Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Cap Gets Hip with Gary Friedrich (Volume 1, 143-148)


Stan Lee gave up writing the Captain America and the Falcon comic in mid-1971. Stan hadn't created Captain America, but he pretty much defined the modern day Cap. Stan killed off Cap's original sidekick Bucky, turned Cap into a melancholy man out of time, co-created Cap's love interest Sharon Carter, co-created his uneasy superspy ally Nick Fury, and co-created his new African-American sidekick, the Falcon. 40 years later Ed Brubaker is writing the comic to much acclaim, relying on the same core elements, though written for modern sensibilities.

The first writer to take over the comic after Stan departed was Gary Friedrich. Gary strived to created a more timely, relevant comic, which means his issues are now wincingly dated. Sharon Carter heads the Nixon-approved Femme Force! Fury's gal pal Val-- falls love with Captain America! The Red Skull heads a black liberation movement! The Falcon struggles with being an Uncle Tom!

It's pretty much best to forget any of this stuff "happened".

1 comment:

  1. OK, the stories might be kinda crazy, but that art is amazing!

    Love this blog BTW! Good stuff!

    SoulFreq from the MM.com board

    ReplyDelete