The Lovecraft-inspired ‘At the Stroke of Midnight’ led to tensions over Lee’s editing, but still won an Alley Award. The Sinnott/Palmer inks, and Steranko’s artful colouring contribute to a pinnacle of Marvel comics. This unfolds in a series of monochrome TV screenshots, including remnants of his uniform, and a hand holding his bullet riddled cowl. Best of all is a news report on the missing-presumed-dead Captain. ![]() ![]() Thrilling action scenes are intercut with evocative set pieces: Cap in civvies passing his billboard image, mock publicity ‘photos’ of Cap and Bucky, and the Avengers as pall-bearers. This prompts a tentative partnership that’s immediately under attack by HYDRA (pictured, left). Marvel’s itinerant sidekick, Rick Jones, triggers bittersweet memories of the Captain’s own fallen sidekick Bucky. They’re well-conceived, and sharply scripted, balancing pacy plots with poignant moments. The writing of three classic Captain America episodes is attributed here to Marvel ringleader Stan Lee, though later officially credited to Steranko. Drake created Doom Patrol, DC’s band of outsider heroes, yet disappoints on their Marvel counterparts. A monolithic story-so-far box, is followed by relentless plot explanation in leaden dialogue as Drake introduces Lorna Dane, later Polaris, but fails to maximise the inherent drama of her conflicting loyalties. The X-Men episodes are from a longer storyline written by Arnold Drake. The usual downsides of a single artist collection are incomplete stories and varying writers. Someone may have been rushed, but this falls far short of the Sinnott/Palmer inked Captain America episodes from a few months later. His X-Men starts well, with a beautifully composed spread, and the story title artfully integrated into the background, but while layouts continue to be striking, inker John Tartaglione’s rough, textural style is mismatched to Steranko’s elegant precision. ![]() Given Steranko’s rapid development, it makes sense to have material presented in chronological order. So Marvel have instead gathered Steranko’s handful of other stories for the company: two episodes of X-Men, three of Captain America, and one short each from romance and horror anthologies. However, that has been collected in various editions. He matched Kirby’s storytelling and dynamism, but added elegance, innovative page designs, fine art influences and 1960s cool.Ī sampling of Nick Fury material would have been a welcome addition to this slim book. Initially working from layouts by Jack Kirby, by the following year he was not only pencilling, but inking, colouring and writing the series. He debuted in 1966 on the company’s Nick Fury: Agent of Shield. Jim Steranko’s three years at Marvel, earned him a Marvel Visionaries single creator collection, three decades later.
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