it renders this take corny & broad. On the plus side, Sam Wilson gets snarky over the Am Rev & slavery.
[last issue: Captain America & the Falcon #193]
[next issue: Captain America & the Falcon #195]