Friday, February 27, 2015

Partners In Crime(fighting)


From the double-sized Captain America #350, where Steve Rogers put aside his identity as "The Captain" and reclaimed his Captain America uniform and title from John Walker, here's an interesting look at a few bonus pin-ups that bring us up to speed on the characters we've seen in play up to that point.

First, a collection of men who, like Walker, stood in for the good Captain:



It seems clear that artist Tom Morgan wants to avoid a lineup of six men all dressed as Captain America--but depicting the 1950s Cap in his brainwashed Nazi zealot guise as the Grand Director perhaps kept this pin-up from a few walls.

Next, we learn that Steve really needs to get out more, if we're going by this pin-up that scrapes together the women he's been involved with--a collection which includes a woman who simply had Cap over as a dinner guest, as well as, of all people, the Viper:


(Jeez, Cap, talk about sleeping with the enemy!)


Finally, artist John Buscema brings together all of Cap's former partners:



Despite the implication of the word "partner" as someone who comes aboard long-term and battles with you regularly, it's funny how Cap has gone through a number of partners and nevertheless spent the bulk of his appearances in comics flying solo. Perhaps only the Avengers can be considered Cap's partners, at least in a semi-regular sense, with the special ops assignments of WWII that had Bucky attached to him no longer a factor in Steve Rogers' life. (Though perhaps S.H.I.E.L.D. would beg to differ!)

6 comments:

  1. I don't think much of Captain America V's uniform.

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  2. Those are some great pinups! Who is the clown not wearing spandex in the first picture, though?

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  3. Wow.., I don't ever recall seeing Sam Wilson drawn by Big John.. Probably the best rendition I've ever seen of him (Sorry Sal..).

    GREAT post, thank you sir.

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  4. dbutler16, Roscoe was a regular guy who briefly wore a Cap suit during the period Steve Rogers was Nomad. The Red Skull murdered the bogus Cap, if I remember correctly, which was the impetus behind Rogers becoming Cap again.

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  5. david_b, you might check out Captain America and the Falcon #217 for John Buscema's blink-and-you-missed-it brief stop on Cap's title, which also features the Falcon in action.

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  6. Thanks, Roscoe. A regular guy suiting up as Cap for any more than one issue doesn't sound like my cup up tea, but at least it got Steve back in the red, white, and blue.

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