Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Birth of a Legend, November 5, 2000
This Marvel Masterwork is a full-colour, hardcover, action-packed depiction of Captain America's earliest adventures.Inside this Marvel Masterwork Origional Stan Lee brings to life the Legendary Captain's Origin and his first adventures, with classically brilliant artwork, including the epic Sleeper Saga and the Red Skull's first explosive battles with Captain America. As well as this all of the original covers are presented on the front and back of the marble-decorated sleeve as well as inside the book, each shown before the tale it origionally protected. All-in-all a good buy and a good read. I don't have to tell you it would take thousands of pounds/dollars to collect these tales individually. So basically buy it if you can get your hands on it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lee and Kirby revive Captain America for the Sixties, March 29, 2005
Marvel Masterworks, Volume 14 presents the return of Captain America in issues #59-81 in "Tales of Suspense." Captain America was one of the great superheroes of the Golden Age of comic books. During the early days of World War II a secret military experiment called Operation: Rebirth turned Steve Rogers into America's first super-soldier. During the war Captain America often fought with the Invaders or his partner, Bucky. Then Cap and Bucky disappeared, presumably killed in an explosion over the Artic Ocean. Decades later in "Avengers" #4, Namor the Sub-Marine (another Golden Age superhero who had just been brought back in an issue of "The Fantastic Four"), found Eskimos worshipping a figure in a block of ice. The block ended up in the ocean and when it melted the figure of Captain America emerged to be rescued by the Avengers.
Proclaimed to be "The most enthusiastically requested character revival of all time," Captain American shared space with Iron Man in Marvel's "Tales of Suspense" magazine. Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Jack Kirby, these stories focused on Cap's solo adventures. There was the mob boss who thought Captain America was the weak link of the Avengers because he was just a glorified acrobat (#59), Baron Zemo and his henchmen (#60), a giant sumo wrestler in Viet Nam (#61), and a cellblock of escaped prisoners (#62). The origin of Captain America is recounted in issue #63, then we get the lame Sando and Omar (#64), and then we get to what we have been waiting for: the return of the Red Skull.
This seven-art story is actually set during World War II and includes how Hitler himself picked a lowly servant and turned him into the Red Skull (#66). The combination of a decent villain and a multi-part story line makes this the highpoint of this collection. But if you remember the Captain American cartoons they had in the Sixties you will have fond memories of the next storyline (#73-75), which is about the Sleepers planted by the Red Skull. Then we are back to the revolving door of villains, with Batroc (#75-76), the story of the woman Cap loved during WWII (#77), and Captain America teaming up with Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (#78). Then we get back on track big time with "The Red Skull Lives" (#79-81). After all, you can take Captain America away from the war, but you cannot take the war from following him.
It is not surprising that two-thirds of the stories here are devoted to the Red Skull, then and "now." After all, when you are talking about Captain America you are talking about the Living Legend of World War II. There is really only one totally lame story in the bunch and what is interesting is how quickly Lee and Kirby establish the character's persona in the modern era. Of course, Kirby was drawing the character twenty years early, so that was a big help. But they also update the character to his new circumstances and the sense of loss over Bucky and Sharon give him a nice sense of gravity. Captain America would become a hit and miss character over the next couple of decades, but Lee and Kirby gave him a solid foundation for the last decades of the 20th century in these early issues of "Tales of Suspense."
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Captain America "Primer", August 4, 2007
In 1978-79, Fireside / Simon & Schuster published a series of TPBs featuring "best of" overviews of some of Marvel Comics' best-known characters. CAPTAIN AMERICA: SENTINEL OF LIBERTY was one of these, and presents a brief, if powerful, "introduction" to the classic character for new readers. Although it says "by Stan Lee" on the cover, this is misleading. Due to "The Marvel Method", the artists usually supplied much, if not most or ALL of the plots (uncredited, unpaid!), while the "writers", like Stan (who was also the editor) supplied the dialogue & captions. The results could be mixed, but more often than not, they were imagination & excitement personified!
Here's the run-down for this book:
"THE ORIGIN OF CAPTAIN AMERICA!" (Suspense 63, Mar'65)
"The Traitor's Revenge" (text story / Captain America 3, May'41)
"CAPTAIN AMERICA JOINS...THE AVENGERS!" (Avengers 4, Mar'64)
"CAPTAIN AMERICA" (Suspense 59, Nov'64)
"THE RED SKULL LIVES!" (Suspense 79, Jul'66)
"HE WHO HOLDS THE COSMIC CUBE!" (Suspense 80, Aug'66)
"THE RED SKULL SUPREME!" (Suspense 81, Sep'66)
"NO LONGER ALONE!" (Captain America 110, Feb'69)
"THE STING OF THE SCORPION!" (Captain America 122, Feb'70)
The art on all these stories is by Jack Kirby, except for the last 2, which are by Jim Steranko & Gene Colan. I suspect every episode in here should blow people's minds. They're THAT good!!! With very few exceptions, they just don't make comics this exciting (of fun) anymore.
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by Stan lee
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