Marvel Masterworks: Captain America - Volume 1 [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Coming just six months on the heels of his reintroduction in Avengers #4, Captain America's gets his own series of solo adventures in Tales of Suspense. This Marvel Masterworks volume collects two years worth of stories from the early 1960s.

For those commie-loving nogoodniks who don't know who Captain America is, here is a quick recap: Captain America is Steve Rogers, who was originally rejected by the army, but became a volunteer for America's first Super Soldier program. The experiment was a success and he went on to fight all kinds of menaces during WWII. Afterwards, he was frozen in suspended animation only to be revived at the height of the Cold War.

The first four stories in this collection (Tales of Suspense #59-62) find Cap getting into improbable adventures against unnamed foes. In "Captain America" a bunch of nobodies decide to raid Avenger's Mansion and Cap is on guard duty. In "The Army of Assassins Strike" Baron Zemo hires a band of mercenaries to attack Cap at a conference he is speaking at. In "The Strength of the Sumo" Cap is in Vietnam to rescue the little brother of an old army buddy from WWII. Finally, in "Break-Out in Cell Block 10" Cap is visiting a prison when the inmates decide to stage a break out.

The preceding tales are pretty forgettable. Flashy super villains are scarce, there is little setup for the stories, and absolutely no character development. About the best thing you can say is that there's plenty of action.

After a full retelling of Captain America's origin in Tales of Suspense #63, we segue into the next chapter of Cap's adventures - WWII flashback stories. (I guess by this time Stan Lee decided to go with the character's strengths.)

In Tales of Suspense #65-68, the Red Skull (one of Cap's oldest and deadliest enemies) returns to menace our hero for a three-issue story arc. In "The Fantastic Origin of the Red Skull" we get just that while Cap is interrogated by the Nazi super villain. In "Lest Tyranny Triumph" and "The Sentinel and the Spy" we see the results of Cap's brainwashing by the Red Skull, who sends the Sentinel of Liberty to assassinate a top commander of the Allied forces in Britain.

These and a handful of other period stories are entertaining enough, but they don't distinguish Cap from the other Marvel superheroes of the time. Luckily, in the next issue we switch once again to the Sixties, and Cap gets involved in what is to become his bread-and-butter storylines - fighting against foreign menaces and secretive cabals.

Tales of Suspense #72-74 concerns a doomsday plot of the Red Skull's which he set to activate 20 years after the end of WWII. Cap has to battle a trio of dangerous robots called Sleepers in order to prevent Armageddon. Then there is a two-part tale that follows when Cap inadvertently winds up in the middle of SHIELD mission, meeting Agent 13 (his future love interest Sharon Carter) and battling Batroc the Leaper for the first time. Tales of Suspense #78 features a long overdue visit with Nick Fury, director of SHIELD. The pair team-up to fight off a powerful android created by a group of terrorists called Them (which eventually becomes the group known as HYDRA).

Finishing up the collection is a trio of tales that take place in Tales of Suspense #79-81. It seems the Red Skull has been revived 20 years after his seeming death in WWII by Them (in a story that closely parallels Cap's own rescue by the Avengers). The Red Skull then goes about stealing Them's most powerful weapon - The Cosmic Cube - and it's up to Captain America to stop him.

Overall, these 23 stories were very entertaining, even if they were somewhat uneven. It takes a while for Stan Lee to get a handle on the character, but he eventually finds his groove. And, of course, in the later issues several important characters and concepts are introduced that will affect Captain America and Marvel Universe for years to come (such as Agent 13, Batroc the Leaper, the Cosmic Cube, HYDRA, and the Red Skull). So sit back and enjoy as history unfolds before your very eyes!

Captain America, created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (unlike most Golden-Silver Age characters, Stan Lee was not involved) in the summer of 1940, was one of the biggest characters of Timely Comics in the 1940s, one of many, many patriotic characters created in response to the environment of World War II. Following the end of the war, he, like most superheros, dropped off the publication radar, despite a brief failed attempted revival in the early 1950s. The latter attempted revival was so embarrasingly McCarthyist in its sentiments that Lee and Kirby would later disavow it when they opted to bring Captain America back in 1964, when the Silver Age of Comics was starting up. Following his return in "Avengers #4", Cap eventually got his own run of solo stories, co-sharing "Tales of Suspense" with Iron Man for a good part of the 1960s. This trade paperback collects those portions of issues 59-81 (so, about twelve issues of material). Some (40-year-old) spoilers follow.

There are a couple of different story strands at work here. After a couple of short adventures set in the modern (1960s) era, we get a lengthy series of adventures set in the World War II era, with Captain America and his sidekick Bucky facing off against the Red Skull, the archvillain of the German armed forces. Steve and Bucky have several daring adventures, all the while posing as ordinary soldiers, with Steve doing the standard Clark Kent schtick as a bumbling private for his frustrated drill sergeant. After this time-trip, the narrative focus returns permanently to the 1960s, as Steve, now an Avenger, strikes off on a few solo adventures of his own, including a new teamup with old ally Nick Fury (now head of SHIELD), and his first meeting with his eventual love interest Agent 13. The most famous story here is likely his first encounter with the Red Skull in the modern era, who wields the infinite power of the Cosmic Cube (which would go on to be a recurrent element in the Captain America mythos).

Silver Age comics are always a bit of an acquired taste for people. These stories were quite revolutionary in their day, but they can't help but be rather dated to modern eyes (not that different from 1960s film and television, one supposes). All the same, there are things to enjoy, and the stiltedness can even be part of the fun, after a while. Consider, for example, the origin of the Red Skull, a bellhop who is drafted to become Hitler's right hand because the Fuhrer can tell, from looking into his eyes, that he shares his hatred for the entire world. The most nuanced depiction of fascism, this is not, but it's enjoyably over the top. The bits with World War II-era Steve pretending to be a bumbling soldier strike one as sort of pointless, but then, this was an era where superheroes always had to have a secret identity, even when it didn't really suit the character. The art, mostly by Jack Kirby, but with contributions by others, including John Romita Sr., is as good as any from the period.

If you like Silver Age comics and want to see some of the early adventures of one of Marvel's classic characters, give this a look.

This volume reprints the first 23 of Captain America's Marvel Age appearances in `Tales to Astonish' issues #59-81 from November 1964 to September 1966. It may sound a lot, but he shared the title with Iron Man, so he only got half the story pages. These stories are written by Stan Lee and mainly drawn by Jack Kirby, with two each credited to Dick Ayers, George Tuska and John Romita. The stories start off with Cap in the modern world, having been recovered by the Avengers from his long sleep in a block of ice. After four issues however, we are back in World War 2, where amongst other things, we eventually discover the Secret Origin of the Red Skull. From issue #72 we are back in the modern world of 1965 when "The Sleeper Awakes", beginning one of the epic adventures of the day; and the volume ends with Cap joining SHIELD and the return of the Red Skull to the modern age, not to mention the first appearance of the Cosmic Cube. There is continuous excitement from the dawn of the Marvel Age, with characters that are still with us today - highly recommended.