Captain America – Quest for Justice

March 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Captain America is a fictional character created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, and he made his first appearance in March, 1941, in Captain America Comics published by Timely Comics, the predecessor of Marvel Comics. The popularity of this superhero has generated over 200 million copies of “Captain America” comics in 75 countries.

In almost all stories of his origin, Captain America’s alter ego is Steve Rogers, a sickly young man who was “transformed” to the superhero character by an experimental serum. He was enhanced to the peak of human perfection to help the United States 2nd World War effort. He is identified by his costume that bears an American flag motif, and possess and indestructible shield that can be thrown as a weapon.

The shield was introduced in the 1960s comics, made accidentally by metallurgist Dr. Myron MacLain from an experimental alloy of steel and the fictional metal, vibranium. Because the alloy was produced accidentally it could never be duplicated. Attempts were made to reverse engineer it, but these were unsuccessful, although the result was another mythical substance, adamantum. The shield became Captain America’s main weapon, returning to him after being thrown. This lack of duplication of special powers or materials figures extensively in all superhero tales.

Apart from the shield, Captain America rides a custom Harley Davidson motorbike, modified by a weapons lab specifically for him. He also drives a battle-van, custom built by a company known as the Wakanda Design Group. Not only did it possess a chameleon-like ability to change color, but it also had room to hold the Harley in its rear section.

Captain America’s uniform is fire-retardant. Under it is a lightweight, bullet-proof “duralumin” material that he wore for added protection. His mask was originally a separate piece of material, but it was dislodged during a fight, and because this almost resulted in his identity being revealed, he decided to have it connected permanently to his uniform so there could be no recurrence of this. An added bonus was that his previously exposed neck was now better protected.

Joe Simon tells of how he created the superhero. He sketched the character wearing his costume, and came up with the name &#8216Super American&#8217. However, because he believed that one more ‘Super’ added to all the rest around at the time would not ripple any waters, he decided to change it to ‘Captain’ because there weren’t many of these in comics. So Captain America was born. Jo Simon’s friend was named Bucky Pierson, so he took that as the basis for Captain America&#8217s sidekick, James &#8216Bucky&#8217 Barnes.

Timely Comics best times were during the Captain America era, particularly during the wartime period. The reason he was created was to fight the Axis Powers of World War II: Germany, Italy and Japan. He was definitely the most popular character then due to timeliness and the relevance of his adventures. His popularity dropped rapidly after the war, and he disappeared in 1950 to make way for a new era of comic characters and superheroes.

An attempt was made by Atlas Comics, part of the Marvel group, in the early 1950s to revive the popularity of many of the superheroes. Captain America was resurrected along with the original Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner in Young Men #24 in December of 1953. However, this reappearance lasted only a short time, and having failed to attract new readers, Atlas put the character to bed once again in the September, 1954 issue of Captain America #78.

However, this was not the end for Captain America, and he reappeared yet again in 1964. This was during what became known as the ‘Silver Age&#8217 of comics, and the story of his second resurrection was provided to readers in Issue #4 of The Avengers (March, 1964). The reason provided was that at the end of the war, he fell into the Atlantic Ocean when flying an experimental plane and was frozen in a block of ice. He was found and revived by The Avengers team, coming back from suspended animation and ready to regain his place as leader of the team. He was given his own series that featured Captain America predominantly as a solo character.

Using the original cover title when Captain America was presented along with The Falcon, this series of issues covered the period #134 in February, 1971 to #222 in June, 1978. In Captain America vol. 5, #25 in March 2007, Steve Rogers was believed to be assassinated. To hide the fact, Bucky Barnes took up Rogers’ character in the succeeding publications of the comic book Captain America. Later, Steve was revealed to be alive. He returns, but insists that Bucky continue to keep his identity. He then began operating as an intelligence agent in the series Steve Rogers: Super Soldier.

Rogers’ return was explained in the six-issue mini-series Captain America: Reborn, from September 2009 to March 2010. He was not dead but “caroming through time” and returned to the present day. Barnes continued as Captain America with &#8220Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield?” in February 2010.

At one time, Captain America is plagued by guilt for Bucky’s death. He believes he should have been able to prevent Bucky being blown up by a bomb (although Bucky was not really dead). Not long after, he takes in Rick Jones, a young boy who closely resembles Bucky in many ways. He took care of Rick, but could not totally let go of Bucky’s memories. It took him sometime to allow Jones to take up the Bucky identity because he did not wish to be responsible for another youth’s death. It was Jones’ patience that helped the hero overcome the pain of losing his friend and, finally, Jones convinced Rogers that he should put on the Bucky costume. However, impersonating Rogers with the aid of the Cosmic Cube, Red Skull was able to drive Jones away and the young man was gone forever.

Throughout his missions, Rogers has shown his vast knowledge of the U.S. military and has possessed amazing combat skills. His survival techniques have enabled him to undergo a number of resurrections, and he gained an intimate knowledge of espionage through his interaction with the S.H.I.E.L.D. and love affair with agent Sharon Carter.

Captain America has been part of all three classical ages of comic superheroes: the Golden Age, Silver Age and the Heroic Age of the 2010s. How long he will last and how many more resurrections he will undergo is anybody’s guess, but one thing is sure: Captain America was a true superhero and shall always remain so in the minds of followed him and loved him, of whom there are, sadly, ever fewer as the years go by.

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Batman – Superhero, Dark Knight, Detective, and Caped Crusader

March 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Batman is a popular superhero who uses his physical and intellectual prowess to fight crime, although he possesses no special superpowers – unlike many other superheroes that have enthralled their own followers. The ‘Caped Crusader’, as he is also called, is a fictional character who was born from the skills and imagination of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. He first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939.

The secret identity of Batman is revealed in the original version of the story. He is Bruce Wayne, an American millionaire, playboy, industrialist, and philanthropist. His continuous war on crime is rooted in a painful experience during his childhood when he saw his parents being brutally murdered. As he grew up under his guardian, Phillip Wayne, he swore revenge on crime and sustained a hunger for justice.

With this burning desire to seek justice for all, he trained himself relentlessly both physically and mentally. He chose to wear a bat-themed costume in his fight against crime, and adopted the fictional Gotham City as his domain. Assisting him in his crime fighting adventures were his popular partner Robin, his butler Alfred Pennyworth, the police commissioner Jim Gordon and, from time to time, Batgirl.

Among the many colorful villains he fought, the most famous were the Joker, the Riddler, the Penguin, Two-Face, Poison Ivy and Catwoman. He defeated all of them using his supreme skills and intellect. He effectively combines together detective skills, science and technology, wealth, martial arts and an unconquerable will to fight crime.

From sharing a few pages of a comic book, Batman soon gained his own comic book title, Batman (1940). He became so popular that DC Comics had to satisfy the imagination and demands of its readers by producing more of the adventures of Batman and Robin. Within a very short time of their introduction, Batman and Robin had captured the interest of a vast readership seeking a new superhero.

This popularity was sustained, and over the years there have been many different interpretations of his character. Perhaps because he possessed no ‘superhero’ capabilities as such, other than an all-consuming desire for justice, readers and commentators tried to find something in his psyche to explain how was able to achieve what he did.

The first Batman story published was “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate”. Even when he had his own comic book title, he still continued to star in Detective Comics together with other superheroes. National, the leading and most influential publisher at that time, teamed him up with Superman. Some analysts say that these two were the “cornerstones of the company’s success”. There was an issue of World’s Finest Comics that featured the two characters side-by-side as the magazine’s stars.

Some physical and artistic features were changed over the years to enhance Batman’s character. Kane’s first additional touches were seen in the form of a more pronounced jaw-line, giving Batman a more prominent facial profile, and the bat ears on his costume were also lengthened. After about seven years, Kane described his creation as “almost the full figure, my mature Batman”. The utility belt and the boomerang-like “batarang” were considered to be personally distinctive to Batman, and added to these could be his Batplane, the first bat-themed vehicle.

Batman was one of those few characters who retained popularity with the general decline of comic superheroes during the 1950s, and in issue #76 of ‘Superman’, batman teamed up with Superman as “The Mightiest Team in the World&#8221, the story revolving around how the two characters discovered each other’s secret identity.

Follow-up issues of the team-up were published after the success of the first. World’s Finest Comics was resurrected which featured the duo rather than the individual heroes. More issues of the new Superteam followed and were extremely successful financially. This was unusual, considering the lack of general popularity for this type of superhero comic. However, it worked, and from then on the two heroes always worked as a pair in the comic until its demise in 1986.

The publication of psychologist Fredric Wertham’s book &#8220Seduction of the Innocent&#8221 in 1954, placed Batman comics under deep scrutiny. Together with other books in the industry, Batman was seen as a bad influence on children. Wertham wrote that “children imitated crimes committed in comic books. He further stated that “comic books also corrupt the morals of the youth”.

Wertham considered Batman stories as being interspersed with &#8220homosexual overtones”. He even argued that Batman and Robin were portrayed as lovers. His criticisms led to the development of the Comics Code Authority. The public believed his arguments, and there was a demand for more ‘child-friendly’ plots. Not long after the establishment of the code, the characters of Batwoman and Bat-Girl were introduced. Some critics suggest that this was done in order to refute the allegations that Batman and Robin were gay. The stories also began to become lighter and less sinister than they had been in the past.

From then on, Batman stories maintained their campish nature until the television series debuted in 1966. As would be expected, the introduction of the character to TV had a very significant influence on sales of the comic book. There was even a period when Batman reached close to a circulation of 900,000 copies. However, the campy approach to both the television and comic editions was not able to sustain this level of popularity, and the TV series was cancelled in 1966, followed closely by a reduction in comic book sales.

Since the creation of Batman’s character, there have been some minor and major revisions in his history. His origin, however, has remained intact, focusing on the traumatic event in his childhood. His parents, the physician Dr. Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha were killed in front of his eyes, a story retold in modern-day Batman in order to update the younger generation of audiences.

The modern edition of Batman is a mixture of its Golden and Silver Age. There is not much change in the story about the past of Dick Grayson, the original Robin. The second Robin, Jason Todd, is now described as an orphan. He is the son of a petty crook who tried to steal the tires from the Batmobile. Philip Wayne was removed as guardian, and Alfred Pennyworth replaces him as the person who raised Bruce as a boy. Batman is also removed as a founding member of the Justice League of America. He was featured only as a short-lived leader of the League during the revival of the team in 1987.

Some other Batman tales published in the later years were presented in the form of mini-series and one-shot stories. Most of these took place during the “Year One” period. However, the world will always remember Batman as “The World’s Greatest Detective”, “The Darknight Detective”, “The Caped Crusader”, and “The Dark Knight”. He is the one of DC Comics’ fictional characters that has been followed and idolized by most generations.

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The Avengers – Avenging Once More

March 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, The Avengers are labeled as “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”. Published by Marvel Comics, this team of superheroes made its debut in September 1963 as The Avengers Issue 1. The team originally comprised Ant-Man, Wasp, Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk, who appeared in many of the magazines published by Marvel, gaining their own followers and fans that continue follow them to this day.

The original team maintained a rotating roster of membership on its “missions”. It is consistent in maintaining its commitment to fight “the foes no single superhero can withstand”. Superhero fans will remember the team’s famous battle cry, “Avengers Assemble!” Its enemies included, and still do, humans, robots, aliens, mutants, supernatural beings and several other imaginative creations. The team’s prestige and power has earned it the reputation of taking on any form of criminal during its crime fighting adventures. The Avengers are best known for devoting themselves to protecting the planet from dangers beyond the capabilities of the usual authorities.

The original team joined forces for the first time to fight the menacing power of Loki the Asgardian. This started with a call for help from teenager Rick Jones, Hulk’s partner. The team’s name “The Avengers” was coined when the members decided to stay together and combat crime as a team. Ant-Man’s (Dr. Hank Pym) partner Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) suggested calling themselves “something colorful and dramatic, like . . . the Avengers!”. This started the legendary adventures of the team, known by the same familiar name for almost 50 years.

The finance behind the group was provided by the super-rich Iron Man, who also provided the essential high-tech equipment for which the Avengers are famed. Also known as the rich industrialist Tony Stark, he donated his Manhattan block-sized residence for use as the team’s headquarters. They named the HQ ‘Avengers Mansion’, where members of the Avengers team stayed when they had the need to, and it also contained the group&#8217s arsenal.

It was looked after by Edwin Jarvis, Stark’s butler and the group’s valued friend, confidant and advisor. The Fantastic Four also stayed here for a while after their original headquarters, the Baxter Building, was destroyed. The Avengers Mansion was eventually destroyed by the Masters of Evil in Avengers: Under Siege.

The team’s effort to gain identity as a group was initiated by Stark by drawing up a charter and by-laws to guide them. However, together with the request for A-1 security clearance, neither the authorities nor the public were keen on this being provided, largely due to the presence of Hulk in the team. Ultimately, Hulk walked out in Issue 2 due to some unexplained rage over something that upset him. It was likely due to the fact that other members of the team neither liked nor trusted him!

Fortunately for the group, Hulk’s absence made way for another new chapter. The original Captain America appeared in issue #4 of the magazine. He was found frozen in a block of ice, was revived and joined the team. Since the beginning, the team maintained a rotating list of heroes, each given an important role as main character. Eventually, Captain America became an inspiration to the Avengers. As a long-lost war hero, his presence in the team dramatically improved the group’s image. It was he who was largely responsible for the Avenger&#8217s being given A-1 security clearance status, and The Avengers finally emerged as the most respected superhero team ever.

During Captain America’s reign, the team underwent a number of tests that ultimately forced the other members to retire from active duty. The reason was more on the personal side, the individual members no longer being able to maintain their bond as a team. This left Captain America “helpless”, forcing him to recruit new teammates. Ironically, he found Hawkeye, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch who were former criminals. Hawkeye was an outlaw archer, while the other two were mutant terrorist twin siblings. With the help of Iron Man, these outlaws were successfully rehabilitated, resulting in them joining the Avengers.

There were several other changes in the group members’ roles over the years. The list includes Thor, Iron Man, Pym and Wasp who had different periods of service. Pym was known for undergoing a series of identity changes, also serving as Giant-Man, Goliath, Yellow Jacket and Doctor Pym. These four exchanged positions as team leader, which later demonstrated that they could be leaders in their own right. The most impressive leaders of the Avengers included Captain America, Wasp, Hawkeye and Iron Man.

During the early years, new recruits included the Swordsman, Hercules, the Black Panther, the android Vision, and the Black Knight. One of the team’s staunchest partners during the cosmic Kree-Skrull war was the alien hero Captain Mar-Vell. The Black Widow also appeared and later joined the team. Swordsman was reformed and rejoined The Avengers together with Mantis, his lover. Swordsman died while protecting Mantis during a fight against Kang, and later, leaving Earth, Mantis fulfilled her destiny to become the Celestial Madonna.

The other members who joined the team later on a reserve status were Moondragon, Hellcat and Two-Gun Kid. A fourth reserve member, Beast, also joined but ultimately refused to work on a reserve status. Although not considered official members, Whizzer, Wonder Man, Jocasta, Ms. Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy all helped the team. This was during the days of the mad man-god villain Korvac.

When Henry Peter Gyrich took over as the team’s new government liaison, he changed some policies regarding membership of The Avengers. He imposed reductions and modifications, but two new members joined in &#8211 Falcon and Ms. Marvel. However, Gyrich was unable to hold the position for long due to him being reassigned, his place as liaison being taken by Raymond Sikorsky who was able to establish a smooth working relationship with the team. However, his conspiracy against the Vision and lifelong Avengers fan Duane Freeman ended these happier days. In the hope of redeeming himself, Gyrich then returned to his former post of liaison to the United Nations.

Some other new members were added much later. They were Wonder Man, Tigra, She-Hulk, a new version of Captain Marvel, and Starfox. One of the team’s recruits included Monica Rambeau who later was known as one of the more formidable and respected members of The Avengers; the second Captain Marvel.

The Avengers’ magic lives on. From graphic novels to films and comic books series, the characters have been featured in several incarnations. A number of successful movies have been made featuring the groups and also individual members. For example, Robert Downey, Jr. portrayed the role of Iron Man in the successful action film Iron Man (2008). The 2012 upcoming film, The Avengers, will reunite Downey with the role of the superhero, with yet another sequel, Iron Man 3, penciled in for 2013.

There are few doubts that The Avengers were the epitome of a superhero group, and irrespective of what the future has in store for them, the heroes will live on in the minds and hearts of those that loved from Issue #1.

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