BEST OF THE STACK - CAPTAIN AMERICA: THEATRE OF WAR

These "Theatre of War" one shots with Cap have been hit or miss. They're all set in WWII, so it's generally Nazi blastin' good times. The big miss was the last one which was helmed by Chaykin. Ugh. Piss poor. Left that one on the rack. Which sucked, because the 1st one was dope. That sucker had Cap going after a Nazi UFO operation. Well drawn and cool as hell. So I was glad to see the next one continuing the tradition of good.

This has Cap and some GIs going in behind enemy lines to stop a dam from being blown. Things go wrong and they have to hole up in a pillbox and fight off German attacks. In the process a German soldier is taken prisoner. The dude is roundly hated, but Cap points out that the dude is Heer, not SS. The prisoner offers to help as a medic during the firefights as they are shorthanded and eventually the GIs respect him.

Yada yada yada, it all ends badly, but it's a fun ride and it's nice to see the German army given a human face. Though douche bag SS show up eventually and jerkitude ensues. Anywho, nicely drawn (scans later maybe), full of action, and containing some philosophical bits to chew on when it comes to war and and the illusion of "sides".

One bad poitn was the part where they have a mini tank battle with a pair of panzer IVs...from like 5 feet away. Kinda budge. But, hey at least there were panzers - and no Chaykin!

PANEL EYE GAME OF THE WEEK

This one was sorta subtle, but it totally took away from the moment once my backwards brain zeroed in on it. Do ya see it? It's on the 3 panel wide strip that's been in the making for awhiles now - where Sharon Carter finally breaks through Dr. Faustus' brain conditioning and realizes that she was pregnant with Cap's baby and lost said baby during a knife fight with Sin wherein the evil spawn of the Red Skull knifed the fucking baby in Sharon's gut - yeah, that shocking, emotional scene.

I just couldn't take my eyes off that one ice cube that manages to slip the bounds of physics one moment and then go back into the realm of reality the next. I know how it's supposed to be, since the shot is low to the ground looking up to the bottom up to her face and the glass is transparent. I get it. But still the stupid optical zig-zag messes with me. Perhaps it's part of the cosmic cube and it's choosing to be seen as it wishes, how it wishes, when it wishes.

PANEL FAIL OF THE WEEK - CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #7

Though I noted a bigger fail after processing this photo (War of Kings #2 weird-ass panel split fail after the Blackbolt Robots blow up an enemy ship, go look for it) - this one is way funnier.

I wasn't sure what this comic was about or even that is was coming out. But it had Cap blasting Nazis in the face, so I grabbed it. Cool art and a simple story. But it had a back-up story in it (thus the extra dollar price hike) from back in the day. Now, it's from back in the day, so I'm just "funnin'" on this panel. Not hating on it, like it did with Mr. Tan.

Pretty self-explanitory. Cap is making sweet, sweet love to some hood after a sweaty chase across the baseball field. Oh yes Mr. Toad, time to turn in your uniform!