Wednesday, August 14, 2013

365 Comics...226: Captain America #289 (1983)

Hoo boy... don't know where to start with this one... Assistant Editor's Month?  This is what passed for a line-wide event in 1983.  Now we get Forever Evil.  Not sure which I dislike more, genuine "event months" which interfere with the ongoing monthly series creative process in a cash-grab attempt or a jokey non-event that assumes the reader is as invested in the behind-the-scenes of comics as they are the characters.

The main story here is an action-centric epilogue to a 3-part Cap-in-a-dystopian-future (the 1990's... if only 1983 Cap knew how bad it really got) that gets a little silly when this happens.

Thankfully it is all a psychotropic illusion that Cap is having because that is some ridiculous looking shit right there.  JM DeMatteis delivers readable script featuring Cap's running narrative.  Mike Zeck is on art chores... early in his career he really, really has a John Byrne thing going.  Looks fine just not too unique.

The back-up "Bernie America" feature (a part of the whole Assistant Editor thing, here shepherded by a young Mike Carlin) is supposed to be a humorous daydream but tries a little too hard to be funny.  When a weeping Steve Rogers turns up at the Avengers mansion to confront Bernie America, his lover, it becomes an interesting (perhaps unintentional, given how Bernie acts both at the start and end of this brief story) commentary on gender roles in comics of the time.

Best part of this comic ... this Crystar ad... man I wanted those toys so badly when I was a kid but to be honest I don't think I ever actually saw them on the shelf (or if I did they didn't hold up to the promise of the illustration or were not in the same league as Star Wars, He-Man, G.I. Joe or Super Powers, which would have been my other (more preferred) options around that time.
Also, back cover... 
Popeye video game... that was actually pretty great.

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