Fight for Freedom with the Sentinel of Liberty: best Spider-Man team-up of 1981
Captain America is such a wonderful touchstone to cultural values, history, and an enduring sense of decency fostered in a time we try to preserve in us. I knew I had to participate in my country’s culture today by discussing someone whose courage transcends politics. He’s just the sort of fellow we need to make real from our own hearts and determination. From soldier to teacher to playground child to handicapped shut-in, to believe in Cap gives an intangible form to what we admire in ourselves in the face of adversity. Yes, in his stories, he’s a hero who finds a way to win. Along the way, he finds a way to never quit!
In my selection for Spider-Man’s most awesome team-up of 1981, I went with the spirit of Marvel Comics Group at that time. Frank Miller was completing the new, rather basic crime noir Daredevil; John Byrne began a back-to-basics approach with Fantastic Four. I might’ve cocked an eye at first, how Cap spouts historic object lessons throughout. But isn’t this a unique point in his speech? It’s not clear who besides him really hears most of it. But you can clear your mind and say nothing, or your self-talk will either bolster or doubt your present activity. Being Captain America not only psyches up the people in the story; Steve Rogers constantly psyches himself up, with inspiration.
My other sticking point was the sheer amount of energy it’d take to fly this Thunderhead Island through the sky for thousands of miles. But if I’d grown up on Captain America in Tales of Suspense by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, I’d know that way, way over the top is the only place to find the most thrilling Cap tales.
Fortunately, the man who wrote my pick, did. For David Anthony Kraft, Cap was a true hero and star in the Marvel firmament. Hulk, Thor, probably Iron Man- they and Cap were meant to be the vanguard of awesomeness. A second-tier, less-serious teen superhero, however, became the company’s mascot by the time DAK proof-read his first issue in the Bullpen at Marvel Comics Group. He’d figured a way inside the webbed head, so he wrote a two-parter filled with Silver Age imagination and badass art by Mike Zeck. Particularly when paired with inker John Beatty, Zeck’s Winghead is the definitive one from my childhood. He looked just as he did in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars.
Zeck’s early in a great-looking run on CAPTAIN AMERICA when we reach issue 265. I still have quite a few of Byrne’s issues left to read and savor- Dragon Man and Baron Blood were great, and what can I say about his storytelling that’s new? For sheer awesome images, Jim Starlin and Bob McCleod’s single shot in Amazing Spider-Man #187 is the one sleeper source for magnificent depictions of both Cap and Spidey. The stealth of Spider-Man and the Ditko-esque multi-image movements, the raw power of Captain America-and versus pretty good match-up, Spidey rogue Electro, AND blessed with a twist complicating things. For a small scale duo, it’s as good as it gets. This matching of heroes has been blessed: John Romita came back to Cap in time to guest-star Spider-Man in #138, which won my pick for 1970’s best Spider-Man team-up. Zeck had also stepped in to pair Spidey with Moon Knight, in 1978. I don’t always get the choice of anatomical exaggerations Zeck makes, but he can make a figure pop off the page.
So! CAPTAIN AMERICA #265 and 266. This story’s faithful to the characterizations of its heroes, but those come out amid non-stop action, set to many cool ideas. The deMatteis run is sinking a lot of capital into a supporting cast for Steve Rogers and attempting some experimental villains. But here, walk through the holographic wall and you get Nick Fury, recruiting Spider-Man, who’s on the trail of the artist he met at the publishing party. So Spider-Man ‘knows’ Cap’s secret identity now- but there’s no time! A renegade S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist, with enormous resources as generous as Mike Zeck’s pencil can allow, plans to nuke Washington, D.C.! As the cyborg SULTAN, his modular biodroids complete his missiles and provide him an army. But what is the secret of Thunderhead?
In my selection for Spider-Man’s most awesome team-up of 1981, I went with the spirit of Marvel Comics Group at that time. Frank Miller was completing the new, rather basic crime noir Daredevil; John Byrne began a back-to-basics approach with Fantastic Four. I might’ve cocked an eye at first, how Cap spouts historic object lessons throughout. But isn’t this a unique point in his speech? It’s not clear who besides him really hears most of it. But you can clear your mind and say nothing, or your self-talk will either bolster or doubt your present activity. Being Captain America not only psyches up the people in the story; Steve Rogers constantly psyches himself up, with inspiration.
My other sticking point was the sheer amount of energy it’d take to fly this Thunderhead Island through the sky for thousands of miles. But if I’d grown up on Captain America in Tales of Suspense by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, I’d know that way, way over the top is the only place to find the most thrilling Cap tales.
Fortunately, the man who wrote my pick, did. For David Anthony Kraft, Cap was a true hero and star in the Marvel firmament. Hulk, Thor, probably Iron Man- they and Cap were meant to be the vanguard of awesomeness. A second-tier, less-serious teen superhero, however, became the company’s mascot by the time DAK proof-read his first issue in the Bullpen at Marvel Comics Group. He’d figured a way inside the webbed head, so he wrote a two-parter filled with Silver Age imagination and badass art by Mike Zeck. Particularly when paired with inker John Beatty, Zeck’s Winghead is the definitive one from my childhood. He looked just as he did in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars.
Zeck’s early in a great-looking run on CAPTAIN AMERICA when we reach issue 265. I still have quite a few of Byrne’s issues left to read and savor- Dragon Man and Baron Blood were great, and what can I say about his storytelling that’s new? For sheer awesome images, Jim Starlin and Bob McCleod’s single shot in Amazing Spider-Man #187 is the one sleeper source for magnificent depictions of both Cap and Spidey. The stealth of Spider-Man and the Ditko-esque multi-image movements, the raw power of Captain America-and versus pretty good match-up, Spidey rogue Electro, AND blessed with a twist complicating things. For a small scale duo, it’s as good as it gets. This matching of heroes has been blessed: John Romita came back to Cap in time to guest-star Spider-Man in #138, which won my pick for 1970’s best Spider-Man team-up. Zeck had also stepped in to pair Spidey with Moon Knight, in 1978. I don’t always get the choice of anatomical exaggerations Zeck makes, but he can make a figure pop off the page.
So! CAPTAIN AMERICA #265 and 266. This story’s faithful to the characterizations of its heroes, but those come out amid non-stop action, set to many cool ideas. The deMatteis run is sinking a lot of capital into a supporting cast for Steve Rogers and attempting some experimental villains. But here, walk through the holographic wall and you get Nick Fury, recruiting Spider-Man, who’s on the trail of the artist he met at the publishing party. So Spider-Man ‘knows’ Cap’s secret identity now- but there’s no time! A renegade S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist, with enormous resources as generous as Mike Zeck’s pencil can allow, plans to nuke Washington, D.C.! As the cyborg SULTAN, his modular biodroids complete his missiles and provide him an army. But what is the secret of Thunderhead?
The collection where you can find it in print! Or, go back issue hunting.
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