Written by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Joe Simon
Illustrated by Various
Published by Marvel Comics
That’s pretty darn delightful, eh?
Captain America turns 80 this month, and Marvel is ready to celebrate the hero in style.
Even the simplest ways to salute the Star-Spangled Avenger would be cool. Think through a few: commemorative reprints, some film and animated montages, limited edition artwork.
In my days as a kid, trading cards would have been made – sadly, not so much anymore.
And, perhaps, some collection of modern comics reflecting on Cap’s 80 years of storytelling, yes?
But that’s not what Captain America Anniversary Tribute is doing.
Rather, this giant-sized special is a jam band supergroup of top tier artists redrawing Captain America’s first appearance in Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s Captain America Comics #1 from March 1941, and Cap’s reintroduction to the Marvel Universe with Stan Lee and Kirby’s Avengers #4 from March 1964.
You notice there that Jack “King” Kirby drew both of those iconic issues, and Kirby’s name looms over all the big names appearing in this giant-sized special issue. This book is a tribute to Kirby as much as Cap. Each artist was handed a page from those original books to redraw. How do you reinterpret the most influential artist of all comic books?
For the most part, it’s pretty cool.
I mean, check out this lineup: John Cassaday, Marguerite Sauvage, David Lapham, Declan Shalvey, Perf Pérez, Salvador Larroca, Leinil Francis Yu, Valerio Schiti, Carlos Pacheco, Inhyuk Lee, Kei Zama, Sara Pichelli, Jesús Saiz, Kim Jacinto, Adam Kubert, Federico Vicentini, Mahmud Asrar, Jim Cheung, Terry Dodson, Joe Bennett, Alex Ross, Steve Epting, Adam Hughes, Stephanie Hans, Javier Garrón, Alitha E. Martinez, Elena Casagrande, Paco Medina, Daniel Acuña, Chris Samnee, Butch Guice, Rachael Stott, Pepe Larraz, Greg Smallwood, Greg Land, Ray-Anthony Height and Mark Bagley. Plus the latest class of international talent from the Marvel’s Stormbreakers program: Peach Momoko, Juann Cabal, Carmen Carnero, R.B. Silva, Joshua Cassara, Natacha Bustos, Iban Coello, and Patrick Gleason.
It’s hard to let go of Kirby in this book, and it’s fun seeing modern artists revisit those Golden Age and Silver Age layouts, compositions and dialog, from the days when comics were made primarily for children. We get a heaping helping of Bucky in full-on boy wonder pluckiness, for example. Comics also are way less wordy these days – especially when it comes to all the soap-opera speechifying.
(That said, many modern comics could learn a thing or two and include a little more narration. And the emo-before-it-was-cool Namor the Sub-Mariner should always be making giant speeches of his hissy fits and disaffection.)
The closer each artist comes to re-creating Kirby’s panels, posing and compositions but in their own style, the better the product looks. It’s pretty cool seeing a top-tier professional such as Adam Kubert, Leinil Francis Yu or Butch Guice execute the Kirby fundamentals.
It’s also interesting to see where the storytelling doesn’t hold up to modern eyes, too.
Most glaringly, the way Wasp is written and drawn as a diminished side character as the only woman. She barely helps in the team’s fight against Namor, and says she was off powdering her nose as “any girl would do in a moment of crisis.” Thor greets Captain America’s acceptance of their invitation to join the Avengers by saying, “Spoken with honor, and with dignity, like a man!” Wasp pats Cap on the shoulder while he and all the men put their hands in the center of the “go team!” circle.
A far cry from now the most popular version of Wasp, from those really fun Ant-Man movies, whether the original-flavor super-spy or the new-school badass.
Always remember, some practices should stay in the past.
Jack Kirby’s art, thankfully, is always ready for the here and now. This tribute, to the Captain and to the King, stands as excellent proof.
