Marvel Masterworks: Captain America, Vol. 12

Marvel Masterworks: Captain America #12

by Steve Gerber

We voted - and this red-white-and-blue Masterworks, packed with rare Captain America adventures, wins in a landslide! After an awe-inspiring origin retelling by comics legend Roy Thomas, Cap comes face-to-face with a twisted twelve-foot version of himself: Behold the Ameridroid! And if that wasn't unusual enough, wait until you see Cap squaring off against...the Lincoln Memorial?! It's a good thing Cap's got Nick Fury and the Super Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on his side - because the Red Skull is back, and he's out for blood! And don't miss a showdown with the Hulk that pits the green-skinned goliath's brute strength against nothing but Cap's trusty shield and battle-hardened tactical skill! It's a can't-miss Marvel classic! COLLECTING: CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) 215-230; INCREDIBLE HULK (1968) 232

Genres: Comics, Comic Book, Marvel

312 pages, Hardcover

Published January 5, 2021

About the author

Steve Gerber graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in communications and took a job in advertising. To keep himself sane, he wrote bizarre short stories such as "Elves Against Hitler," "Conversion in a Terminal Subway," and "...And the Birds Hummed Dirges!" He noticed acquaintance Roy Thomas working at Marvel, and Thomas sent him Marvel's standard writing test, dialoguing Daredevil art. He was soon made a regular on Daredevil and Sub-Mariner, and the newly created Man-Thing, the latter of which pegged him as having a strong personal style--intellectual, introspective, and literary. In one issue, he introduced an anthropomorphic duck into a horror fantasy, because he wanted something weird and incongruous, and Thomas made the character, named for Gerber's childhood friend Howard, fall to his apparent death in the following issue. Fans were outraged, and the character was revived in a new and deeply personal series. Gerber said in interview that the joke of Howard the Duck is that "there is no joke." The series was existential and dealt with the necessities of life, such as finding employment to pay the rent. Such unusual fare for comicbooks also informed his writing on The Defenders. Other works included Morbius, the Lving Vampire, The Son of Satan, Tales of the Zombie, The Living Mummy, Marvel Two-in-One, Guardians of the Galaxy, Shanna the She-Devil, and Crazy Magazine for Marvel, and Mister Miracle, Metal Men, The Phantom Zone , and The Immortal Doctor Fate for DC. Gerber eventually lost a lawsuit for control of Howard the Duck when he was defending artist Gene Colan's claim of delayed paychecks for the series, which was less important to him personally because he had a staff job and Colan did not.

He left comics for animation in the early 1980s, working mainly with Ruby-Spears, creating Thundarr the Barbarian with Alex Toth and Jack Kirby and episodes of The Puppy's Further Adventures, and Marvel Productions, where he was story editor on multiple Marvel series including Dungeons & Dragons, G.I. Joe, and The Transformers. He continued to dabble in comics, mainly for Eclipse, including the graphic novel Stewart the Rat, the two-part horror story "Role Model: Caring, Sharing, and Helping Others," and the seven-issue Destroyer Duck with Jack Kirby, which began as a fundraiser for Gerber's lawsuit.

In the early 1990s, he returned to Marvel with Foolkiller, a ten-issue limited series featuring a new version of a villain he had used in The Man-Thing and Omega the Unknown, who communicated with a previous version of the character through internet bulletin boards. An early internet adopter himself, he wrote two chapters of BBSs for Dummies with Beth Woods Slick, with whom he also wrote the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Contagion." During this period, he also wrote The Sensational She-Hulk and Cloak and Dagger for Marvel, Cybernary and WildC.A.T.s for Image, and Sludge and Exiles for the writer-driven Malibu Ultraverse, and Nevada for DC's mature readers Vertigo line.

In 2002, he returned to the Howard the Duck character for Marvel's mature readers MAX line, and for DC created Hard Time with Mary Skrenes, with whom he had co-created the cult hit Omega the Unknown for Marvel. Their ending for Omega the Unknown remains a secret that Skrenes plans to take to the grave if Marvel refuses to publish it. Suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ("idiopathic" meaning of unknown origin despite having been a heavy smoker much of his life), he was on a waiting list for a double lung transplant. His final work was the Doctor Fate story arc, "More Pain Comics," for DC Comics'

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great collection of Cap stories. These Masterworks are always a fun read that takes me back to the comics I read as a kid. Recommended

[Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Similar issues to the last volume: if you wanted to read about Captain America and the Falcon, they're not in this together much. Falcon's barely in this, period.

This story is the weird retconned in and immediately forgotten revamp of Steve's backstory. The one where his middle name is Grant (strange fandom really latched onto that) and his mother's name is Elizabeth Rogers and I think he had a brother? It was pretty much immediately done away with because it was stupid. Unfortunately, the Snap Wilson retcon stuck with Sam for decades :(

Anyway, I enjoy the story where Cap saves Sam from drowning, but other than that, there was nothing I loved about this volume particularly.

[Jimbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slightly bizarre stories, yet compellingly interesting. These stories don't always match as well as they should, but conne t better as time moves on in the world of Captain America.
I know many comic readers think of Cap as a boy scout, but since the early 70's he's has questioned his own beliefs. In these issues, he recognizes that America has its good and bad aspects, and he will continue ue to fight for the right side of justice.
The writers: Glut, Gerber, Thomas, and McKenzie did excellent jobs digging into Cap and his alias Steve Roger's.
Sal Buscema and the few others art was perfect for old Red, White, and Blue super-hero, Captain America.

[Brent · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume suffers a bit from having too many writers going in too many directions throughout a single story arc. They also messed with Cap's origin, and that rarely works out well.

[John Peel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The creative staff seems to be trying hard, but these are very much lesser stories, spun out beyond their lifespan. There's repetition and padding galore, but it doesn't really go anywhere. You get tired of Cap's memory loss and quest to regain it.