AVENGERS #343

"FIRST NIGHT"
A story of acquaintances, old and new, brought to you by...
Writer: Bob Harras | Penciler: Steven Epting | Inker: Tom Palmer
Colorist: Tom Palmer | Letterer: Bill Oakley
Editor: Ralph Macchio | Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The Plot: On the roof of Avengers Mansion, Vision, Jarvis, and the new Thor welcome Crystal, her daughter Luna, and Luna's nursemaid, Marilla, to their new home. While Jarvis escorts Marilla and Luna to Luna's room, the rest of the group encounters Hercules and the Black Knight battling a group of robots in a hallway. Thor and Crystal team up to defeat the robots, after which Captain America and Black Widow appear. The veteran Avengers inform Crystal and Thor that this was a surprise test of their abilities.

The next morning, while Captain America and Black Widow are away in California for a meeting with the West Coast Avengers, a priority alarm comes in from the Human Torch, in which he says the Fantastic Four are under attack. Vision scrambles Crystal, Thor, Hercules, and the Black Knight (with his winged steed, Valinor) to investigate. But when the heroes reach Four Freedoms Plaza, they find nothing amiss, and the Fantastic Four apparently not home. Then the Avengers are attacked by an energy bolt that sends them falling from the sky. The heroes land on a rooftop and find themselves confronted by the long-thought-dead Swordsman and an armored mystery woman.

Continuity Notes: As noted above, this Thor is not the original God of Thunder, but is rather the mortal, Eric Masterson, acting as Thor while the real McCoy is banished per events in his own series. Masterson is none too pleased by the Avengers' test, mentioning that it's the second time the group has pulled something like this, as Hercules apparently attacked him to test his mettle in THOR #437. It should be noted that this is "my" Thor -- i.e., when I was a kid, really beginning to explore the Marvel Universe, this was the Thor I knew from things like INFINITY GAUNTLET and WAR, random assorted issues of this AVENGERS run, and so forth.

THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA: SENTINEL OF LIBERTY #1 - 4

"FIRST FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE" | "BETRAYED BY AGENT X"
"BATTLEGROUND: PARIS" | "ANGELS OF DEATH ANGELS OF HOPE"

Storytellers: Fabian Nicieza & Kevin Maguire | Pencilers (issue 4): Steve Carr & Kevin West
Inks: Joe Rubinstein (issue 1) & Terry Austin (issues 2 - 4) | Inking Assist: Tom Christopher
Letters: Richard Starkings | Color Art: Paul Mounts
Logo & Book Design: Joe Kaufman | Assistant Editor: Barry Dutter | Editor: Mike Rockwitz
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco
Special Thanks to: Mark Gruenwald, Gregory Wright & Suzanne Dell'orto

Return with me now, to the dark days of 1991. As Marvel descended into the abyss that would result in the likes of X-FORCE and Todd McFarlane's SPIDER-MAN, they also gave us... this. An uneven, but mostly very nice retelling of Captain America's origin by Fabian Nicieza, Kevin Maguire, Joe Rubinstein, and Terry Austin. This series was published in the "Prestige" format, running 64 ad-free pages per issue. It's something I had had on my "to read" radar for years, but only recently got around to it, and now I find myself wondering why I took so long!

So, look -- right off the bat, I'll admit I haven't read many versions of Cap's origin. I've read variations on some of his earliest adventures, in various mini-series, flashback stories, and so forth. But the actual origin -- Dr. Erskine/Reinstein, the super-soldier serum, the Nazi saboteur -- I'm pretty sure I've only ever read that in the Roger Stern/John Byrne encapsulation from CAPTAIN AMERICA #255. So when it comes to the material presented here by Nicieza and Maguire, I honestly have no idea what they've kept from prior versions and what they've created anew.

But -- taking the above into account, after reading this series, I feel like the filmmakers behind CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER must have looked to this story for inspiration, at least with regards to the early parts of the movie. Heck, a near-direct line can be drawn from the first issue to the film's first act, taking into account the typical changes one generally sees in Hollywood adaptations.