Captain America Annual #8 1986

This afternoon I'm in the loft still trying to sort out this:

Ive been coming up here on and off for months and don't seem to be getting anywhere. I think its because i keep stopping to read gems like this:

 

Captain America Annual 8 from 1986. This issue features a great team up between  Cap and Wolvie. The story involves a villan called The Overrider and his robot TESS. TESS stands for Total Elimination of Super-Soldiers, a project proposed by Prof Daniel Schumann to keep the Super-soldiers in check after the war. As it turns out Cap was the only Super-Soldier created and the project was scrapped. Forty years later a mutant called Richard Rennselaer, A.K.A. Overrider has control of a TESS robot that Prof Schumann had completed in secret.

The Overrider plans to take control of Americas nuclear missiles and bury them on the ocean floor. He is doing all this as his son suffers from "Nuclear Psychosis, an overwhelming dread that the world will end at any moment".

 

At the end Cap gives Wolverine a speech condoning his methods and telling him The Avengers would never have him, which is quite ironic as The Ol' Canucklehead seems to be on every team going at the moment!

A great old school comic, written by Mark Gruenwald with great artwork by Mike Zeck.

Marvel Comics Civil War.

I missed Civil War when it first ran in 2006. I stopped collecting in the late 90's and started again a few years back. So Amazon selling the hardback collection half price was an excellent opportunity to catch up. Having just finished reading it i can say it definitely lives up to everything i have heard about it. Firstly, the basic plot premise of superheroes split by a superhuman registration act allows for some really good character work. This is only helped by the fact that Millar obviously loves all these characters as much as us the readers do. As much as you don't want too see old friendships divided, the opportunity to see Marvels big guns going head to head is too good to miss. The quality of Steve McNivens artwork is amazing and easily an equal for the writing. All good crossovers feature colossal fight scenes and McNiven handles these beautifully.

This is as much fun as the original Secret Wars.  I will definitely be giving this a second reading, and soon. If your a comic fan and haven't read this then it is definitely worth a look. If your a Marvel fan seeing all your favourite heroes go toe to toe is a fanboys dream come true.

Next, Siege!

P.S. the hardcover is damn sexy and has lots of extra content other than the main story.