DEATHWATCHER!

Image copyright MARVEL COMICS

I recently acquired CAPTAIN AMERICA ANNUAL #5 in order to fill a gap in my collection, but before I tucked it away in my filing cabinet, I decided to give it a read - and boy, am I glad I did!  Entitled DEATHWATCHER!, this is a fascinating tale which I can't really say anything about without ruining it for you if you haven't yet availed yourself of its four-colour delights.

Written by DAVID MICHELINIE and drawn by GENE COLAN, it comes from an era when, if comics were good, they were very good.  One can almost believe this was a comicbook adaptation of a movie, because it's extremely cinematic in conception and execution and tears along at a rip-roarin' pace.

Complete in one issue, it makes a change from many of today's comicbooks, where you pick up the latest issue of some mag or other - and can't recall whether you've read the one before it or not.  What was the story about again?  I can never seem to recall what happened last time (when I do actually read them) because the stories seem so utterly underwhelming nowadays and take forever to get nowhere.

This comic was a refreshing change - 20 minutes or so of escapist entertainment that provided a pleasant diversion in my daily routine.  If more comics were like this today, more people would be buying them.  If you've never read it, track it down on eBay now!  It'll be well worth your time.