70s Captain America

Biff Starshield!

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I used to love team books as a teen because, let’s face it, very few female characters got to be stars of their own books back then. So if you wanted to see girls and women doing superhero stuff, you bought team books.

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Heh, when I was a kid (back in the '70s, whew) I saw this on TV. I tuned in to the first one just as they were showing his motorcycle and how it emerged from the van. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. SO I sat there and watched the rest of the movie waiting for them to do it again.

Sadly, it was never to be. Damn you, Reb Brown. :grimacing:

seriously though, I love da guy.

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Personally, I’ve usually shied away from team books and prefer solo titles. I do love that the modern lineup has more diversity now. But I also love that the books exist in a shared universe. Well, sometimes. Crossovers, guest stars, odd cameos… those can be fun. It’s the big summer events that get me. They figure their reader base has more time and disposable income in summer, so they do these big events that are supposed to change everything!! And it just disrupts the regular storylines of all the books and if you’re not reading all the different books you miss pieces of the story. And then the event is over and everything returns to the previous status quo with minimal changes. Until the next summer rolls around. sigh

A brief aside about subscriptions

At least having Marvel Unlimited helps. That was a great innovation of theirs. I wish they’d offer it as a bundle option with Disney+. DC followed suit with what’s now DC Universe Infinite. With both services, you pay a monthly subscription fee that’s roughly the cost of buying two comics, and you get access to tens of thousands of back issues. Every new comic they publish is added to the service 6 months after it hits the stands. So, as long as you don’t mind not being able to keep up with current online discussions, you can just read everything there. No need to pay extra for the summer event titles or anything.

But, for me, the movies are completely different. I’ve loved all the modern Marvel movies. It’s a different medium. We get a 2 hour movie every few months instead of multiple 24-page comics every week where each comic is designed to fit into a series of 6-issue story arcs that can be collected into graphic novels later. I like that the movies build on each other and interact with each other while still giving individual attention to each of the main characters. But they usually make sure that you can still enjoy the movie and follow the story even if you haven’t seen all the other movies.

It’s weird, too. I hate cosmic events in the comics. They bore me. But somehow it’s different in the movies. I think maybe because the medium is better suited to showing space battles and so on? Or maybe because I grew up on watching sci-fi movies? Whatever it is, I liked the Infinity Gems in the movies way better than the comics.

But things like the 70s and 80s TV movies… There’s just no comparison. There are no grand battles. Barely any special effects. No complex serial storylines. None of the strong suits of either the modern movies or the comics. It’s just… low-budget goofiness. They’re terrible. But they’re made with love, all the same. So if you like cheesy movies and you like being able to laugh at them, they’re beautiful.

The Hulk movies… Marvel really found something with the Hulk series. Every episode was the same, and yet they were all touching. So they tried to use it to launch other shows. The movies weren’t so much Hulk movies as they were backdoor pilots for potential Thor and Daredevil spin-off shows. Which failed utterly because the movies were terrible. But still fun to watch if you’re ready to laugh.

In the first movie, it happens once. Cap’s boss shows him the remodeled van. (Which is still so weird. “Hey, you know how this van was your home? Well, I thought I’d surprise you by taking out all your possessions so we could fit the motorcycle in here. Isn’t it neat? Cool enough that you’ll reconsider becoming a superhero? Because otherwise this motorcycle is a complete waste…”) Cap obligingly agrees to test the new motorcycle by launching himself out of the van and driving it around the bomb range. And then, yes, we never see the launch sequence again and he doesn’t use the shield, either. He does jump the motorcycle over a fence. And he uses it to catch up with a truck before ditching it on the side of the road. But otherwise he’s mostly just on foot.

In the second movie, he launches the motorcycle out of the van twice. And it looks cool enough that they use a still frame in the closing credits slide show. Really, the second movie has much more to offer because it doesn’t need to spend half the movie convincing its laid-back main character that, much as he wants to be a wandering artist free spirit slowly driving around the country looking to discover the Real America and find himself along the way, he really does need to be a superhero.

“Hey, Steve! Want to be a superhero?” “No.” “You’re the only one who can use this serum.” “No.” “Well, we had to give it to you anyway because the bad guys almost killed you, and now you’ve got super powers. So how about now?” “No.” “We made you this awesome bike and stuff.” “No.” “You know how your old friend died in your arms? We need you to rescue his kidnapped daughter. Oh, and to sweeten the deal, we turned your sketch into a costume.” “sigh Fine.”

The second movie has all that out of the way, so there’s more room for action. And flirting with a widow while getting very friendly with her son. And sitting in a park drawing a portrait of a cat who suddenly exists for a few scenes and then completely vanishes.

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