Customer Reviews

Essential Captain America, Vol. 1 (Marvel Essentials) (v. 1)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

So, do you want to see the Silver Age Captain America, that all-American, red-white-and-blue defender of justice? If so, then this book is for you! This book is a black-and-white reproduction of the Captain America stories from the comic books Tales of Suspense #59-99 and Captain America #100-102 (1964-68). As an added bonus, the final story of this book is a Golden Age blast from the past, Captain America and the Terror That Was Devil's Island, from Captain America #10, which pits Cap and Bucky against an evil Vichy-appointed warden of Devil's Island (1941!).

This is a great selection of Captain America stories! In this book you see Cap, Bucky, the Avengers, Nick Fury and others take on a host of bad-guys including the Nazis, the Viet Cong, Batroc the Leaper, Baron Zemo, and (of course) the infamous Red Skull. The action is great, and the stories are riveting!

Now, this book is just shy of being excellent, as these beautiful comics have all been reproduced in black-and-while. But, that said, it is a great book for anyone who loves Captain America, and the price is very reasonable. My son (now a Captain America fan!) and I both highly recommend this book to you.

This book covers one of the most interesting periods in Cap`s career. He`s on his own from the Avengers, as far as his own series, and the focus is all Cap! This book really gives you the essential early history of one of Marvel`s eternal heroes. The fact that it even flashes back to Cap`s origin and covers a smattering of WW II stories is key. You get to see both era`s of Cap, and it really shows how little he`s changed. I`ve always been a fan of Cap`s early days and love Tales of Suspense and anything to do with vintage Cap. Seeing Bucky is a bonus too! And of course, this book contains essential Red Skull stories too! (His War years and how he survived to the modern era, as well as his wildest world conquering schemes ever! ) This book has it all. These issues are a must read for any Cap fan. I also recommend The Classic Years Vol.1. Both give you the history of Cap in it`s original format. My only complaint is that some of the pages were copied from finished artwork, rather than the original uncoloured plates. This creates a inconsistency in the flow of certain stories, but at least every panel and page is there. So I can`t complain too loudly. It`s still a treasure!

Alright, let's clear the air as far as reviews go. Yes, this is a black and white book (ALL Marvel's "Essential" books are), and the print is only a little better than newspaper print, but it still won't smear easily and it's cheap. ...

I do have to knock off one star for the lack of color, but it's still a solid 4 star book for the sheer amount of material presented at such a low cost.

The collected stories are reprints of "Tales of Suspense", the book that featured Cap before he got his own title, from issue #59 (his first appearance in the series) to issue #99. At issue #100 the book was re-titled "Captain America", and issues 100, 101, and 102 are included as well.

Essential Captain America Vol. 2 picks up at issue #103 and runs up to issue #126. But before you criticize 40+ issues in volume 1 vs. 20+ issues in volume 2 , realize that "Tales of Suspense" was a book split between Cap and Iron Man. There may be half the issues in volume 2, but they're twice as long. It all balances out, really.

Just be careful what you expect vs. which volume you order since the same reviews post for both volumes.

The only problem (aside from the black and white that people love to moan about) is some of the writing doesn't hold up so well by today's standards. (Insert "Golly!" here. Or mention somebody in "deadly danger".) Although as long as you take into account the time period this was written in, it's just fine.

Including Avengers issue #4 would have been nice too, since it's Cap's first (true) appearance since WWII, but I guess there's always volumes of Essential Avengers... All things considered, if you want a full run of Cap's coninuity, this is the most financially responsible decision you can make.

Good vs. Evil. Good old fashioned comic book drama doesn't get any better than this. Captain America certainly knows how to do it. Here is a hero that stands for everything that is good. What is his job? To defend; to fight the bad guys; to rid the world of evil. And that he does!

In the very first issue in this collection, he fights off some seemingly indestructable gangsters who want to break into the headquaters of the Avengers. This is the beauty of Stan Lee and Marvel: the creation of interesting villains; ones who you might see in the real world. These are not simply aliens or creatures; these are real world thugs. You gotta love characters that say things like "We'll attack that costumed clown like a team...Just like the Avengers themselves!" This is the way dialogue should be.

The "Essential" collection itself is very good, except for the absence of color. However, if you're here for the drama, then you'll give it a pass. Also, Jack Kirby is the king, so you can see beyond the absence. Yes, we're all waiting for the return of the paperback editions of Masterworks, but until then, "Essentials" will have to do. No matter, even in black and white, Captain America is a very colorful character!

is there some legal reason why Marvel doesn't put out collections of their Golden Age Heroes like Captain America, the Human Torch, etc? Just curious. I'd love to see those. Well this Essential volume collects Caps Earliest Silver Age Adventures from Tales of Suspense #55 - 99 and Captain America 100 - 102 once the title was changed.

While we were now in the mid-1960's, many of these stories were still fought against Nazi enemies like the Red Skull, Baron Zemo, and the Sleepers. The stories are all Stan Lee. Jack Kirby does the art on the early issues but later we have art by George Tuska (ugghhh) and John Romita (yay!).

Tales of Suspense 78 introduced Nick Fury as a pal of Cap's. #'s 82 - 84 introduced the android menace of the Super Adaptoid who could mimick the powers and abilities of any hero. # 93 and 94 featured the first appearance of the AIM created cyborg called MODOK. Truly one of the more bizarre villians of the 1960's. Leading into the title Change to Captain America issues 101 & 102 again feature the Red Skull and his evil Sleeper Robots.

One may say this collection is a bit too heavy with the Red Skull as he appears in 16 of the stories. I'd say that's true but what are you going to do? That was Cap's arch-nemesis at the time. If you're going to reprint the stories chronologically, you have to take the good with the bad. Not that it's bad, but one wishes that Jack and Stan had been perhaps a bit more creative with one of their oldest characters.

Nothing in the Essential Captain America is ground-breaking. It's good silver age fun though.

These are absolutely great stories, with incredible art by Jack. There are some stories done by Gil Kane and other artists, which are all right, but the stories with Kirby's art - and plots - are fantastic. And these are stories in which Stan Lee avoided getting too melodramatic or chatty in his dialogue. Lee shows great restraint, and Kirby's action scenes are incredible.

But there are two versions of this TPB. The one with Cap coming at you, with the yellow background has absolutely HORRIBLE REPRODUCTION values. It is ugly. There is printing detritus all through many issues, the line work is awful in many issues, the quality is just down right dreadful. I regret buying it. There is an alternate version with a different cover, a reproduction of Captain America #100 - it has a black background and features other characters besides Cap. For some reason, the reproduction quality is fine in that one. Look for it, don't get the yellow one.

Having read some of the original Jack Kirby stories from the 1940's, the difference between those stories and the stories in this book are like night and day. While the original stories do have the rough feel and the original inspiration of the young master, the 1960's stories contained in this book are Kirby, whom I consider the principle writer of this series with Stan Lee only rewriting dialogue, at his peak. While his Marvel stories at that period contain his most famous works like the Fantastic Four and Thor which are awesome for sheer grandure and spectacle, it is Captain America that stands apart as his most kinetic work ever. Forced to work on a human scale with the relatively earthbound limits of the character, Kirby more than compensated with sheer action. Few other artists could show battles that were so wild with Cap regularly taking on dozens of foes at a time, or in single combat against the seemingly invincible, and yet, make it feel so believable that he would win in the end. Combine that with thrilling stories that serve as the perfect framing for the thrills that never feels like padding, and you have superhero excitement at its finest in its own manner.

Jack Kirby set much of the style of what superhero stories are like, and even if you think that that Kirby's influence has straightjacketed the medium, it is still worth seeing how the master did to get that influence, and if you read this book, you'll see why.

While I have to say up front that some people won't enjoy these war-time anti-communist oriented stories,these are what Captain America is all about. This is a generous collection of some very hard to gather tales that speaks to the uneasy feeling in war-time America. Cap's later mag just can't hold a candle to these cliffhangers and you don't even have to wait to see what happens,just turn the page! A totally different flavor of character than (for instance) Spiderman(don't get me wrong he'll always be my fave) Cap is epitome of a HERO, from a generation of strife that truly produced such people, a leader and an inspiration. While most will feel more affinity for the afforementioned web-slinger(as I do), Cap is un-deniably the most noble marvel character(except perhaps the Invisible Girl for putting up with Reed's ocassional sexist attitudes). The stories in this issue make the Red Skull a top Marvel villain (whereas he is somewhat of a sideshow elsewhere),the Panther is treated like the regal character he was meant to be, the Agent 13 run is proudly presented and the Golden Age stories are quite good (unlike some 40's Timely tales).A great read in the Mighty Marvel Tradition. If you can get your kicks without too much super-powered action, this one's for you!

Although one would expect Captain America to be be the spearhead in the 60s Marvel battles with Communism, there is only one story in this book with a Communist villain. For the most part, Cap is shown battling sinister organizations and remnants of the Nazis. And Battle he does, Kirby shows more kinetic energy in these stories than any of the other series he worked on. Perhaps it was the fact that his connection with Cap goes back to the 40s. Every story shines with drawings of Captain America flipping, jumping and slamming his way through battle after battle. And we get classic stories from the 60s-the Sleepers, Nazi superweapons programmed to arise in the 60s, The Cosmic Cube, the most powerful device in the universe. Add to this great villains like the Red Skull, Zemo, the Adaptoid and Modok. I only have one quibble with the book, the starkness of the black and white art does not allow us to see Cap is risking his neck to rescue a black Air Force pilot from Vietnam-the pilot is white here. In many pages, the Black Panther when out of costume is white. The only inkling we get that the greatest of the black superheroes is actually black comes because some of the pages had to be photocopied from actual comics. The Panther was a groundbreaking character in comics but his relevance is almost lost in this anthology.

I thought this book had some of the best Captain America comics ever! They had great stories of good vs. evil, with patriotic Cap in the lead, and fantastic artwork by the late great, Jack "The King" Kiby. The Red Skull is a featured bad guy quite a bit, and he makes for excellent opposition against Cap. Finally, I like the length of each individual comic in the book. 20 pages is too long, and I like the 12-page format used in all but 3 of the Cap comics. Buy and enjoy the Essential Captain America Volume 1, then buy Volume 2.