Mighty Marvel Masterworks: Captain America Vol. 2: The Red Skull Lives (Tales of Suspense

by Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Leonardo Romero (Cover Art)

Collects material from TALES OF SUSPENSE (1959) #78-94 and NOT BRAND ECHH #3.

Strap on your shield and prepare for a barrage of Stan and Jack's best as Captain America battles the Red Skull in the original Cosmic Cube saga - and so much more! There's the Super-Adaptoid, a robotic creation with the combined powers of the entire Avengers; the Red Skull, who returns to destroy Captain America in the court of public opinion by convincing America that Cap has turned traitor; and the horrendous head of A.I.M., the one and only M.O.D.O.K., making his first appearance! And as if that wasn't enough, Nick Fury guest-stars and Cap battles Batroc in an action extravaganza! Reserve your star-spangled copy today!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

202 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 21, 2023

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

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first several issues of this compilation feel like only half the story as we don't get the backstory from Agents of Shield issues.
Later we get more Red Skull issues that are okay, but some hokey stuff happens towards the end. An example is Red Skull gets Captain America to pledge allegiance to Red Skull for 24 hours. Cliffhanger. Next issue, we learn Red Skull wasted nearly the entire 24 hours, doing nothing, and ask Captain America the location of a secret submarine with minutes to spare. What? 24 hours and you wait till minutes left? It gets sillier. Red Skull finds the submarine, but it is being demoed. Luckily, the crew leaves on Red Skulls airship, because it would seem the crew was to be sacrificed? The Navy sent out a submarine to blowup, but had no plan to evacuate the crew?
Next issue or so is okay. Last issue is some weird special that is blah.

[Gary Sassaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is peak Jack Kirby Captain America stuff, folks. This volume includes stories from Tales of Suspense #s 78 through 94, plus a “Charlie America” spoof from Not Brand Eech #3. Of the 17 Cap stories, 12 are by Kirby and inked by two of his finest inkers, Joe Sinnott and Frank Giacoia; four stories are by Gil Kane and one by a very out of place Jack Sparling. All except the Sparling story are written by Stan Lee (and he’s very wordy in most of them). These stories feature the creation of the Cosmic Cube, the return of the Red Skull, and the introduction of MODOK. They’re amongst my favorite Kirby Cap stories of the 1960s, and even if Stan drones on a bit, the art is the absolute best of Kirby at Marvel.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, and an improvement on Volume 1. The book starts off very well with a team-up between Cap and Nick Fury, followed by the interesting return of the Red Skull. The book then gets a little less exciting with mundane action stories, that I sort of skimmed through. I was only really interested in the Red Skull stories, and thankfully there were more of these towards the end also.
The book finishes off with the first ever appearance of M.O.D.O.K., which was a pleasant surprise!
I’m not sure I will read Volume 3, but I did enjoy this book.