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Post by Tana Nile on Sept 30, 2007 11:25:51 GMT -5
I haven't been collecting this title as I have all the early issues in one form or another. Also I didn't like Michael Oeming's watercolors for the new back up stories. But I did get issue 4, all because of the back up story by Dwayne McDuffie.
It deals with Cap, right after he is freed from the ice. He stops a bank robbery and encounters Gabe Jones, former Howling Commando. gabe now works for the Secret Service. Gabe questions whether this Cap is the real Cap. A series of medical tests are done and it is proven that this truly is Cap. Gabe takes Cap to a store room where all his stuff has been held for decades. The two men casually talk and reminisce.
Gabe: You've got a lot of albums for a military man. Cap: I love music. Hey! Woody herman. You remember "Blues in the Night"?
Then Cap finds a copy of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". He says it was Bucky's. He had borrowed it from him. Bucky said he would finish it later.
The last panel shows Cap propped on his bed, reading the book and listening to his albums.
It was such a nice quiet little story that seemed so pitch-perfect. We get the melancholy that clings to Cap at this stage in his life. "The man out of time" aspect that characterized his early days is one I have always loved, which logically began to disappear after time. McDuffie really captured this element perfectly. And even the Oeming art, which I thought was a disaster in the first issue, looks very nice here.
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Post by spiderwasp on Sept 30, 2007 17:10:40 GMT -5
I haven't bought this title so I did even realize it had original stories. Of course, as I've stated before in another thread, I hate it when they do that. I'd probably enjoy the story you are referring to but I'm not about to buy yet another title, when I already spend more than I should on Marvel every month just for a backup when, I too, have every old story in one format or another. I feel the same way when musical artists release a greatest hits album with one or two new tracks. It's so disloyal to the fans who have bought everything they've done along the way that you have to sucker them in to buy your stuff again just to get a bit of something new. I think it would be nice if Marvel would eventually put just the backup stories from this into a TPB but I'm sure that will never happen.
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Post by Shiryu on Oct 1, 2007 18:37:18 GMT -5
I read and quite liked it. The art is still hard to swallow, but the story had a nice touch.
I also liked the back-up story in #3, about Hank Pym having an hard time dealing with pressure and feeling it more than the other original Avengers. Also, Hank shows to know that Iron-Man is Tony ("come on, you are dealing with the world's smartest scientist who isn't Reed Richards"), even though Tony keeps negating it.
#5 should be an early partnership between Cap and Thor, which sounds promising.
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Post by Tana Nile on Oct 4, 2007 9:35:28 GMT -5
I think it would be nice if Marvel would eventually put just the backup stories from this into a TPB but I'm sure that will never happen. I second that thought. I'd love to see more early Avengers stories, I just don't want to pay for a book where I already have 90% of the material.
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Post by dlw66 on Oct 4, 2007 10:45:59 GMT -5
When I read that suggestion, I immediately thought of the Classic X-Men series and how wonderful it would be to have the Claremont/Bolton back-ups collected. However -- would they lose some impact if not spinning directly out of the tale of the month? I wonder...
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Post by Shiryu on Oct 8, 2007 13:44:09 GMT -5
In Italy, Classic X-Men was published a few years after its related stories in Uncanny, but this didn't make it any less enjoyable.
However, those stories are better interlinked than those in Avengers Classic, which are essentially a one shot after the other, fitting nicely in continuity but not very stand-alones.
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Post by thew40 on Oct 9, 2007 13:32:34 GMT -5
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Post by Shiryu on Oct 12, 2007 16:39:35 GMT -5
That's interesting! I had no idea W, an exalt for the info and links!
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Post by dlw66 on Oct 13, 2007 19:26:36 GMT -5
THEY'VE BEEN OUT FOR TWO YEARS? I, too, had no idea! W, thanks for your research. These might be on my purchase list soon.
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Post by scottharris on Oct 14, 2007 14:46:20 GMT -5
The only problem I had with the backup story in Classic Avengers #4 was the part where Gabe gives Cap a check for his back pay while he was frozen.
Cap's back pay from the Army during those years was a major plot point during the Gruenwald Cap. In fact, it spurred Gru's most famous story, the replacement Cap series. In brief: Cap is sent a check for a vast sum of money, as it is decades of pay, with interest and the whole nine yards. Cap decides to use the money to set up a Captain America Hotline, so people with crimes or suspicious activity to report can more easily contact him. The government gets wind of things eventually and decides that if he's still on their payroll, he needs to go on government missions. He refuses and quits, so they hire a replacement, who eventually cracks under pressure and fails -- and later becomes USAgent.
That's nearly 40 issues worth of classic Cap plots based on this check, which Clasic Avengers now shows being given to Cap years earlier. C'mon, editors.
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Post by Shiryu on Oct 15, 2007 2:23:00 GMT -5
Ouch I'm still to go through the old Cap stories, so I had missed this particular inplication, but if that's the case then you are right, the editor should have pointed it out...
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Post by Bored Yesterday on Oct 18, 2007 8:44:42 GMT -5
Here's for a no-prize ...
Cap received 2 back pay checks because he was employed by 2 different government programs. One check was for his US Army pay, and the other was for his top secret covert operations. Different funding sources. Different accountants. Different paychecks.
Or, one check was for his regular pay and the other was for his retirement benefits. I know for a fact that when a person separates from federal employment, they get separate checks for regular pay and retirement payout.
So -- you see -- Marvel doesn't make mistakes!
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Post by Tana Nile on Oct 18, 2007 10:11:26 GMT -5
Here's for a no-prize ... Cap received 2 back pay checks because he was employed by 2 different government programs. One check was for his US Army pay, and the other was for his top secret covert operations. Different funding sources. Different accountants. Different paychecks. Or, one check was for his regular pay and the other was for his retirement benefits. I know for a fact that when a person separates from federal employment, they get separate checks for regular pay and retirement payout. So -- you see -- Marvel doesn't make mistakes! That's some good work there BY! I may not be authorized to do this but what the heck - consider yourself No-Prized, True Believer!! ;D
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Post by Bored Yesterday on Oct 18, 2007 11:17:49 GMT -5
That may be as close as I ever get to the real thing. Thanks TN!
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Post by scottharris on Oct 18, 2007 18:36:26 GMT -5
I got a No-Prize once. But I lost it.
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Post by Bored Yesterday on Oct 18, 2007 20:47:03 GMT -5
Ha ha ha! Sounds like a "nowhere to be found prize."
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