Agent Carter #1

The first noble truth of the comic-book industry is that the cover sells the book. That is certainly the case with Agent Carter #1. When I walked into my neighborhood comic shop Wednesday night my eyes were immediately drawn to Declan Shalvey's art. I pulled it off the shelf and purchased it.

Sadly, the story inside does not live up to Shalvey's cover. Kathryn Immonen, who scripted some interesting material for Journey Into Mystery, teams up her star from that title, Lady Sif, with Margaret "Peggy" Carter, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., for a completely uninspired tale of suspense set aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier in the north Atlantic.

I'm not a fan of Rich Ellis' art; it gives me at times a Frank Robbins flashback. In my youth there was no greater disappointment than to discover that Frank Robbins had taken over the penciling duties on a comic-book title I was following.

One good thing about Agent Carter #1 is that it continues to paint S.H.I.E.L.D., an obvious stand-in for the gargantuan U.S. national security state, as an amoral, destructive force.

Where would the Marvel Universe be without the calculating, malign Nick Fury?

Also, based on a reading of this comic book, I might give the ABC series, Marvel's Agent Carter a try.

Below are six "action-packed" interior pages. Fury, having recruited Lady Sif as a co-conspirator, has surreptitiously booby-trapped a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier headed for decommissioning in order to test Agent Carter's crisis-management skills.

Captain America #19

If you want the straight dope on the nefarious role of American power in the world today, you can read between the lines of "the newspaper of record," frequent some truly excellent individually written/managed blogs, sample from the online version of Counterpunch, or you could read Rick Remender's Captain America. The scan after the cover scan contains the following dialogue between Dr. Mindbubble, a Timothy Learyesque supervillain and another supervillain, the Iron Nail:

Dr. Mindbubble: I do think we're on the road to finally fixing things, man. And I'm super-appreciative to be here to help. Using weapons of hate to create love and freedom. To show the world what S.H.I.E.L.D. [read: CIA, NSA, DOD, whatever] truly is.

The Iron Nail: There can be no progress towards communion with this secret army hovering over our homes [drones]. They claim they protect us, but they do not. They control us.

Dr. Mindbubble: Democracy has failed, brother.

The Iron Nail: Though it would break my father's heart to see me now, I agree. The West strangles the world. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It will take the combined might of the entire world, banded together, to be free of America's grip. So that is what will happen. This is the only way to incite harmony.

Right on, bro. Sign me up.

In the nine Captain America #19 scans that follow you'll find some classic action comic art by Nic Klein. (Klein's faces look like Frank Robbins' work, but his action sequences are pure Kirby.)

Samantha Power gets up in the United Nations and says that using mechanized armor against civilian protesters in eastern Ukraine is "reasonable," when only two months ago she was warning police against using force to clear armed rioters occupying public buildings in Kiev. The United States sows chaos and destruction in a ruthless, misguided effort to maintain its waning hegemony. Those words that Rick Remender puts in the Iron Nail's mouth aren't "comic book" characterizations of bad-guy-megalomaniac speech. Those words -- I know -- are real and Remender believes them. It is what makes Captain America essential reading.