I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve recently initiated a project by which I start with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and move through my collection of miniseries and one-shots, reading all those I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t read in a while and evaluating whether or not I need to keep them or toss them in the eBay pile.<\/p>\n
Last night I finished a four-issue prestige format miniseries from Marvel, The Adventures of Captain America, written by Fabian Nicieza and drawn (mostly) by Kevin Maguire. It came out in 1991, I believe to celebrate Cap\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 50th anniversary, and it retells Cap\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s origin before spinning out into his first adventure.<\/p>\n
First off, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a pretty kick-ass comic.<\/p>\n
Second, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost a perfect template for the ideal Captain America movie. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s period, set in 1940-41, so it has an Indiana Jones kinda feel, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got an epic scope built atop personal moments and character relationships.<\/p>\n
Third, and finally, it has made me realize just how underrated Fabian Nicieza is as a writer.
\n
\nKevin Maguire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty rad too, although I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t known if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s underrated; he could pencil every book that comes out and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be happy. But Fab, well\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6he don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily get the props he deserves, maybe because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spent at least part of his career as a legendary \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hack.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I mean that in the most respectful way.<\/p>\n
There are some writers who must create, innovate, stimulate, do their own thing or something quite like it. Then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s writers who WRITE, who just put words on paper because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what needs to be done, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what they know how to do. Those are the hacks. (I’m a hack too, by the way.)<\/p>\n
Fabian Nicieza is a hack. He’s a writer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s writer. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done crap comics, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done great comics; they all have serious craft behind them, and they all make you smile at least once. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an unsung hero at weaving humor effortlessly into a superhero title.<\/p>\n
He can also come in, get a goddamned JOB done, do it well, and then go home without messing up anything. He recently did a two-issue fill-in story for Action Comics, while Johns and Donner and Kubert were busy doing whatever it is they do that takes so freaking LONG. The story was tight, entertaining, even a little thought-provoking. It picked up the reader, gave him a ride, and then put him down right where he needed to be to continue the Johns\/Donner run.<\/p>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in some ways a thankless task\u00e2\u20ac\u201dobviously, writing Superman for any comics scribe is a big achievement, but getting two issues squished into a high-profile run doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really give you much chance to soar with the character, and it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make the fans happy usually either, since all they want to know is when Mr. Hollywood and Mr. DC are gonna finish their Big Important Story.<\/p>\n
Nicieza went in, got the job done, did a fine job of it, and got out. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gotta be a reason why he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a go-to pinch hitter for Kurt Busiek as well; I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen their names pop up together lately on some Superman stories, and I can only assume the guy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an egoless get-the-job-done kind of person (and of course, assume that with no information about him, his working process, or his relationship with Busiek; that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what the Internet is for\u00e2\u20ac\u201dassumptions based on no personal experience whatsoever).<\/p>\n
Anyway, if that Cap mini hits a quarter bin in your future, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s well worth a buck, and if Fabian Nicieza\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name is on a comic, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gonna be worth a read. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my story and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sticking to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve recently initiated a project by which I start with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and move through my collection of miniseries and one-shots, reading all those I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t read in a while and evaluating whether or not I need to keep them or toss them in the eBay pile. Last night I finished a four-issue prestige format miniseries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}