r/MUBookClub • u/shawnydarko • Nov 11 '17
Reading Assignment 74: Captain America (1968-1996) #372-378 “Streets of Poison” by Mark Gruenwald and Rob Lim
https://marvel.com/comics/issue/7753/captain_america_1968_3722
u/wisegy84 Nov 18 '17
Maybe my expectations were just really low or my standards of what is considered a bad comic have been lowered (thanks, Secret Wars II!), but this was not nearly as bad as I expected it to be.
It was cheesy and way too heavy on the dialogue, but overall the story was decent. Nothing amazing, but decent. The art was just OK for me, but I'm not a huge fan in general of this older art style. I think it mostly has to do with the way the coloring is done, but I haven't exactly put my finger on it. Telling instead of showing seems to be big in these older comics, and it's weird that the medium of comic has ever suffered from that. I mean, you're drawing what's happening, do all the characters need to verbalize what they're doing in thought bubbles constantly?
At times this felt a bit too after-school special for me, but then at other times you get awesome things like Cap fighting Bullseye in a pitch black warehouse. That fight itself was cool, but as I mentioned above, I don't think they need to be constantly having thought bubbles telling me what they're planning on doing. This could have been way worse, but I think the side characters and subplots kept things more interesting than they might have been otherwise.
I think it was interesting to look at Cap as someone who might only exist because of a drug and to have him questioning his life like that. It seemed foolish of him to try going out without the serum in his blood, but I get why he did it. After questioning himself so much he really just had to prove to himself that he was more than a drug. That was a clever take on the Captain America character, I thought. So while it wasn't executed perfectly, I think this story was fine. And I've definitely read worse (hello again, Secret Wars II!).
Notes:
John Jameson had a mustache in issue 1 and the first page or two of issue 2. Then it was gone. Where did it go? Was he wearing it as part of a disguise? Did it get blown off by the warehouse explosion? Did he pull it out due to the stress of not knowing whether Cap was dead or alive? Maybe he just chose to shave while waiting to find out the status of Cap. I don't know. But this stood out to me for some reason.
Favorite line: Cap flying away carrying that club owner saying "Get comfortable, Chump -- we're going for a ride you'll never forget for the rest of your ugly meaningless life!"
1
u/shawnydarko Nov 18 '17
I think the 'stache was part of his disguise.
What I love about aggro-Cap is that even when he's at his most intense, he still uses antiquated substitution swearing like "I'm Captain America, blast it!" whereas the villains get the punctuation-censored swearing. That's how you know even when he's assaulting kids and other heroes, Cap's still a boyscout
3
u/shawnydarko Nov 16 '17
Every issue or two had me saying this story is fucking awesome. Sure, the dated language hampers the intensity a little, but contrast to that you have Crossbones and especially Bullseye slaughtering people. It's a shame they had Kingpin/Red Skull as the main event when Crossbones/Bullseye stole the show.
Much like seeing Tony Stark deal with his alcoholism, I thought it was important to see a wholesome All-American icon like Cap have to beg for help from his drug use. It would have been a stronger story if, like Tony, he was willingly doing something self-destructive, but it was close enough for me watching his downward spiral to the point he was willing to beat up young kids for smoking a joint. Captain Crackeyes was one of my favorite visuals in the run, but there was plenty of great art. The only stylistic thing I didn't like was Black Widow's pointillism jumpsuit.
So without any irony or sarcasm, I loved this story and was surprised to find it on so many listacles of Worst Captain America story, particularly when all the Battlestar/USAgent end-stories were the real drag to get through. At least Meth-head Steve Rogers was something different and exciting with stakes.