Mighty Marvel Masterworks: Captain America Vol. 1 - The Sentinel Of Liberty

Marvel Masterworks: Captain America #1

by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby (Illustrator)

The stories that built the Marvel Universe, from the brilliant minds of legendary creators — now available in an accessible new format the whole family can enjoy! As America prepared to enter World War II, a secret military project gave birth to the greatest one-man fighting force ever known — Captain America! But an accident left Cap frozen in suspended animation, while the world turned on for decades. Now, found and revived by the Avengers, Steve Rogers is a man out of time, tormented by the loss of his wartime partner Bucky — but no less committed to fighting evil in all its forms! Stan Lee and Jack Kirby present the rebirth of an American icon, pitting Cap against Baron Zemo’s Army of Assassins, the Sleepers, Batroc the Leaper…and Cap’s Nazi nemesis the Red Skull!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Comic Book, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.

With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collects Captain America stories from Tales of Suspense #59-77. I mostly bought it because my Pocket Books Captain America is falling apart and most of the stories in that book are also in this one.

Stan Lee scripts these stories and Jack Kirby supplies the art on most of them. Admittedly, I was not as interested in the stories where Kirby did the layouts and George Tuska, Dick Ayers, and John Romita did the finishes.

Anyway, aside from the first story, these are all Captain America and Bucky fighting Nazis in World War II. The stories hold up pretty well and aren't super hokey like a lot of stuff from the time period. I find it hilarious that the reason they set the stories in World War II is because Cap was already in The Avengers and they didn't want to confuse readers by him appearing in a contemporary monthly book as well.

Three Silve Age stars.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally reviewed 2011
updated 2014

Okay, full disclosure, I'm a Captain America fan (we're not talking movie here. As of this moment I haven't seen the new one, though I do plan to go). I owned these books, the comics, back when. I had to sell my collection many years ago...but not my memories or my nostalgia. This volume opens at Tales of Suspense #59, the issue in which Cap joins Iron Man. He stayed in Tales of Suspense until issue #100, which became Captain America #100 and Iron Man split off into Iron Man #1.

In the early mid 60s I shifted my "comic reading" to an almost exclusively Marvel "diet". The Silver Age comics hold huge nostalgia value for me and I'm still a Cap fan.

Cap has over the last few years become one of those characters that some writers don't know how to handle. A character who is actually honest, believes in honor and was to be a symbol of all that's best in this country and what it (is supposed to stand) stands for flummoxes a lot of them. Cap isn't a cool fraud or a crook who get's away with stuff on the cusp of the law while looking good.... Cap was written as an actual hero, something many try to sneer at today, even though a few more people who actually hold ideals and will stand on and for them might be just what we need.

Here we pick up with Cap as he's just joined the Avengers, but as the issues advance we (conversely) slide back in time and get to see Cap's origin. The Red skull rears his "ugly face" (ya I know...but really should I be expected to let that one pass?). If you've been a reader of Marvel Comics you've probably run across the Cosmic Cube or references to it...that's here. My only regret is that we end when we do. I hope they reprint the next set of Cap's adventures (in the paperback format, I can't afford the hard back versions of these LOL).

The hard back version of this book is fairly expensive and the second volume (only out in hard cover right now) is running about $70...

So, some will complain about the simplicity of the stories here. Fine...the era was what it was the good with the bad, and believe me, what we've morphed into isn't all positive. I like these, they speak to me of my youth and of a time when being idealistic wasn't sneered at. You might fail to live up to your ideals, but that didn't mean you quit or gave them up.

This is captain America. 5 stars.

Update: What was called the "Cosmic Cube" here has been updated to be called the "Tesseract" in the modern incarnation of the storyline for those of you wondering.

[Nicolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finding this trade paperback was a treat. A masterwork edition of Captain America’s Silver Age adventures by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and originally presented as part of the Captain America / Iron Man double header in Tales of Suspense. This book collected the first few year of the title the stories that featured the Star-Spangled Avenger. Each hero in Tales of Suspense had their own 10 page segment and each packed more stories in those pages than most modern 20 page comic books. Though I would have preferred the hardcover masterwork format, this was still a great chance to read what was considered as one of the vest titles of the Silver Age.

The Captain America segments were non-stop action-adventure romps. Although Kirby provided full pencils for more than half the pages, he also did the layouts on those he wasn’t to do full pencils. His lines were bombastic and filled panels with raw energy. One could feel the power emanating from the pages and I could easily understand why these comics sold like gangbusters at the newsstands.

I enjoyed this collection very much and would be rereading this every now and then.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

23 early exploits of Captain America when he was appearing in Tales of Suspense alongside Iron Man stories in the 1960's are collected in this hardcover. We get to see him reuniting with Nick Fury, his battle with Batroc and the Sleepers and of course his fights with the Red Skull.
My favorite stories from all of them here would have to be the three part Sleeper story line taking place in Tales of Suspense #72- #74 and the Red Skull/ Cosmic Cube three-part story from Tales of Suspense #79-#81.
Great Lee writing and bombastic Kirby art with pencil assists from John Romita and Don Heck in certain stories.

[Gary Sassaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume reprints the first 19 Captain America stories by Lee and mostly Kirby, although there are some John Romita, George Tuska and Dick Ayers stories too, over Kirby layouts, from Tales of Suspense 59 through 77. This, to me, is the best Marvel Age, when the former “monster” books had two superhero features in them: Suspense had Iron Man and Captain America, Tales to Astonish had Sub-Mariner and Hulk, and Strange Tales had Nick Fury and Dr. Strange. I also really loved the “split” covers, altho most of them went to alternating character covers, one month Iron Man, next month Cap. It’s really apparent re-reading these that Lee & Kirby had absolutely no idea what to do with Cap in the beginning. The first four issues have basically the same plot, rehashed again and again: Cap comes up against a group of bad guys and it’s all-out action for 10 pages. With the fifth issue, Lee & Kirby go back to telling tales from World War II and it’s not until the eighth issue that they do a multi-part story with the Red Skull. I’ve always loved the Sleeper stories from this era, even though Tuska’s art leaves me absolutely cold, and that three-parter (with two great Kirby Cap covers) is included in this volume. Another great Michael Cho cover on this collection, too!

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The classic stories of Captain America! They were pretty interesting and some stories spanned two or three comics and those were always cool. I loved the "credits" that appeared on every first page of a comic, there was always something in there that made you giggle. I'm not sure if I liked the way that they started with Cap in the 60's then made the comics go back to the 40's and then went back to the 60's again. I think, for some people that might have been confusing especially when reading a comic that is based in the 60's and Cap is still fighting Nazi's. However, I did like reading more about the relationship between Bucky and Steve. Also what I found interesting was that in a comic they told a story of Cap and Peggy (although she wasn't named) and Peggy didn't know who Cap really was! Overall, it was fun reading old comics about Captain America and his adventures and his seemingly endless battles between him and the Red Skull. Would recommend to anyone looking to read any of the old Captain America comics.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first comic book experience and most likely my last. I used to read a lot of manga and I always wondered what the difference was. I love Captain America, so this seemed like a fun experiment.

I laughed for all the wrong reasons. I understand this is a collection of work from a different time, but my god the dialogue is painful. Steve Rogers sounds like he's come from an old western movie, and as another reviewer mentioned, he and Bucky always have to say what it is they're going to do before they do it! The suspense is minimal, the weird broken German seems to be inserted at random, and I'm left feeling bored.

This was a good introduction to a bunch of Captain America's adventures, but not the right kind of narrative for me.

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mostly reminiscences of his WWII exploits as featured (along with Iron Man) in Tales of Suspense, including how and why he lost his girl. Also The Red Skull returns.

[Alex Andrasik · Rating 4 out of 5]

This surprised me. The first couple of issues had me worried, as they are obviously thrown-together little paint-by-numbers slugfests for Cap with little to no characterization. That started to turn around pretty quickly, though, with a lot of emphasis on Cap's man-out-of-time status and how it feels (which is kind of funny, because it's only 20 years at this point in the sliding timescale, which--well, yeah, that would suck, but it pales next to later depictions, where basically everyone he knows is elderly or, later, dead). There are hints of his lost love, though not all is revealed yet, and even more, the guilt and loss and regret over the death of Bucky--which, frankly, feels a little unflinchingly homo-romantic, and I love it. (i don't think there was literally something going on between Steve and Bucky, but it's awesome to see a depiction of a male friendship as the most important relationship in this character's background, even above and beyond a hetero romance that isn't even fully fleshed yet.) The WWII-set adventures show a lot of fun in their relationship, and the anguish Cap feels in the modern era is nicely done. Also effective: the continued knitting together of the Marvel Shared Universe, with many references to Tony Stark, a cameo from the second Avengers squad, and an undercurrent of SHIELD permeating the background, what with Agent 13's mysterious introduction. (Also, unabashedly powerful woman! Yay!)

I'm also unexpectedly impressed with the quality of foes Cap faced, which is, let's be honest, mostly Nazis. The Red Skull is a truly menacing presence from the outset, and silly as it is, his transition from past to present to continue haunting Cap and the world is chilling. His origin story is unique and loopy (Hitler loopy) and spot-on. Another story features a British scientist who has joined the Nazis out of a sense of thwarted pride among his countrymen, and while this could easily have been over-the-top, it really works in the two-issue arc in which he appears. The rest of the Nazis and, more broadly, Germans gave me a lot to think about; the majority of the Nazis themselves are depicted as menacing but incompentent, their deep evil always getting in the way of their own ambitions; to top it off, most have silly orthographically-rendered Commander Klink accents. So you have this interesting combination here of the wicked and the absurd, and it's hard to tell whether to fear them, laugh at them, or even pity them. At first I found all the baldly evil, villainous posturing to be a bit much--I don't think Nazis went around ballyhooing their own eeeeevillll, but rather came up with their own justifications for why their actions served a morality that others were just too decadent to perceive--but then I figured it would be a bit much to ask of Lee and Kirby, two Jews who served in WWII, to offer up any nuance to history's greatest villains. At the same time, German citizens--and even some lowly soldiers--are depicted as conflicted or coerced, and often give up their affiliation as soon as Captain America and the Allies plow through. This is some wishful thinking, I'm sure, as it took a process of decades to fully de-Nazzify Germany, and of course we're still dealing with neo-Nazis and the like--but that shows, I think, a very great deal of humanity and goodness on Lee and Kirby's fault, to give the common person the benefit of the doubt that most were not dyed-in-the-wool murderous racists.

Meanwhile, I don't know why, but I just adore the Sleepers Saga. It's just such a cool conceit, these three awesome robots waking up across the countryside and linking up to become even more terrifying. By contrast, the first Cosmic Cube arc was somewhat lackluster, though the final duel between Cap and the Skull was impressive.

Most impressive of all is Kirby's figure work across this series. Cap's athletic acrobatics look great, and never has Kirby rendered the human form in motion with such clarity and imagination. It really fits the character and his adventures.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ler estas histórias clássicas do segundo início dos comics de super-heróis, nos anos 60, mostra o quanto o género evoluiu até hoje. Escrevo segundo início porque, após o período inicial nos anos 30 e 40, os comics comerciais abriram-se aos mais variados géneros, do western ao horror, passando pelo romance. As pressões moralistas que se mestastizaram na Comics Code Authority, organismo de auto-censura criado pelas editoras para garantir um selo de segurança moral, limitaram os criadores a temas que não fossem considerados ofensivos. Os divertidos excessos do horror ao estilo Warren Publishing foram postos de parte, títulos de humor, cartoon e romance foram perdendo leitores. A moralidade binária dos super-heróis, segura dentro dos parâmetros do Comics Code e capaz de atingir contornos patrióticos, aliada às histórias de aventura de seres com poderes especiais, tornou-se um filão de exploração segura, de tal forma que as restantes vertentes se eclipsaram do mainstream. Os antigos heróis dos anos 40 foram recuperados, novos foram criados, a partir de padrões narrativos que têm sido replicados de forma exaustiva.

Não podemos esperar muito em termos gráficos e narrativos destas histórias, simplistas pelos padrões de hoje. Aventuras contidas em dois ou três episódios, viviam da acção, das cenas de luta onde o herói, com a sua força, agilidade e bom humor, sempre prevalecia. Se o desenho pode ser interessante - e no caso deste Masterworks do Capitão América, com o traço de Jack Kirby, é-o, falta toda a linguagem narrativa de encadeamento de pontos de vista e enquadramentos que caracteriza, hoje, a BD. À época, estes comics eram sucessões de imagens, com continuidade assegurada apenas pela narrativa verbal da história.

Este volume traz de regresso aos leitores as primeiras histórias do Capitão América escritas por Stan Lee, recuperado ao catálogo da Timely pela então incipiente Marvel. São curiosamente centradas no legando antigo do personagem, revendo a sua origem e aventuras dos tempos da II guerra. Curiosamente, há no livro uma aventura contemporânea, passada num Vietname representando como cenário operático por Kirby, mas sente-se que o tema é demasiado sensível para a época, que o que funcionou nos anos 40 - comics patrióticos, com heróis a vencer o III Reich e a ameaça nipónica com o poder dos seus punhos, já não pega no ambiente moralmente mais ambivalente dos anos 60. A II Guerra, e os inimigos clássicos do herói, são terreno seguro que Lee soube explorar muito bem.

Para quem não conheça o passado desta personagem, apreciando a Marvel pelo seu universo cinematográfico, pode ficar surpreendido pela forma como os filmes relativos ao Capitão América são fiéis às primeiras histórias no que toca à origem e primeiras aventuras da personagem, a cor de pele de Nick Fury, que durante décadas foi uma espécie de all american Bames Bond antes de ser revisto como Black Motherfucker no cinema, aparições fugazes da agente Carter, a aparição de Red Skull ou as primeiras iterações de Zemo, Hydra, Shield e IMA. O que vemos hoje, explorado no universo transmedia da Marvel, são variantes e transposições do substrato estabelecido por Kirby e Lee nos anos 60.

Uma leitura nostálgica, muito válida como documento que mostra um estádio clássico da evolução das linguagens gráficas e narrativas dos comics.

[Liam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this. I was excited to delve into some of the original Cap’s comics - but they were so campy. I read some of them to my kids, and my kids were mildly entertained .. but the campiness was just too much for me.

[Ross Kitson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collecting the first set of tales of the returned Captain America, this book relies heavily on nostalgia value for most. For my own part I recall the B&W reprints in pocketbooks from the 80s. The tales improve as they go along and after a brief dip back into WW2 we get some great contemporary tales (from the 1960s) with the Sleepers, and the return of the Red Skull (drawn so well by Kirby). These latter three tales bring in AIM and the Cosmic Cube. Classics.
With 10 page episodes (the Cap tales were paired with Iron Man before either got their own comic) the dialogue and action are swift and punchy, and character development an aside. I find it odd to think they portrayed Steve Rogers as a man out of time when he’d only been frozen for 20 years. It works far better in a modern time frame, although I suppose the shift in values and world view from 1945 to 1965 was significant in the USA.
I,m planning to read onwards and perhaps tie in the concurrent Agents of SHIELD stories too, not least to catch some early Steranko art.

[L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Cap was revived for the Sixties, Marvel must have figured enough time had passed for them to recycle some stories from the 1940's. So if you've already read Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Captain America, Vol. 1, you're going to have some deja vu.

Stan Lee continued his habit of not having that many female characters, and when he did bother to have one, he didn't feel any pressure to give her a name. What's up with that, Stan?!? Did you have some kind of phobia? Was it too hard for you to call a woman 'Betty' or 'Jane'?

[Paxton Holley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finishing up my challenge of reading all the Marvel Masterworks volume 1s for the original roster of the Avengers.

This was good. It starts off with contemporary stories of Cap after he’d been thawed out of the ice in Avengers #4. But about 5 issues in, all the stories shift back to stories of WWII Cap and Bucky. Not reprints, they’re new stories, but still, I wanted contemporary Cap. So this section wasn’t my favorite.

Towards the end of the book it switches back to contemporary Cap and we see the return of Red Skull and the creation of the cosmic cube.

Overall I enjoyed it but it drug a bit in the middle.

[Makoto S · Rating 3 out of 5]

i read this to read more of Jack/Stan comic and i gotta say, early 2-3 stories felt rough because stories felt too topically tied to Vietnam war etc and just felt generic. it started to really cook imo when WW2 became the focus and started the throwback-y stories. those were amazing, the Red Skull is a great villain, the stories felt somewhat standard but Nazi as threat works imo with some gadgets like disintegration ray. the art does switch to Jack layout/George Tuska pencil after a while and it does hit less hard imo but that's just my opinion. Sleeper story felt....whatever. oh Batroc the Leaper does show up down the line

[Jdetrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

These early issues are rough, from the (hopefully) unintentional racism to the well worn trope of putting Cap into a situation where he just gets to punch flunkies for an entire issue. Things start to get better toward the end of the volume, as we start getting into more stories that tie into the Marvel Universe as a whole.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of Cap's (mostly) WWII adventures that were originally published in the mid-60's. Good, but at times underwhelming compared to advancements in graphic novels over the last 25 or 30 years.

[Jack Stubblefield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic Captain America

The beginning of the Star Spangled Avenger. You cannot go wrong with this volume. All these years later, the stories hold up well. Go. Buy. Now. Good stuff, Maynard!

[Chris W · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goofy silver age comics. I can really.only recommend this to those nostalgic for classic cap or those that are hard-core fans and need to collect older volumes.

For modern fans, skip this completely and stick to the pre and post civil war Ed Brubaker run on captain America

[Backslash · Rating 3 out of 5]

couple of good likes and an occasional good story, but not Earth shattering.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Cruzzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's great to read a great story of a great character getting to know him better.

[Gareth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice, fun read really - nothing too major, lots of action, bit of humour and some reflection at times, but very much adventure at this point.

[Peter Olson]

Only Got to Page 76 Up to tales of suspense Number 66

[Melvis The Robot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good Lee/Kirby Captain America stories, with some other artists here and there (Kirby did all the layouts, though). It says it collects Tales of Suspense, but only the Captain America Stories.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really impressed by the stories that featured Peggy and Sharon Carter (although neither was named yet.)

[JW David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tales of Suspense #59-81.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cosmic

Good color artwork and plenty of it. Cap recalls his world war two experiences i. Red skull, Bucky, Avengers, nick fury.

[David Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly bad early on, but got a lot better.

[MoonKnight · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to read these old stories! And the MMMW format is a nice, compact format.