Maybe I should have a tag for books I buy out of the quarter bin, even though I know damn well I have them lying around somewhere. Like today's book! From 1993, Captain America #419, "Television Blind" Written by Mark Gruenwald, pencils by Rik Levins, inks by Danny Bulanadi.
The Red Skull had been willing to give Viper a chance--"a person, I thought, whose evil was within striking distance of my own!" But has come to realize their partnership might not have the same goals: the Skull wants to create a new world order, Viper just wants everything to burn. Forced to stop her schemes from wrecking his, the Skull hires Silver Sable to bring her in. While Sable didn't know who hired her, Captain America does, and has his eyes on the bigger picture.
With former sidekick Battlestar, Sable agrees to a compromise with Cap: dropping Viper off on a butte in the southwest, as agreed by her unseen employer; but bugging Viper's uniform. The Red Skull doesn't go in person, of course, and why should he, since he's got some goon in the old Iron Monger armor for that! Teleconferencing in, the Skull is mildly annoyed that Viper has wasted ten million dollars of his, but she claims to have something really big going. What it is, she won't say, until the Iron Monger breaks her leg! Even then, she won't give up all the details; but she is then rescued by her crew, the Fangs! One of whom, the mutant Slither, I think Viper had been keeping as a pet since #344 or so, and that's an issue we really still need to get to! Another appears to be another new goon in an old armor: Razorblade looks a lot like the old Porcupine suit...
The Fangs take out faux-Iron Monger, and Silver Sable asks Cap if they want to check if IM is still alive, or maybe go on with saving the country. I think she's mocking him a bit. With Battlestar, they make fairly short work of the Fangs at their base, with Cap taking out their transmitter tower with one of their own bazookas. Viper has a somewhat sad moment when she thinks she's finally won, before her power goes out.
Gruenwald had a ten-year run on Captain America, and this was around year eight. It's not bad, but it's not his peak work, either. Levins wasn't my favorite of the pencilers during that run, but he may have done a solid batch of issues. (Man, I miss Kieron Dwyer…)
At first I'm inclined to say he peaked with Streets of Poison, but more like he should've quit after the Captain America anniversary issue, #383 I believe. Out of all the artists he worked with Dwyer and Ron Lim were my personal favorites from that run. After that the rest of his 90's work, especially towards the mid-90's was bad.
ReplyDeleteFunny commentary here by Cap about women becoming more vicious.
Love that shot of him shooting a bazooka.....which I guess means its okay to fire a bazooka, just not use a gun. Okay......