Top 12 Captain America Tales

Patriotic Duty

♦Captain America: Civil War is out in UK cinemas this Friday and the following Friday in the US, so we thought it was the perfect time to choose the Top 10 Captain America stories in comics. So we gave Senior Editor Andrew Colman the task of going through 75 years of the character in print…

1. Captain America Comics 1, March 1941.
   Origin and first appearance of Captain America, Bucky, and the Red Skull, by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. One of the most important comics ever published, and although Cap wasn’t the first patriotic super-hero (that was MLJ’s Shield) he was certainly the most political, with the title focusing on him battling Hitler and all but predicting Pearl Harbor.
2. Captain America Comics 3, May 1941.
   Classic Red Skull cover and appearance, featuring the first ever comics work by some guy called Stan Lee. One of the great Timely books.
3. Captain America Comics 76, 1954.
   Not the real Cap as it turned out (in a later retcon, this anti-Communist Captain America was revealed to be Jack Monroe, who later became Nomad), but a brief sea change in the character in what was essentially a false start – super-heroes, particularly in companies such as Atlas, were not a big draw in the mid 1950s.
4. Avengers 4, March 1964.
   With the Marvel Age already beginning to take shape, fans were far more ready for the revival of Captain America than they had been in the Atom Age, and so Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, ignoring the abortive 50s series (and his post-war Timely adventures!), had him preserved in a block of ice that had miraculously kept him intact since 1945. Fans quickly took to the revised Cap, now refitted as a hero out of time. Within two years, he would be leading the super-team.
5. Captain America 100, April 1968.
   Due to distribution constraints, Ol’ Winghead had been given a shared title with Iron Man from Tales Of Suspense 59 (November 1964) onwards. By 1968, Marvel’s ascension was reaching critical mass, and the Explosion of that year allowed Cap to have his own proper title for the first time in decades, with Jack Kirby continuing to pencil the character he created 27 years earlier.
6. Captain America 117, September 1969.
   First appearance of Sam Wilson, The Falcon. Marvel’s move to modernize and update Cap continued apace with the arrival of an African-American partner who was very much a separate and autonomous entity, and who would remain his cohort for decades on.
7. Captain America 180, August 1974.
   Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema’s take on Cap revitalized the character, positioning him as an icon and representative of America rather than just a star-spangled crimefighter. In this classic issue, Steve Rogers, riven with self-doubt about being a patriotic symbol, sheds the chainmail stars and stripes for the first time, donning the guise of The Nomad.
8. Captain America 332, August 1987.
   Forced by the commission to work directly for the government, Steve Rogers decides once again to turn in his costume and walk away from his identity, rather than be a political shill. Gruenwald and Morgan’s storyline is handled with aplomb and assured context, with no certainty about Rogers regaining his position as Captain America. Mike Zeck’s iconic cover would prove to be a forerunner of many such stories to come.
9. Captain America Volume 3 #1, July 1999.
   Mark Waid and Ron Garney’s run managed to return Captain America to his iconic status in the Marvel Universe while still feeling fresh. Cap finds himself stranded on the streets of Tokyo with a gap in his memory of the previous year’s events where he was trapped in an alternate universe. He is drawn into a battle to defeat Japanese terrorists. Garney showed why he was one of the best of the modern comic artists of this period while Waid displayed an innate and deep understanding of the character
10. Captain America Volume 5, 11, December 2005.
    Brubaker and Epting’s retrofit of Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier proved to be a seismic shift in the canon, putting the ghost of kid sidekicks such as Barnes to rest, in what was an excellent series.
11. Captain America Volume 5, 25, January 2007.
    As part of the Civil War story arc, Cap was killed (temporarily, of course), in what was a moderately controversial move by Marvel. It meant that periodically at least, Bucky Barnes would assume the mantle of Captain America.
12. Captain America Reborn, (miniseries) September 2009.
    Steve Rogers, as it says on the tin, returns to the land of the living in a predictably convoluted manner. He then insists that Barnes continue as Captain America, even though he had no plans to retire. Eventually he resumes his career as Cap.

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