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Captain America Epic Collection
Captain America Epic Collection, Vol. 5: The Secret Empire
One of the most influential Captain America stories of all time, filled with action, suspense, and political intrigue
Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema take Captain America and the Falcon on a journey through the madness and machinations of Doctor Faustus. The mind-bending Doctor has captured Sharon Carter, a.k.a. Agent-13, but little does Cap know, Faustus also has Peggy Carter, Cap's long-lost love from World War II! Then, Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. conscript Cap in the fight against the Yellow Claw. But the real menace to mankind is subtly concealed. A Secret Empire moves behind the face of American power. Their goal is to frame and discredit Captain America, replacing them with their own "patriotic" icon. Only the combined efforts of Cap, the Falcon, S.H.I.E.L.D. and the X-Men can hope to topple them. It's a shocking saga that defined Captain America for the '70s!
Collecting CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) #160-179
Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema take Captain America and the Falcon on a journey through the madness and machinations of Doctor Faustus. The mind-bending Doctor has captured Sharon Carter, a.k.a. Agent-13, but little does Cap know, Faustus also has Peggy Carter, Cap's long-lost love from World War II! Then, Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. conscript Cap in the fight against the Yellow Claw. But the real menace to mankind is subtly concealed. A Secret Empire moves behind the face of American power. Their goal is to frame and discredit Captain America, replacing them with their own "patriotic" icon. Only the combined efforts of Cap, the Falcon, S.H.I.E.L.D. and the X-Men can hope to topple them. It's a shocking saga that defined Captain America for the '70s!
Collecting CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) #160-179
416 pages, Paperback
First published June 27, 2023
6 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Steve Englehart
1,395 books97 followersSee also John Harkness.
Steve Englehart went to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. After a stint in the Army, he moved to New York and began to write for Marvel Comics. That led to long runs on Captain America, The Hulk, The Avengers, Dr. Strange, and a dozen other titles. Midway through that period he moved to California (where he remains), and met and married his wife Terry.
He was finally hired away from Marvel by DC Comics, to be their lead writer and revamp their core characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern). He did, but he also wrote a solo Batman series (immediately dubbed the "definitive" version) that later became Warner Brothers' first Batman film (the good one).
After that he left comics for a time, traveled in Europe for a year, wrote a novel (The Point Man™), and came back to design video games for Atari (E.T., Garfield). But he still liked comics, so he created Coyote™, which within its first year was rated one of America's ten best series. Other projects he owned (Scorpio Rose™, The Djinn™) were mixed with company series (Green Lantern [with Joe Staton], Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four). Meanwhile, he continued his game design for Activision, Electronic Arts, Sega, and Brøderbund.
And once he and Terry had their two sons, Alex and Eric, he naturally told them stories. Rustle's Christmas Adventure was first devised for them. He went on to add a run of mid-grade books to his bibliography, including the DNAgers™ adventure series, and Countdown to Flight, a biography of the Wright brothers selected by NASA as the basis for their school curriculum on the invention of the airplane.
In 1992 Steve was asked to co-create a comics pantheon called the Ultraverse. One of his contributions, The Night Man, became not only a successful comics series, but also a television show. That led to more Hollywood work, including animated series such as Street Fighter, GI Joe, and Team Atlantis for Disney.
Steve Englehart went to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. After a stint in the Army, he moved to New York and began to write for Marvel Comics. That led to long runs on Captain America, The Hulk, The Avengers, Dr. Strange, and a dozen other titles. Midway through that period he moved to California (where he remains), and met and married his wife Terry.
He was finally hired away from Marvel by DC Comics, to be their lead writer and revamp their core characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern). He did, but he also wrote a solo Batman series (immediately dubbed the "definitive" version) that later became Warner Brothers' first Batman film (the good one).
After that he left comics for a time, traveled in Europe for a year, wrote a novel (The Point Man™), and came back to design video games for Atari (E.T., Garfield). But he still liked comics, so he created Coyote™, which within its first year was rated one of America's ten best series. Other projects he owned (Scorpio Rose™, The Djinn™) were mixed with company series (Green Lantern [with Joe Staton], Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four). Meanwhile, he continued his game design for Activision, Electronic Arts, Sega, and Brøderbund.
And once he and Terry had their two sons, Alex and Eric, he naturally told them stories. Rustle's Christmas Adventure was first devised for them. He went on to add a run of mid-grade books to his bibliography, including the DNAgers™ adventure series, and Countdown to Flight, a biography of the Wright brothers selected by NASA as the basis for their school curriculum on the invention of the airplane.
In 1992 Steve was asked to co-create a comics pantheon called the Ultraverse. One of his contributions, The Night Man, became not only a successful comics series, but also a television show. That led to more Hollywood work, including animated series such as Street Fighter, GI Joe, and Team Atlantis for Disney.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 5, 2025
One of the most consequential Cap storylines of the 70s chock-a-block full of stolidly reliable Sal Buscema art (John is still my favorite Buscema brother, but I appreciate Sal more and more). And, Falcon's plunging v-neck was devastatingly effective with the ladies, though I'm sad to report it was never as effective for me.
November 19, 2023
Another case demonstrating that it's best to be careful about building things up. Expected the Secret Empire saga to be one of the greats on Steve Rogers' record - it has that infamous ending, after all! It has real consequences, after all! - but in execution, it lacks all building, and lacks nearly all impact. What I had assumed to be a carefully-crafted conspiracy unspooled over any number of issues turned out to be more of the more-or-less standard 70s superhero fare, seeming to lurch from idea to idea without much evidence of planning on Steve Englehart's part. From an offhanded comment from a serpent-theme supervillain with the evil powers of PR, to the arrival of Moonstone as a replacement Cap, to the amusingly-named Committee to Restore America's Principles (CRAP) continuing to besmirch Cap's record, to the untimely injection of the Secret Empire and their shoehorned-in crusade against mutantkind that's neither here nor there...this story is all over the place. And it has no time to build up to the "shocking conclusion" that implied the Secret Empire's influence reached to the very highest offices in the land. It's all redolent of Watergate, but without adequate thought or reflection.
It does provide for probably the single best issue of Captain America so far, with the aftermath of all this playing out in an introspective entry where Cap reflects on his role in American society and what he represents, with each of his friends and loved ones chiming in - Thor, Iron Man, Sharon Carter, Falcon - with Steve, in the end, coming to the ambiguous yet appropriate conclusion that they're all right, and none of them are. The observations and conclusions aren't necessarily 100% what I would say, or what you would say, but that's kinda the point, and a point made in the issue: the United States is a nation of millions of people, and we've all got a viewpoint, and they all count.
Still, woulda been nice for the mutant angle to receive any kind of debrief whatsoever. But I guess Cap had his hands full.
The Sharon Carter-Peggy Carter faux-triangle is pretty ridiculous, with Steve and Sharon playing along with Peggy's amnesia by implying that she and Cap are still an item, complicated by the fact that Peggy doesn't know that Steve IS Cap (which Englehart seems to have forgotten at various moments during the story) and is involved with him in both his guises.
And Falcon. He is on his way to being such a great character, but he's continually bogged down by the story making him feel inadequate alongside the great Captain America. The upside is that he finally gets his wings, and also is hinted at being a mutant. And in the abstract, having a partnership of superheroes experience envy about each other's powers and qualities is good for storytelling. But in execution, it looks pretty rough, with the Black hero constantly depicted as feeling (and frankly, being) inferior to the big white Aryan hero, and the white hero never feeling any sense of inadequacy in regards to anything that his Black partner brings to the table. Cap is just completely self-involved the entire time while Sam tries to match him and the whole thing is tiresome. Also two Lucifers show up for some reason.
It does provide for probably the single best issue of Captain America so far, with the aftermath of all this playing out in an introspective entry where Cap reflects on his role in American society and what he represents, with each of his friends and loved ones chiming in - Thor, Iron Man, Sharon Carter, Falcon - with Steve, in the end, coming to the ambiguous yet appropriate conclusion that they're all right, and none of them are. The observations and conclusions aren't necessarily 100% what I would say, or what you would say, but that's kinda the point, and a point made in the issue: the United States is a nation of millions of people, and we've all got a viewpoint, and they all count.
Still, woulda been nice for the mutant angle to receive any kind of debrief whatsoever. But I guess Cap had his hands full.
The Sharon Carter-Peggy Carter faux-triangle is pretty ridiculous, with Steve and Sharon playing along with Peggy's amnesia by implying that she and Cap are still an item, complicated by the fact that Peggy doesn't know that Steve IS Cap (which Englehart seems to have forgotten at various moments during the story) and is involved with him in both his guises.
And Falcon. He is on his way to being such a great character, but he's continually bogged down by the story making him feel inadequate alongside the great Captain America. The upside is that he finally gets his wings, and also is hinted at being a mutant. And in the abstract, having a partnership of superheroes experience envy about each other's powers and qualities is good for storytelling. But in execution, it looks pretty rough, with the Black hero constantly depicted as feeling (and frankly, being) inferior to the big white Aryan hero, and the white hero never feeling any sense of inadequacy in regards to anything that his Black partner brings to the table. Cap is just completely self-involved the entire time while Sam tries to match him and the whole thing is tiresome. Also two Lucifers show up for some reason.
March 6, 2025
This Epic Collection was all over the place in terms of quality. And I mean that mostly in the writing. The art was fantastic pretty much throughout. This collection is a straight run of Captain America and the Falcon issues, I think, all drawn by Sal Buscema and Sal is on fire here. This is what classic silver age Cap looks like to me.
But as for the writing, as they say, holy shi..
We have some random issues of varying quality. A "Return of the Yellow Claw" story arc that I can see a lot of people finding problematic in the 21st century with it's depiction of Asian characters. But what bummed me out was this is a return of a legit golden age character and it just seemed like he could have been any "Spymaster villain" seeking to take over the world.
Then we jump into the Secret Empire storyline, which was much better, but took a few issues to get going, but once it did it was by far the best part of this collection.
And I kind of think the collection should have ended on it, but instead we have 3 more issues where this collection almost literally limps to the finish line. Boring, uninspiring, the characters are flat out unlikable.
And speaking of the characters, by far the thing I least liked about this collection was "Captain America and the Falcon." Except for a few issues during Secret Empire, I found the both of them having the worst chemistry. Cap had gotten some super strength at the end of the last Epic Collection and Falcon spends most of this one whining about how inferior he feels. Then he *finally* gets his wings and becomes the Falcon we all know and love and stops being just an "acrobatic hero." However it isn't but a few issues before he is back to whining about Cap being better than him. These two are just obnoxious together. I hate to say this, but I really hope they break this pair up sooner than later in the next collection, or get a new writer. I love a good buddy duo, but these two are toxic to each other most of the time.
But as for the writing, as they say, holy shi..
We have some random issues of varying quality. A "Return of the Yellow Claw" story arc that I can see a lot of people finding problematic in the 21st century with it's depiction of Asian characters. But what bummed me out was this is a return of a legit golden age character and it just seemed like he could have been any "Spymaster villain" seeking to take over the world.
Then we jump into the Secret Empire storyline, which was much better, but took a few issues to get going, but once it did it was by far the best part of this collection.
And I kind of think the collection should have ended on it, but instead we have 3 more issues where this collection almost literally limps to the finish line. Boring, uninspiring, the characters are flat out unlikable.
And speaking of the characters, by far the thing I least liked about this collection was "Captain America and the Falcon." Except for a few issues during Secret Empire, I found the both of them having the worst chemistry. Cap had gotten some super strength at the end of the last Epic Collection and Falcon spends most of this one whining about how inferior he feels. Then he *finally* gets his wings and becomes the Falcon we all know and love and stops being just an "acrobatic hero." However it isn't but a few issues before he is back to whining about Cap being better than him. These two are just obnoxious together. I hate to say this, but I really hope they break this pair up sooner than later in the next collection, or get a new writer. I love a good buddy duo, but these two are toxic to each other most of the time.
September 29, 2024
A must-read for Marvel fans. It made real how the American citizens were viewing their government post-Watergate, and how the American political landscape had changed since WWII.
The duo of Captain America and the Falcon are meant to be a duo, no sidekick, and their titular comics went on for hundreds of issues. In this storyline Falcon is feeling like he’s not taken as seriously as Cap and wants some superhero grade tech to enhance his crime fighting. Captain America suggests Hank Pym or Tony Stark, but the Falcon has been thinking of the Black Panther and Wakanda. It’s a surprisingly nuanced subplot, although the dialogue of the Black characters in Harlem and in Wakanda can come across as slightly racist but definitely cringe.
The plot is fast paced, with the superhero partners dealing with new villains, SHIELD, and the X-Men. I think it stands apart as classic superhero fiction of the Silver Age of Comics.
The duo of Captain America and the Falcon are meant to be a duo, no sidekick, and their titular comics went on for hundreds of issues. In this storyline Falcon is feeling like he’s not taken as seriously as Cap and wants some superhero grade tech to enhance his crime fighting. Captain America suggests Hank Pym or Tony Stark, but the Falcon has been thinking of the Black Panther and Wakanda. It’s a surprisingly nuanced subplot, although the dialogue of the Black characters in Harlem and in Wakanda can come across as slightly racist but definitely cringe.
The plot is fast paced, with the superhero partners dealing with new villains, SHIELD, and the X-Men. I think it stands apart as classic superhero fiction of the Silver Age of Comics.
July 29, 2025
there's some good stuff in here but it also overall felt just okay. the secret empire storyline was built up fairly well, and I always enjoy an x men crossover, but other than that there wasn't much to stand out. The last few volumes set up an interesting twist on whats to come though.
February 25, 2026
not bad , I'll always love captain America but I've read better comics with captain then this one that being said it did have some good story lines especially when they showed how captain got the super soldier serum and when the xmen were trying to exonerate captain America on murder charges .
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 2, 2023
It incluyes the classic "Secret Empire" story, related to Watergate and Nixon... No spoilers!
May 15, 2025
The Buscema Brothers were born to draw Marvel stories!
November 20, 2023
Super fun read. Made me go back in time to a simpler era of comic book storytelling. Any many ways better than today. The plots were leaner. Character was still there in large quantity. Cap struggling trying to find Steve Rogers place in the world. Sam Wilson(the Falcon) trying to be recognized by his community as a positive force and not a token to the white heroes and the law. Cap's dispute with Fury. The introduction of Peggy Carter as a regular character. Cap's romance with Sharon Carter. Lots of suspense, lots of political intrigue and Cap debating his purpose as a hero. Good stuff.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews