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The third volume of Silver Age Captain America features 13 issues, #’s 101-113. It is a little different than the previous two collections. For one it is about 60 pages longer than the other two collections. The foreword by Stan Lee is replaced by John Morrow and there is not one but two featured artists. Jack Kirby’s run at Marvel concluded and on Captain America he was replaced by none other than Jim Steranko. Two vastly different, though equally influential artists in the same collection.
Spoilers Ahead
-Captain America #101- Well, we got Zemo last issue and so for the second issue we get the return of another Cap villain, Red Skull. Yeah, he didn’t die in TOS. So Fury sends Cap on a mission to trail a Nazi and he comes in contact with the Red Skull! Red Skull is preparing to unleash the fourth sleeper (we saw the previous three in Cap Vol. 1). The fourth sleeper is unleashed and only Skull has the key to control him. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work! The sleeper destroys the entire facility Skull was at and Fury fears Cap is dead. Cap comes out of the water with the key in hand.
-Captain America #102- Cap is picked up by the Coast Guard and saved. He leaves the hospital and is attacked by a gang of assassins, with the help of Agent 13. Cap takes them out then focuses on the task at hand. He goes after the sleeper and has to fight more of Red Skull’s assassins in hover seats. Again Cap and Agent 13 take out those guys then finally tackle the sleeper. Cap is no match for the sleeper but Agent 13, with he emotions and the control device, is able to stop the Sleeper and the threat is over, for now. Skull now knows about Agent 13 and thinks of her as the weak link to Cap.
-Captain America #103- Red Skull kidnaps Sharon Carter, who we find out this issue is Agent 13’s real name. So Red Skull and his gang of Nazi sympathizers laugh about Cap coming and have two men fight for their enjoyment. Cap finally shows up at Exile island and is captured. Skull puts a device on Cap that will basically destroy Cap with a simple detonator. Cap, with the help of Sharon, frees himself, fights off Skull and his cronies and flies off. Skull has a secret though, he can still kill Cap with the detonator.
-Captain America #104- Red Skull plays his hand with the detonator and tells Cap he must come back to Exile Island. If he doesn’t there’s an atomic bomb in Washington that he will detonate. It is tied into the device on Cap’s neck, too. So SHIELD tries to denuke the bomb as Cap is in Exile island. He must fight all of Skull’s cronies and is almost defeated. Of course, the American Spirit will never die. Cap fights back, the bomb is taken out of commission and when Skull tries to detonate the bomb, it doesn’t work and Skull and his flunkie’s run away as Cap is victorious again.
-Captain America #105- This starts with some great scenes from WWII with Cap and Bucky. Cap is just looking at footage from the war. Cap goes out and SHIELD tells him that a bomb has been stolen. It is a vibration bomb that gives three shocks before the final burst. Cap looks for the bomb that three villains (Batroc, Living Laser and Swordsman) are also looking for. They desperately fight and Cap takes out all of them. When Batroc learns the bomb is about to burst, he flees (insert French joke here). Cap defuses the bomb and the day is saved! There are some great fight scenes here illustrated by Kirby.
-Captain America #106- Cap fights some Asian spies and they get off with a LMD formula. Cap is outraged and gets even worse when he sees footage of himself shooting harmless people! Cap goes to the studio to find out more and it is all due to a Communist ploy to get Cap to that studio so that a LMD could take over for Cap and ruin his good name. The director is in on the plot but his brother is not. Cap eventually defeats the LMD after the brother sacrificed his life and the LMD is destroyed. Cap leaves, a winner again, and a spy gives the director his payment for failing. The ending was actually written very well.
-Captain America #107- Cap is having terrible dreams of his dead friend, Bucky. He has been going to a doctor, a Doctor Faustus. Faustus is really a villain intent on taking out Captain America through drugs and his own psychiatry. Faustus and his group stage elaborate scenes and actors to make Cap believe he is crazy but it all comes crashing down when Cap plays along with their mindgames and defeats them in the end. Cap had sent the drug to SHIELD for testing. Faustus is downed with one punch in a funny scene.
-Captain America #108- Cap learns that Sharon has been kidnapped and he goes looking for her. It seems that Trapster had kidnapped her in an attempt to unlock secrets of a new weapon SHIELD has. Cap is captured a couple of times by Trapster but manages to escape from the glue each time. He eventually gets Trapster to tell that he was sent by the Red Skull. Cap eventually defeats Paste-Pot Pete and finds Sharon, trapped. Of course, it was only an LMD and the real Sharon was ruining the glue of Trapster. This may be the only time Cap and Trapster fought.
-Captain America #109- This is a Lee/Kirby tradition for Cap, a retelling of Cap’s origin. This time, Cap tells Sgt. Fury how he became Cap.
-Captain America #110- Cap is just walking on the streets when Hulk appears, wreaking havoc! Hulk was really just there to introduce Rick Jones. Cap takes an injured Rick Jones home to heal and Rick starts wearing the Bucky costume. Cap relents but lets Rick join him. They descend upon a Hyrda base complete with an awesome splash page. Cap and Rick manage to effectively defeat the Hydra forces and Rick doesn’t feel as worthless in Bucky’s shoes. This was the first appearance of Steranko on the title and his art is just magnificent. He is so unlike many of the artists of the time who worked with well-defined panels. His stuff was so groundbreaking, taking the usual panels, turning them upside down, using whatever fit the scene best and the art on here, though vastly different from what we saw with Kirby, is just fantastic.
-Captain America #111- Cap gets a message from Fury to meet him at an arcade but it was really a Hydra trap. Cap manages to elude the bumbling agents. He then goes home and tries to train Rick but Rick just feels put down with the constant talk of Bucky. Cap leaves and Rick is alone in the apartment. Hydra doesn’t know this and gasses the room. Rick gets knocked out, has a crazy trip (as only Steranko can draw) and is brought to the Hydra hydeout (pun intended). Cap figures it out, gets pissed, finds the people who kidnapped him and we see another douple page splash. Cap goes looking for Rick, who manages to escape, but Cap runs into a Hydra killer robot named, Mankiller! Cap takes out the robot but is ambushed by Hydra agents who just open fire. Rick warns Cap and he dives into the water. The cops show up and pull out the bullet riddled costume out of the river, with a fake mask? Very good story here, with an amazingly well thought out illustration and layout.
-Captain America #112- This was a fill-in issue since allegedly Steranko was late with #113. It was there to have 20 pages but not to advance the storyline. It is basically a best-of Captain America with a bunch of the highlights of Cap, his origin, and the more recent villains he fought in his solo title.
-Captain America #113- The entire world mourns the loss of Cap and the Avengers hold a memorial/funeral. Nick Fury is there and gives a speech but the coffin starts emitting some gas, knocking all of them out! This was just a ploy by Hydra to take out the rest of these heroes after the death of Cap. Rick Jones is the only one who isn’t affected since he wasn’t there (though I don’t know why) and he tracks the agents. He is about to attack when Cap comes flying on his motorcycle! Cap and Rick team up and take out all the agents and save their friends! It seems that Madame Hydra is killed in the melee. Once the day is saved, Rick asks Cap why he faked his death with the mask. Cap tells him that he wanted to show the world he wasn’t Steve Rogers and he now has his secret identity back. What a great way to end the collection.
-The Bottom Line- John Morrow starts with an interesting introduction. He praises the work of both Steranko and Kirby but laments that neither really had long runs on the solo title. It was a little jarring. It was written by a true fan of the work of both artists. For what its worth, I didn’t really care for the inks of Syd Shore in the last volume but I really don’t have a problem with it in this one. I guess it grew on me! But let’s to what makes this the best Cap collection so far. Three words: Lee, Kirby and Steranko. Stan Lee is really at his best, crafting some amazing stories but knowing enough to let the two artists do what they want. The Marvel style is at its best with the Kirby issues but the whole mood and tone changed when Steranko took over. The mood of the series was a littler darker, the whole layout of the issue was incredible, and Steranko’s art is something that you see even today. It is just a very modern look at comic storytelling and it showed how the whole format could be moved forward. This was back in 1968 and even now people consider it groundbreaking. Don’t get me wrong, Kirby is fantastic as well. I never tire of his work, I have just blown through Vol. 1-3 of the series in about 5 days and Kirby’s art just gets better. There are some great tales here, the whole gamut of villains, and even a great origin retelling. There are two extras here, an alternate cover to Captain America #105 and the original first page to Cap #112. This, because of the Kirby and Steranko art, makes this the best volume thus far of the Silver Age Captain America series. Highest recommendation.
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