Essential Captain America

[Ravenheart]

Since I started picking up Captain America again,I decided to grab Vol.1 and 2 of Essential Captain America.Skimming through it,it looks pretty good.I keep hearing alot of how the Steranko issues are really good but it doesn't appear that he had that many unless he returned to the book again later on.Vol.2 ends with #126.Has anyone else here read these essentials?

[StoneGold]

Nope, just three issues. But man, what three issues they were. The Essentials don't really do them justice though. Have to read them in color.

[Ravenheart]

Nope, just three issues. But man, what three issues they were. The Essentials don't really do them justice though. Have to read them in color.


His artwork does look great.I'm not sure if I've seen his work in any other books before or not.I probably have but just can't remember them.


Edit....come to think of it.Didn't Steranko do the covers to the 90's series,Nick Fury,Agent of Shield?

[Mister Mets]

His artwork does look great.I'm not sure if I've seen his work in any other books before or not.I probably have but just can't remember them.


Edit....come to think of it.Didn't Steranko do the covers to the 90's series,Nick Fury,Agent of Shield?

He had an excellent run on the book in the 60s.
There are other great non-Steranko stories in the book.

Jack Kirby's no slouch, and the six-parter w/ Red Skull, and Cap switching bodies is one of my favorite comic books.

[Ravenheart]

Jack Kirby's no slouch, and the six-parter w/ Red Skull, and Cap switching bodies is one of my favorite comic books.


Yeah I saw that story in there when I was skimming through it.Looks interesting.I recognized a few issues(Cap#103 for one) that I used to have when they were reprinted but I can't remember what book it was that they were reprinted in.Marvel Super Heroes maybe?


Something I noticed that I think I'll like is that in Vol.1 they go back and forth between WW2 stories and current era stories.

[StoneGold]

His artwork does look great.I'm not sure if I've seen his work in any other books before or not.I probably have but just can't remember them.


Edit....come to think of it.Didn't Steranko do the covers to the 90's series,Nick Fury,Agent of Shield?
Steranko drew em, too. He doesn't have that many full comic book stories though. Like around 30 or something. His legend is built off of three Captain America stories, a couple of X-Men, a bunch of Nick Fury stories, and a couple of odds and ends here and there.

[Ravenheart]

Steranko drew em, too. He doesn't have that many full comic book stories though. Like around 30 or something. His legend is built off of three Captain America stories, a couple of X-Men, a bunch of Nick Fury stories, and a couple of odds and ends here and there.


Its too bad he didn't do more.I definately like his work.

[Kirk G]

Its too bad he didn't do more.I definately like his work.
Another major single issue story that you missed was Tower of Shadows #1. This was the start of a horror anthology title that marked the swan song of Steranko at Marvel.

To summarize briefly, he thought he had written and drawn the ultimate horror story and that it was perfect when he brought it in. The story goes that Stan Lee said, "well, give it here and I'll edit it." Steranko says, "This doesn't need editing, it's perfectly paced and layed out and drawn." Lee says, "Well, everyone can use some editing...." Steranko says, "You touch one word of it and I'm walking!" and Lee said, "Listen, I'm the editor in chief, and I'll edit whatever I want". Steranko walked out.

Prior to this, Steranko was considered the fair-haired boy, who took a little known odd book like Nick Fury, Agent of Shield when it was sharing Strange Tales with Dr. Strange (and odd combination) and elivated it to a top selling highly designed book, heavy on psychedellic imagry and Bond-gimicry. At first, Steranko was finishing over Jack Kirby's layouts. Then, he took over all the art chores. I don't recall if he was writing it at the end, but I know he survived it into about ten solo issues (about a year's worth) before he left.
Both runs of Strange Tales and the Nick Fury solo books have been collected into two paperback trades in the last five years or so. Both are worth picking up, though they appear a little dated. The inital reprints of the Agent of Shield series deleted at least one page of artwork per issue to make room for a page of ads... and sometimes it messed up the storyline. Sometimes, it was the silent sequence that was eliminated.... sometimes it wasn't missed. Go for either the trades or the originals.

I don't think he's done any more comic work since then.
Rumor has it that his side interest as an escape artist was the direct inspiration for Mr. Miracle by Jack Kirby. That's been documented.

[Kirk G]

Since I started picking up Captain America again,I decided to grab Vol.1 and 2 of Essential Captain America.Skimming through it,it looks pretty good.I keep hearing alot of how the Steranko issues are really good but it doesn't appear that he had that many unless he returned to the book again later on.Vol.2 ends with #126.Has anyone else here read these essentials?
Yes, I've read the originals and much of the Essentials. Believe me, if you read through issue #126, you have read the prime Captain America stories.
Yes, the original stories were set in World War II, and when Stan Lee brought him back into sharing "Tales of Suspense" with Iron Man, he first had a Cap impersonator fight the Human Torch over in Strange Tales to test the waters.

Second, Jack Kirby drew some great WWII stories after establishing Cap in the modern day. But there came a time when they needed to transition to modern day. That was accomplished in about issue #70 in a spash page that showed the modern day Avengers, (Wanda, Pietro, Clint) all gathered around Cap's easy chair as he has just concluded telling the prior WWII tale. Almost immediately, they kick off the four part Sleeper Saga and run into the SuperAdaptoid stories.

Only the odd Jerry Robinson "Planner" sticks out, as does the four part Gil Kane RedSkull/Bucky return story. But still, it rocks. Kirby returns for about 12 issues, but it was Steranko who attempted to put the genie back in the bottle regarding Cap's secret identity with the three-parter that everyone raves about. I liked the next six part cosmic cube romp with the birth of the Falcon (the original version before tampering) and that was about it for me.

Only one other storyline was as exciting... which fell in the 140-ish run... the mystery of the missing patrolmen when the Grey Gargole' is revealed to be behind it and leading an assault upon the Shield Helicarrier. Cap's grab for the stone "Sharon Carter" was among the most moving of his career. But the series almost immediately dissolves into pablum with the Feme' Force and crap about issue 150. Even the two parter guestaring Spiderman wasn't really worth it. I left comics for about 8 years about there.

[Ravenheart]

Yes, I've read the originals and much of the Essentials. Believe me, if you read through issue #126, you have read the prime Captain America stories.
Yes, the original stories were set in World War II, and when Stan Lee brought him back into sharing "Tales of Suspense" with Iron Man, he first had a Cap impersonator fight the Human Torch over in Strange Tales to test the waters.

Second, Jack Kirby drew some great WWII stories after establishing Cap in the modern day. But there came a time when they needed to transition to modern day. That was accomplished in about issue #70 in a spash page that showed the modern day Avengers, (Wanda, Pietro, Clint) all gathered around Cap's easy chair as he has just concluded telling the prior WWII tale. Almost immediately, they kick off the four part Sleeper Saga and run into the SuperAdaptoid stories.

Only the odd Jerry Robinson "Planner" sticks out, as does the four part Gil Kane RedSkull/Bucky return story. But still, it rocks. Kirby returns for about 12 issues, but it was Steranko who attempted to put the genie back in the bottle regarding Cap's secret identity with the three-parter that everyone raves about. I liked the next six part cosmic cube romp with the birth of the Falcon (the original version before tampering) and that was about it for me.

Only one other storyline was as exciting... which fell in the 140-ish run... the mystery of the missing patrolmen when the Grey Gargole' is revealed to be behind it and leading an assault upon the Shield Helicarrier. Cap's grab for the stone "Sharon Carter" was among the most moving of his career. But the series almost immediately dissolves into pablum with the Feme' Force and crap about issue 150. Even the two parter guestaring Spiderman wasn't really worth it. I left comics for about 8 years about there.


I remember my first ever issue of Captain America was #202.I've always liked the character so whenever Vol.3 comes out,I'm sure I'll get it.

[Kirk G]

Then you'll need to pick up Essentials #4 & 5 & 6 if they hold to 20 issues per book!

[Ravenheart]

Then you'll need to pick up Essentials #4 & 5 & 6 if they hold to 20 issues per book!


I probably will whenever they come out lol

[Faust451]

All I can really say is that both of the Essentials are great. I used to own vol.1 and I would always flip through vol.2 at Barnes and Noble when I could.

Great stuff!

[Ravenheart]

I just finished reading Vol.3 and it wasn't bad.I never really thought before about what kind of problems the Falcon had to face but the whole race thing did wear a little thin after it went on for a few issues and Leila became annoying after her first appearance.Am I right in assuming that the Bucky in the 50's Captain America storyline was Jack Monroe?His name was never mentioned but he was the first person I thought of.

[the4thpip]

Steranko's Steve Rogers smoked cigarettes! :eek:

[oneasian]

I don't know about what exactly is contained in the "Essential Collection" but I can definately recommend what I regard as Essential Captain America reading: (not including any Avengers titles.)

For vintage and old school Cap:

Any of the 40's Captain America comics stuff you can manage to get a look at. Pretty awesome to behold the character's beginnings. If not, then try to go for the Tales of Suspense run and get some Iron Man too.

Great establising stuff for the character.

Once Cap got his own series, I'd say try to read from Tales of Suspense onto Cap #100 (for the lead-in to the issue) and then go about to Cap 130 or so. That would give you a nice good dosage of some vintage Cap comics.

Pick it up around #165 or so up until #200. That's solid run that includes the full story of Cap quitting for the first time, becoming Nomad and then taking up his identity, following with the revelation of Falcon's origins and continuing onto a nice story that leads to #200.

The list goes on and on, but I dont want to list absolutely everything that I think is essential unless someone actually responds to this post.

[Ventura]

Nope, just three issues. But man, what three issues they were. The Essentials don't really do them justice though. Have to read them in color.


Ravenheart and anyone else who may be interested:

The three Steranko Cap issues--110, 111 and 113--are included in the "Marvel Visionaries:Steranko" tpb, in full color!

Also included are: X-Men #50 and #51 (includes a reproduction of the famous Lorna Dane cover from #50), Tower of Shadows #1 and Our Love Story #5 (!) Obviously, this is a book to be enjoyed for the art--the X-Men stories here are parts 2 and 3 from a 4-part arc (parts 1 and 4 are not included because Werner Roth not Steranko did the art); and the love story is, well, silly.

Steranko was a special artistic consultant on Francis Ford Coppola's film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)--I was shocked when I saw his name in the credits!

[Maestro]

The first volume of Essential Captain America is a lot better than Essential Iron Man, which took more than 20 issues before it got interesting

[StoneGold]

Ravenheart and anyone else who may be interested:

The three Steranko Cap issues--110, 111 and 113--are included in the "Marvel Visionaries:Steranko" tpb, in full color!

Also included are: X-Men #50 and #51 (includes a reproduction of the famous Lorna Dane cover from #50), Tower of Shadows #1 and Our Love Story #5 (!) Obviously, this is a book to be enjoyed for the art--the X-Men stories here are parts 2 and 3 from a 4-part arc (parts 1 and 4 are not included because Werner Roth not Steranko did the art); and the love story is, well, silly.

Steranko was a special artistic consultant on Francis Ford Coppola's film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)--I was shocked when I saw his name in the credits!
That's nothing, you should see his original design work on Raiders of the Lost Ark.

http://www.theraider.net/films/raiders/gallery/makingof/mo_02.jpg

http://www.theraider.net/films/raiders/gallery/makingof/mo_11.jpg

http://www.theraider.net/films/raiders/gallery/makingof/mo_04.jpg

[Ventura]

That's nothing, you should see his original design work on Raiders of the Lost Ark.



Thanks, Stone--these are gorgeous!!!