With the Fourth of July on the horizon, it's time to stand up and salute a few comics that feature red-blooded American heroes. Of course, you have to start with the reddest, whitest and bluest of all superheroes. The current issues of Captain America, written by Ed Brubaker, are often hailed as the best since Mark Waid wrote the series in the mid-'90s.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wesley and Fox are played by James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie in the film.

Walk into a major bookstore these days and you'll probably see a TV playing clips from Wanted, a movie opening Friday. Nearby, you'll see a collection of Wanted, a six-issue comic book published in 2004.

VIPER COMICS

The Middleman is a comic book about a secret operation. Assisted only by a robot named Ida, the Middleman and his protégé, Wendy, spend their days and nights "fighting evil, so you don't have to." The Middleman is a product of another secret operation: Viper Comics. Assisted only by a part-time employee and an intern, Jessie Garza of McKinney and Jim Resnowski of Irving spend their nights and weekends running the company while also working full-time day jobs.

COURTESY/MARVEL

The Incredible Hulk starring Edward Norton opens Friday. If you're confused about what this movie has to do with the 2003 film starring Eric Bana, and what either of them has to do with the old Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno TV show, then you know what's it like to read the Incredible Hulk comic book. The title character has been through a lot of changes since the series debuted 46 years ago.

A page from Potential, Ariel Schrag's graphic novel about her junior year of high school.

Ariel Schrag

Ariel Schrag has taken me back to my teenage years, specifically the parts I'd blocked from my memory.

DC Comics

What makes Jack Knight, the Gen-X star of Starman , unique among superheroes? Well, lots of things:

DC Comics

A couple of decades ago, I ate up Crisis on Infinite Earths with a spoon. A couple of years ago, Infinite Crisis left a bad taste in my mouth.

Scott McIntire

Nobody in the Dallas area is going to win the NBA championship this spring. And it would take a miracle for any of us to win the Stanley Cup.

JASON JANIK/Special Contributor

Scott Kurtz thought he was going to speak about creating Web comics, something he's done at umpteen comic book conventions. But at the fourth annual Comic and Pop-Culture Expo (CAPE!), held Saturday at Craddock Park and nearby Zeus Comics, he got a little surprise.

Associated Press

Even people who have never read a comic book know who Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker are. But it's unlikely they are familiar with Tony Stark.

Boom!

Comic books were certainly cheaper when I was a kid, but nobody ever gave them away. That changed a few years ago, when Free Comic Book Day was created as a way to capitalize on the interest generated by movies such as Spider-Man and Superman Returns .