Captain America, Vol. 4: Cap Lives [Paperback]

Dave Gibbons (Author), Lee Weeks (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Classic art and straightforward storytelling create old-fashioned action/adventure in this alternate history. According to conventional Marvel continuity, Captain America fought Nazis in WWII until he was frozen in an iceberg, whereupon the Avengers, a supergroup, found him in the 1960s, thawed him out, and had him join the ever-expanding Marvel superhero universe. In this version, Cap is unfrozen only to find that due to his absence, the Nazis won the war, and the Red Skull, his old foe, rules America. The premise allows for plenty of noble sacrifices along the lines of "I'll hold the soldiers off while you accomplish the mission." This straightforward take on good and evil avoids the wishy-washy confusion over what's right found in some other modern superhero stories: no one is for Nazis. The resistance movement, made up of many other Marvel characters in civilian garb, is energized by finding Captain America alive after all these years. Cap's derring-do, like jumping out a skyscraper window rather than submitting to Nazi evil, is refreshing and powerful, even with the imaginary world setting. Conveniently, the Nazis have been experimenting with time travel, allowing for a quick wrap-up and a reset button for the characters. Weeks's art is nothing special; it gets the job done. The book also includes the Jack Kirby/Stan Lee background story of the Red Skull, who started as a bellboy jealous of Hitler.
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Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Comics (January 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785113185
• ISBN-13: 978-0785113188
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 6.6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,499,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dave Gibbons passionately roams in three different global playgrounds: The first park is THE AWAKEN GROUP (THEAWAKENGROUP.COM), a consulting firm specializing in creativity, culture and innovation; the second park is a movement of churches not bound by geography that he calls "home" (NEWSONG.NET), throughout Southeast Asia, China, India, Korea, Mexico City, London, and North America. And lastly there is a crazy bunch of people in an organization called XEALOT that focuses on transforming marginalized communities through strategic leadership development and ideation ventures. Dave has written a book on culture and leadership based on an eastern parable called The Monkey and the Fish.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great Captain America graphic novel, August 23, 2004

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Captain America, Vol. 4: Cap Lives (Paperback)

It's March 1964, and a submarine in the North Atlantic finds a body frozen in a block of ice, the body of Captain America, America's hero who disappeared some twenty years earlier. And, what comes as a great shock is that he isn't dead, Captain America is alive. But...it's Captain America who gets the surprise - he's aboard a U-Boat, the war ended with a triumphant Nazi Germany!

Taken to New Berlin (formerly New York City), Cap sees America under the iron boot of the Red Skull. He fought for freedom in the 40s, and it's time to pick up the fight again!

This is another great Captain America graphic novel. The artwork is great, and the story line is gripping! To reflect how the world changed, Cap runs into people new to him, but not to us, people such as Ben Grimm, Reed Richards and Peter Parker, but in the new history they never became superheroes. Yep, this is a great book, one that my ten-year-old son loved every bit as much as I did. We both highly recommend this book to you.

5.0 out of 5 stars Read It!!!!, January 31, 2009

By 

W. Hooper "a_sculptor" (Georgia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Captain America, Vol. 4: Cap Lives (Paperback)

This is the type of story Marvel should be doing regularly. Captain America at his prime.

Just trust me, its worth reading!!

1 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Skip it.., February 11, 2005

By 

M. Ryan Murphy (NYC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Captain America, Vol. 4: Cap Lives (Paperback)

Out of the five existing Captain America Marvel Knights volumes, this is by far the worst and completely unacceptable. It is a ridiculous "What If.." story that is completely out of continuity and not at all up to Marvel Knights standards.

I guess you can say it pays homage to the old school Cap stories but honestly it is so different then Rieber's work on the other three previous volumes that it can annoy the reader. If you're a fan of Marvel's "What If.." stories then this is for you, if not, skip it and go straight to the fifth volume.