Returning from an alternate universe, Captain America, a.k.a. Steve Rogers, finds terrorists conspiring against the U.S. and must face Hydra, Skrulls, and adoring fans without benefit of his fellow Avengers or his shield.
Mark Waid (born March 21, 1962 in Hueytown, Alabama) is an American comic book writer. He is best known for his eight-year run as writer of the DC Comics' title The Flash, as well as his scripting of the limited series Kingdom Come and Superman: Birthright, and his work on Marvel Comics' Captain America.
Having read most of Ed Brubaker’s excellent run on Captain America, I went in search of something else to read about this character. Finding a decent Captain America volume is difficult. He’s not an easy character to write for and there’s a lot of crap out there. This volume caught my eye. It’s a “Premier Edition”, it’s a hard-back book, it’s covered with a sheet of plastic in order to protect it from taco meat or cheese curl dust. It must be important and/or great, right? The Guttenberg Bible, isn’t covered with a sheet of plastic?
The final selling point? It’s written by Mark Waid! Woo Hoo!
When I get this book home I open it up and check out the cover of the first issue: “Heroes Reborn”. The 1990’s. I stifle a sob.
(Get ready for a major digression, Saul Bellow fans)
Way back when, Magneto pulled Wolverine’s adamantium out of his body. It hurt. Charles Xavier was so angry that he shut down Magneto causing the darker aspects of Xavier and Magneto to merge forming Onslaught. Emergence of Onslaught took a while. Years in fact. So Onslaught kidnaps Franklin Richards, because the kid is an uber-powerful mutant and grows up to have his Galactus. The Avengers, the Fantastic Four and X-Men come to his rescue. In order to protect the heroes, Franklin transfers almost everyone but the X-Men to a Counter-Earth. Franklin is now an orphan and has to hang out with Generation X and Howard the Duck. The heroes and Marvel readers are trapped in this Counter-Earth for almost a year. Captain America reappears in Japan. He vaguely remembers what transpired. The readers quickly forget about it.
This was Heroes Return, Heroes Reborn, Heroes Regurgitate.
(Digression over)
So where was I? Right, I was sobbing.
Was this volume worthy of the phony tears?
Here’s the plot: HYDRA is causing problems for Captain America. They’re brewing up trouble everywhere and taunting the good Captain. Captain America gets angry and declares war on HYDRA. HYDRA is being run into the ground by their new leader, the Sensational HYDRA; for kicks he cuts off the arm of one HYDRA agent and beats another minion senseless with it. After the plot is resolved, Captain America gives a four page speech about Mom, Apple Pie, and the nature of Evil!
Four pages!
Waid shows some spark here and gives the reader a glimpse of the entertaining writer he was to become.
Bottom line: Its fun in a cartoony (the ones aimed at an audience of eight year olds) kind of way.
Read as single issues and I’m a little confused as to how many issues were included here because I can’t find it anywhere. Let’s presume #1-5 because #6 starts a new arc
So, I love what Waid is currently doing with Cap and it's nice to see he's always had a great grasp of the character. This book is very much about Cap's legacy. He comes back from Onslaught (and arc I haven't read) to Japan where there's a huge Cap fest going on. By the way, Tony would've died of happiness there. There's all these posters and statues dedicated to Captain America and Steve hates it. He thinks Cap should be a symbol of the people; not some sort of martyr to be worshipped. It's a pretty interesting arc.
Steve is such a delight in this book. He's exactly what drew me to the character in the first place. He's humble, kind, sticks up for the little guy, he never gives up and, most importantly, he's heroic. Cap will do whatever it takes to keep people safe and protect them from anyone that threatens the freedom of other people. When people try to corrupt that *cough cough* Nick Spencer *cough*, they miss what Captain America is as a character. Stop trying to make him edgy and let the guy be a damn hero.
So, all in all, this is a recommend from me. I greatly enjoyed it and it was made during a great hey day of Avengers comics so we see cameos for Hawkeye and Iron Man.
Hmm, kind of a preachy tale from Mark Waid and Captain America about what it means to be an American and blah blah blah.
Cap returns after the Heroes Reborn saga and comes face to face with Hydra popping up all over the place. Quickly becoming a national celebrity, the time is ripe for disappointment as the knight appears to fall from his white horse.
This book is from 1998 and has a very old-fashioned feel to it. Captain America's speech alone is 3-4 pages and reminds me of the drone zone speech of John Galt in Atlas Shrugged, it was that boring and terrible.
Still, there is a lot of action here, and many of the Avengers guest star, adding some continuity to the title. There's also a hint of a resurrection of a classic Captain America villain that will be interesting to see.
Waid’s Cap is probably the best solo series to spawn out of Marvel’s Heroes Return apology tour. It falters here and there, but 20 years later Waid’s principled characterization holds up to modern day standards. I definitely have nostalgia for this time period and that definitely made it a bit more enjoyable on my end. Shield drama aside, I’d say this is a pretty good slice of what I’m looking for in a Captain America book.
A decent if not somewhat corny reintroduction to Capt America.
It's weird because Cap here is charming and fun when he's kicking butt or with his friends. But the droning on about feeling out of place and finding his purpose feels so superficial. It's just not the Cap I like to hear about or read about. Sounded just boring and almost whiney here.
I will say the art is nice and colorful, and while cartoony worked for me.
So the dialogue is solid enough but exposition dumps and storyline (plot wise) isn't the strongest, a Skrull invasion with Hydra storyline is just decent.
Despite this feeling a little dated, I still had a lot of fun with it. When Waid doesn’t bog down the pages with endless exposition text, his witty and light hearted streak comes out and when it does, it’s a treat!
The line art by Garney and Eaglesham is great but unfortunately the colors did not age so gracefully.
I remember hearing unqualified praise for Mark Waid & Ron Garney’s Captain America run back in the day. I also remember hearing how much of a shame it was when their efforts were cut short by the Heroes Reborn event, and how it just wasn’t quite the same when Waid and Garney came back to the title after the Heroes Return event.
I downloaded To Serve and Protect not knowing where it fell in the chronology, just seeing it as an opportunity to sample the Waid & Garney run. It turns out to be the beginning of the team’s return to Captain America, and yeah, it seems to confirm what I’d heard. Whatever magic they had going on before Heroes Reborn doesn’t seem to be around anymore. I’m probably spoiled by years of grittier Captain America stories since then, not to mention an extremely charismatic portrayal of the character in the MCU movies… but Waid’s Cap comes across as a vanilla dork in the worst possible way. He mourns the loss of his shield like somebody severed one of his limbs. He has trouble comprehending his celebrity status. Come on, Steve. You’re grown man that’s been living in modern times for a while. Get with it.
It doesn’t help that Waid sticks his Cap in some corny stories featuring a ridiculous Skrull master plan as the spine of this first collection. I understand it’s probably meant to evoke that throwback feeling to a simpler, more innocent era of comic book tales, but the juxtaposition against more serious “let’s figure out what America is all about” themes never seems to gel, and so the whole thing falls flat. Or maybe it’s just harder to enjoy because of how loudly divided America is right now. Maybe I just need my Captain America stories to be more in-your-face.
I’ll check out earlier Waid & Garney collections at some point - I tend to like the writer’s work a lot. But I’m probably done with this particular era of their Captain America.
This was more fun than I expected it to be. Captain America is a character I really like, but I can acknowledge that he can be sometimes over-serious. Waid really strikes the balance of representing him as noble and admirable as he should be, while keeping him fun and human. This felt like episodes of a Captain America animated series that is both fun and light, while being unafraid to thoughtfully explore aspects of the character's personality and motivations. Cap's popularity is at an all-time high, and he begins to question if that's a good thing. Politicians are asking him to back them, but he says that not his place. People trust him implicitly--but what if that trust stretches too far? When are geo-political crises "his business", and when are they not. He clearly represents the U.S., but what all does that really entail? Steve feels he bleeds and is fallible as everyone else, but understands what he's seen as, and is trying to really figure out his role in the world.
Garney's art is good and supports the jovial tone, while delivering dynamic action sequences. I'd heard a lot about this run, and I'm glad to say it delivered. I would happily read more of this nostalgic, fun, animated vibe and hope the rest is as good.
Mark Waid is one of just two comic book writers whose work I will check out just because he wrote it, though with no promises that I will continue after an issue or two. This graphic collection includes seven issues from CAPTAIN AMERICA, volume 3, 1998. It is good work, but not great work, with a story that is a bit too over the top for my taste. I suppose it is in the Mighty Marvel Tradition of overblown story ideas in which every person in America acts like a three year old, but I would have found that boring when I was three if I could have read at that age. This is well done of its kind, but I do not much respect the kind.
Capitan America alle prese con la perdita dello scudo e l'acquisizione di notorietà planetaria. Storie veloci, iperdinamiche, poco impegnative e che rimangono davvero poco impresse. Un tratto, quello di Garney, adatto alle storie: classico, che non osa praticamente nulla. Inquietante lo stratagemma dello skrull per seminare caos nell'umanità: suggerire che gli skrull possano essersi infiltrati fra i terrestri. Avverrà "davvero" dieci anni dopo.
Oh what memories, this collects issues 1 - 7 of Heroes Return from the late 1990s. Cap struggles with the world over-idolizing him after his return. How can he be a symbol of hope and peace when so man want to capitalize Captain America? Appearances by Hawkeye, Thor, and a few other Avengers. Cap goes against Batroc and some shifty shape-shifting aliens....
Looking back on this storyline in the post- Trump USofA, it seems painfully naive and quaint that it would take *elevating* and impersonating Captain America to inspire Americans to hate each other. All it took was a shitty reality TV star.
This book collects Volume 3 of Captain America Issues 1-7 from the late 1990s. Volume 2 of Captain America was the year-long Heroes Reborn saga that had Cap in an alternate universe along with other characters such as the Fantastic Four and Iron Man and Volume 3 features Captain America's return to the main Marvel universe. Mark Waid who wrote the brilliant Captain America: Operation Rebirth to close out Volume 1.
Issue 1 features Cap coming to in modern day Japan in time to thwart a terrorist plot. In his year long absence, Captain America finds he's become an iconic figure and that a movie was made based on his life after his disappearance in Onslaught. He bemoans the disappearance of traditional Japanese culture and is taken aback by the adulation he receives.
The next six issues are all interrelated as Hydra rears its ugly head and attempts to hijack a Submarine. Issue 2 is full of Shield-slinging action as Cap rescues the sub's crew and mentions a couple times about cool his Shield is and what an awesome weapon it is and wonders what he'll do without it. At the end of Issue 2, he loses his shield in the Atlantic Ocean and even Namor can't find it.
Issue 3 finds him struggling with his replacement shield. He can't aim it properly to throw it. But he has to use it anyway as he rushes in to save the Smithsonian institution from Hydra and in gratitude, the Smithsonian gives Cap his triangular World War 2 shield. He can't throw this one either, but it's something he had used before and its comforting. The only other real benefit to it is that it protects a greater area than the round shield.
Issues 4-7 focus on the rise of Capmania with the last titled, "The Power and the Glory" which features Captain America's popularity on the rise and the new Sensational Hydra is actually happy about it, while Cap is disturbed by the adulation he's receiving.
The book has a lot of positives. There are some solid plots, particularly taking each issue individually. Cap had a great series of guest stars here: Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, and Quicksilver among others. The action in Issues 2 and 3 was particularly thrilling old school Cap kicking tale and taking names.
The book as a whole served as a study in fame and asked some great questions in a fun way and raised the danger of celebrity and supporting personalities without actually understanding principle. If we follow great principles, we'll never go wrong. If only follow people, we can easily fall astray when people do.
Captain America makes this work quite well. He remains courageous, principles, and above all humble (despite him inexplicably saying in the concluding speech that he got caught up in Capmania.) The only flaw with Cap is that he occasionally walked the line between introspection and being whyin and having doubt in the principles he aspouses.
The book does illustrate a challenge with writing Captain America. Waid tries to bring him to standing FOR things rather than just fighting supervillains, but the political lines drawn in America these days make it so that at the end Cap only really delivers very general principles that pretty much everyone believes in. You go into too much policy stuff and you alienate people.
Without spoiling too many details, unless his only motive is to have revenge on Captain America, the Sensational Hydra's plot is a little dumb. You also have to wonder what it says about Captain America that he'd rather take a SHIELD that's less versatile than learn to use the new one Tony Stark made for him.
Still, this is a great book for anyone who is a fan of Captain America. Waid continues to do a great job with the character and I'll enjoy reading his next book on the series.
Captain America has come a long way. I grew up on him when he fought the nazis and the Red Skull, and he was always my absolute favorite superhero. Way better than the Hulk, even better than Spider-man, simply because he was so honorable, always doing the right thing, that he was so...well...admirable.
This book collects Captain America (1998) #1-7, so it's a fantastic start for anyone who wants to get into Captain America. The artwork is new, colorful and modern. I feel like comic books have come a long way because there never was such vibrancy before, or even such careful detail to lighting and shading. This book is definitely not an artistic masterpiece, but I really like the style. It's a very traditional comic book style, very cartoon-like without looking super anime styled, which a lot of these newer comics look like unfortunately.
The story itself is pretty standard. Captain America wakes up in Tokyo for some unexplained reason...something going wrong with some machine set up by the Avengers (or is it the Fantastic 4) that suck Cap into some time hole that shoots him a year into the future. So he shows up and everyone loves him. He stops Hydra a number of times, and he's this big American Hero. Some interesting stuff happens, like he loses his original shield, WTF Marvel Universe? A sad, sad day for Captain America, but they replace his shield with something quite interesting that I actually quite like despite the fact that it completely messes with the charm found in Captain A's original shield.
After that, the Skrulls make an appearance, and one Skrull in particular has a rather ingenious plan. Overall, I like what happens despite how horrible it is. You'll have to read it for yourself, but expect much action and mayhem. How will Captain America straighten out this mess? Will he ever regain the people's trust? Find out and be amazed in this awesome book!
Mark Waid e Ron Garney riprendono in queste storie il personaggio di Cap, che avevano dovuto abbandonare un anno prima quando la Marvel decise quel rilancio chiamato "Heroes Reborn". Qualcosa si è rotto nella complicità tra sceneggiatore e disegnatore, ed è l'unico motivo per cui questa sequenza di storie non può essere considerata un capolavoro. Sono ottime storie dove il mito di Capitan America viene portato avanti come solo pochi hanno fatto.
What can I say? I was on a reading spree of Captain America titles around this time. They had a few titles on the shelf at my local public library, so I took them at once.