Is There a Good Guide to Captain America's History?

[Brian Cronin]

Can you think offhand of a good book that sums up Captain America's history up to modern time?

There isn't an Ultimate Guide to Captain America book like there is for Spider-Man, right?

How about any recent comics? Last week's Captain America #1 and Ed Brubaker's recent Captain America #1 did not exactly tell you a whole lot about Captain America's past.

A fellow asked me and I am actually sort of stumped.

Anyone have any ideas (and yes, obviously you could just go to Wikipedia, but let's presume the fellow wants an actual physical book here)?

-Brian

[Nitz the Bloody]

Haven't read this, but it might be of interest;

http://www.amazon.com/Captain-Americ...aptain+america

As for jumping on points, I'd go with the Marvels Project for a modern interpretation of the character's origin; it's by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting, and it's quite good (if not particularly revelatory to anyone who didn't already know the histories).

[MichiSchwarz]

Is there some info concerning stories in parallel to Brubakers run?
I am just reading the first omnibus and in #19 Nick Fury is AWOL....Why ??? What happend there.
Next Cap says he was on a short leave for the Avengers. Which story is he referring to?

It would be very nice to know which stories to read to get the full picture....

Best regards

[Nitz the Bloody]

Nick Fury resigned in disgrace after the scandal of Secret War, in which he brainwashed several heroes (including Cap) to infiltrate Latveria. He went underground, and SHIELD replaced him with Maria Hill.

Presumably that comic was referencing the early New Avengers Vol. 1 stories before Civil War, including Breakout, The Sentry, the Ronin story, and the Collective.

[Omar Karindu]

on a guide to Captain America: There's nothing especially recent that I know of beyond the last HC of the Marvel Handbook, but in the mid-1990s you had the Captain America: The Legend one-shot commemorating the title due to the Heroes Reborn cancellation/reboot, and later, towards the end of Mark Waid's 1998 run on the title, they started running "history" backups covering characters like the Red Skull and Bucky (and Korvac, but he's not really a Cap character).

on Secret War: Well, technically, Fury didn't brainwash the heroes into attacking Latveria; he just wiped their memories of the mission in a spectacularly misguided attempt to protect them from retaliation...somehow. Also, he wasn't forced out for messing with heroes, but because he defied a presidential order not to go in, because the government didn't want to admit that they'd created a terrorist by propping up Lucia von Bardas.

[Nitz the Bloody]

Good point. I hadn't read Secret War in a long time, but it seems to be a landmark work of importance (not necessarily quality, but it did set the tone for the entire Marvel line from then until the end of AvX)