Aug 1983
Diverging...
by J. M. DeMatteis, Sal Buscema, Kim DeMulder, Diana Albers, Bob Sharen, Mark Gruenwald
Captain America, Nick Fury, and Nomad visit Dum Dum Dugan in the hospital. Dum Dum is ready to retire from SHIELD until Fury announces that he has decided to make him Deputy Director. Fury offers Nomad a job but he turns it down.
Cap and Nomad head back to Steve’s building. They stop along the way to break up a domestic dispute. A man is holding his wife and kids at gunpoint.
Steve and Jack make it back to the building in time for the party that Bernie is throwing. A lot of Steve’s friends are there including Sam Wilson and Arnold Roth. Jack feels out of place until he starts chatting with Arnold. Steve flips Bernie’s ex-husband over his shoulder by accident.
Steve and Bernie sit down to watch Yankee Doodle Dandy, after the party. They don’t get very far into it before Steve has to rush off to save someone. It turns out to be the same situation as before: the man holding his family hostage. She refused to press charges so the police didn’t arrest him earlier. This time the disgruntled husband has taken things a step farther and has taken a few shots at the police officers that have shown up to deal with the situation. This time the man gets arrested and Steve goes back to Bernie’s place.
There is one interlude in the midst of the story. It takes place in another hospital room. Jeff Mace (aka the Patriot) lies in a bed dying. He asks the doctor to bring Captain America before it is too late.
Thoughts
I just noticed that I am well into the 1983 issues of Captain America and have yet to read Captain America Annual 6 (1982). I need to fix that. The Jeff Mace interlude brought this to my attention. Annuals 6 and 7 are part of the Captain America 1981-1984 run but neither of them is available on Marvel Unlimited or Comixology. Annual 7 was not written by J.M. DeMattheis or drawn by Mike Zeck so I might skip that one but it does involve Project Pegasus so I might not skip it. Annual 6 was written by DeMattheis with breakdowns by Ron Wilson plus it is an old favorite of mine so I will have to read that one. Jeff Mace shows up in Annual 6.
This story seems to be of a type that DeMattheis likes to tell. He likes to show Captain America, the American dream, confronted with the reality of what life is like for many Americans. Some people want to reshape America so that it conforms to their vision of the Dream which is often a white washed version of America. Others lash out because they are frustrated with their inability to achieve the Dream. DeMattheis doesn’t get too preachy but notes of that song are present here.
Letters to the Living Legend
Letters of praise about Captain America 280 and the tone of DeMattheis writing on the book.
Question of the Month: If you could have one super-power, what would it be?
Special Announcements - a blizzard turned a working weekend in Feb into a slumber party; editor Mark Gruenwald is curious about how people are using the OHotMU for characters in role-playing games.
Bullpen Bulletins
Marvel staffer Morrie Kuramoto takes the Bullpen to lunch at his favorite sushi restaurant. Jim Shooter has no interest in eating raw fish and doesn’t join the gang even though Morrie taught him a lot about comics production work. Marvel plans to send all of its editors to the San Diego Comic Con (Aug 4-7, 1983) and leave assistant editors in charge while they are gone. Marvel covers (including the Epic line) will be sporting a new look for books that go on sale in July 1983.
No comments:
Post a Comment