My July 4th offering is the CAPTAIN AMERICA: MADBOMB ! trade (reprinting CAPTAIN AMERICA 193-200, from 1976. Written and pencilled by Jack Kirby, inked by Frank Giacoia and D. Bruce Berry)

This was Kirby's first series on his return to Marvel in late 1975 and early/mid 1976.

In this highly improbable offering, Captain America and the Falcon confront the national threat of the "Madbomb" (a bomb that explodes and drives everyone crazy within a wide radius of the explosion.)

That's for openers.

Following the Madbomber trail, Cap finds...


[ SPOILERS, if you haven't read it ,or plan to: ]

...a secret society of men and women who have lived in underground shelters for 200 years, who wear English-Colonial-style knickers and powdered wigs and want to return an English Monarchy to govern over the United States !

Hey, it could happen.
\:lol\:

Among several other unlikely scenes, Cap and the Falcon fight for their lives by trial of fire in a monarchy-built Coliseum, in.... a deadly women's roller-derby.

I half expected Donna Summer to come out and sing "I will Survive" to the roller derby champions.
[/SPOILERS]

Also fun was an appearance by then-Secretary of State Henry Kissenger and several other recognizable faces, given a distinctly Kirby twist.

I love just about everything Kirby has done.
But this is bad, and I mean really bad.
But it's just so off-the-wall and bizarre that it's really fun to read.


There's a second volume that reprints CAPTAIN AMERICA'S BICENTENNIAL BATTLES, a 75-page Marvel Treasury edition, also originally out in 1976, that takes Cap through all the great moments in U.S. history (such as the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, Custer's last stand, W W I, the Alamagordo nuclear test in July 1945, etc. ) that has some equally fun but bizarre scenes.
The best part of this second volume is 10 pages of art pencilled by Kirby, and inked by Barry Windsor-Smith !!

Some fun July 4th reading that'll bring a smile to your face.