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I figured that since I finished all the Silver Age Captain America Marvel Masterworks series, I may as well finish off all that Marvel Masterworks has to offer for the Star-Spangled Crusader. This goes back to 1941 and Captain America Comics. This is very different from normal comic stories you read now, you know, 20 pages 6 part story arcs etc. This is completely different. These comics are a full 60+ pages. There are four Cap stories, one prose Cap story, and then two tales featuring other characters. They really give you big bang for your buck. That’s why it was called Captain America Comics, it would give you more than one story per book. And people say that we don’t have any attention span these days!
Spoilers Ahead
-Captain America Comics #1- The great thing about this reprint is that it includes the table of contents page as well as some of the in-house ads. So the first story (Case No. 1) is just the basic origin of Cap. It hasn’t changed at all in over 60 years. He’s a 4F who is given a serum to gain strength, the man who made it was killed, and Cap is born. Bucky finds out Cap’s identity and a sidekick is born. The second case is very similar to one from used in an Atlas reprint, where Cap and Bucky stop a terrorist plot from the Nazi’s. They used a unsuspecting dwarf to “see” things explode on US territory that then actually happened. Cap, with Bucky, and with the help of a female agent, foil the Nazi’s plots. The prose story comes next, as Cap stops a sabotage attempt that would poison a US Army post. Cap then battles an odd-looking Nazi using a chessboard to move his victims in place. Bucky sneaks off to find the foe and is captured and Cap has to save him. Cap eventually saves his partner and the threat is over. It was actually a long story (17 pages) and pretty fleshed out. The fourth and final Cap story illustrated introduces Cap’s most hated foe, the Red Skull. Here the Red Skull is just some guy in a mask using hypodermic needles to cause death by his stare. Bucky happens to find his hideout and is captured. Cap finds him and saves Bucky but the Skull runs free. He kills another general before Cap can defeat him, and the Skull dies by rolling over one of his needles. I wonder if we’ll see him again? The two non-Cap stories were rather uninteresting. One features Hurricane (the son of Thor, go figure) stopping some gangster and Pluto. It was just a standard story, with nothing groundbreaking. The final story is about Tuk, a caveboy. It is the origin of Tuk but I was too busy watching Dancing With The Stars to pay attention. I know I didn’t miss much. The Cap stories were good, the rest was not so much.
-Captain America Comics #2- This features a great Hitler cover, with Cap bursting in on Bucky being tied up. The first Cap tale has Cap and Bucky tackling huge invinsible Ageless Orientals (their words, not mine). It turns out that they were being used by a manaical greedy man. Cap eventually finds out their weakness, kills them all, then takes down the man controlling them. The second tale is actually interesting, featuring Cap and Bucky dressing in drag and actually confronting Hitler! Cap and Bucky win again, taking down the Fuerher in the process. Finally, Cap and Bucky battle a Nazi production of super tanks. Cap takes one of the tanks and uses it to destroy all the other tanks. Then they take out the man who made the wax faces who were behind it all. The prose story sees Cap stopping a threat to blow up a mine beneath the fort. The two non-Cap stories were again a bit boring. Tuk goes through the valley of the mist, save a princess and head towards Atlantis. Hurricane again fights Pluto, this time stopping a virus he was unleashing in a tribal jungle.
-Captain America Comics #3- The first story features the return of the Red Skull! He wakes up from his own needle (he had the antidote!) and he happens upon a Cap and Bucky look-alikes, guys dressed as the duo to get a quick buck. So he kills them, the real Cap and Bucky show up, and stop Red Skull and his new power of the killing touch. Cap and Bucky then tackle a Hollywood killer who is really a Nazi sympathizer. The prose story is written by someone named Stan Lee. It is actually very good, with Cap having to knock down a vengeful soldier. Cap and Bucky tackle a museum owner and an odd butterfly killer. It wasn’t the best in the issue but it was enjoyable. Tuk is with the princess and they try to get into Atlantis and they help her overthrow the man who overthrew her. There is a short two-pager about an old Greek story of a man writing messages on his head to avoid detection. Finally, Hurricane again stops Pluto and causing trains to crash.
-Captain America Comics #4- The final installmen for this collection features four more Cap stories, one prose one, a Hurricane tale, and one featuring everyone’s favorite caveboy, Tuk. The Cap stories were pretty much what you would expect based on the previous three issues. In the first, Bucky and Cap infiltrate a Nazi gang who have been killing US leaders. The second one is certainly the most unique one, as it features Bucky and Cap saving Betty Ross from Ivan The Terrible. It was all a dream of Bucky’s. Cap and Bucky stop another gang who have been counterfeiting money. Finally, Bucky is injured in a fight and Cap just leaves him at a hospital with a whole bunch of loonies. It is a castle where the mad scientist has been performing experiments and even created a Yeti-like creature which Cap has to defeat. The prose story by Stan Lee features two goons wanting to kidnap Bucky and his team of Sentinals since they are next door to a scientist who has made a superbomb. They break in on the same day Cap is there and of course, the goons are stopped. In the other two throwaway tales, Tuk and Tanir try and save a woman and her baby from some neanderthals, but the story is to be continued and Hurricane stops a team of pirates.
-The Bottom Line- Roy Thomas does another one of his patented introductions. He basically goes over all the great things about this volume and about Captain America in general. He was the first hero actually getting involved in the war. He talks about who may have worked on the different issues of the comic. It is a great intro. I don’t know if I would say the rest of the collection is as great as the intro. It was really a tough collection to get through, as each comic was very long, the non Cap stories were just terribly boring to me and even the Cap stuff got repititious after a while. The early Kirby art is radically different from what we know and love from his 60’s run in Marvel and it just seemed a bit rushed. I don’t know if this is essential reading. It is certainly great to have these early Cap titles and issue #1 is probably the best of the collection. I would have to go Mildly Recommended just for the history, but don’t go out of your way to get it.
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