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Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Captain America #4
Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Captain America, Vol. 4
The Axis powers may have snuck one past Lady Liberty on December 7, 1941, but America stood ready to give them what for-and nobody was more ready than Captain America! Jumping behind the American war effort with an unmatched fervor, Timely put its star-spangled super hero front and center in patriotic adventures that set the standard for the booming comic book business. Across four jam-packed 64-page classics Steve Rogers and his sidekick, Bucky Barnes, battle Nazi invaders, fifth columnists, weird terrors, robotic menaces, The Red Skull and even Martians! Each issue bursts with action and the unbridled energy that made the Golden Age great! Featuring each and every story complete, including war correspondent "Headline" Hunter, Stan Lee's whimsical backup feature "The Imp" and the first appearance of the young patriot Roddy Colt, a.k.a. the Secret Stamp, the only thing you can't do is roll 'em up in your back pocket! Collecting CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS #13-16.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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73 people want to read
About the author
Stan Lee
7,562 books2,347 followersStan 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 28, 2025
I think I'm stuck in a loophole with every volume.
September 6, 2022
Golden Age Captain America Comics Vol. 4, comprising C.A. issues 13-16, spotlights the work of penciler Al Avison. Continuing after the departure of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, Avison has the thankless task of attempting to emulate Kirby's anatomy, body language, pacing and idiosyncratic panel border designs. He even tries a few double page spreads. Nothing, not the art or stories, captures the innovative fun of his predecessors, though Stan Lee does have The Red Skull learning Cap's secret identity in issue 16.
Speaking of Lee, his "whimsical" series The Imp, he who lives in an ear, is plain unreadable. The series is fleshed out with the stories of a kid superhero, the U.S. war bond and stamp-selling Secret Stamp. It's enjoyable as an example of rousing WWII propaganda.
Golden Age Captain America Comics Vol. 4 has little redeeming or incidental qualities in terms of storytelling, as Simon and Kirby's issues did. As such, it's mainly for completists or those interested in the day-to-day, average product of Timely at the time.
Speaking of Lee, his "whimsical" series The Imp, he who lives in an ear, is plain unreadable. The series is fleshed out with the stories of a kid superhero, the U.S. war bond and stamp-selling Secret Stamp. It's enjoyable as an example of rousing WWII propaganda.
Golden Age Captain America Comics Vol. 4 has little redeeming or incidental qualities in terms of storytelling, as Simon and Kirby's issues did. As such, it's mainly for completists or those interested in the day-to-day, average product of Timely at the time.
April 3, 2020
We are officially in the war now. Captain America defends our shores the only way he knows how: by punching first and asking questions later. Our hero continues to place young Bucky Barnes in lethal danger. At least twice in this collection Bucky is at death's door and must be rushed for medical attention. Will Cap ever learn? The main villains now are the Japanese, the Germans, and traitors working for either one. You'll recognize who is the villain as they all have the same thick lips and terrible dental care. Also included in the collection is one Headline Hunter (who seems to have the same punch power as C.A. but at least he's overseas), several Imps, and the newest kid to solve problems with violence, The Secret Stamp.
November 4, 2014
The fourth volume of Marvel Masterworks Captain America stories collects Issues 13-16 of Captain America Comics. These issues were written post-Pearl Harbor and reflect the mood (for the most part) with kids being urged to buy war stamps, and even being urged to cut down on comic book purchases (imagine a comic book company doing that) to buy more war stamps and it being announced that Captain America's Sentinels of Liberty not receiving a certificate so that paper can be better used for the war effort.
Here is a feature by feature round up of the book as each book included two full length Captain America stories plus other features:
Captain America: The Eight Cap stories are strong. They're somewhat typical war action stories with a horror bent so the series remained true to the original vision of creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. The art isn't Kirby and Art Avilson's drawing of all American enemies with fang-like teeth is a bit over the top but it was wartime.
The two standout Cap Stories are Issue 3's "The Invasion from Mars" by the legendary Bill Finger which features a "real" Martian invasion in the midst of the War making for an interesting plot. Issue 4's "The Red Skull's Deadly Revenge" is a 24-page epic by the 19 year old Stan Lee. The story's grand plot and its creation of mythology around the Cap-Red Skull rivalry provides a great preview of the type of stories Lee would write more than two decades later when he launched the Marvel age with big battles and heroic struggles.
Ironically these stories contain the biggest goofs in the book with "The Invasion from Mars" mis-spelling Orson Welles' name and the art of "The Red Skull's Deadly Revenge" featured the Skull having the Japanese rising sun on his shirt and then switched within the same story to the traditional Swastika. Apparently, the Skull shops at Axiswear.
Still, all of the Cap stories are good with these two being must-reads.
The Imp: Really somewhat of a departure from the rest of the book. It's a pure children's feature with the rhyming lovable imp taking on every day foes in a great story for younger readers. It's delightful and just really fun to read by Stan Lee that showcases his early humor.
Secret Stamp: One of the most dorky (albeit patriotic) superhero concepts ever. Roddy Colt, a paperboy who also sells Defenase Stamps has his bike stolen. A reporters buy him a new one, so he decides to become a defense stamp themed superhero who helps ferret out fifth columnists, with his biggest clue as to who might be a potential fifth columnist: people who don't buy defense stamps.
This is a series of stories you just have to enjoy for their unintentional hilarity. While it's well-meaning, it's a truly silly feature.
Headline Hunter: Thankfully, this strip made it's last appearance in Captain America #13. As a concept, it was very weak. Essentially, a reporter goes around punching out bad guys for six pages and that's the whole plot.
The other portions of the book are pretty forgettable include four two page text stories and short humor strips, Elmer and Percy. However the book is worth reading for some great Golden Age Captain America stories, the charm of the Imp, and the goofiness of Secret Stamp.
Here is a feature by feature round up of the book as each book included two full length Captain America stories plus other features:
Captain America: The Eight Cap stories are strong. They're somewhat typical war action stories with a horror bent so the series remained true to the original vision of creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. The art isn't Kirby and Art Avilson's drawing of all American enemies with fang-like teeth is a bit over the top but it was wartime.
The two standout Cap Stories are Issue 3's "The Invasion from Mars" by the legendary Bill Finger which features a "real" Martian invasion in the midst of the War making for an interesting plot. Issue 4's "The Red Skull's Deadly Revenge" is a 24-page epic by the 19 year old Stan Lee. The story's grand plot and its creation of mythology around the Cap-Red Skull rivalry provides a great preview of the type of stories Lee would write more than two decades later when he launched the Marvel age with big battles and heroic struggles.
Ironically these stories contain the biggest goofs in the book with "The Invasion from Mars" mis-spelling Orson Welles' name and the art of "The Red Skull's Deadly Revenge" featured the Skull having the Japanese rising sun on his shirt and then switched within the same story to the traditional Swastika. Apparently, the Skull shops at Axiswear.
Still, all of the Cap stories are good with these two being must-reads.
The Imp: Really somewhat of a departure from the rest of the book. It's a pure children's feature with the rhyming lovable imp taking on every day foes in a great story for younger readers. It's delightful and just really fun to read by Stan Lee that showcases his early humor.
Secret Stamp: One of the most dorky (albeit patriotic) superhero concepts ever. Roddy Colt, a paperboy who also sells Defenase Stamps has his bike stolen. A reporters buy him a new one, so he decides to become a defense stamp themed superhero who helps ferret out fifth columnists, with his biggest clue as to who might be a potential fifth columnist: people who don't buy defense stamps.
This is a series of stories you just have to enjoy for their unintentional hilarity. While it's well-meaning, it's a truly silly feature.
Headline Hunter: Thankfully, this strip made it's last appearance in Captain America #13. As a concept, it was very weak. Essentially, a reporter goes around punching out bad guys for six pages and that's the whole plot.
The other portions of the book are pretty forgettable include four two page text stories and short humor strips, Elmer and Percy. However the book is worth reading for some great Golden Age Captain America stories, the charm of the Imp, and the goofiness of Secret Stamp.
July 10, 2024
The art is, for the most part, a notch above what was being run in Marvel Mystery Comics even with Simon and Kirby having left the title, but excewpt for Stan Lee's story with the Red Skull, too much of these are what Lee described in
Marvel Comics: The Untold Story
as a "hangnail" in the sense that the villain turns out to be the only named character (other than Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Betty Ross, or Michael Duffy) who doesn't get killed, and who always gets killed to prevent them from returning as a villain (although the Red Skull was again found dead after falling off a plane). These are the first four issues that went to press after Pearl Harbor, so the anti-Japanese sentiment is particularly strong. the Red Skull's swastika is even inconsistently changed to a Rising Sun emblem, but it seems only certain pages were slected to be altered. This even has a yellow peril character called the Yellow Claw, who is not the villain introduced in the 1950s, but a white guy in disguise known only as Captain Elliot (captian in the sense of military rank, not a nautical captain). Many of the villains cross racial lines–Zong and the Vulture, the latter in a story by Otto Binder turn out to be American capitalists pretending to be Asian and Native American, respectively, while The Hooded Horror pretends to be the king of a race inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
in a story by Manly Wade Wellman. The Bill Finger story has Nazis pretending to be aliens inspired by the radio broadcast made by “Orson Wells” [sic] a few years earlier.
The text stories are the usual fare. One is so bland that it's literally just about a guy finding albino fish to sell as a delicacy in a cave. Another is just a captain taking out a squad of "Japs" in Malaya. The Wild West story and Pacifc Voyage (two Americans decide to cross the pacific in an old Chinese junk) story are a little better, but nothing special.
In Marvel Masterworks: Captain America vol. 4 , Stan Lee has the Red Skull switch places with Captain America, and in Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 9 , which was written soon after that, he has Loki swich places with Thor. That must be a real Lee thing because in the Lee-written Cap story, the Skull takes off Captain America's uniform (who conveniently has his military garb underneath like Barry Allen as the Flash even though he's usually shown taking it off to reveal the costiume) and wears it in order to smear Captain America's name. but even though he takes off his mask early in the story, he oddly doesn't do so while wearing Captain America's costume, but instead covers his mask with the shield. Even though Steve and Bucky are able to buy copies of their costumes at a costime shop because of their popularity, the shield seems to be enough to damn him even though they haven't mentioned it being made from adamantium, vibranium, or an alloy yet, and it's presumably not the same shield he would use in the 1960s anyway because the edge is blue.
The stories that feel the least dated are Stan Lee and Chad Grothkopf's The Imp, which has a Disneyesque fairy tale feel to it even though the imp very much acts as a superhero. Lee and Grothkopf (as simply Chad) are always credited. In the third story, they suggests that readers might not care--ironic given the fact that people are trying to determine the creators of these stories 70+ years later. Except for the text stories signed by Stan Lee and Mickey Spillane, none of which appear in this volume, we almost never know who wrote those. Mike Sekowsky gives us three pages of "Elmer" and a page of "Percy," two comedic kids. In one of the one-page Elmer stories, Elmer decides he wants to be a postman and puts his Pop's love letters in the attic into people's mailboxes, resulting in a panel that seems to be extremely violent covered largely with a text block, as if making a joke about child abuse. He makes up for it on the next page with a joke about a banker having the physiognomic characterstics of a criminal. He's not a Jewish stereotype, unsurprising given that so many of Marvel's creatives were Jewish, as was Lee the editor, so that wouldn't have been allowed to fly, so he just looks brutish.
A new serial is introduced called Roddy Colt, alias the Secret Stamp, who is a promotion for war savings stamps done in collaboratrion with the government and starting with an official letter addressed to Stan Lee from a government official endorsing the strip. I wonder if it appeared in newspaper supplements somewhere because every page has the same title panel in the upper left corner, which is not true of anything else except the comedy strips (which, unlike with The Secret Stamp, are distinct storie son each page). The first three are illustrated by Don Rico, but Sekowsky does it better, in my opinion, in the fourth issue. He has a supporting cast that includes his rival, Spud Sickles, who at one point tries to be the Secret Stamp by copying the costume (which causes his sister, Mary, to make a gender-based joke for asking for her sewing materials--oddly enough one of the toughest of all DC Golden Age superheroes, The Spectre, was shown sewing his own costume, and the fact that a military man like Steve Rogers would have had to sew repairs to his own uniform). Mary does help Secret Stamp's other major supporting character, adult reporter Jerry Dash, rescue her brother, which was a surprising twist, even though Secret Stamp does most of the work. Roddy is noted to be unusually strong out of costume, even though he has no powers. I wonder if Stan Lee wrote this (writer is unknown) because his fourth appearance, which depicts Jerry about to be lynched for a crime that was actually committed by a greedy capitalist (and which evidence has proven that Jerry didn't do) and a speech from Secret Stamp saying that "Lynch law" is contrary to American law, Roddy is called "Ronny" the two times his real name is mentioned, which reminds me of the "Peter Palmer" gaffe in The Amazing Spider-Man #1 that was often reprinted correctly but allowed to stand as in the original in Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1 as well as being shown in The Official Marvel No-Prize Book: Mighty Marvel's Most Massive Mistakes in 1981.
The text stories are the usual fare. One is so bland that it's literally just about a guy finding albino fish to sell as a delicacy in a cave. Another is just a captain taking out a squad of "Japs" in Malaya. The Wild West story and Pacifc Voyage (two Americans decide to cross the pacific in an old Chinese junk) story are a little better, but nothing special.
In Marvel Masterworks: Captain America vol. 4 , Stan Lee has the Red Skull switch places with Captain America, and in Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor vol. 9 , which was written soon after that, he has Loki swich places with Thor. That must be a real Lee thing because in the Lee-written Cap story, the Skull takes off Captain America's uniform (who conveniently has his military garb underneath like Barry Allen as the Flash even though he's usually shown taking it off to reveal the costiume) and wears it in order to smear Captain America's name. but even though he takes off his mask early in the story, he oddly doesn't do so while wearing Captain America's costume, but instead covers his mask with the shield. Even though Steve and Bucky are able to buy copies of their costumes at a costime shop because of their popularity, the shield seems to be enough to damn him even though they haven't mentioned it being made from adamantium, vibranium, or an alloy yet, and it's presumably not the same shield he would use in the 1960s anyway because the edge is blue.
The stories that feel the least dated are Stan Lee and Chad Grothkopf's The Imp, which has a Disneyesque fairy tale feel to it even though the imp very much acts as a superhero. Lee and Grothkopf (as simply Chad) are always credited. In the third story, they suggests that readers might not care--ironic given the fact that people are trying to determine the creators of these stories 70+ years later. Except for the text stories signed by Stan Lee and Mickey Spillane, none of which appear in this volume, we almost never know who wrote those. Mike Sekowsky gives us three pages of "Elmer" and a page of "Percy," two comedic kids. In one of the one-page Elmer stories, Elmer decides he wants to be a postman and puts his Pop's love letters in the attic into people's mailboxes, resulting in a panel that seems to be extremely violent covered largely with a text block, as if making a joke about child abuse. He makes up for it on the next page with a joke about a banker having the physiognomic characterstics of a criminal. He's not a Jewish stereotype, unsurprising given that so many of Marvel's creatives were Jewish, as was Lee the editor, so that wouldn't have been allowed to fly, so he just looks brutish.
A new serial is introduced called Roddy Colt, alias the Secret Stamp, who is a promotion for war savings stamps done in collaboratrion with the government and starting with an official letter addressed to Stan Lee from a government official endorsing the strip. I wonder if it appeared in newspaper supplements somewhere because every page has the same title panel in the upper left corner, which is not true of anything else except the comedy strips (which, unlike with The Secret Stamp, are distinct storie son each page). The first three are illustrated by Don Rico, but Sekowsky does it better, in my opinion, in the fourth issue. He has a supporting cast that includes his rival, Spud Sickles, who at one point tries to be the Secret Stamp by copying the costume (which causes his sister, Mary, to make a gender-based joke for asking for her sewing materials--oddly enough one of the toughest of all DC Golden Age superheroes, The Spectre, was shown sewing his own costume, and the fact that a military man like Steve Rogers would have had to sew repairs to his own uniform). Mary does help Secret Stamp's other major supporting character, adult reporter Jerry Dash, rescue her brother, which was a surprising twist, even though Secret Stamp does most of the work. Roddy is noted to be unusually strong out of costume, even though he has no powers. I wonder if Stan Lee wrote this (writer is unknown) because his fourth appearance, which depicts Jerry about to be lynched for a crime that was actually committed by a greedy capitalist (and which evidence has proven that Jerry didn't do) and a speech from Secret Stamp saying that "Lynch law" is contrary to American law, Roddy is called "Ronny" the two times his real name is mentioned, which reminds me of the "Peter Palmer" gaffe in The Amazing Spider-Man #1 that was often reprinted correctly but allowed to stand as in the original in Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 1 as well as being shown in The Official Marvel No-Prize Book: Mighty Marvel's Most Massive Mistakes in 1981.
June 29, 2024
Captain America rocks! I love these Golden Age comics, where Cap fights the Nazis, the Japs, and the Red Skull. I love the absolute good and evil, the absolute heroism, and the absolute belief that America was in the right. Al Avison takes over the artwork because Joe Simon and Jack Kirby had left Timely (Marvel) for National (DC) to do the revamped Sandman. There were many hands involved in the artwork, i.e. inking, and I suspect that many of the people that assisted Simon & Kirby assisted Avision, because there is a definite continuity in the appearance and layout of the strip. A very young Stan Lee turns in a script in Issue 16 where Cap fights the Red Skull, and it's great.
The Secret Stamp was a regular back-up feature in this title. He was a little boy who sold newspapers and war stamps and fought fifth columnists, etc. It's one of those slices of Americana that would never fly today. The Imp (created by a very young Stan Lee) is a godawful "kiddie" strip featuring a highly annoying, rhyming creature. I couldn't even bear to read it after it's first appearance. Once was enough. I tried reading it, but it just sucked so bad that I had to skip it. Fortunately, the goodness of the Captain America and Secret Stamp features far outweigh the suckiness of the Imp.
The Secret Stamp was a regular back-up feature in this title. He was a little boy who sold newspapers and war stamps and fought fifth columnists, etc. It's one of those slices of Americana that would never fly today. The Imp (created by a very young Stan Lee) is a godawful "kiddie" strip featuring a highly annoying, rhyming creature. I couldn't even bear to read it after it's first appearance. Once was enough. I tried reading it, but it just sucked so bad that I had to skip it. Fortunately, the goodness of the Captain America and Secret Stamp features far outweigh the suckiness of the Imp.
February 5, 2016
Great collection of the Golden age Captain America stories. Very recommended to comic enthusiasts.
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