Captain America Artist Rik Levins: A Retrospective

Rik Levins, the comic book artist best known for his 36 issue run penciling Captain America in the early 1990s, passed away on June 12, 2010. He was 59 years old.

Levins' early work was for AC Comics in the 1980s, where he worked on Femforce, and created the superheroine Dragonfly, a character with a very distinctive & original design. He began working at Marvel Comics in 1989.

Although he is not one of my all-time favorite Captain America artists, Rik Levins still did quality work on that title. My appreciation for his art on the series has, with the benefits of hindsight, increased over the years.

I was initially biased against Levins on Captain America because he immediately succeeded Ron Lim when the later departed to pencil The Infinity Gauntlet and its sequels. I was a tremendous fan of Lim's work on Captain America, so in retrospect I think I would have been disappointed by almost anyone who replaced him.

Another strike against Levins was that he came onboard Captain America at a point in time when the quality of work by long-running series writer Mark Gruenwald began to be somewhat inconsistent in quality.

The first issue of Captain America Levins penciled was #387, cover-dated Early July 1991. It was the opening installment of the six-part biweekly "The Superia Stratagem," a rather silly adventure that, among other things, saw the main villain, the ultra-militant feminist Superia, attempt to transform Captain America into a woman. The final chapter also saw Cap attempting to disguise himself as a female supervillain. Yes, really.

Despite the ridiculous elements of the plot, Levins seems to have done his best to illustrate the story in a non-flippant manner, whether he was drawing an army of female supervillains lounging around on a cruise ship, or having Cap dressed in drag while slugging it out with Superia. I think even Ron Lim would have been challenged to illustrate this six-issue tale and make it appear dignified.

Part of my criticism of Levins work during his first year on Captain America, even after "The Superia Stratagem" wrapped up, was that his characters had somewhat stiff poses and expressionless faces. A specific example is in issue #397, when Cap fights Blackwing and Jack O'Lantern. If this sequence had been drawn by Lim, we would seen Cap with his teeth gritted, eyes hardened to a steely resolve. Instead, rendered by Levins, Cap unfortunately has a bland, almost bored, look.

Nevertheless, as the months progressed, it soon became apparent that Levins was gradually growing & developing as an artist. The next three issues were part of the "Operation: Galactic Storm" crossover running through all of the Avengers-related series. At the time, I was very annoyed that this crossover was interrupting Gruenwald's ongoing plotlines. But, looking back, I can see that Levins did a fine job with the space opera material. Issue #399, in particular, set on the Kree home planet of Hala, had Levins rendering a vast alien metropolis and an army of extraterrestrial warriors. He rose admirable to the task.

Issue #401, "After the Storm," served as an epilogue to the massive crossover. It's a very introspective tale, with Cap re-examining his place in the Avengers and his relevance to society. This is the point where I really think Levins began to come into his own as an artist. He successfully conveyed the emotions of the various characters. There's a very effective sequence set in a dive bar where Cap, Hawkeye, and Iron Man try to wind down and hash out their differences. Levins includes a host of cameos, as we see such assorted figures as Sam Spade, Groucho Marx, Steed & Peel, the Addams Family, Dick Tracy and Elvis Presley hanging out in the background.

At this point it's worth noting the contributions of the artist who inked Levins for the majority of his run on Captain America. Danny Bulanadi came out of the Filipino school of comic book illustration in the 1970s. In the early 1990s, I had little knowledge of Bulanadi and his contemporaries. To my teenage eyes, Bulanadi's inking was dark & blotchy. It seemed ill-suited for Levins' pencils. Since that time, having developed an immense appreciation for the Filipino artists, I can look back at Bulanadi's inking on Captain America and see how well done it was. Bulanadi's finishes are especially effective on "After the Storm," giving it a very moody atmosphere that suits the story perfectly.

The next six issues comprised "Man and Wolf," the biweekly summer story where Cap was transformed into a werewolf. Yep, the previous year saw him almost turned into a woman, and this time around he became a wolf. Along with "The Superia Stratagem," this is often looked upon as one of the low points of Gruenwald's writing on the series. I don't necessarily think the whole "Capwolf" story was doomed to be a failure. In the hands of a horror-oriented artist such as Bernie Wrightson or Mike Mignola, it could have been fantastic. As it is, I think Levins & Bulanadi did their best to render "Man and Wolf" as seriously as possible. Once again, Bulanadi's rich inking helped establish a certain mood. Besides, compared to what was coming along in a few short years, namely the "Heroes Reborn" issues by Rob Liefeld, the adventures of Capwolf almost seem a classic!

Beginning with issue #408, Gruenwald started to finally pull together his subplots. Cap reunited with his old partner the Falcon. The two set out to rescue Cap's girlfriend Diamondback from the Red Skull's henchmen the Skeleton Crew. Following this, #s 411 to 417 saw Cap, Falcon, and Diamondback infiltrate the island headquarters of the high-tech terrorist organization AIM during a weapons convention, and then face off against AIM's forces in the prehistoric Savage Land. This gave Levins the opportunity to draw a mob of rampaging supervillains, mutated dinosaur men, and a gigantic alien robot, as well as guest stars Shang-Chi, Nick Fury, Black Panther, and Ka-Zar.

This is the period when I really began to enjoy Levins' artwork. By this point in time, Levins characters had become much more flexible & lifelike, and he was drawing a range of emotions on their faces. He really had improved tremendously as an artist since he had first started on Captain America over a year and a half before.

Levins' last regular issue, Captain America #422, dated December 1993, was another offbeat tale by Gruenwald. Cap tangled with Blistik, a loony armored vigilante who roamed New York City harshly punishing "quality-of-life infractions" such as teenagers who obnoxiously blasted rap music from boom boxes and cars that ran red lights. Hmmmm, I think it might have been Rudy Giuliani under that wacky suit of armor. But seriously, even on this unusual story, Levins did good work, such as the scene where Cap dissuades his technical assistant Fabian Stankowitz from committing suicide.

Levins final contribution to Captain America was published in 1994. He penciled a quiet, character-driven ten-page story written by Ron Marz, with inking by Argentinean artist Ricardo Villagran. It appeared as a back-up story in Captain America annual #13.

After that, Levins went over to Valiant Comics, working on HARD Corps and X-O Manowar. After that, in the mid-1990s, the comic book market imploded, and Levins headed for the greener pastures of video game design. He continued to work in that industry until his untimely passing this year.

In retrospect, Rik Levins had a respectable run penciling Captain America, one I wish I had appreciated more at that time. In a period when many other creators were drawing flashy, over-rendered art while blowing deadlines left & right, Levins did solid work with clear sequential storytelling while keeping to a tight schedule. The only time he ever missed a deadline during his two and a half years on the series was issue #414. He was only able to pencil the first five pages, leaving it up to M.C. Wyman to finish the book. But aside from that one occasion, Levins never fell behind schedule or missed an issue.

While he did not leave behind a particularly large or prominent body of work, the material that Levins drew was of professional quality. As I said before, it certainly bore the evidence of an artist who continually strove to hone his craft.

Likewise, the early 1990s may not be regarded as an especially prominent era in the history of the Captain America series. Nevertheless, I definitely look back on those issues with fondness, and I certainly enjoyed re-reading them recently. Rik Levins' pencils, along with Danny Bulanadi's inks, played a large part in that enjoyment.