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Jeffrey Kahan
Jeffrey Kahan is a is a well-established Shakespeare scholar with about two dozen books and editions to his name. He is also the co-author of Caped Crusaders 101 (MacFarland, 2nd ed., 2010), and is a co-editor of The Dark Man, a journal dedicated to the works of Robert E. Howard, and an associate editor of The New Ray Bradbury Review. He teaches a class on superhero comics and has twice appeared as a speaker at Comic-Con, as well as at New York’s Big Apple and other comic conventions. His newest book, Shakespeare and Superheroes, will be published in 2018 by ARC Press. He works in California but lives in his own world.
MAGAZINE CONTENT BY JEFFREY KAHAN (26 TOTAL)
Politics, Power, and the Black Panther: A Commentary
Much has been said about the recent blockbuster film, Black Panther. As of this writing— and the film has yet to play a full week—it has already grossed nearly $1 billion, and global box office… [more]
Thor: Ragnarok, or Shakespeare for Schmucks
In a NYT review of Thor: Ragnarok, you can almost hear the writer, Manohla Dargis, desperately turning her notes over and over for something good to say. The best that she can muster is that… [more]
Capital Thoughts: All-New Captain America #6 and some contemplations on Age of Ultron
Hydra’s new plan for world domination—safe sex! Brilliant! Here’s how it’s supposed to work: Hydra has created a new virus that make couples impotent. Only Hydra agents will get the antidote, which means that in… [more]
Capital Thoughts: All-New Captain America #5
Comics have always wrestled with consistency and continuity—hence, the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe, the Crisis on Infinite Earths series, and the ongoing Convergence. On the other hand, with all this talk of Secret… [more]
Capital Thoughts: All-New Captain America #4
In what is now a common trope, Sam Wilson, aka, the All-New Captain America, is getting his ass kicked, this time by Armadillo, a third-rate villain who first appeared in Cap #308 (August, 1985; Gruenwald/Neary/… [more]
Capital Thoughts: All-New Captain America #3
As much as I find Remender’s recent storylines to be thought-provoking, Sam Wilson’s backstory is one long cliché: inner city youth, a community ravaged by drugs, his parents die; Sam then raises his siblings and… [more]
Capital Thoughts: All-New Captain America #2
Karl Marx, writing on the Anglo-French wars, observed that history repeats itself, first in tragedy then in farce. His example was Napoleon, a man defeated by the combined armies of the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Hanover,… [more]
Capital Thoughts: All-New Captain America #1
The “All-New” Captain America begins, curiously enough, with a nostalgic turn: Sam Wilson flying into a fortress and kicking Hydra ass. But, even as fisticuffs fly, Sam’s mind is elsewhere: he replays a childhood filled… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #25
That Sam Wilson is the new Cap can come as a surprise to few. For months now, Yahoo and other major sites have been predicting this event. The moment, as Sam himself notes, is anticlimactic. … [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #24
Superhero families have always been something of a mystery. As most serious readers of comics know, the 1955 Comics Authority banned virtually all sexual activity from comics, and even within the bounds of marriage, sex… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #23
Issue 23 has more than its fair share of mayhem, so much so that finding a theme to discuss is difficult. Oh, there are plot twists, to be sure: Zola is invading from Dimension Z… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #22
Cap, now a shriveled old man, lies in a bed in the Avengers’ Manson. Banner runs tests on him and reports that there is no trace of the super-soldier serum in his blood. Tony Stark… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #21
“The law of sacrifice is uniform throughout the world. To be effective it demands the sacrifice of the bravest and the most spotless.” —Mahatma Gandhi. So reads the penultimate panel of Captain America #21. The… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #20
Steve Rogers wakes in a hospital bed. He’s been dreaming of his mother, whether she made the right decision to stay with her worthless husband. Maybe it was a mistake; maybe she just should have… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #19
It took a long time in coming, but the pay-off is finally here. After what seems like half a year of paralyzing misgivings, Cap, the ultimate, ethical hero is back! “Fallen into weakness in the… [more]
Capital Thoughts: An Open Letter on The Winter Soldier
Dear Steve Englehart, This past week, I took my Graphic Novels class to the cinema to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The class has both serious and not-so-serious comic book readers: A few are… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #18
Cap #18 has our heroic team racing off to a top-secret SHIELD installation. But Mindbubble is already there and has used his psychotropic powers to convince Fury and his agents that Hydra has taken over… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #17
Captain America # 17 is ostensibly about Dr. Mindbubble’s attack on Nick Fury and SHIELD. Mindbubble seems to be doing the bidding of Iron Nail, who argues that SHIELD exerts “fascist control” over the planet.… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #16
Issue #16 of Captain America lacks a lot of things, including Captain America, who does not make an appearance except in a hallucination where he appears as the Red Skull’s domesticated pet—I kid you not.… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #15
Iron Nail… Cap’s newest villain. Inventing a Cap villain can’t be easy. Any new character is immediately compared to the Red Skull, among the most iconic villains in comics, right up there with Batman’s the… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #14
Issue #14 nicely ties up the Nuke story-arc. Nuke justifies his psychotic murder spree by stating that he’s only doing it for the troops, and to keep America strong. He further states that Cap, despite… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #13
Cap wallowing in bed, grief-stricken over the loss of his son; in the next room, Zemo’s daughter, the shapely Jet, works a heavy bag and tells Sam that he’s no longer numero uno in Steve’s… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #12
This issue has Cap taking stock of his life. He confesses to the Falcon that he feels lost. Meanwhile, Nuke is on a killing spree in Eastern Europe, fighting a war for hearts and minds… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #11
Consistency. It’s not much to ask for in a serial. In fact, without consistency, the serial form is moot. Last issue, Remender told us in the “letters” section that Cap “has spent more time in… [more]
Capital Thoughts: Captain America #10
Last time, we explored the death of Cap’s son, Ian, and its emotional fallout. We wondered, for example, how Ian’s death would affect his relation with Sharon, who killed the boy. At least some of… [more]
Capital Thoughts: A Column on Captain America
Dear Readers, I’ve been collecting and thinking about Captain America for the better part of 40 years and am delighted to offer this monthly column on his ongoing adventures. For my first piece, I’ll be discussing… [more]