Captain America #307-310

Captain America #307-310

Originally released in 1985

Written by Mark Gruenwald

Art by Paul Neary

I've only read a few of Mark Gruenwald's works, and they were all mini-series (a four issue Hawkeye series and a Squadron Supreme story), but I enjoyed them and I decided to look at a longer-running series that he wrote.  So far, his Captain America issues have focused on an aspect of Steve Rogers that I hadn't really thought about - his personal life.

In most adaptations and the early Avengers comics, Captain America is very duty-focused, not having much focus on his life outside of the red, white, and blue costume.  Even in more modern runs like Ed Brubaker's, Captain America's focus is on surviving whatever conspiracy he's been thrust into the middle of.  Here, his life problems seem to take some inspiration from Spider-Man - while his girlfriend, Bernie Rosenthal, knows his secret identity, his time as Captain America has prevented him from fulfilling his obligations for his job at an advertising company, where he works as an artist.

Job troubles seem to be a recurring issue here - Bernie's store is forced to close after the landlord triples the rent on the property, and Captain America's current sidekick Nomad is unemployed and living in Cap's apartment.  Despite having references from Nick Fury, Nomad can't even last a day as a grocery bagger, as an attack by the supervillain Madcap forces him to leave the store despite orders to stay.

Even an entire supervillain group, the Serpent Society, forms for the sake of job security.  As the name would indicate, the group consists of a large number of snake-themed villains, mostly low-level mercenaries, who band together to pool their resources, stay out of jail (their leader, Sidewinder, can walk through walls), and serve as a supervillain union of sorts.

Nomad ultimately lives up to his namesake by going his own way in the world, fearing that being stuck in Captain America's shadow makes it harder for him to be more independent and decisive.  I'm not sure if this was a natural progression for the character or if a new writer taking over means that they're writing out elements that they don't want to work with, but Nomad's departure is handled respectfully.  It would be easy to just kill him off in order to give Steve something to angst over for a few issues, and set up a new threat in the process, but the two part on good terms and Nomad manages to defeat and capture Madcap on his own.

Steve Rogers manages to find a job that he thinks will suit him - working as an artist for Marvel Comics.  In the Marvel universe, Marvel Comics gets the license to adapt or create stories based on the lives of superheroes, with varying degrees of accuracy. (the Avengers and Fantastic Four are officially licensed, at least; I have my doubts that the Spider-Man and X-Men comics are particularly accurate)  This leads to some amusing moments where Captain America complains about the art in his comics being too flashy, and not showing how he actually fights.

I'm not sure if this plot will progress beyond Steve being interested in the idea, or if it does, then I'm curious if it will lead to any cases of messing with the fourth wall, such as Steve meeting Mark Gruenwald or a former author of Captain America's books.  Maybe there could be a gag in the credits of an issue where Steve Rogers is credited as a co-penciller.

While it's only just begun, I'm wondering how the Serpent Society plotline will tie into Captain America's life - I think that one of its members, Diamondback, becomes a love interest for Steve at some point, but beyond that, I'm unsure about what to expect.  It does lead to some entertaining fight scenes, such as Captain America's battle with Anaconda, and one snake-themed villain who goes by Constrictor turned the offer down and serves as a wildcard, anonymously calling the Avengers to try and ruin the Serpent Society's operations.  It might be too early to tell, but I'd say it's off to a good start.