I think my appreciation of Cap goes back to this:
This little black and white softcover paperback was bought for me on a camping trip probably in 1982, the year it was released. So I would have been 7. This book contains a two part story about Captain America fighting a Nazi vampire, and a 1 part story about Cap running for President. Story by Roger Stern, art by John Byrne.
This panel:
Probably is the one that sold me on superheroes in general. Buncha good guys I had no clue about, bunch of obvious, creepy bad guys...to this day I thrill at panels like this. These issues are why Union Jack and Spitfire remain some of my Marvel faves, even though they are definitely lesser lights of the superhero universe.
These issues were originally in Captain America 250 and 253-254. If I still had this book, I think I would give it a read tonight. Instead I will read it on the Marvel Unlimited app sometime soon.
Oh check out this panel:
Awesome.
My favourite run of Captain America, this time in my early years of comic collecting in North America, is probably the mid-late 300s of the series, so late 80s and early 90s. This stuff was written by Marc Gruenwald with art primarily by Kieron Dwyer and Ron Lim. The Bloodstone Hunt, from issues 357-362 pretty much defined how I like my superhero stories.
And Cap's Rogue's Gallery! Man, it is awesome. It is an often overlooked one but it contains some great villains. Red Skull (mais oui), Arnim Zola, MODOK, A.I.M., Baron Zemo, Strucker, Hydra, Viper, Batroc the Leaper, the Serpent Squad, Crossbones, Mother Night, Flagsmasher, Sin...these are seriously bad people, as well as being complex characters.
Anyway so I love Captain America blah blah blah.
So why did it take me so long to get around to reading Brubaker's acclaimed run? Well I like Brubaker as a writer (as mentioned before, his Smells Like Teen President is a long standing fave of mine...). I like Cap. What was the deal?
Bucky. Cap's teen sidekick, dead since WW2, and jokingly referred to as the one Marvel guy who doesn't come back from the dead. Well Ed Brubaker brought him back from the dead and made him a Soviet era hitman.
I was kinda Meh to that idea.
With the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, I thought I might delve into the Marvel Unlimited archives and finally read the Winter Soldier storyline. See what was what.
My expected 6-12 issue read turned into a marathon 100 issue festival of shield slinging red, white, and blue.
Like all other great superhero comic stuff, this run takes the best parts of the past and spins them up modern. The changes are the stylistic story elements, not the story substance. Given Brubaker's success with crime style comics, I guess I kind of expected a lack of superhero type stuff, but nope. It's all there. And all rooted firmly in the Marvel Universe. Serpent Squad, Crossbones, Red Skull...and he even goes superhero nuts with the concepts, giving the world Zola-Skull, which is a simultaneously goofy and terrifying image, and MODOCs, and just plain fun stuff that felt modern and mature.
My largest concern, Bucky's return, was handled with what I guess should have been expected skill. This was no hack job. That guy came back, he earned his return and he redeemed his checkered past. And he was a different Captain America during his time in the suit too, but was still a really solid Captain America.
It was great. I wish it could have gone on forever.
Oh and Steve Epting's art, as well as Butch Guice and Alan Davis and everyone else, was all just wonderful.
Read it when you can. It's all TPBed up or also available digitally through Marvel.com or on Marvel Unlimited.
PS: Even squeezed in Diamondback. Sweet.
