Customer Reviews

Marvel Masterworks Captain America Volume 2 (Volume 2)

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"Marvel Masterworks: Captain America, Volume 2" collects issues #82-99 of "Tales of Suspense" and the first issue of Captain America's own magazine, which continues the numbering with #100 (Iron Man, Cap's co-star in "Tales of Suspense," got to start over with issue #1). That means Stan Lee did all of the writing and Jack Kirby did most of the art work (Gil Kane provided all of the art on issues #88-89 and penciled #90-91, while Jack Sparling did the pencils on #87). Frank Giacoia inks issues #81-82 and 84-86, while Joe Sinnot did #87, #90-98, and Syd Shores took over for the last "Tales of Suspense" and the first "Captain America."

This collection starts off with a flashback to Captain American and Bucky from World War II (#82), followed by fights with the Tumberl (#83), the Super-Adaptoid (#84), and Batroc (#85). Cap contacts a special S.H.I.E.L.D. agent buried in a deep cover (#86) and then faces the Master Planner (#87). Then we get to the big Captain American epic in this collection, which begins with a video message apparently from Bucky claiming to be alive (#88), which leads to a fight against Power Man and the Swordsman. But who turns out to be back from the dead is the Red Skull (#89), who frames Cap as a traitor (#90), so the Skull has to pay for that insult (#91). Then it appears Nick Fury is assassinated (#92), which sets up the second mini-epic with Cap fighting A.I.M. (#93), which means Modok (#94). After a day with Agent 13, Captain America decides it is time for him to retire (#95) so that Steve Rogers can have a private life. But with his secret identity known to the world, criminals are gunning for him with a vengeance and a rash of imitators are trying to fill his shoes (#96). Cap teams up with the Black Panther for a four-part adventure (#97-100) that brings back Baron Zemo for another go round.

Issue #100 also allows Lee and Kirby to briefly retell how the Avengers found the body of Captain America frozen in a giant slab of ice as part of the big premier issue for Cap's own comic book. But the great irony here is that after all those years of sharing "Tales of Suspense" with Iron Man, which means Lee & Kirby et al. were getting 10 pages a month, they were finally hitting stride with these four-part mini-epics when Cap finally gets his own book. Compare the six stories that start off the collection, where Cap is fighting a different villain each month, with the Red Skull, A.I.M. and Baron Zemo story arcs and the latter are clearly better. That is why there is not a choice involved as to rounding up on this one because if the early stuff comes in at 4 and the last two thirds of the collection earn a 5, then the score is 4.67.

I also like the way Captain American is still fighting World War II at a time where the real world is caught up in the Cold War. You can never have too much of the Red Skull (he comes back in issue #101) and this also mandates a natural relationship with Nick Fury, who was appearing in "Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos," set in World War II, at the same time he was commanding S.H.I.E.L.D. in "Strange Tales." You have to remember that it was a couple of decades before psychotic Vietnam vets replaces Nazis as the bad guys of choice on television and in the movies. Now we would talk about Cap as belonging to the Greatest Generation, which makes him running around in the 1960s in his prime an interesting counterpoint. In the Marvel universe nobody is more Old School than Captain America and in this volume you find Lee & Kirby doing their best work with the character.

Captain America, current status aside, had always been a B-level character. His role as the head of the Avengers was always solid but his own title always seemed to leave something to be desired - with two exceptions: The post-WWII stories in Tales of Suspense and the first 14 issues of his own title, which are contained herein. The stories are solid and contain some of the very best action sequences Jack Kirby ever drew. I know that's a bold statement but it's so.
Stan Lee further solidified Cap's personality as the quintessential (read:good guy) hero in these classic Silver Age stories.

There's no denial that in this set which keeps captain america in the then present sixties is better than the first set. THat was great though with Jack Kirbys great artwork mainly , this is no different in that regard with JAck kirby doing most of the artwork chores and Gil Kane doing the rest with jack sparling on one issue. Kane and Kirby were both greats and are presently illustrating for heaven but we still get to enjoy their work here. Lee's stories are as excellent as ever. Often artists would lay down basic plots and lee would write the story. Or he would do both plot and story. Here who know's how it went but it worked. The reproduction is excellent and you can say that the masterworks series always looks better than the original comics ever did because they were printed on cheap paper. Masterworks really bring home the excellence of this ART medium. Don't underestimate comic art because alot of it is as great as anything you'll see in a artgallery. It's a priviledge to read comic books in this format and the fun remains, this is vintage goodness from the house of ideas circa the middle to late sixties. The tales are mostly ten pages as cap shared his mag with other characters back then.