The reading of Captain America was awesome. I never knew how the story of this incredibly famous hero started and now I finally do! It was cool to read the cliché serum thing, and how it must’ve been so fresh and exciting at the time it was written. Once again, I can see an extremely heavy political influence; a spy is amidst and is working for Hitler. I found the idea of real life villains being in comics being both extreme and entertaining. It is really making a huge political statement. Nevertheless, the fraud blows his cover when he shoots up the place and Captain America (newly empowered) fights him, making him flee into a bunch of chords that kill him. He is also discovered extremely soon by a small boy, which seemed funny to me. This comic seemed much like a Hannah Montana episode simply because of the way it was presented: a small boy discovered Captain America’s secret identity, so now that that’s blown, let’s just make him a sidekick! It was totally funny in my opinion but seemed to work out well in the comic. Loved it.
The Phantom Lady, on the other hand, was a total disappointment! She is not a cool super hero at all, even though her gadget and car are pretty awesome. She follows the men into the alley, thinking she has the upper hand, and gets knocked out by a guy following her! Is she that easy to beat? How is she not dead already? They could’ve killed her right then and there if they wanted to. She, then, without any sidekick (because she obviously needs one), goes to the men again thinking that she may get them this time or something, and finds that they are they ready for her. Duh! Furthermore, she uses her magic dark light to blind them and... defeats them? No. She runs to a phone to call the police… and drops her light on the way! She is dumb as a nail and for being one of the very few female super heroes we have come across at this early time in the semester, it is easy for the feminist in me to come out and say, what the hell was that?
I couldn’t help think of Fantomah, the Mystery Woman of the Jungle from our Supermen book that we just finished. As a student mentioned in class, she was hardly present in her own story and is seen flying around and coming in late to save the day. The women are so poorly presented at this time, compared to someone else in the book like Sub Zero, who, even though he got captured and was nearly killed, still found a way to escape without outside help, but by using his powers cleverly (icy blasting a pipe to break and freeze his kidnapper).
Well, The Phantom Lady did know Ju-Jitsu. So I guess that’s something.