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Captain America Epic Collection

Captain America Epic Collection, Vol. 17: The Superia Stratagem

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Hell hath no fury! Captain America faces a threat like never before when Superia raises an army of female super villains - from Anaconda to M.O.D.A.M.! The roguish gun-for-hire Paladin lends a hand to face these Femizons, but can these two mismatched adventurers thwart Superia's stratagem? Then, Cap has a showdown with his German counterpart, Hauptmann Deutschland. Both men are after the Red Skull -until they discover that he's been killed by Scourge! But nothing is ever as it seems with the Skull... Plus, Diamondback seeks a quiet life -as Cap's executive secretary?! Bernie Rosenthal returns! Cap takes on Crossbones, Viper, Taskmaster, Jack O'Lantern, Doughboy and more! And journey back to World War II for a fresh look at the origin and earliest adventures of Captain America and Bucky!

COLLECTING: VOL. 17: CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) 387-397, ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 1-4

260 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 2019

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About the author

Mark Gruenwald

919 books44 followers
Gruenwald got his start in comics fandom, publishing his own fanzine, Omniverse, which explored the concept of continuity. Before being hired by Marvel, he wrote text articles for DC Comics official fanzine, The Amazing World of DC Comics. Articles by Gruenwald include "The Martian Chronicles" (a history of the Martian Manhunter) in issue #13 and several articles on the history of the Justice League in issue #14.

In 1978 he was hired by Marvel Comics, where he remained for the rest of his career. Hired initially as an assistant editor in January 1978, Gruenwald was promoted to full editorship by Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter in 1982, putting Gruenwald in charge of The Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Spider Woman, and What If. During this period, he shared an office with writer/editor Denny O'Neil, whom Gruenwald considered a mentor.


In 1982, Gruenwald, Steven Grant, and Bill Mantlo co-wrote Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions, the first limited seriespublished by Marvel Comics. As a writer, Gruenwald is best known for creating the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and his ten-year stint as the writer of Captain America during which he contributed several notable characters such as Crossbones, Diamondback and U.S. Agent. He made a deliberate effort to create villains who would be specific to Captain America, as opposed to generic foes who could as easily have been introduced in another comic.

His 60-issue run on Quasar realized Gruenwald's ambition to write his own kind of superhero. However, he considered his magnum opus to be the mid-1980s 12-issue miniseries Squadron Supreme, which told the story of an alternate universe where a group of well-intended superheroes decide that they would be best suited to run the planet

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5 stars
8 (12%)
4 stars
21 (33%)
3 stars
30 (48%)
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3 (4%)
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Profile Image for Chad.
10.3k reviews1,060 followers
March 27, 2025
The Mark Gruenwald issues of Captain America are pretty terrible. I do like his use of obscure Marvel villains but story wise it's just boring. I always enjoyed Diamondback tagging along with Cap but here she's decided to give up her costumed identity to become Steve's executive assistant. It's awful.

The saving grace here is the second half of this book. The Adventures of Captain America is a fantastic expansion of Cap's origin story. Fabian Nicieza and Kevin Maguire create a winning and exciting story set just before America entered World War II. I'm an unabashed fan of Maguire's art. His facial features are so expressive, telling the story without a word.
Profile Image for Eric Butler.
Author 45 books195 followers
July 18, 2020
This is continuing a solid run of early 90s CA but the real gold in this collection is the 4 issues of The Adventures of Captain America. The retelling of the origin of Captain America with art by Kevin Maguire(of Justice League fame). The story is so well done and is in the same realm of Frank Millers DD and Batman's origin stuff. Must read for those issues alone.
Profile Image for Andrew.
801 reviews17 followers
December 11, 2020
This was trending dangerously close to a one-star rating, especially given the eponymous Superia Stratagem 6-parter story was perhaps Gruendwald’s worse to this point. Then the Adventures of Captain America miniseries showed up and saved the day. Using a more prestige format, the series attempts to expand Cap’s origin story and for the first time in my reading, his origin gets a decent account. Not great... but decent. While Gruenwald has added some important components of the Cap’s continuity, he is running out of time to be the quintessential Cap writer like I heard. Especially considering the saving grace of this volume was written by Nicieza and not Grueny.
Profile Image for Barry Bridges.
819 reviews7 followers
November 24, 2019
My rating for this one is high because it includes the excellent mini series “The Adventures Of Captain America”, a re telling of the origin story with a bit more meat on its bones.
Profile Image for Marcelo Soares.
Author 2 books14 followers
October 26, 2020
Eu tô lendo esses volumes na ordem da promoção, então alguns comentários podem parecer bem fora de ordem, mas azar.
Nesse volume, as amigas da pseudo-namorada do Capitão, Asp e Black Mamba, convidam a Cascavel para ir num cruzeiro exclusivo para meninas super-humanas, claro que as coisas não são tão simples assim; o cruzeiro é uma fachada para um plano maligno da Superia - não sei bem quem é - e da Dra Nightshade - aquela que trasnformará o Capitão em Lobisomem num dos próximos volumes e que no Marvel Knights do Pantera Negra tem silicone à prova de balas nos peitos. O plano maligno, claro, é uma pérola dos filmes do Jess Franco da década de 70, uma bomba explodirá na atmosfera esterilizando todas as mulheres do mundo, exceto as que estão na Femizônia - a ilha que elas mantém no Caribe e destino final do cruzeiro.
Claro, eventos eventuam-se e o Capitão com seu fiel escudeiro, Paladino, vão atrás das meninas.
São seis edições muito divertidas, não porque tem boas piadas, arte excelente, diálogos maduros, muito pelo contrário, são divertidas pela clima de filme B da história, com algumas piadinhas mais bagaceiras e um pouco de nudez teríamos uma pérola do cine trash independente: Capitão América vai às Bahamas, com Terence Hill, Bud Spencer e Brigitte Bardot.
Tudo dá certo no final, depois tem algumas edições para encher linguiça sobre a morte do Caveira Vermelha, o novo Scourge, um encontro com o Capitão Alemão, um team-up com o Thor da época (Eric Masterson) contra antigos secretos na Mansão Caveira e umas outras bobagens, boa parte, resolvidas no próximo volume do qual eu já fiz piadas por aqui.
Agora eu quero falar sobre um assunto que eu não sei nada: relacionamentos.
De um lado, temos Estevão, o Capitão Idiotão, e a Cascavel caindo de madura; eles já tão naqueles primeiros estágios, rola uns beijos, mas o nosso Capitão Idiotão não se coça, sabe? Fica naquele chove não molha, não caga e não desocupa a moita. Anos 90, convida a mina pra ver tua coleção de selos comemorativos da independência americana, põe um Barry White no 3x1, puxa aquela fita VHS do Nove Semanas e Meia de Amor e vai pro abraço. Mas não, ele vai conversar com o Quasar. O Quasar! O cara precisa rever suas prioridades.
Do outro, Caveira "Schimitão" Vermelha manda a Turminha do Esqueleto soltar a Víbora da prisão porque ele quer "conversar" com ela. Pra começar, ele recebe ela, peladaço, na banheira, olha para aqueles olhos verdes, cabelo verde, uniforme verde e larga: "Gosto muito do teu tipo de terrorismo Víbora, então quero te convidar para entrar no Caldeirão do Caveirão e fazer novos planos malignos para deteriorarmos ainda mais a moral e os bons costumes do mundo ocidental."
E ele diz isso sem nem ficar vermelho, quer dizer, mais que o normal.
É, acho que, nesse caso, o crime deu uma compensada.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews

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