Comments on: Surface and Depth: DeMatteis and Zeck’s Captain America 261

By: PrettyFakes » Blog Archive » One thing about Captain America #600

PrettyFakes » Blog Archive » One thing about Captain America #600 — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:18:52 +0000

[...] Cap’s 1980s girlfriend Bernie Rosenthal, recapping the highlights of the Stern/Byrne and DeMatteis/Zeck eras, and tying up the various loose ends associated with the supporting cast of that era? That is [...]

By: Jack Butler

Jack Butler — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:28:32 +0000

Haven’t read the comix you reference—they came after my childhood infatuation and before my return—but can honestly say you have done that rare thing, written a critical analysis (sorry if that sounds too stuffy) of a narrative that makes enjoyable reading in its own right.

Way to go!

By: gorjus

gorjus — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:43:00 +0000

I’m going to really enjoy this, and hopefully following along (local comic shops permitting). I always loved Mike Zeck, too—likely prompted by his intermittent work on Secret Wars and the Punisher, a big deal to be as a kid, and most certainly Kraven’s Last Hunt.

It’s his heavy use of inky blacks—look up there at Nomad’s rib cage and around Cap’s knees. They’re just soaked in shadow.

By: Claudia

Claudia — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:53:44 +0000

Wow, this is awesome. I’m so excited to hear that you plan to make this a continuing series! I have never read any of the Captain America run (besides Kyle Baker’s highly-criticized mini, “Truth”) so this is a great opportunity to see what I’ve been missing.

I was really surprised by the unexpected insight of the scene you’ve highlighted: “Symbols are harder to squash than men.” Nice!

It makes sense that a character who takes on the name “America” would have to grapple with this kind of iconic baggage a lot – unlike one called “Orrgo” or “Dragoom” – LOL. Still, it is striking how the Shadowy Figure seems to be alert to the way certain signs derive their power from a simulated reality, an illusion easily manipulated by those who have taken the “red pill.” My knowledge of Baudrillard is very weak (and mostly based on multiple viewings of The Matrix, but still…). And the fact that this whole story takes place on a movie lot is priceless!

By: Pages tagged "love and rockets"

Pages tagged "love and rockets" — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:36:01 +0000

[...] bookmarks tagged love and rockets Dematteis and Zeck’s Captain America 261 saved by 1 others zilchnerd bookmarked on 10/10/08 | [...]

By: rand

rand — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:56:27 +0000

just a quick note of encouragement: i love the dematteis cap run. it was what brought me back to comics after discovering girls. haven’t recently reread the run myself, i greatly look forward to reading what you have to say.

By: Professor Fury

Professor Fury — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:06:40 +0000

Plok—on the subject of DeMatteis’s endings—did you read this CSBG “urban legends” piece on his planned Cap finale? Good stuff that I hope to deal with in more detail when we get there.

And yeah, read along when you can! (You, too, rest of the internet!) It’d be good to know when I’m missing something, or if you think I’m sometimes looking at things askew, etc . . .

By: plok

plok — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:46:56 +0000

Interesting! DeMatteis caught my attention at this time (predictably) by being something in my eyes much like a successor-writer to the Two Steves, so I was verrrry interested in reading his Cap and his Defenders. The latter hasn’t aged particularly well, I think—possibly because it’s where DeMatteis began to find that he wanted to say things in these comics that they just didn’t really fit, or that he’d prefer not to have them fit…later, and I’m thinking particularly of his Dr. Fate run, these things perhaps got a little more breathing room, and that was better than his Defenders…at least to me it was.

But from what I remember of his Cap run, he didn’t have that same kind of trouble. Oh, yeah, the Ameridroid…that was pretty neat and tidy, as I recall, but I’d forgotten Nomad was “fighting” nihilists, and I didn’t remember that they were much more thoroughgoing nihilists than the bunch Englehart dealt with.

You know, I think DeMatteis was, for me at any rate, the first Marvel writer of whom I thought “this guy gets it” in the same way I tend to think of (for example) Kurt Busiek today—the first writer who obviously shared my likes and dislikes as a fan himself, and then brought those enthusiasms to the same comics that had inspired them in the first place. I could be all wrong about that, of course…but that’s how I remember it. And maybe that’s why I was so often slightly dissatisfied with DeMatteis’ run-ending finales, because at first I felt that this guy was working off the same page as I was, but then instead of staying on it he went off on his own individual writerly obsessions—oh no, he wasn’t Gerber or Englehart after all! But by that time I felt a bit proprietary about Gerber/Englehart “riffing”, so I thought “this guy isn’t as good as I thought he was—he’s doing it wrong, now.”

Well, I was a kid—what did I know?

So, really looking forward to you reintroducing these comics to me. I think I may just read along.