I don’t know about you, but I’m in no mood to celebrate America this year, not even on a big occasion like the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Instead, I thought it would be cool to look back 50 years and see what our favorite superheroes were up to during the Bicentennial in 1976, when things seemed a little happier as Americans made their way through Vietnam, Watergate, and the energy crisis, among other things.
For those unaware, the cover date of older comics does not reflect the date those comics were published. This marks the date when retailers were to remove unsold copies from shelves. according to wikipediaIn 1976, the cover date was three months after the publication date. So, comics with a cover date of October 1976 are the ones that went on sale in July of that year and those are the ones I’ll be looking at.
It doesn’t appear that any major effort has been made to have our greatest heroes celebrate the occasion, except for the one hero you would naturally expect to do so. But there was still a lot going on!
Captain America #202
Jack Kirby was both writing and drawing captain America In those days. In the summer of ’76, they gave us a unique story about the residents of a mental hospital kidnapping the Falcon to fight a monster that threatened the safety of these so-called “Night People”.
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I should note that while this was an issue released in July, the 200th issue, published two months earlier, doubled as a “special bicentennial issue”. This was the conclusion of a story in which Cap and Falcon prevent the detonation of the Madbomb. Due to this weapon, Americans will lose touch with reality and it will become easier for the undemocratic elite class to take over the country. No, MadBomb was not social media.
Green Lantern #91
DC was still in the middle of the “Green Lantern/Green Arrow” era of the book, though with Mike Grell rather than Neal Adams on art. This issue is the first of a two-part story in which Sinestro uses silver mined from an asteroid to lure Green Arrow to an impoverished nation and tries to kill him.
avengers #152
This important issue featured the return of Wonder Man, who had since died the avenger #9. Long before he became the subject of a Disney+ series, Wonder Man was a disgraced inventor turned supervillain who ultimately sacrificed himself to save the Avengers. After a brief appearance at the end of issue 151, Wonder Man is changed to “Zuvembi”, as it is the mid-1970s and the Comics Code Authority does not allow him to be called a “zombie”. Later he had to face some problems.
Justice League of America #135
The JLA begins another of its annual crossovers with the Justice Society, Heroes of Earth-2. But this time, the crossover also included some heroes from Earth-S, home to characters that originally belonged to Fawcett Comics, which DC acquired in 1976. The Marvel Family doesn’t appear in this story until later in the issue (and even then, it’s only for three pages), so it’s up to lesser-known heroes like Ibis the Invincible and Bulletman to save the many worlds.
X-Men #101
After sacrificing herself to save the team, Jean Grey, formerly Marvel Girl, unexpectedly comes back to life with a new costume and new powers. This marks her first, albeit brief, appearance as the Phoenix, setting the stage for the most iconic of all X-Men stories, “The Dark Phoenix Saga” a few years later.
Oh, and the X-Men go on vacation to Ireland. This does not end well.
Want more superhero comic talk? We have got it. How superheroes use the library, where and how the Copaganda has changed in superhero comics, and a look at Latin America through the eyes of superhero comics.
