Alan Kupperberg: 1953 to 2015

Comic book creator Alan Kupperberg passed away on July 16th at the age of 62.  I was fan of Kupperberg’s work, had met him at a few conventions, and was friends with him on Facebook.  I knew from his recent status updates on FB that he had been diagnosed with cancer several months ago.  Kupperberg had really been fighting his illness, and for a time it was hoped he would recover.  So it was unexpected and sad when his passing was announced by his brother, writer & editor Paul Kupperberg.

Like so many people who came to work in the comic book biz in the 1970s, Alan Kupperberg was very much a fan of the medium.  As he related in The Jack Kirby Collector #29 from TwoMorrows Publishing, in 1970 while still a teenager Kupperberg “was a regular pest – er – visitor to Marvel’s small, six room, dozen-person office” doing various odd jobs in the Bullpen.  A year later he was working in the production department of DC Comics, learning the intricacies of the business.  Kupperberg also worked at Atlas Comics during their very brief but still-memorable revival in the mid-1970s.

In the late 1970s Kupperberg was once again at Marvel.  Over the next decade he worked on numerous different series in a variety of capacities: writer, penciler, inker, letterer and colorist.  Kupperberg could do it all.

Kupperberg’s first ongoing assignment was the World War II superhero series The Invaders.  He came onboard as the new penciler with issue #29, cover-dated June 1978, replacing the outgoing Frank Robbins.  Kupperberg remained on The Invaders until the final issue, the double-sized #41 (Sept 1979) and he penciled the majority of those issues, working with both writer & editor Roy Thomas and writer Don Glut.

I imagine that The Invaders was not the easiest of series to pencil.  It was a team book set in the early 1940s.  This required Kupperberg to present clear storytelling so that the action was balanced between the numerous characters in action sequences.  He also had to render historically-accurate depictions of the people and the settings of the Second World War.  I think that he did very good work on the series, penciling some memorable, exciting stories written by Thomas and Glut.

Looking at Kupperberg’s time on The Invaders, one of the highlights is definitely issue #s 32-33, which had Hitler summoning Thor from Asgard and manipulating him into attacking the Soviet Union, bringing the thunder god into conflict with the Invaders.  Another noteworthy issue was the finale of the series, as The Invaders faced off against the so-called Super-Axis, a team of fascist supervillains.  Kupperberg, paired with inker Chic Stone, did very nice work on that climactic battle, helping Glut and Thomas to finish the series in style.  The issue concluded with a wonderful double page pin-up drawn by Kupperberg featuring every hero who had ever appeared in The Invaders.

It was while penciling The Invaders that Kupperberg had an opportunity to collaborate with Jack Kirby.  He drew a rough layout for the cover to The Invaders #32.  The published cover artwork, based out his layout, was by the superstar team of Kirby & Joe Sinnott.

As Kupperberg recounted in The Jack Kirby Collector…

“I’d never been fond of drawing covers, but when I was asked to provide a cover layout or rough sketch for Invaders #32, I didn’t hesitate a tick – because it was for Jack.  I’d be interpreting Thor, Captain America, Namor and the Human Torch – for their artistic father!

“The Jack’s pencils arrived.  They blew my tender little mind – Kirby interpreting my interpretation of Kirby.”

Aside from The Invaders, Kupperberg never had a particularly long runs on any Marvel titles.  He was briefly the penciler of Thor and worked on several issues of What If.  Aside from that, Kupperberg was one of Marvel’s go-to guys for fill-in stories in the late 1970s to mid 80s.  He drew issues of Avengers, Captain America, Dazzler, Defenders, Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Marvel Two-In-One, Moon Knight, Star Wars and Transformers.  In 1984 Kupperberg penciled a four issue Iceman miniseries written by J.M. DeMatteis.

As a fan of Captain America, I liked Kupperberg’s depiction of the character in The Invaders, Avengers, and Cap’s own book.  Kupperberg penciled a trio of fill-in stories for Captain America, which were in issue #s 240, 260 and 271.  The first of these, “Gang Wars,” is noteworthy for the collaboration between the two Kupperberg brothers.  Paul plotted the issue, Alan penciled & scripted it, and it was inked by the talented Don Perlin.  I think this was the only time that Alan and Paul worked together.

Another of my favorite Marvel stories that Kupperberg worked on was Avengers #205 (March 1981).  Kupperberg and inker Dan Green did excellent work on this issue.  The second chapter of a two-part story plotted by Bob Budiansky & scripted by David Michelinie, this issue saw the Avengers attempting to thwart a plot to conquer the world by the diabolical Yellow Claw.  The cover to this issue by Kupperberg & Green, featuring the Vision in fierce combat with the Claw, is really dynamic.  As the saying goes, they really don’t make ‘em like this anymore!

In the mid-1980s Kupperberg began doing work for DC Comics, as well.  He became the penciler of the offbeat Blue Devil series written by Dan Mishkin & Gary Cohen.  Kupperberg started on issue #12 (May 1985) and remained on the book until its conclusion with issue #30.  He also worked on Justice League of America and Firestorm.  Kupperberg’s guest pencils on All-Star Squadron #66 in Feb 1987 (the penultimate issue of the series) saw him briefly reunited with writer Roy Thomas, who had spent the last several years chronicling the adventures of DC’s superheroes during World War II.

Anyone who has ever met Alan Kupperberg or read an interview with him will definitely realize that he had an amazing and unconventional sense of humor.  That was certainly reflected in his comic book work.  He worked on a number of humorous, not to mention unusual, projects throughout his career.

Somehow or another Kupperberg became associated with not one but two evil clowns during his career.  The first of these was Obnoxio the Clown, created by Larry Hama in the pages of Crazy Magazine.  In early 1983 Obnoxio landed his very own one-shot.  Written, drawn, lettered and colored by Kupperberg with edits by Hama, this bizarre special had the cigar-chomping Obnoxio running rings around the X-Men, getting summoned for jury duty, answering fan mail and just acting as rude as possible.  All these years later I am still amazed that this issue got published!

Kupperberg also illustrated the misadventures of Frenchy the Clown, the star of the “Evil Clown Comics” feature in National Lampoon.  Devised by writer / actor / comedian Nick Bakay, Frenchy was a violent foul-mouthed alcoholic womanizer in greasepaint.  Several years ago Kupperberg was working on reprinting the “Evil Clown Comics” stories in a collected edition, but unfortunately this didn’t come to fruition.

Doing much more family-friendly humor work, between 1988 and 1990 Kupperberg drew a number of all-new five-page Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham stories that editor Jim Salicrup ran in the back of the Spider-Man reprint series Marvel Tales.  These were written by Michael Eury, Danny Fingeroth and Kupperberg himself, with Joe Albelo inking many of the installments.

One of my favorites of these Spider-Ham stories from Marvel Tales was his encounter with Frank Carple aka the Punfisher (obviously a fishy funny animal version of the Punisher).  Eury, Kupperberg & Albelo pitted the uneasy alliance of Spider-Ham and the Punfisher against the tentacle menace of Doctor Octopussycat!

I highly recommend visiting the official Alan Kupperberg website which was set up by Daniel Best.  This fantastic site has numerous examples of Kupperberg’s art.  There are several articles wherein Best speaks with Kupperberg at length about his work.  It is an amazing resource.  Additionally, on his blog 20th Century Danny Boy, Best interviewed Kupperberg regarding the “Evil Clown Comics” stories.

As I mentioned before, I was fortunate enough to meet Kupperberg on a few occasions when he was a guest at comic book conventions.  He struck me as a genuinely nice guy.  I’m glad I was able to talk with him and obtain a couple of sketches by him.  I will certainly miss him, as will many other comic book fans who grew up reading his work.

Real Neat Blog Award

I was nominated for the Real Neat Blog Award by Gerhart von Kapherr.  I have always found the writing on gvonkapherr to be extremely intelligent and insightful.  I certainly appreciate the nomination.  Gerhart and his son Tom von Kapherr of Cats at the Bar are both good people. The  “rules” of the Real Neat Blog Award are:

1. Put the award logo on your blog (that’s it above).
2. Answer seven questions asked by the person who nominated you.
3. Thank the people who nominated you, linking to their blogs.
4. Nominate any number of bloggers you like, linking to their blogs.
5. Let them know you nominated them (by commenting on their blog etc.)

Now to answers the questions asked by Gerhart (and to keep things simple these will be the same questions I am going to ask my nominees)…

1. Where do most visits to your blog come from?

Many of my posts are about comic books, science fiction and Doctor Who.  It seems from looking at my WordPress stats page that many people come across my blog when it pops up in the search results for related topics.  Promoting my blog on Facebook and on various message boards has also brought in readers.

2. What is your favorite sport?

Oh, I’ve never liked sports all that much.  I was such a geek when I was younger, always reading a book instead of playing sports at school or summer camp.  I did grow up watching baseball, usually the New York Mets.  I’m a fan of the team even though they usually do poorly.  As the saying goes, I’m a sucker for a lost cause! I also find ice hockey to be fairly interesting to watch because it’s so fast-paced, plus you get the occasional fist fight to spice things up.  That, and I think the NHL lets cats play…

3. What has been a special moment for you in 2015 so far?

I suppose that it would be finding a new job so soon after I lost my last one.  At first it didn’t feel special because I was still carrying a lot of resentment around about how the previous one ended, and I kept comparing my new position to my old one.  It took a few weeks but fortunately I was able to learn to not just accept but appreciate my present employment circumstances. That is one of the aspects of my personality that is continually a work in progress.  I need to attempt not to be so negative and to approach things with a better attitude.

4. What is your favorite quote?

“Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

I have seen this attributed to George Carlin, and it’s a variation of something Mark Twain said.  I try to follow that advice, especially on the internet!  In a broader sense, it is a good reminder to practice restraint of pen and tongue in all aspects of life.  After all, I am certainly quite capable of putting my foot in my mouth.

5. What was your favorite class when still at school?

It would be a tie between English and History.  I expect that anyone who follows this blog regularly won’t be too surprised to learn that.

6. Anything you had wished to have learned earlier?

I sometimes wish that I had possessed more patience for learning math in school.  I always found it boring and confusing.  I never had any aptitude for it.  Some of what I struggled with, and was disinterested in, I would later realize were useful skills to possess in a variety of jobs, as well as in managing personal finances. I also would have liked to learn a foreign language.  I took French in high school and I really struggled with it.  I wanted to learn it but found it so incredibly difficult.  Being bilingual or multilingual would have been such a useful skill to possess.

7. What musical instrument have you tried to play?

Oh, this is a sad story.  When I was in fourth grade I somehow got it into my head that I was going to play the trombone.  Yes, really.  But I just didn’t possess either the talent or the dedication that was needed.  In hindsight, my artistic strengths lay in other areas, particularly writing.  Hence this blog!

Below is my list of nominees for the Real Neat Blog Award.  If you don’t accept awards, please do not feel obligated to act on this.

• Arousing Grammar
• Fante’s Inferno
• Oil Pastels by Mary
• Suburban Hobo
• Things Matter
• Three Cat Yard
• Witches Brew Press

I’ve listed these in alphabetical order so as not to play favorites.  I hope everyone will check them out, because they are all really good blogs that I enjoy.

Finally, here is a link to Dear Kitty, the founder of the Real Neat Blog Award!

Olaf Pooley: 1914 to 2015

English actor Olaf Pooley, who was born on March 13, 1914, passed away on July 14th at the grand old age of 101.  Pooley’s best-known role was undoubtedly his 1970 appearance in the Doctor Who serial “Inferno” which starred Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor.  At the time of his death Pooley was the oldest still-living actor to have appeared on Doctor Who.

In the seven-episode “Inferno” Pooley portrayed the monomaniacal Professor Stahlman, a scientist obsessed with drilling through the Earth’s crust in his quest to locate a new source of energy.  As the story unfolds, Stahlman’s project instead unearths a green mutagenic slime that regressed humans into savage animals, and the drilling threatens to wipe out all life on the planet.

Doctor Who: The Book of Lists succinctly describes Stahlman as “arrogant, confrontational and pretty single-minded even before he gets turned into a hairy monster.”  Indeed, Pooley played the Professor as a thoroughly-unpleasant individual, a villain viewers absolutely love to hate.  Pooley was so convincing in this performance that whenever I saw him in other roles or being interviewed I was always a bit taken aback at how affable he actually was!

It has been reported that Pooley was less-than-enamored with his heavy make-up in the later episodes of “Inferno.”  One would think that most guest actors working on Doctor Who would be going in knowing that there was an above-average chance that they would end up playing some sort of grotesque monster.  Having said that, I don’t blame Pooley for being apprehensive about being made up to look like something across between an ape and a werewolf!

With its journey sideways into a parallel universe where Britain is a fascist police state and its ominous end-of-the-world scenario, “Inferno” is a favorite among Doctor Who fans including myself.  It’s been included on several Top Ten and Top Twenty Stories lists over the years.

Of course, Doctor Who was but one entry on Pooley’s resume. In a lengthy career that spanned from the 1940s to the beginning of the 21st Century, he worked in theater, television and movies on both sides of the Atlantic.  In an interview conducted just last month Pooley related working alongside such noted actors as Michael Gough, Noel Coward and a young Anthony Hopkins.  He also wrote several plays and screenplays.

Moving to the United States in the 1980s, Pooley made a number of appearances on American television.  Notably, he was a scientist in the 1985 pilot episode of MacGuyver, and he made guest appearances on popular series Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law and Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.

At the age of 86, one of Pooley’s last roles before retirement was in the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Blink of an Eye” which aired in January 2000.  This made him one of only a handful of actors to have appeared in both Doctor Who and the Star Trek franchise.

Pooley had a lifelong love of art.  He studied at the Architectural Academy in Bedford Square.  It was after being convinced that it would be difficult making a living as an artist that Pooley went into acting.  Yes, his second choice for a career was one that had only slightly better prospects for financial security!  Pooley really must have been a creative person with a passion for expressing himself to have gone that route.  Fortunately this worked out quite well for him.

In his last years Pooley was still involved in the art world.  Having retired from acting and living in Los Angeles, he once again immersed himself in painting, spending the final decade and a half of his life creating many pieces in his Santa Monica studio.

On March 13, 2014, his one hundredth birthday, he was briefly interviewed by ABC 7 Los Angeles about both his work as an artist and his acting…

I find it amazing and wonderful that Pooley was active right until the end of his life.  Imagine retiring from a job that you enjoyed and then spending your remaining years actively engaged in a hobby that is a deep passion for you.  On top of that, to live to be over a century old and still be in fairly good health & retain your mental faculties?  We should all be so lucky!

Comic book reviews: The Late Child and Other Animals

Sometimes when you read a book your initial reaction is uncertainty, and you ask yourself “How do I feel about this?”  Such was the case with The Late Child and Other Animals published by Fantagraphics.  I finished it almost three weeks ago, and it took me this long to think it over and finally feel that I could sit down and write about it.

The Late Child and Other Animals is written & colored by Marguerite Van Cook and drawn by James Romberger.  It is an autobiographical work.  The first two segments look at the life of Van Cook’s mother Hetty Martin in England during & after World War II, with the remainder of the book offering a view of Van Cook’s childhood & teenage years.

Hetty was a woman who had a difficult life, who had to find the strength to overcome numerous obstacles.  During World War II her husband, like millions of other young men from Great Britain, was drafted into the armed forces.  While her husband served abroad, back at home Hetty, her parents and her siblings were among the numerous civilians forced to endure the nightmare of the Blitz.  Van Cook & Romberger powerfully bring across how the horrors of the war existed alongside the mundane, how the British people strove to endure and go about their daily routines, never knowing when death might fall from above.

The end of the conflict brought little peace to Hetty herself.  Tragically her husband was killed while still stationed abroad, not in battle, but in an accident, when his truck drove off a bridge.  Now widowed, Hetty struggled to retain custody of a young child who she has recently adopted.

A few years later Hetty gave birth to a daughter, Marguerite.  The child was conceived out of wedlock, the result of an affair with a married man.  Hetty was forced to appear before a board of inquiry to plead her case, to convince the government that she should be allowed to keep her daughter.  Van Cook & Romberger render this sequence as a surreal nightmare, the middle-aged puritanical men of the Court morphing into a flock of ravenous crows.  The writing, art and coloring all work to evoke the psychological & emotional duress that Hetty endured throughout the hearing, a thinly-veiled inquisition.

From the perspective of 2015, it must be difficult to conceive of what Van Cook’s mother had to go through in order to convince the government not to take her child away.  In certain respects the pendulum has swung in completely the opposite direction.  Now it often is nearly impossible to remove a child from the most abominable examples of parents.

Having said that, the underlying forces and attitudes behind the ordeal Hetty faced definitely remain.  The moralizing, misogynistic judgments that she endured in that official hearing still exist in society, manifesting themselves in numerous other arenas.

The narrative The Late Child and Other Animals then shifts its focus to Marguerite, who grows up in & around Hetty’s hometown of Portsmouth.  Various facets of post-war British society are viewed through her young eyes.  Van Cook’s narration & dialogue is very expressive.  The art by Romberger, in conjunction with Van Cook’s coloring, evokes a variety of moods & atmospheres.  They very successfully bring to life this past era.

The jump to the final segment of The Late Child and Other Animals is unfortunately jarring.  Marguerite is now a teenager in France in the late 1960s.  She is living with her friend Catherine’s family in Paris, and she accompanies them to the northern coast of France for a lengthy summer holiday.  It is never explained how Marguerite came to be in France, how she knows Catherine, or what happened to Hetty.

While on holiday, Marguerite is given a pet rabbit to care for.  At the end of the summer, though, after having bonded with the rabbit, it is taken from her by Catherine’s mother Yvonne, who has it slaughtered right before Marguerite’s eyes.  I was left pondering the motivations of this seeming act of petty cruelty.  It was one of the aspects of the book that I’ve been continually thinking over since I finished it.

Marguerite had previously depicted Yvonne as a somewhat formal, rigid individual lacking in emotional warmth.  Was the French woman merely being hurtful by having the rabbit killed?  Or was she, in her brusque manner, attempting to teach the English teenager a lesson, to show her that life is not fair, that it will often be very harsh, as well as to demonstrate the transient nature of existence?  After this incident, the young Marguerite is contemplative…

“It seems that things must change. The adult world is barbarous. I began to reconstruct my romantic exclusive view of the world, though now I was a little less pure than when the season began.”

The incident prompts Marguerite to begin experiencing some of the disenchantment that many of us go through in our teenage years as we become more aware of the unpleasant realities of the world, the ones that challenge our youthful optimism & idealism.

Another aspect of this occurred to me.  Shortly before the rabbit was slaughtered, Marguerite had joined Catherine, her parents and her extended family in an enormous end-of summer feast, a culinary extravaganza containing numerous exquisite dishes and recipes.  All of this, when you think of it, came some somewhere; the ingredients did not just materialize out of thin air.

As the summer draws to a close, Marguerite has returned to Paris with Catherine and her family.  One autumn evening, Yvonne serves a stew that Marguerite finds “delectable.”  Asking what it is, she is informed that it is rabbit.  She then asks if it is HER rabbit, and the answer is yes.  Marguerite accepts this.  As Van Cook writes of her younger self, “And so it was I ate my pet and remembered all the fun times of the summer.”

Yes, this could be regarded as a rather blasé attitude.  But I recalled something that filmmaker John Waters wrote in his 1981 book Shock Value.  Reacting to viewers’ outrage that he actually killed a chicken during the filming of Pink Flamingos, Waters queried…

“Don’t most of the people who are horrified at this scene eat chicken? How do they think it gets to their plates? The chickens don’t have heart attacks, for Godsake!”

As with other elements of the narrative, I think that Marguerite’s actions and reactions here are somewhat open to interpretation, offering the reader food for thought (no pun intended).  There is a great deal of depth to the material that Van Cook & Romberger present in The Late Child and Other Animals.  This is one of those works that undoubtedly benefits from re-readings.  I look forward to finding out what impressions it leaves me with when I examine it again in the future.

Shannon Carter is living the American Dream

The last couple of years for the Fourth of July I’ve blogged about the most prominent patriotic comic book superhero, Captain America.  This time I wanted to do something a little different.  I’m taking a look at a character who was inspired by Cap: Shannon Carter aka American Dream, who was created by Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz.

American Dream was introduced in A-Next, one of the titles that comprised the short-lived “MC2” line at Marvel Comics.  These all spun out of What If #105 (Feb 1998), the debut of May “Mayday” Parker, the teenage daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson in a reality where she was rescued after being abducted by Norman Osborn.  What If #105, which was set approximately 15 years in the future, had Mayday becoming Spider-Girl.

What If #105 was a big hit, and in late 1998 the MC2 books started.  Most of them unfortunately did not last long, although the Spider-Girl series written by DeFalco had a very lengthy run.

A-Next introduced “the next generation of Avengers.”  In this timeline, after a catastrophic battle in a parallel reality (yeah, another one) the Avengers disbanded.  A decade later, due to the scheming of the Asgardian god of evil Loki, a new team of Avengers assembles.  Yipes, that is always happening to Loki!

Shannon Carter is first briefly seen in A-Next #1 by DeFalco, Frenz & Brett Breeding as an unnamed tour guide at Avengers Mansion.  Two issues later we learn her first name and see her assisting Edwin Jarvis in setting up the support network for the new Avengers.  At the end of that issue Shannon returns to her apartment where three figures wait in the shadows.  She tells them “I have good news, my friends! Our long wait is over! We’ll make our move tomorrow – and these new Avengers will never know what hit them!”

Well that sounds ominous!  However, in A-Next #4 by DeFalco, Frenz, Breeding & Paul Ryan, we find out that these four actually intend to join the Avengers.  For the first time we see Shannon in costume as American Dream and properly meet her comrades Freebooter, Bluestreak and Crimson Curse.  This is also where we find out Shannon’s last name, and it is immediately apparent that she is intended to be a relative of S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter.

DeFalco & Frenz intended the “Dream Team” to be a tribute to the “Kooky Quartet” introduced way back in Avengers #16 in 1965.  The cover to A-Next #4 is even a nice homage by Frenz & Breeding to the Jack Kirby cover of that classic issue.

By the way… Bluestreak really needs watch those wandering hands!  Maybe the Avengers should be required to attend a seminar on sexual harassment in the workplace?

I immediately took a liking to American Dream.  Frenz did a superb job designing her, effectively modifying the classic style of Captain America’s uniform into an eye-catching, dramatic costume for a female character.

So who exactly is Shannon Carter?  A few issues later DeFalco confirms that she is a relative of Sharon, who at this point is deceased.  DeFalco would briefly touch upon her origin in Spider-Girl #32 (May 2001) before elaborating upon it in detailed flashbacks within a five issue American Dream miniseries (2008) illustrated by Todd Nauck & Scott Koblish.

Shannon’s father was a cousin of Sharon Carter.  When she was only a child Shannon’s parents were killed in a horrible car accident, and Shannon herself was seriously injured.  The orphaned Shannon was adopted by her aunt, Sharon’s older sister Peggy.  Peggy, hoping to motivate the mourning, depressed Shannon, gave her Sharon’s diaries to read.  Shannon, inspired by reading the experiences of Sharon and her boyfriend Captain America, finally entered physical rehabilitation and began the long, arduous road to recovery.

When she could once again walk, the diaries also motivated Shannon to train relentlessly, and she eventually became a skilled athlete.  Shannon wanted to follow in the footsteps of both her Aunt Sharon and Captain America.  Seeing her niece’s determination, Peggy introduced her to Clint Barton, formerly Hawkeye, who began instructing her.  It was at Clint’s dojo that Shannon would meet the other future members of the Dream Team.

Clint originally envisioned Shannon taking on the identity of Nomad, but she informed him that she wished “to evoke the image of Captain America.”  Clint warned her that “Wearing the flag is like painting a bullseye on your chest” but Shannon was undeterred.  She assumed the role of American Dream, which would soon lead to her joining the new Avengers.

Back in the present (well, the MC2 present, which is a decade and a half ahead of the regular Marvel Earth, but whatever) in the pages of A-Next #4, on their first mission as Avengers, the Dream Team encounters the Soldiers of the Serpent.  A new incarnation of the white supremacists the Sons of the Serpent, the terrorist Soldiers are as fanatical as their predecessors in their racist mission to “cleanse” the country.  American Dream proves herself a worthy successor to Captain America, defeating the Serpents’ leader while delivering a passionate rebuke:

“It’s over, Serpent! You’ve lost! Your cause is a sham, and you’re a disgrace to this country! You preach hatred, claiming to represent true Americans, but nothing could be further from the truth! America has always embraced its diversity! Our very differences help make us all stronger! I, for one, am proud to help defend this country from monsters like you!”

It is definitely a stirring speech worthy of Steve Rogers himself.  DeFalco’s scripting for Shannon in this scene is of course still extremely relevant to our country, especially in light of the events of the past month.

American Dream quickly becomes a mainstay of these new Avengers.  Several issues later, in A-Next #10-11 by DeFalco, Frenz & Al Milgrom, the team journeys to the dystopian nightmare world where the original Avengers fought their final battle.  In this reality the Red Skull assassinated Hitler and led the Nazis to victory in World War II.  In the present day the Skull’s successor Doctor Doom seeks to expand this fascist empire to all other alternate realities.

After helping to thwart Doom’s plans a decade before, Captain America stayed behind to organize a resistance movement against the totalitarian regime.  At first Cap is unhappy to meet these new Avengers and orders them to return home, fearing they will be killed.  American Dream and the rest of the team refuse and they join Cap in his assault on Doom and his super-human Thunder Guard.

Doom is narrowly defeated, with Crimson Curse apparently sacrificing her life.  Before returning home, these new Avengers are finally given a nod of approval by Cap.  America Dream gains the shield of that Earth’s Cap, who was killed decades before by the Skull.

A-Next ended with issue #12, but American Dream has continued to pop up since then.  Like many other denizens of Earth-982, she and her teammates would show up from time to time in Spider-Girl.  One noteworthy story was the six part “Season of the Serpent” by DeFalco, Frenz, Pat Olliffe, Al Williamson & Sal Buscema that ran in issue #s 54-59 (Jan to June 2003).  During that arc Spider-Girl, who has been fighting against the Soldiers of the Serpent and their leader the death-god Seth, joins American Dream on a brief trip back to the alternate Earth to enlist the aid of Thunderstrike and the original Captain America.

American Dream is among the numerous characters to appear in the miniseries Last Hero Standing (2005) by DeFalco, Olliffe & Koblish, and its follow-up Last Planet Standing (2006).  She is one of the heroes who plays a vital role in preventing Galactus from destroying the entire universe.  This led into the Avengers Next miniseries (2007) by DeFalco, Ron Lim & Koblish.  Months before, during Last Hero Standing, Captain America had been killed by Loki, and Shannon finally realized the enormity of following in his footsteps.  A major theme of Avengers Next is her uncertainty if she and the rest of the team are capable of living up to the original Avengers.

A year later Shannon received a solo outing in the aforementioned American Dream miniseries, which I enjoyed.  DeFalco did a good job delving into Shannon’s past.  He also showed her present-day attempts to establish a private civilian life while also serving as an iconic member of the Avengers, something that Cap himself also struggled with often.

I know that among certain readers DeFalco’s writing is an acquired taste.  He has a very Silver Age style to his work.  At times he tries a bit too hard to make his dialogue humorous or dramatic, resulting in rather corny or stilted scripting.  Nevertheless, considering how many writers want to do superhero comic books that are “realistic” or “dark,” often with variable results, there is definitely a refreshing, fun quality to DeFalco’s more traditional approach.

The art by Nauck & Koblish on American Dream was fantastic.  I was already a fan of both artists before this miniseries came out, so it was great to see them work together.

American Dream has also popped up in stories by other writers.  She was one of the literally hundreds of alternate reality Avengers to make cameos in the sprawling, epic twelve chapter Avengers Forever series (Dec 1998 to Feb 2000) by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, Carlos Pacheco & Jesus Merino.

A decade later Stern had the opportunity to write a story that properly co-starred American Dream when Captain America Corps was published in 2011.  It was illustrated by Phillippe Briones with covers by Phil Jimenez.  This five issue miniseries featured several incarnations of Cap from various time periods, namely Steve Rogers from 1941, U.S. Agent and Bucky Barnes / the Winter Soldier from the present day era, American Dream from Earth-982 and Commander A from the 25th Century.  The Elder of the Universe known as the Contemplator gathered them together in order to thwart Cap’s old foe Superia, whose reckless attempts to alter history threatened to unravel all of reality.

I have always enjoyed Stern’s work on Captain America.  Stern’s short run with John Byrne & Josef Rubinstein on Cap’s solo series is justifiably referred to as classic, and his longer run writing Avengers in the mid-1980s is also extremely well-regarded.  Since then Stern has occasionally had the opportunity to return to the character, such as in this Captain America Corps miniseries.  It was a really exciting read.  It was great to see Stern team up American Dream with Steve and Bucky.

Offhand I don’t recall if American Dream has appeared in the last several years.  Hopefully at some point she will show up again.  I would certainly be happy if DeFalco had another opportunity to write her and the other Avengers of Earth-982.  Of course, sooner or later Marvel ends up reviving any & every character that they have ever published (just look at all of the parallel universes and old crossovers that are being revisited within the current Secret Wars mega-event).  So cross your fingers that one day we will see Shannon Carter return.