Captain America #50

a-plot: Ed Brubaker // Luke Ross
b-plot: Ed Brubaker // Marcos Martin
July 2009
a-plot: ***
b-plot: ****

Brubaker mirrors his half-century on CA by celebrating Bucky’s birthday & flashing back to his notable natal revels during the Big One. Bru used this device better in a Winter Soldier one-shot, partly cuz the sentiment felt earned & partly cuz its pencils were stronger than Ross’s generic movietone. A few bonus pages, a mod origin recap from Marcos Martin, do more w/ #50’s higher page count.

last issue: Captain America #49
next issue: Captain America #600

also indexed for Jul. ’09
Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #3 of 5
Guardians of the Galaxy #14
Nova #25
War of Kings #3 of 6
War of Kings: Ascension #2 of 4

Captain America 65th Anniversary Special #1 of 1

Ed Brubaker // Marcos Martin & Javier Pulido with Mike Perkins
May 2006
****

An anniversary cash-grab doubles as flashback for the mag’s current 2-parter. Late in the war, 19-year-old Bucky falls for a Resistance gamine while he, Cap & the Howling Commandos stop the Red Skull from exhuming a giant medieval robot (built, it seems, by a time-traveling Dr. Doom!). Brubaker fails to sell the romance’s importance, but Martin & Pulido’s matching 2D styles are sublime.

continued from Captain America #16
continued in Captain America #18

also indexed for May ’06
Annihilation: Prologue #1 of 1
Daredevil #83
Iron Man #6
Captain America #16
Nextwave, Agents of HATE #3
The Pulse #14
Runaways #14
X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl #3 of 5
Young Avengers #11

Dr. Strange: The Oath #5 of 5

Brian K. Vaughan // Marcos Martin
April 2007
****

Only one drop left of panacea, so only Wong gets cured & not the world. Unlike Whedon & Bendis (other major writers of Marvel’s ’00s style) BKV gets comics structure; but here he leans hard on melodrama & sentiment. And no resolution with the anti-magic pharma corp’s board either? Ah well.

last issue: Dr. Strange: The Oath #4 of 5

also indexed for Apr. ’07
Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus #1 of 2
Daredevil #94
The Immortal Iron Fist #4
Thunderbolts #111

Dr. Strange: The Oath #4 of 5

Brian K. Vaughan // Marcos Martin
March 2007
*****

This mini should earn the creative team an ongoing! #4 alone has Doc S killing an eldritch beast w/ Hitler’s suicide pistol! Cast includes a nurse from a 1970s romance mag & a doc whose sorcery couldn’t cure his patients. The last addresses a good Q: why hadn’t our hero applied mystic arts to medicine?

last issue: Dr. Strange: The Oath #3 of 5
next issue: Dr. Strange: The Oath #5 of 5

also indexed for Mar. ’07
Annihilation #6 of 6
Daredevil #93
Nextwave, Agents of HATE #12
Thunderbolts #110

Dr. Strange: The Oath #3 of 5

Brian K. Vaughan // Marcos Martin
February 2007
*****

Dr S dives into a merc’s psyche to learn his boss’s ID. The man behind the murders & theft of a cancer cure isn’t just a super-baddie, he’s another mystic medic—backed by a pharma conspiracy! Let’s take a sec to applaud Martin, a tyro who channels Ditko’s nervous lines & angles into a mod idiom.

last issue: Dr. Strange: The Oath #2 of 5
next issue: Dr. Strange: The Oath #4 of 5

also indexed for Feb. ’07
Annihilation #5 of 6
Astonishing X-Men #20
Daredevil #92
The Immortal Iron Fist #3
Nextwave, Agents of HATE #11
Runaways #23

Dr. Strange: The Oath #2 of 5

Brian K. Vaughan // Marcos Martin
January 2007
*****

Vaughan , a talent in the Whedon/Bendis mold, shows the latter influence in this unexpected comic. It’s a mystic detective mini, with cartoon-cool art (part of the growing School of Mazz), as the Doc, his man Friday, & GP Night Nurse head into the NY night for mysticism, medicine, & murder!

last issue: Dr. Strange: The Oath #1 of 5
next issue: Dr. Strange: The Oath #3 of 5

also indexed for Jan. ’07
Annihilation #4 of 6
Astonishing X-Men #19
Civil War #7 of 7
Daredevil #91
Nextwave, Agents of HATE #10
Runaways #22

Dr. Strange: The Oath #1 of 5

Brian K. Vaughan // Marcos Martin
December 2006
*****

“Oath” cleverly refers not to a hoary host but to Hippocrates. It’s how Vaughan grounds his mini in the Doc’s medical past. He also builds the conflict around servant Wong’s inoperable cancer, & even casts Night Nurse (romance heroine/vigilante medic). Martin echoes Dragotta’s recent Doc work.

next issue: Dr. Strange: The Oath #2 of 5

also indexed for Dec. ’06
Annihilation #3 of 6
Astonishing X-Men #18
Civil War #6 of 7
Daredevil #90
The Immortal Iron Fist #2
Nextwave, Agents of HATE #9
Runaways #21