Reprints Marvel Two-In-One #10, Marvel Team-Up #57, 82-85, 98 and 141 and Marvel Comics Presents #53, 70 and 93
Written by Chris Claremont, Bill Mantlo, Marv Wolfman, Christopher Priest, Roger McKenzie, Fabian Nicieza, Robert Campanella, Dan Slott and Tom DeFalco.
Penciled by Bob Brown, Sal Buscema, Will Meugniot, Ron Frenz, Greg Laroque, Rob Liefeld, Larry Alexander and Dwayne Turner.
Inked by Klaus Janson, Steve Leialoha, Dave Hunt, Bruce Patterson, Mike Esposito, Bob Wiacek, Jack Abel, Al Milgrom, and Dwayne Turner.
Summary:
170 pages of Bronze Age greatness starring martial artist and super-spy the Black Widow!
On a peaceful springtime Sunday afternoon in Central Park, the serenity is broken by a high-speed car chase! At the wheel of the lead car is Natasha Romanoff, better known to the world as the Black Widow! She's being chased by a car full of armed gunmen.
Elsewhere in the park, Ben Grimm, The Thing of Fantastic Four fame, is enjoying a pleasant walk through the park with his girlfriend Alicia Masters. Their afternoon is interrupted when Black Widow's car crashes into Ben. She and the Thing are then taken captive by the gunmen to a prison in the middle the Atlantic Ocean.
The heroes learn that the gunmen are part of a terror organization that calls itself the Sword Of Judgement. Their leader, known as Agamemnon is an old acquaintance of the Widow. The Sword has a thermonuclear bomb powerful enough to wipe out New York City and all its citizens.
Can Ben Grimm and Black Widow prevent the Sword Of Judgement from detonating the bomb?!
Some months later, Spider-Man stumbles on a robbery of an antique store on Madison Avenue. The wallcrawler stops the robbers, but is then attacked by the Silver Samurai, who has battled Daredevil and Black Widow in the past.
Surprise gives the samurai the advantage, but fortunately, Black Widow arrives to assist Spidey!
Can their combined might defeat the Silver Samurai?!
Subsequently, a school teacher named Nancy Rushman is walking through Midtown Manhattan and is attacked by a gang of muggers. Thankfully, Spider-Man intervenes and saves the day. The webhead immediately recognizes "Nancy Rushman" as none other than the Black Widow!
But Rushman has no memory of being a superhero. Spider-Man digs the Widow's costume out of her bag and convinces Nancy to try it on. She does, but this does nothing to bring back her memory. Spider-Man has another problem when he finds himself attracted to "Nancy," and the attraction is mutual.
In the midst of this, Spidey and Nancy are attacked by Agents of SHIELD! Suddenly, Nancy goes into full "Black Widow-mode" and takes out the agents. However, Nancy still doesn't recall her life as the Widow.
Spider-Man and Nancy soon discover that the SHIELD agents are being mind-controlled by the master criminal known as the Viper! The villain is also accompanied by the Silver Samurai and Boomerang! In addition to crushing the heroes, Viper plans to destroy the United States Capitol while every U.S. leader is in the building for a Presidential address.
Fortunately for Black Widow and Spider-Man, help arrives in the form of Nick Fury and Shang-Chi, Master Of Kung Fu!
Can the heroes thwart the Viper's plans and restore the Widow's memories?
Sometime after that, an intelligence agent named Simon is kidnapped by a gang of criminals. Simon is an old friend of the Black Widow. With the help of Spider-Man, the Widow learns that Simon is being held captive at a Long Island mansion.
When the heroes arrive, they're shocked to learn that the villain running the show is their old enemy the Owl! A recent battle has left the Owl crippled, but the Maggia crime cartel has outfitted him with a floating wheelchair that's a veritable arsenal! Can Spider-Man and Black Widow save Simon and defeat the Owl?
Finally, during a New York City blackout, looters raid a pawnshop. Spider-Man arrives to stop the looting, but when the pawnbroker pulls a rifle on the looters, he's shot to death by an unseen assailant.
A young man named Juan Santiago is arrested and charged with murdering the pawnbroker. During his arraignment, he's represented by one of New York's best lawyers, Matt Murdock. Since Murdock is actually Daredevil, his superpowers enable him to detect that Juan is telling the truth about his innocence. However, he can't explain that to the authorities without exposing his identity.
When Murdock tell his old friend the Black Widow (who knows Murdock is Daredevil) about his client's innocence, the Widow decides to investigate the underworld to find the real killer. Spider-Man joins Black Widow's quest for the truth. They capture a few criminals, but don't get any closer to finding the killer.
In the middle of their investigation, Spider-Man disappears! The webhead seems to have vanished and no one knows where he is! Thankfully, Murdock puts on his Daredevil costume and helps the Widow solve the mystery. But in order to free his client, Daredevil may have to make a deal with one of his greatest foes: Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin Of Crime!
Can Black Widow and Daredevil locate the real killer before it's too late for Juan? And what has happened to Spider-Man?
Review:
Black Widow: Marvel Team-Up is a fun book and a nice showcase for Natasha Romanoff. It's worth noting that Black Widow was not part of any ongoing series when these stories were published. This allowed writers to include her in team-ups and avoid messing up continuity or worry about what she was doing in another series that month.
Story:
The opening story, taken from Marvel Two-In-One #10, features good interactions between the Thing, Black Widow and their captors. Chris Claremont wrote this and it includes some nice character development for Ben Grimm. He hates being a "monster," but we get a scene where Ben acknowledges that if he wasn't the Thing, he wouldn't have been able to save the world from the Sword Of Judgement's bomb. The only problem with this story is that Agamemnon and his minions are generic gunmen who are never seen again.
Claremont also penned the second adventure, from Marvel Team-Up #57. There isn't much in the way of story, but it's an entertaining brawl that features Spider-Man and Natasha taking on Silver Samurai.
The heart of this book is the four-part story that features Black Widow, Spidey, Shang-Chi, and Nick Fury teaming up against Silver Samurai, Viper, and Boomerang. When Widow is brainwashed into thinking she's a teacher named Nancy Rushman, Spider-Man thinks to himself that he might like her better as "Nancy" and they begin to fall for each other. Under a different writer, this could have come off as creepy, but Claremont handles this well. Since he's a superhero, of course Spider-Man ultimately helps Natasha regain her memories and puts his romantic interests in Nancy aside so that Black Widow can regain her memories and help save the day.
The Owl tale was plotted by Marv Wolfman scripted by Roger McKenzie. It's a solid done-in-one that shows a menace like the Owl could be dangerous even if he's confined to a wheelchair.
Last but not least, the Spider-Man/Black Widow/Daredevil two-parter was written by the trio of Tom Defalco, Christopher Priest, and Bill Mantlo. It's a good street-level crime story that also features an early appearance of Spidey's black costume.
There is one big problem with the last three stories reprinted in Black Widow: Marvel Team-Up. In the Viper story, Spider-Man helps Widow regain her memories. Yet in the next story, Natasha at one point observes that, "It's true what they say about Spider-Man. All that he cares about is the glory." She doesn't make any reference to her "Nancy Rushman" phase in the next story either. I realize different writers wrote these stories, but that's a continuity gaffe. They could've written at least one sentence where Black Widow acknowledges how Spider-Man saved her life and helped her regain her memories.
Art:
The art in Black Widow: Marvel Team-Up is good from start to finish. The opening story features Bob Brown's pencils inked by Klaus Janson. It's good storytelling from the art team that also collaborated on Daredevil during the Bronze Age. I thought this page below (left) perfectly captured the helplessness of Alicia Masters when she realizes Ben Grimm is missing:
Sal Buscema and Dave Hunt are the art team on the second story. They provide nice Marvel house style art and lots of great fight scenes. Buscema gives us one of his trademark scenes where a character gets punched towards the reader.
The Nancy Rushman story also features Buscema on pencils, inked by Steve Leialoha. These two artists had very different styles, but they work very nicely together here. Buscema and Leialoha create a great-looking combination of both their styles and it's the best art in the book.
Will Meugniot and Bruce Patterson are the penciler and inker, respectively, on the Owl story and it features enjoyable art. Meugniot is best known for his work in independent comics and animation and this is one of only six Marvel stories Meugniot penciled.
The last tale features pencils by Ron Frenz and Greg LaRoque, with Mike Esposito embellishing their work and they produce some solid house style art.
How Does It Look?:
Here are two pages scanned from a copy of Marvel Team-Up #82:
And here's how the pages look in Black Widow: Marvel Team-Up:
Extras:
This book features three stories published after the Bronze Age, three pages of original art, plus Black Widow's profile from the 1983 edition of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.
Black Widow: Marvel Team-Up is a good book and a nice introduction to the Black Widow's Bronze Age escapades. These stories aren't classics, but they're fun and the Nancy Rushman saga makes the book worth buying all by itself.
J.A. Morris' rating:
3 Sals.
Reprints Captain America and The Falcon (1968) #139-159
Written by Stan Lee, Gary Friedrich, Steve Englehart, Gerry Conway and Steve Gerber.
Penciled by John Romita, Sal Buscema, Gil Kane and Gray Morrow.
Inked by John Romita, John Verpoorten, George Roussos, Joe Sinnott, Gray Morrow, Jim Mooney, Frank Giacoia and Vince Colletta.
Summary:
New York City's police commissioner has a special assignment for Captain America. He needs Steve Rogers to join the NYPD and investigate the disappearance of seven officers. The commissioner isn't sure what's going on, but he says it's "something deadly--something strangely powerful out there."
On his first night walking the police beat, Steve spots a shadowy figure, changes into his Captain America costume and chases it down. Cap discovers it's the Grey Gargoyle, a super-villain who battled Thor and Iron Man in the past. A lab accident turned his skin to stone and gave the Gargoyle the power to turn others to stone for one hour.
Captain America's partner the Falcon tangles with Grey Gargoyle. The criminal tries out a new power. When Sam is turned to stone, Gargoyle also has control over Falcon and forces him to fight Cap! Grey Gargoyle's primary objective is to steal Element X from SHIELD. It's a very dangerous element that will enable Gargoyle to conquer the world. Can Cap and Falcon stop him?!
Subsequently, when Falcon returns to Harlem, he is stung by criticism that he's an "Uncle Tom" in his community due to his partnership with Captain America. His girl friend Leila invites him to a meeting of the People's Militia, a revolutionary political organization.
The militia's leader is a masked figure known simply as "The Man". He stirs the crowd into a frenzy and leads them in an attack on a local boys club. But things aren't quite as they seem. Captain America and Falcon intervene and attack the militia. The Man unmasks and reveals that he is actually Cap's deadliest foe, the Red Skull!
After a brief fight, the Skull imprisons Cap & Falcon in a deathtrap and it looks they're goners. The only one who can save them is Sam's pet falcon Redwing!
Sometime later, there is some tension between Sam and Steve. Falcon feels unique pressure being African American superhero. Working with Captain America makes him an outcast in Harlem. He breaks up their partnership and says he's dedicating himself to protecting his neighborhood. Sam breaks out a new costume to signify his new direction.
In his first "solo" mission, Falcon takes down a drug dealer and turns him over to the police. This makes Sam a hero to Harlem and he's carried through the streets. Cap is happy for his friend but also saddened that he's lost another partner.
Shortly after that, Nick Fury has a new mission for Captain America. The terrorist organization Hydra is back in business. Fury knows the new Hydra base is located in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip and assigns Cap to find its exact location. Captain America will be accompanied to Vegas by SHIELD's Femme Force, an all-women squadron led by Steve's girlfriend, Sharon Carter (AKA Agent 13).
Femme Force's second-in-command is Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, known as "Val" to her friends. Val was romantically linked to Fury until he moved on, but she now appears to have feelings for Cap. This creates a problematic dynamic for everyone.
Unfortunately for Captain America and his team, Hydra has infiltrated Femme Force and have been monitoring SHIELD. When Cap arrives in Vegas, Hydra's agents are expecting them and a battle ensues. When Sharon is shot, Captain America is furious and more determined than ever to take down Hydra. Fearing the worst, Fury contacts Falcon and sends him to Las Vegas. Sam is reluctant at first, since he wants to take care of Harlem, but eventually accepts the assignment.
When Cap tracks down Hydra's Supreme Leader, he's shocked to discover that the terror organization's real leader is the Kingpin Of Crime! Falcon and Captain America go toe-to-toe with the gangster and defeat him.
However, everyone is shocked to learn that Cap's deadliest foe, the Red Skull, has been running Hydra behind the scenes. He's using it as a decoy to buy time for him to build a Nazi Fourth Reich!
The Skull activates a giant "Sleeper" robot that will destroy all human life in its path. If Captain America and Falcon want to beat Red Skull, they will need to team up with the Kingpin and his criminal empire in order to prevent Nazism from taking over the world!
Back in New York, children are disappearing from Harlem. Falc and Cap discover it's the work of their foe Batroc The Leaper! The French mercenary is working for an alien named Jakar who intends to take the souls of the children to space in order to restore life on his home dimension. How can Captain America and the Falcon defeat a being like Jakar who has otherworldly super-powers?
Sometime afterwards, the super-villains known as Scorpion and Mr. Hyde are out for revenge. They were placed in an experimental SHIELD prison and will exact vengeance on any SHIELD agent they can find. They kidnap Sharon and use her as bait to get SHIELD to rescue her. Hyde and Scorpion may regret their plan when Captain America and Falcon show up instead.
Following that, Steve and Sharon take a vacation in the Bahamas. At the same time, Sam is shocked when his girlfriend Leila tells him that Captain America is beating people up in Harlem. Falcon doesn't believe her. While patrolling, he sees Cap attacking an innocent man and intervenes. Sam has the upper hand until he's attacked from behind by...Cap's old sidekick Bucky!
We learn that these two are duplicates who took over the roles during the 1950s, when the real Captain America was missing. They've gone insane and accuse Falcon and Cap of being Communist sympathizers. How can Captain America win a battle against a copy of himself?
Finally, the advertising executive-turned-super-villain known as the Viper attacks Cap and Falcon. He hits the heroes with venom-tipped darts, which puts their lives in jeopardy. In exchange for his freedom, Viper gives cap a vial of antidote and runs off. Captain America later learns that when the antidote interacts with the Super-Soldier Serum in his blood, it gives him super-strength.
Steve later learns that Viper is connected to the police corruption he was investigating. Viper and the bad cops work for someone known only as the Cowled Commander. Falcon is able to capture Viper, only to have him freed by a team of villains led by his brother, the Eel.
Who is the mysterious Cowled Commander? Can Cap and Falcon defeat five super-criminals and simultaneously uncover the corruption in the police department?
Review:
Captain America Epic Collection: Hero Or Hoax? contains another mixed bag of Cap & Falc stories, but it's mostly enjoyable.
Story:
I'll start with the best parts of this book. Steve Englehart wrote the last seven issues reprinted here. The conflict with the Cap and Bucky of the 1950s is a high point of the tpb. Englehart shows how a great idea and symbol like Captain America could lead to dangerous racist jingoism and nationalism and Steve is shown to be terrified of this possibility. It's also just an exciting and dramatic story!
I also enjoyed the way Englehart wrote the Viper. The villain is a former ad man and talks like one, quoting popular commercial catch-phrases of the 1970s. Viper's advertising skills are later put to use in Englehart's famous "Secret Empire" story.
Gary Friedrich wrote the stories in the middle of the book, including the Hydra/Kingpin/Red Skull saga. It's important because Kingpin, prior to this storyline, was strictly a Spider-Man villain. Friedrich introduces Wilson Fisk to the rest of the Marvel Universe, which opened the door for Frank Miller to later turn him into an arch foe for Daredevil.
Other storylines don't work as well. Stan Lee wrote the stories at the beginning of the tpb which focus on Steve going undercover as an NYPD officer. This is presented as a major change of direction for the character and the series. But after that, it's dropped for the most part, only popping up again once or twice. Englehart wraps up the police corruption storyline but it feels more obligatory than anything else.
Friedrich also writes a "love rectangle" of sorts for Cap, Sharon, Val, and Fury. It doesn't add much to the story and the women (who are supposed to be professional secret agents) are written like they just fell out of one of Marvel's "Romance" series.
Gerry Conway wrote the tale that features Batroc and Jakar. I feel like this is a case of writer and artist not communicating. Jakar is penciled to look like the Stranger, an earlier alien who made several appearances in other Marvel titles. Jakar says he disguised himself as the Stranger, then drops the premise...because Cap and Falcon never heard of the Stranger? It's an odd story. Conway does a better job with the story that pits the heroes against Hyde and Scorpion.
Art:
Hero Or Hoax? is penciled by some of the greatest comic book artists of all time. Sal Buscema pencils the bulk of the book. He draws lots of great fight scenes and these pages from the Scorpion/Hyde fight are a nice example:
John Romita penciled the the early part of Hero Or Hoax? and his work is also excellent. Gil Kane, for his part, provides about half an issue's worth of solid art.
Gray Morrow, who rarely drew Marvel's superhero stories, pencils ten pages in the tpb. However, they're an important ten pages, since Morrow is the first to draw Falcon's red and white costume, which Sam would wear for several decades.
How Does It Look?:
Here's a scan from Captain America and The Falcon #149:
And here's how the same pages appear in Hero Or Hoax?:
Extras:
In the back of the tbp, you'll find the cover to Captain America Annual #2 (which contained reprinted Silver Age tales), a house ad for Captain America #139, and ten pages of original art.
Rating:
Captain America Epic Collection: Hero Or Hoax? features great stories and art that's full of action and character development. Its weaker moments prevent me from giving it my highest rating, but it's fun and recommended for fans of Falcon, Cap, and comics of the 1970s.
J.A. Morris' rating:
.5
3 and a half Sals.
