Random Happenstance

Still working my way through my pile of trades from Hastings, so we'll double up today. First, Captain America: Man Out of Time, written by Mark Waid, pencils by Jorge Molina, inks by Karl Kesel.

This limited series was an update of events running from the classic Avengers #4, where Cap is pulled out of the ice by the team; up to Avengers #8, where they face Kang the Conqueror. But Waid adds a lot to it. While Cap is still a man out of time and mopey over the death of his partner Bucky, Tony Stark takes Cap aside to show him the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (and Radiohead!) and that America did all right for itself after WWII. Tony also shows him Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech and the moon landing, America's highlight reel; conversely, Cap's old boss, the elderly General Simons, later gives him the lowlights: Vietnam, Watergate, MLK's assassination, and more. Further complicating the issue, Hank Pym accidentally lets slip that the Fantastic Four have a time machine (actually Dr. Doom's) and Cap gets the idea that he could just go back to when he left, possibly even saving Bucky. It takes a presidential order to make him stay--the President seems to be Obama, but is obscured so it could be the next guy or whoever.

So Cap is seemingly going through the motions, when the Avengers face Kang and get beat down. Kang "smells" the past on Cap, and inadvertently grants him his wish, sending him back to 1945! Will Cap give up and live the rest of his life in the past? Well...no, pretty obviously not. But it all comes together really well.

I also read Captain America: Fovever Allies, written by Roger Stern, with art by Nick Dragotta and Marco Santucci. This was a story with Bucky as Captain America, that also tied into his days with the Young Allies in World War II. The Young Allies are updated and fleshed out nicely, and thankfully moved away from their earlier portrayals, which were horrible and racist. There's a reprint of an old wartime Young Allies comic, and man, it's rough. I don't think I've even finished it yet. So this one's not a must-have or anything, but Stern's part is nice.