Essential Captain America, Vol. 3 by Stan Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects more than two years of Captain America Comics (from 127-156) including the tail end of Stan Lee's run and then three more writers taking the helm, with the book starting off in 1970:

Issue 127 begins with Stan Lee and Gene Colan as the creative team. There's a spy in S.H.I.E.L.D. and someone suggests CAP is the spy. Fury pulls Cap's Security-clearance without speaking to him. For some reason, Robbie (from Spider-man) knows about it. It gets straightened out but brings Cap's relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. to an end (for now.) 6/10

Issue 128: No S.H.I.E.L.D., no Avengers, so Cap plans on hanging up. Throws a pity party, even almost throws the costume in an incinerator. However, when some Hippy kids are about to be menaced by a Hells Angels equivalent, Cap snaps into action. 7/10

Issue 129: Red Skull returns and he's got a plot to ignite war. It involves changing around road signs on a foreign head of state visiting the U.S. like Wild E. Coyote or some kid prankster. Disappointing. 5/10

Issues 130 and 131: This is good. Cap intervenes in some student protests. Initially, he's trying to protect kids from the cops and then the kids attack him and then they're going after a principal. There's a hooded villain behind it and he tries to use Captain America, and we get a very interesting Cap-related take on protests. Than in the next issue, the Hood seeks his revenge by finding a young man who he claims as Bucky to draw Cap into a trap. Overall, really fun stuff. 8.5/10

Issue 132 and 133: Issue 132 teases the idea that Bucky might be really back. However, as modern comic readers know, that couldn't be the case. It turns out to be an overly ellaborate plot by MODOK. We learn that as part of this plan MODOK obtained the support of Doctor Doom by literally telling him, "I bet you couldn't make the thing I want." And it only take that for the most evil supervillain in the world to do MODOK's bidding. That's silly, but the second issue is much better, leading to a confrontation and setting up the Falcon as Cap's Partner. 7.5/10

With Issue 134, the book becomes Captain America and the Falcon, and the two are officially a team which continues through the rest of this volume and into volumes to come. This story finds them helping out Sam Wilson's nephew who is following among bad companions. It's the type of thing that would be addressed in DC's Green Lantern and Green Arrow. Lee does it in a more earnest sincere way that's not so cloying and smug. Rating: 8/10

Issues 135 and 136 feature Cap and the Falcon meeting with S.H.I.E.L.D. and then having to battle a mad scientist who turns himself into a gorilla as part of a plan to impress a woman. Cap falls down a big hole which leaves the Falcon on his own which gives us a chance to get a sense of his character. Gene Colan does a great job in this drawing the Moleman. I don't know of anyone who captured it better. 8/10

Issues 137 and 138 is a meet-up with Spider-man as they track down the villain from 134 who is up to no good. Initially, because Spidey is wanted by the police, the Falcon is trying to hunt him down to prove he can be an equal partner to Cap. 138 sees John Romita take over the art chores which does really help with the Spider-man stuff. While some might question Sam Wilson trying to prove herself worthy of Cap, I actually think its legitimately good idea and you'd have to be insufferably arrogant not to have some doubts about being his partner. 8/10.

Issues 139-142 find Steve Rogers taking a job as a cop to go undercover on the force to catch a criminal who has been behind the disappearance of some police officers. It turns out to be supervillain, Falcon, SHIELD, and others get involved. Stan Lee leaves as writer after Issues 141 with Gary Friendrich taking over. A bit drawn out, but not bad and the Falcon gets to show his strength of character. 7/10

Issue 143: Cap and Falcon have to stop a race riot being fomented by a shadowy figure. This is a 34-page issue. Its's very exciting, socially aware, and with a good twist. 9/10

Issue 144: The Falcon to go solo, so that he can find himself and solve problems for "his people." This is dodgy in terms of character development given, his desire for the partnership in the first place and the fact that the partnership is only 11 issues old and even less time has passed in the Marvel Universe. 6/10

Issues 145-148: The rest of Friedrich's 7 month run on Cap has Cap on the trail of Hydra, with more focus on Sharon Carter and the Femme Force. The Falcon is reduced to a secondary character despite still being on the masthead. The Femme Force were female S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. That's it. Most had no individual personalities, except for one that flirted with Cap and got into cat fights with Sharon. By the standard of it's time, it's not great, but not the worst thing written about women, even in superhero comics. However, they're not interesting at all. What is interesting is the mystery of who's behind Hydra and there are a couple of layers, and a match-up of two villains fighting I wouldn't have expected. Overall, didn't much care for this direction, so I'll give this one 6/10

Issues 149 and 150: Gerry Conway (Sal Buscema as artist) takes over and we have Nick Fury throwing a massive hissy fit over Cap's decision to not join SHIELD, and he's kicked out (even though all he's done is help Nick on missions) and further Nick forbids him from seeing Agent 13 (Sharon Carter) The policeman gig comes back. While Falcon and Cap are still technically not working together, the case draws them together as they deal with Batroc who thinks he's been hired as part of a typical kidnap-for-hire plot but his honor is offended when he finds out its something worse. This is pretty good.7/10

Issues 151 and 152-They quickly get involved in a battle with the team of Mister Hyde and the Scorpion. Sharon is kidnapped. Cap punches Nick Fury, which is good because someone needed to. 7.5/10

Issue 153: Steve Engelhart's first issue. Cap and Nick Fury have it out. Turns out Nick's been being a jerk because the woman who flirted with Cap was "his girl." Sharon resigns from S.H.I.E.L.D. because she's tired of Fury's garbage (when did this become a soap opera?) Fury decides to give her leave instead and offers to talk about her future when she gets back from vacation. Meanwhile Falcon stalks a threat who will come up issue. A little dumb, but provides some good set up. 6/10

Issues 154-156: This issue contains the retconning of the 1950s Atlas comics Captain America. Because Stan Lee forgot he'd brought back Captain America in the 1950s. This was a fix. I'd heard it described as turning Caps anti-Commie crusade in the comics into some sort of mental insanity, but that's not actually what this does. It implies that Cap and Bucky of the 1950s took the Super Soldier serum, fought as Captain America, went nuts, and then had to be put on ice. I take that 1950s CAP went nuts off-panel from his published adventures, which is fine. Engelhart does a good job. While this story can be taken politically, there's a lot of good character stuff he takes advantage of. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would 8/10

Overall, this is interesting book. Lee has a very distinctive take on Cap, but once he leaves, it does feel like there's a big of a struggle within Marvel as to whether Cap's going to be a secret agent or more of a street-level in New York City. This tug of war leads to some wild swings in the book. Still, there's some very worthwhile Captain America comics to read in here.



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