Tuesday, August 29, 2006

COMICS - Highlight: Captain America "Streets of Poison"

I don't know if this qualifies as one of those "awful" comics from the 90's, but I loved it.

The other day, I grabbed an exposed long-box and found Ron Lim issues of Captain America, like the above, that I remembered from back-in-the-day.

There were a few things I dug about these issues. For one thing, Ron Lim hadn't quite turned me off, at that point. Something about his style was well-suited for Silver Surfer and Captain America comics. Must have something to do with big foreheads or something.

Anyway, I'm also kinda fond of the villian, Bullseye (and I thought his abilities translated well to the big screen). Flawless, fatal marksmanship with ANY object is a rather unique ability. Something about seeing him up against "reality-based" heroes like Daredevil and Captain America (y'know, folks who aren't invulnerable and can't just fry his ass with heat-vision from the next timezone) just really works for me.
And finally, there was Captain America, himself. My man Cap not only had a nigh-villainous love interest in the character, Diamondback, but he also found himself in a couple of VERY intersting situations:

1) They found a way to write a book about Captain America on friggin' CRACK! (He was in/near a crackhouse when it exploded and the drugs, combined with the super-soldier serum in his blood, kept him high as a kite!)


AND

2) They actually pointed out the potential hypocrisy of Captain America's anti-drug policy, considering the fact that, if it weren't for drugs, he wouldn't BE Captain America, in the first place! So, the creators found a way to show us how much of Captain America's worth is tied up in the serum that courses through is veins.


Good stuff, all around. These are some of the books I'd have a really hard time parting with, if push came to shove.



Anybody else remember these issues?

13 comments:

Luke Cage said...

Ron Lim's style was actually perfect for Silver Surfer but I wasn't a fan of it. And I'm not sure I ever seen his work on Captain America though. Did he also do work on Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet or something to that affect? Something cosmic. I keep thinking he also did a Captain Marvel story as well. The Kree Captain Marvel that is. Not Shazam.. lol

West said...

Ron Lim did, in fact, draw the "Infinity Gauntlet" and "Infinity War" series, as well as a Thanos mini or two.

He probably did work on some Captain Marvel stuff for Marvel, but nothing come to-mind.

Luke Cage said...

Speaking of Silver Surfer, have you heard of the working title for the next Fantastic Four movie??? I'm interested to know are they going to revamp his entire origin, because there's no mention of Galactus..

James Manning said...

Man, I just don't know enough about comics anymore to engage. I just know that I was never a fan of Captain America... There was always something about him that screamed wuss to me.

West said...

re: Luke Cage's "Speaking of Silver Surfer, have you heard of the working title for the next Fantastic Four movie???"
I think so. I think it was mentioned on Rich's blog, but I'm not sure.

re: "I'm interested to know are they going to revamp his entire origin, because there's no mention of Galactus.."
I think they've mentioned him, somewhere, but it's been a minute since I read up on it.

re: James Manning's "Man, I just don't know enough about comics anymore to engage. I just know that I was never a fan of Captain America... There was always something about him that screamed wuss to me."

Heh. There's something about Cap that speaks to me. I'm not so crazy about the character that I still read the series, even when it sucks, but when he's done well, it's extremely well-done.

..if that makes any sense, at all.

Serious Black said...

I like Ultimate Cap much better. He's a real man. The regular Marvel Cap is ok. I am actually thinking about pickig up his series. The previews over the last few months have looked fantastic. I like Brubaker, Epting, and Perkins. The only thing holding me back is Cap.

West said...

re: "I like Ultimate Cap much better. He's a real man."

I'll say this for Ultimate Cap: He's got greater depth of character.

The "regular" Cap doesn't really act like a man who's been displaced in time... perhaps understandably so. Still, aside from the needless brutality, Ultimate Cap kinda has that over the so-called 616 version.

re: "The regular Marvel Cap is ok. I am actually thinking about pickig up his series. The previews over the last few months have looked fantastic. I like Brubaker, Epting, and Perkins."

I've been pretty interested, myself. I think what they apparently did was a bad idea, in some ways, but it still sounds interesting as hell.

re: "The only thing holding me back is Cap."

That's too funny.

Luke Cage said...

Hey West, what do you think about a Captain America movie? Do you think that star-spangled banner clad superhero would work on the silver screen, and who would you have portray Steve Rogers/CA?

West said...

re: "Hey West, what do you think about a Captain America movie? Do you think that star-spangled banner clad superhero would work on the silver screen, and who would you have portray Steve Rogers/CA?"

I don't really see it working. The costume would look too goofy.

Of course, they made The Flash work, visually, so I could be wrong.

As far as casting, I have no idea. People used to say Brad Pitt, but I don't know that a 40-year-old is the way to go. Steve date of birth may be more than 40 years, ago, but he appears to be much younger, I'd think.

What do you think?

Luke Cage said...

Well, hopefully its not Brad Pitt that's for sure. No name or little known actors are always the way to go when you do a comicbook movie casting. See Spider-man & the X-Men. (except for key folk like Xavier and a Halle Berry-less Storm)

West said...

Agreed.

With some exceptions, lesser-known stars are the way to go.

Art Williams said...

Believe it or not, Brubaker actually make the resurection idea work. And it was a damn good story.

As for a Cap movie? Something interesting could be done with the whole "symbol of the American Dream" vs "Symbol of the American Government."

The conflict and angst over this could be well done and topical. You would only have to talk to a some real soldiers to get an idea of what I'm saying.

Take a look at the reactions of our soldiers after the Abu Gharib scandal broke as they explain why they joined the army in the first place.

What makes Cap a hard character to bring to the screen is the man out of time aspect. Have you seen the Ultimates annual #2? I thought they did a good job capturing some of what I'm talking about.

West said...

Son of Blog-El, but what about that costume, man?!

:-)