Comics Review Moonstar and Rocketeer

Moonstar #4

I learned my lesson from last time (6-12-26), where I went to Zia Comics to find Issue #3 of this series, but went on a Friday and didn’t find it and ended up with a $50 hardback instead. (But, it was a cool hardback.) This time, I went on Wednesday, New Comic Book Day (in 100-degree heat, not a nice walk). They had one copy on the rack. I’m not sure if that was all they’d ordered for the rack or if the others had all sold. Mission accomplished whether I was just lucky or not.

I read Issues 1 and 2 (5-14-26), so I won’t rehash the intro to the series or the character of Moonstar. I read Issue #3 on an “archive” site. I was more than happy to pay for a comic book I enjoyed and wanted to support, but that wasn’t an option. In the issue, Dani is dead. She’s in a dreamscape fighting for her life against the spirit inside the soul-stealing sword. Dani is able to learn her enemy’s, Kyron’s, future plans in the encounter, but he’s able to learn the location of Dani’s parents. Dani’s ally, Kian, helps her return to life. They rush to her parent’s house, but they’re gone.

In this issue, Dani is determined to save her parents and stop Kyron’s plan, which involves finding a stone tablet. There’s an unnecessary and long argument about which goal to pursue. They find the tablet and Kyron finds them and brings Dani’s parents with him. So, this was filler to make five issues for the trade (which I’m doubting is actually going to be produced). I’m disappointed. The only worthwhile thing that happens is Kian finally tries to make a play for Dani, but their moment is interrupted.

The next issue is supposed to be final one. If I’m able to go on that Wednesday when it comes out, I’ll try to get it. I still like the character and the next issue should be better (and I’m going to have to stop buying new floppies).

The Rockeeter: The Island #4

I thought about getting another Captain America trade paperback that was available, but I wanted to look at some reviews before plunking down another $40. I instead picked up this Rocketeer issue. I did recently buy a Rocketeer trade (6-11-26) and I’ve previously bought another Rocketeer limited series (5-24-22).  I will not rehash the background of the character here.

I wasn’t sure if the art on the cover would be the same as inside (I hoped not), but the image of the Rocketeer with King Kong on Skull Island was more than enough to sell me. I was also curious about creator Dave Stevens being listed on the cover credits. He’s not around anymore.

The art on the inside is the same as the cover. It looks like a young kid’s comic, which the Rocketeer generally isn’t. The story is based on one written by Stevens before he passed. I did read that he had a bunch of other story ideas, but doing comics didn’t pay as well as the commercial art he was doing. This is a final issue of the limited series, so I’m coming in late, as well.

This was fun. It was really fun. I don’t how Cliff and Betty got stranded on the island, or how Betty got captured by Kong, who has, of course, fallen for her. Somehow, it all seems normal for these two. What surprised me was the co-stars. Cliff is hiding from a Tyrannosaurs Rex with Amelia Earhart, who had crashed on the island a while back.

The dinosaur, Bloodscale, comes after Betty, which prompts a fight with Kong. Cliff rescues her and then fights the dinosaur as the Rocketeer. Earhart joins the fight. Peevy arrives with Popeye the Sailor Man to attack Bloodscale. Adventurer and journalist, Tintin, arrives with a group of natives. They all manage to put the dinosaur down. Earhart stays behind to protect the island, but the rest are able to leave.

Okay, Earhart I wasn’t entirely surprised by, but Popeye and Tintin? They are named, along with Kong, though not called King Kong. Yes, they look like them, too. I didn’t know that these characters were somehow in the public domain. There’s nothing in here that says the characters are on loan. Who else might show up? You think the Rocketeer might crossover with Betty Boop next? (That might be awkward with Cliff’s Betty there.)

Just for the fun and surprise guest stars, this one is a good time. There is an advertisement for another Rocketeer series this summer. It’s a rare time that I’m pleased buying an Indy comic. Yay, my 100-degree walk wasn’t a complete waste.

Baseball Journal: Expos Resurgent

6-21-26

A Father’s Day tradition ended on Sunday.    Chihuahuas’ broadcaster Tim Hagerty did not have his precocious little son, Carson, on for the game for an inning.    I was looking forward to it, since the kid is pretty entertaining.    I wrote Tim and suggested that there was a contract dispute.    He wrote back that Carson was away at soccer camp.    Darn.    The game also ended the first half for the PCL.    The standings will reset with the next series.     

Good Lord, I look terrible, but the shirt is awesome.

6-22-26

My friend at work, Toni, went to Montreal last week with her fiancé.    Shamelessly, I asked her to bring me back a Montreal Expos shirt.    Mission accomplished.    I had a feeling there’d still be Expos gear being sold there.    However, she had no idea who Expos were.    Nobody else at work did either or they thought they were still a franchise.    (They became the Washington Nationals 10 years ago.)    I guess it has been a while.    Am I a big Expos fan?    No, but who else is going to have an Expos shirt where I live in New Mexico?

The same week, my boss went to Spain and brought back cool lizard magnets for everyone.    He returned via Chicago and took in a Cubs game.  Oh, if I’d known I would have asked for something.  Toni said she would have wanted a souvenir from there, too.    He didn’t stay for the whole game.    With the jetlag, it was like 4:00am to him while he was there.

6-23-26

The Chihuahuas started the second half for their season in Sugar Land.    The female ump behind the plate wasn’t having a good game and the players kept challenging her pitch calls.    Once, the pitcher touched his hat after a pitch.    The ump turned around to announce a challenge.    The pitcher was waving his arms, “I wasn’t making a challenge!”    (The Chihuahuas don’t want their pitchers to challenge pitches.)    The call was overturned anyway.    Unfortunately, he got so out of sorts, he gave up a hit and was taken out.    It was that kind of day for the Chihuahuas as they lost.

Meanwhile, the Rangers played in Miami yesterday.    Those Scotsmen were there!    They were following their soccer team to their next World Cup game.    Or were they following the Rangers to root against them!    It’s looking kind of suspicious at this point.

6-24-26

There were two competing Kid’s Days at the park this morning.    The Rangers and the Chihuahuas were annoyingly playing at the same time in dueling weekday games.    The reception was unusually clear on Rangers’ game, so I stuck mostly with that and just listened to the Chihuahuas during commercials.    There was a majestic prerecorded Anthem to start the pup’s game at Sugar Land.

In the second inning, Ranger Jake Burger grounded into an out at first.    The Rangers challenged and he was ruled safe.    Ezekiel Duran then came up and hit into a potential double play, but he was called safe at first.    The Marlins almost challenged, but declined.    But right after, the Marlins’ catcher picked Duran picked off first.    The Rangers challenged, but the call was upheld.    That last one was a long delay.    Was this what we wanted the Challenge system for?    To question every close call?   

In the third inning at Sugar Land, a sprinkler popped up in the outfield and started spraying, but then immediately stopped.    There wasn’t even a delay.    The teams were playing quick.    In the fourth at Miami, Wyatt Langford put a ball into Home Run Harbor to make it, 1-0 Rangers.    (The call said the Harbor was in left center, maybe where that big weird statue used to be.    I hadn’t heard it called that before.)    The Marlins tied it in the bottom and took the lead in the fifth.    Jacob deGrom got a double play to get out of that inning.    That was his first DP of the season.

In the sixth at Sugar Land, there was an out on a line out, or was it?   Broadcaster Tim Hagerty was about to go to commercial and TV had already done so, but a late balk call was declared.    That brought in a Space Cowboy run to make it, 3-1 Sugar Land.    Even their scoreboard didn’t acknowledge the run immediately.

 

deGrom struck out the side in the sixth, but the Marlins scored a couple more after he left and won, 4-2.    The game surprisingly finished before the Chihuahuas’ game.    I didn’t even realize it was in the ninth, until I heard the sign off.    The reception was fading anyway.    The Space Cowboys poured it on in the bottom of the eighth with 4 runs and won, 7-1.    Cavan Biggio had 3 hits and a walk for Sugar Land.

   

6-26-26

“The Chihuahuas haven’t been shutout this season,” broadcaster Tim Hagerty declared halfway through the game yesterday, before they suffered an 11-0 loss, their third loss in a row.    That’s on him.    Tonight’s game in Sugar Land had another great Anthem.    This one was by a large choir.    In the first inning, The Chihuahuas chased the starting pitcher, after he’d thrown 42 pitches to only 6 batters and allowed 2 runs.    That was enough for them to get their first win of the second half of the season.

6-27-26

An electric guitar Anthem began tonight’s game between the Chihuahuas and the Space Cowboys.    Sugar Land does not scrimp on Anthems.    It was also Hot Dog Night there.    The fans were wearing foam hot dog hats and the first pitch was by someone dressed as a hot dog.    (Were they were selling $1 hot dogs, too? I don’t know.)

Sugar Land took the lead in the first off a 3-run homer, which occurred after a 2-out error that made all of the runs unearned.    The Chihuahuas were facing rehabbing Astro, Cristian Javier, who shut them down pretty well.    The Space Cowboys led 5-1 in the ninth, but a couple of errors gave the pups a run and a chance, but they fell, 5-2.

6-28-26

Impressive victory for the Rangers today over the Blue Jays.    The Rangers took a 2-0 lead into the eighth, but the Jays tied it on a 2-run homer.    In the ninth, a very wild pitched scored a pinch runner from second, standing up even.    Brandon Nimmo caught the final out in the bottom and crashed into the wall.    He held on and so did the Rangers, 3-2.    That was a 4-game series sweep.

The El Paso catcher Blake Hunt was on fire with 4 successful challenges in tonight’s game between the Chihuahuas and the Space Cowboys.    The Chihuahuas threw out a Sugar Land runner at the plate in the fourth, but went down 2-0 in the sixth.    Marcos Castanon homered in the ninth, with the Chihuahuas down to their final strike, to make it 2-1.    The game ended right after that, though.    The Chihuahuas start the second half of the season 1-5.

   

The Yankees/Red Sox game was joined in progress in the fourth, after a golf match ran long, with the Sox up, 2-0.    The real story was on the mound, though.    Red Sox pitcher, Sonny Gray, had a no-hitter going in the eighth.    He recorded his 2,000-th strikeout for the first out, but the next batter broke up the no-hitter and Gray was taken out after 90-something pitches.   

Aroldis Chapman was in for a save attempt in the ninth.    He let the first two on and then got a flyout, but the throw in by Wilyer Abreu overshot the infield.    A run scored and the other runner went to third.    An infield chopper brought in the tying run.    Chapman struck out the next two batters, but we were going to extras.

Abreu misplayed a ball on the first Yankee batter in the tenth that brought in the go-ahead run.    Another run came in on an excuse-me swing.    4-2 Yankees.    The Red Sox scored immediately in their half of the tenth and a sac fly tied it.    The full house Boston crowd was going nuts.    Finally, a hit by Jarren Duran won it, 5-4.    That was a 4-game sweep of the first place Yankees by the last place Red Sox.    Okay, I at least got to see the best part of the game.    I even saw most of yesterday’s Red Sox win, so it was a real treat this weekend.

Baseball Journal: Bananas

 

6-3-26

LA Angel Jo Adell, who robbed three home runs in April, had a ball deflect off this head for a home run last night.    This game has a way of humbling you.

At the Chihuahuas game against the Space Cowboys, Cavan Biggio flied out to Will Wagner.    That’s Craig Biggio’s kid flying out to Billy Wagner’s kid.    While those two were teammates in Houston, Cavan is on the Cowboys, the Astros’ affiliate, while Will is on the Chihuahuas, though he was on Cowboys in a previous season.    While it was raining cats and dogs here in Las Cruces, apparently it wasn’t raining in El Paso.    Apart from some wind gusting in, there was no rain for the entire game.    Maybe that was too bad for the Chihuahuas as they lost, 15-8.

6-7-26

The big news this weekend (for me, at least) was the MLB debut of former Aggie, Sammy Natera, with the Angels.    I’d heard him pitch well for Salt Lake City against the Chihuahuas, so this was not unexpected.    From what I saw, his line was 2 innings, no runs, no hits, 1 walk, and 3 strikeouts.    He’s looking good and Aggie Baseball will need to add another plaque to their batting cage.

I tuned into the Angels versus Dodgers game on Sunday afternoon on a Mexican station.    Natera did not pitch, but it was still interesting.    The Angels had a 6-1 lead in the fifth.    The Dodgers came with 4 runs in the sixth, but the Halos came up with 6 runs in the seventh.    The stat line right afterward was amazing.    The bottom half of their order went 11 for 11 at that point in the game.    Angels win 13-5, as Dodger management vowed to purchase every good free agent at the trade deadline.

Before this game, I went for lunch with dad and his neighbor to Roni’s for their great mac and cheese.    The three best words in the English language are not, “I love you,” it’s “Chicken Bacon Ranch.”    It was great, but it was over $45 with me paying for just myself and dad.    No wonder the place was empty.   

We came back and watched some Banana Ball.    It was a first with the Party Animals headlining a game in an MLB stadium, not the famous Savannah Bananas.    The two games in Milwaukee still sold out.    The fans there were tremendous.    They even caught 4 foul balls for outs.    (It’s so entertaining, I can almost see this rule being implemented in Major League Baseball, but how do you score that?    FF10?)

Elsewhere, the Rangers lost 6-0 on Saturday to the INDIANS!    However, the Rangers came back Sunday with a 10-0 win.    In Triple-A, the Chihuahuas finally broke a 6-game home losing streak on Saturday.    I think they hit a low-point on Friday night with the bases loaded and no outs in the eighth, but the Space Cowboys’ reliever struck out the side.

6-11-26

It was a two-and-a-half hour rain delay with no rain.  So much for listening to the Rangers and the Royals’ baseball game this afternoon before work.  Never trust a Kansas City weather forecaster.  Rain Delay Theater was somewhat more relaxing than what I would have been listening to, I guess.

Meanwhile, the A’s were playing for a week in their future home city of Las Vegas at their Triple-A ballpark.    Early in the week, the A’s and the Brewers stunned the baseball world with a combined 11-home run barrage.    I don’t think Las Vegas Ballpark is known for being that hitter-friendly.    Maybe the wind was blowing out?   

In the evening, the Chihuahuas were playing Round Rock.   Early in the game, Nick Prado, who had changed dugouts after a trade during the series, hit a Chihuahua home run into the corner.    Broadcaster Tim Hagerty couldn’t see it, because the press box only had an occluded view to that corner.  

The pups got an amazing tenth inning win.    Up a run, the Express had the tying and winning runs on at the corners with one out.  The runner at first attempted to steal second.    The pitcher had already disengaged twice, but still threw to first and picked off the runner.    The runner at third tried to score and was thrown out at the plate to end the game, 7-6.    If the pick off hadn’t worked that would have balked in the tying run.   

6-14-26

This Sunday there was an unexpected ABC broadcast of the Cubs versus Giants.  I thought they’d abandoned MLB TV broadcasts.  It was a beautiful day in San Francisco and a full house.    Giants’ pitcher Logan Webb was pitching very well during the game.    In the eighth, a Cubs’ run came in via an error with two outs.  The manager went out to get Webb.    After a 5-second conversation, Webb stayed in.   The next pitch was a blast out to right field, a sure double.    Jun-hoo Lee ran it down, reached out and caught it, and ran right into the foul pole.    He held on.    Webb waited for him by the dugout to thank him, as the crowd chanted, “Jun-hoo!”    Giants win, 5-1.

I’d watched the game over at dad’s apartment.    I’d called him earlier about getting a pizza.    While I was out paying for the pizza, he called and asked about going out for a pizza with his neighbor, who had just invited him.    I told him to go ahead go, but dad chose me and told me bring the pizza I’d bought.    “She probably just wanted somebody to pay for the meal anyway,” he said.    I sure wasn’t going to pay for two pizzas.

   

A storm went through while I tried to listen to the Chihuahuas at Round Rock.  It was probably a good thing the pups were on the road.    The storm moved steadily from here to El Paso.    I think it was a good game.    I couldn’t hardly tell, because weather alerts were going off constantly on the radio.    In the eighth, the Chihuahuas took the lead on a bases loaded walk.    In the ninth, the pups blew the save and then lost it on a bases loaded walk to rehabbing Ranger, Josh Smith, who successfully challenged the final pitch, 5-4 Round Rock.

NBC was showing the Rangers at the Red Sox, but the story was the crowd.    A large contingent of Scotsmen were there for the World Cup.    They were celebrating Scotland winning their soccer match.    Some were in kilts.    Many were wearing a Scotish dark blue Red Sox shirt.    They’d had a parade before the game complete with bagpipes.    The Scots were standing, chanting, and singing for the whole game.    They sang all of Sweet Caroline, even when the PA stopped playing it.    They got louder as the game went on.   

However, Rangers would win it 6-4.    The Red Sox did make a pretty good comeback in the game to make it interesting.    Ranger Wyatt Langford hit a first pitch homer into the Green Monster Seats where it was retrieved by a group of Ranger fans.    Ranger Kyle Higashioka later hit a 3-run homer into the Monster seats that was retrieved by a happy kid in a Scotland jersey.

The Stanley Cup playoffs Game Six was on as well at the same time.    Congrats to the Carolina Hurricanes for their victory over the Vegas Golden Knights.    I only watched the third period with everything else on.    I was just never able to get into hockey this season.

6-18-26

You know your team is swooning when the regular announcers don’t even show up for the game.    The Rangers got swept by the Twins.    Today’s outcome was 9-3.    Eric Nadel, who isn’t doing home games, and Matt Hicks weren’t available for the broadcast.    At least it wasn’t totally unfamiliar with Jared Sandler there.    He was working with another guy I hadn’t heard before, whose name I didn’t get as usual.    He had a good voice and did a good job on a lousy game.                

6-19-25

I was home on a Friday night for the Juneteenth holiday.    Dad thankfully reminded me that the Rockies were playing on TV.    They were playing the Pirates and I found myself kind of rooting for both teams.    Aggie star, Nick Gonzales, was hitting second in the lineup for the Bucs.    He’s batting .293 and is now playing third, which I never saw him do at NMSU.    The Rockies announcers did give a shoutout to New Mexico State.

The Chihuahuas and the Rangers were playing on the radio at the same time.    I had to pick one and the Chihuahuas had better reception.    (Actually, it was okay reception versus no reception.)    I did get an update on the Ranger game anyway.    Broadcaster Tim Hagerty reported the Padres’ Ty France had hit a grand slam off Jacob deGrom and hit another homer in his next at bat.    The Rangers still won, 9-7.    I missed a good game there.

Back in Denver, Rockies pitcher, Kyle Freeland, got his 1,000 career strikeout in the seventh.    Some of the crowd were aware of it before the announcement and were cheering him on.   Freeland waved at the crowd and struckout the next batter to end the inning.    He put down 15 down in a row with 8 strikeouts.    Unfortunately in the eighth, he gave up a run and was taken out.    Pirate Bryan Reynolds, a late scratch in the lineup, came in to pinch hit, and on the first pitch, drove in the tying run to make it, 2-2.    Nick then tripled in the go-ahead run.

In the bottom of the eighth with two outs, Rockies pinch hitter, Broxton Fulford, doubled in two runs to give the Rox back the lead, 4-3.    In the top of the ninth, the Pirates loaded the bases with no outs.    Reliever Antonio Senzatela got a strikeout and a double play to end the game, 4-3 Rockies.    What a game!    Let’s hear it for the day off.

It was also a sub two-and-a-half hour game.    I turned the Chihuahuas’ game back on. When the sun went down, the reception had gotten too bad to listen to.  I’d thought it was a close game when I left.    Imagine my shock that it was 14-1 pups over the Aces after a 7-run eighth.   The Aces even sent in a position player to pitch for part of that eighth inning.  The Chihuahuas have strangely been playing better since the Padres called up several of their best players.

Oddly I was getting better reception out of Albuquerque for an Isotopes’ game that was still going on late.    They had a 9-3 win over Sugar Land.    They’re going to finish the first half over .500, which is an accomplishment for them.

6-20-26

The next night, nearly the same situation.    Paul Skenes started for the Pirates against the Rockies.   I didn’t get to hear that part of the game.    I couldn’t get KOA until the sun went down.    I missed the Rockies’ Jake McCarthy hitting a lead off inside-the-park home run in the first.    It was an epic 13-second dash around the basepads.

When I was listening, it was the ninth with the Rockies up, 2-1.    However, the Pirates had the bases loaded and two outs.    On a slow roller to third, the fielder had no play on it, but he waved that he was interfered with by the runner coming from second.  I hear alternating accounts that the runner had brushed the fielder or the ball.    The umps conferenced and agreed that interference had happened and that was the end of the game.    Rockies win, 2-1.    Lucky wins still count.    Did I hear the postgame correctly? This was the first time since last year that the Rockies had won two in a row?    Also, they had 40k fans there.    They’re over a million in attendance already this year?    For this team?

NASCAR was racing in San Diego at the naval base there.    There were issues on the temporary street course. The Truck Series only had 4 undamaged vehicles by the end of the race.    The O’Reilly Series race, which I tried to watch, had an hour delay at the beginning of the race as a manhole cover came up and damaged a car.    They had to check all of the manhole covers at that point.    Then there was another hour delay with a 19-car wreck at the start of Stage 3. 

I thought the late finish would mean they’d join the following Banana Ball game in progress or not at all, but they waited two hours to start the game.    This meant that the fans were there after midnight in Nashville to watch the Party Animals versus the Texas Tailgaters.    At least they got a good game. 

In the ninth, a fan might have caught a ball for the second out of the inning, but he was on the concourse where there are no cameras.    The players and fans complained.    The fan even came out on field with the ball, but it was disallowed.    After a 14-pitch battle, which included another near foul out to a fan, the batter ended up hitting a 3-run homer for the Tailgators to put them in the lead.    In the bottom, there was a near fight between the teams after a play at the plate.    The Party Animals did come back and win it in the bottom of the inning, though.

Comics Review: Captain America Epic Collection—Arena of Death

I’ve had an interesting relationship with Captain America in the comics.    I bought a commemorative magazine a few years ago that showed the Captain as something of a propaganda tool depending on who was handling him (9-17-21).  I later bought a retrospective book featuring 40’s and 60’s Captain America comics (8-29-22).  When brought into the modern era, he was a bit of a lonely, melancholic warrior, as he was a man out of his natural time.    An issue of Back Issue (1-17-25) featured a couple of articles on Captain America in the 80’s, where Steve Rogers settled down a bit into living a normal life when not in action and also researching his own past.   

Most of the trade paperback offerings at Zia Comics are modern offerings like the DC’s Absolute line, Invincible, and the Walking Dead.    I zoom in on any trades featuring classic reprints.    There were a couple of Captain America Epic Collection books that looked interesting that were from the 90’s.    I was thinking, If there’s an era where Captain America would be fun, it’d be the 90’s.    I picked one up.

I described part of this book to a co-worker later.    “Captain America and Black Panther are in the Savage Land, a dinosaur-filled jungle preserve in Antarctica, fighting a giant robot.”    I also described Captain America stopping a scheme by someone working for the Red Skull by firing a bazooka at a transmitter tower and blowing it up.    The female co-worker giggled in delight.   

If that paragraph didn’t sell you on this book, I don’t know what will.    Comics in the 90’s are mostly known for big guns and small pouches.    That’s not exactly Cap’s motif, but the book still fits into the era well.    There’s plenty of action, but to my surprise, there are some well-written stories, even the ones that are kind of silly at first glance.    It made me happy that I not only got what I was looking for, but more.     

        

Scarecrow and the World Trade Center in the background

Admittedly, the volume doesn’t start off on good footing.    There’s a team-up with Ghost Rider that’s as strained a pairing as you would imagine, as they fight a Captain America villain that’s gone supernatural in abilities, the Scarecrow.    Still, one of Cap’s best abilities is being able to work with anybody in an allied cause.   

This was some sort of stand-alone special, kind of like the original Marvel graphic novels of the 80’s.    It’s an odd interlude, especially when Batman shows up at the end with his lawyers claiming copyright infringement on one of his villains.    (The Scarecrow in this even has about the same powers as the DC one.)    This story probably features the best art in the volume.    That’s not saying much.    You’re not going to be overly impressed with the art in this.    It’s functional and gets the storytelling job done, but no more.                         

The book outright trips next with an annual that ties into a company-wide storyline, Citizen Kang.    That doesn’t mean it has to be bad, but this one really is.    Captain America somehow goes backward in time and meets Gilgamesh from the Eternals.    They’re fighting the rock men from Saturn that Thor faced in his origin story (9-26-19).  That’s several deep cuts in the lore.    Nothing really happens and the story is continued in another annual, where there’s hopefully more action.

There’s also a Falcon story where he’s doing youth outreach in the ‘Hood and fighting the Taskmaster.    (Rolls eyes.)    There’s an origin story of Kang, technical details of Cap’s plane and shield, and Cap’s top 10 villains.    It’s a grab bag where you come away with nothing.

Still, from reading blurb on the back of the book, I was looking forward for things to come and was rewarded.    Cap is going out with a reformed super-villain, Diamondback, who wants to track down her former teammate, Snapdragon.    Nick Fury finds the woman for them.    She’s on AIM’s island where they’re holding a trade show for super villains.    Sounds like a peach of a vacation spot for Cap and his girlfriend.

With Falcon in tow, they’re all disguised as villains they know are currently out of action.    AIM insists on disarming all the guests when they arrive, which works out well for the group later.    Cap’s old foe, Batroc, confronts him while he’s dressed as Crossbones, who owes Batroc a bet on a fight.    Specifically, Cap has to fight five unarmed opponents in an arena filled with supervillains.    Of course, Cap takes him up on it.    He can’t blow his cover and surely this won’t be any big deal.    (Bonus points if you can name all of the villains in the picture.    I can only name a couple.)

Of course you can this coming.    Cap’s cover gets blown and he has to fight everybody!    Thank goodness, he brought backup.    Errr . . . Falcon is off fighting Shang-Chi (?), who just showed up on the island chasing his own lead.    Meanwhile, Diamondback has found Snapdragon and strangles and drowns her.     

  

Captain America is doing fine.    Don’t worry.   

Meanwhile, Batroc is sitting back watching the show with some popcorn.    Thankfully, at least Falcon and Shang-Chi come to help Cap.    The group finally reunites to get past AIM’s defenses and escape.    Whew!

Meanwhile in the Savage Land, Ka-Zar has been captured by AIM agents there and brought to face the Saur-Lords.    By coincidence, Black Panther, whom Captain America and his group were visiting, is headed there, because somebody in the Savage Land is undercutting Wakanda’s monopoly on Vibranium.    Cap does question the suppression of free trade aspect of this investigation, but goes along with the mission anyway.   

Multiple fight scenes later, Ka-Zar has been mind-controlled and Cap has teamed up with Ka-Zar’s saber-toothed kitty, Zabu.    Black Panther meets a native girl, who is then captured by one of the Saur-Lords.    Diamondback is having guilty flashbacks about killing Snapdragon.    Falcon is captured and seemingly mind-controlled as well, and leads the group into an ambush.    Reverse Uno!    He’s not mind-controlled and everybody’s ready for a fight.   

 

The group takes out the Saur-Lords, but then the giant robot shows up!    Pshaw.    Like this is a challenge.    Okay, it’s a challenge without Thor there with just a bunch meta-human brawlers, but don’t underestimate their resourcefulness.       

The next issue is the real challenge . . . for the readers, because it features D-Man.    Ah, this actually isn’t the cover for the issue in the trade, but it may as well be.    Not hard to figure out why this character didn’t catch on.

At least we get something better looking next, as Cap teams up with Silver Sable and her Wild Pack.    Roll Call: Battle Star! umm. . . Four other people that aren’t named in this issue as far as I could tell.    They’re after Viper, who is working for the Red Skull.   

He double crosses her because her scheme to destroy the US is too much like his scheme from back in the 80’s.    (I know this, because I had that issue, #263.)    As shown at the top, Cap ruins Viper’s plan with a bazooka.       

Here’s more Silver Sable.

It’s another annual next.    Oh, boy.    Cap meets a new Puerto Rican hero, Bantam.    He’s a boxer, whose costume has Rooster stylings and he wears boxing gloves in combat.    I’m going to subvert your expectations here.    It’s actually pretty well written.    Yes, it’s ridiculous-looking, but it sort of reminds me of something like an episode of Miami Vice, but with drugs making people super-powered, instead just high.    I thought I might groan to death when I previewed this part of the book, but I really was pleasantly surprised.   

Then I was really dreading the final four issues in the book.    Captain American isn’t even them!    It’s John Walker, who was Captain America at one point (plenty of guys on that list), and basically has his powers and a shield.    Walker would be like Rogers, if no one respected him and he was kind of a jerk.    Even without the similar costumes, you can easily tell these guys apart.    He’s not quite as bad as the Captain America from The Ultimates, at least.   

This is a good thing, actually.    It’s a different take on a patriotic superhero.    Captain America is probably the better version, but he’s also the one most likely to quit if he doesn’t like the politics involved.    Walker has his moments of self-reflection and doubt, but he doesn’t give up on the mission.   

The series is the conclusion to the Scourge storyline that worked through various Marvel titles for a few years.    Scourge was a vigilante that killed criminals.    This story played out kind of like a Reacher movie, but with superpowers.    The ending was maybe a little rushed and not quite the big-budget finale that it seemed to be leading up to, but darned if it wasn’t entertaining.    I’m not sure why it was in this book, but where else were they going to put it and it was too good to bury forever.         

Yep, this was how best to do Captain America.    I did like those Jim Steranko issues from the 60’s and it’s okay that the character has some angst about his past, but Captain America should mostly be kicking ass.    Another thing is that Cap seems to work best with a group or a partner.    His best qualities come out in comparison to others.    Who wouldn’t want Captain America leading a mission to an island full of supervillains?   

Yes, this was mostly a fun one.    I’d recommend this for a good time.