Comic Info
Comic Name: Captain America (Volume 1)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby/Jim Steranko/John Romita/John Buscema/Gene Colan
# of Issues: 24
Release Date: 2002
Captain America (1) #113
Reprints Captain America (1) #103-126 (July 1968-June 1970). Captain America continues to adjust to life in a time in which he wasn’t born. He takes on Rick Jones as a new Bucky, fakes his death, he faces the threat of the Red Skull and the Cosmic Cube, and meets his future new partner the Falcon. It is all in a day’s work for the first Avenger.
Written by Stan Lee, Essential Captain America—Volume 2 has the artistic talents of Marvel’s classic artists Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko, John Romita, John Buscema, and Gene Colan to back up the tales. The issues, like all of the Essential line, are reprinted in black-and-white.
Captain America has just come into his solo series with issue #100 (it had previously been Tales of Suspense) and the new series is just finding its feet. Captain America spends his most of his time facing his enemy the Red Skull and other Avengers enemies. He has some of his own enemies like Batroc the Leaper…but Batroc the Leaper just isn’t the highest caliber of enemy.
Captain America (1) #117
The best storyline in this series has to be the issues dealing with the Cosmic Cube. The Red Skull takes control of Steve Roger’s body and forces Rogers into his body. This leads to Rick Jones being rejected as Bucky (changing his life again) and Steve’s introduction to the Falcon. This is actually a longer run, through a number of issues, and that is a bit unusual for the period.
The Falcon’s introduction in Captain America (1) #117 (September 1969) is a significant appearance in comic history. He was the first African-American superhero in mainstream comics (Black Panther was actually African). It was a big step in comics (way overdue), and the fact he became an early co-star of the comic, it is worth checking out this collection just to see how he met Captain America and how Marvel Comics handled the race issue in the early stories.
Essential Captain America—Volume 2 is like many of the older Marvel Comics. They are more developed than DC comics of the time, but also not like modern comics. Captain America feels like a second tier title here and his comic just doesn’t measure up to Marvel’s big hitters from the period like the Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man. It is worth checking out however for fans of the characters and classic comics from the Marvel Age.
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