Captain America: Bicentennial Battles

Captain America (1968) #201-205

by Jack Kirby

Cap goes cosmic in this collection of the King's comics See the Living Legend and the high-flying Falcon fight monsters and madmen in a dimension of disaster, then follow up by fighting a futuristic phantom Finally, accompany Cap on a tour of history conveyed by the curious Contemplator Collects Captain America #201-205 and Bicentennial Battles #1.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Fiction

184 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2005

About the author

Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg) was one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in American comic books, and the co-creator of such enduring characters and popular culture icons as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Captain America, and hundreds of others stretching back to the earliest days of the medium. He was also a comic book writer and editor. His most common nickname is "The King."

Reviews

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

My main gripe with this Treasury Edition is the quality of the print. Marvel decides to do a large format reprint of this story, great! The unfortunate thing is they obviously don't have a scan of the art that is high quality enough to survive being blown up to this size.

Every single ink line has digital artifacting.

It's very annoying, and quite distracting especially on the text. They simply shouldn't have published this at this size without better source files.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so excited to read this comic! From the cover, it looked promising with Captain America in the center of multiple battles. When I read it, I realized that this was really about the American Dream and how Captain America would have to travel through multiple dimensions in order to really capture the highs and lows of America (The Great Depression, the atomic bomb, the impact of slavery in the 1800s, etc.). While I think the time travelling aspect of the story was fascinating, I wish we were able to see each time period a little more to develop Cap’s character to where he realizes that America had highs and lows in its history to becoming a nation. The main focus of the first half was about the American Dream and facing it with perseverance and facing adversary head on. It was a decent story but Mister Buda’s journey was confusing because while he seemed like a guide, his intentions seemed inconsistent. For instance, he said he had to learn for himself why he gave him the symbol in order to travel from time period to time period, he accompanied him towards the end and I wish he was more fleshed out as a character so I could understand why he was doing this to Captain America. Overall, this story kept me engaged.

The second adventure featured Falcon and Captain America, which was a better story in which they had to face the Night People. This story was better in terms of development between the working friendship Steve has with Sam Wilson and the questioning of what it really means to be a hero. The only issue I had was with Sharon Carter’s character. In my opinion, her character seemed really whiny and would always guilt trip Steve Rogers into giving up the mantle, which isn’t fair. I mean, I can somewhat understand that she wants Steve to have a normal life but at the same time, she wasn’t willing to understand Steve’s point of view that having a normal life wasn’t something he could have even if he wanted to. I also wish the Falcon wasn’t captured as quickly as he was as I wish he was able to fully understand where they took Leila and figure out a strategy in order to save her before going after her right away, though I understand why he did since he loves Leila. Overall, this was an engaging story and was really invested in this story.

Overall, was an enjoyable comic despite my setbacks about some of the elements!

[Nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I particularly liked the Bicentennial Battles special. That works well as its own thing, but beyond that it's weird to try to cram the Kirby kookiness into the regular run. I think it would have worked better as an out of continuity thing.

Still, fun and great to look at.

[Jordan Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the book, I'm at the part where he fights the bad guys and its the era when the Nazis were taking over everywhere.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit let down by this one. The art is for the most part as enjoyable as can be; I don't think that much of a case can be made for anyone other than Kirby being the greatest comics artist ever. On the other hand, I don't think that he was a terribly good writer, and all of the work collected here was both written and edited by him. It comes from the brief period that he returned to Marvel after his work at DC didn't get the reception he hoped for, and before he left for Hollywood. The Bicentennial story is quirky and unclear, and the stories in which Cap's partnered with the Falcon seem badly dated and too over-the-top. Stick with his Marvel work with Lee from the '60s, and his earlier Cap stories done with Simon.

[Carl Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who better to make patriotism work than that great American hero, Jack Kirby? Neither cynical nor deluded, Kirby shows Cap to be right in hoping and striving for something that, one is lead to believe, won't really come, but that isn't supposed to stop us anyway. Great follow-up on the "Madbomb" saga chronciled in the previous volume. Unfortunately the other two stories following the titular tale are inferior to what's come before, docking this one star.

[g026r · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, Bicentennial Battles is kinda crap. It feels dated, hokey, and fairly uninspired.

The issues of Captain America & The Falcon that follow it in this collection, however, are vintage Kirby. (And, unlike the ones found in the subsequent The Swine collection, the art feels crisper and the plots not quite as out of place.) All the stars in the review are for this section.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

It had tons of cool stories. In one of them the night creatures take the Falcon and Leila, to do the shock on them. That makes them hypnotized into thinking that they are night creatures. The Falcon defeated a rock monster. Captain America comes to save Leila and the Falcon. Find out what next by reading the book!!

[Devero · Rating 2 out of 5]

Grandi immagini, senza dubbio, anche se in alcune pare che il RE non ci metta l'impegno che ci metteva di solito in quegli anni. Le storie sono loffie, e in effetti da un albo celebrativo del bicentenario dell'Indipendenza Americana non mi aspettavo granché, ma alcune trovate sono proprio ridicole e la Marvel poteva senza dubbio fare di meglio.

[Reyel2107 · Rating 3 out of 5]

to much american for me !!!!!