Kirby, Jack
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
1 out of 5
(1 book)
Captain America And The Falcon: Madbomb
(Art by Jack Kirby, Frank Giacoia and D. Bruce Berry)
As the United States of America nears its bi-centennial celebrations, a ruthless faction arises intent on overthrowing the democracy. With the 'madbombs' of this secretive elite poised to cause chaos among the population, only Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson stand in their way.
Jack Kirby is, rightly, considered a legend in the field of comics and he either created or co-created some of the most famous characters in the canons of both Marvel and DC Comics. This story marked his return to working on Captain America, the character that he helped to create more than three decades earlier. It is a real shame then that I absolutely hated this book.
By the mid-70s comic book story telling was finally moving towards more serious and complex stories, beginning to develop a maturity that would fully flower in the 1980s. Unfortunately, Kirby's writing and art here is firmly rooted in the storytelling style of the 50s and 60s, making it feel deeply anachronistic. There's a very real and somewhat sad sense of the creator being totally out of touch with what comics had become and instead just churning out the staid and silly stuff that was the norm when he originally worked on the character. In fact, the inclusion of white supremacists and Cap working directly for the military/SHIELD make this feel like, with a few very minor cosmetic changes, this would in fact be a Captain America story from the WWII years.
Had this just been an of-its-time Captain America story it would've just been bland, but the fact that it's actually regressive for its time (not in its politics, you understand; just in its storytelling) pushes this book into actively bad.
1 out of 5
Collaborations & Anthologies:
The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told (here)