Captain America #2

Ed Brubaker // Steve McNiven
October 2011
****

A WW2 platoon, long MIA in dreamspace, resurfaces as a HYDRA terrorist cell! As a variation on Cap‘s man-out-of-time archetype it’s fairly mind-blowing. And it has the bonus of Bru’s theme of mind & neurosis. Unexpectedly, McNiv integrates the surrealism with his cinematic realism quite well.

last issue: Captain America #1
next issue: Captain America #3

also indexed for Oct. ’11
Captain America & Bucky #621
FF #8

Captain America #1

Ed Brubaker // Steve McNiven
September 2011
****

Marvel gives Cap a new #1 for his red-carpet rollout, & snaps his status quo back 5 years—pre-Civil War! Brubaker doesn’t break stride, writing an ish that could’ve been v. 5 #22. The funeral of Cap’s WW2 flame produces yet another retconned superspy from the Nazi era: Peggy Carter’s jilted lover.

continued from Captain America #619
next issue: Captain America #2

also indexed for Sept. ’11
Captain America & Bucky #620
FF #6
FF #7

Captain America #49

Ed Brubaker // Luke Ross
June 2009
****

The mag shifts to a novelistic pace as Sharon Carter begins to recover repressed memories, incl. her pregnancy & Cap’s aborted resurrection. #49 extends the themes of mind & memory in other ways too, mirroring its protag’s convalescence w/ ’50s Cap’s amnesia & Aunt Peggy’s Alzheimers.

last issue: Captain America #48
next issue: Captain America #50

also indexed for Jun. ’09
Daredevil #118
Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #2 of 5
Guardians of the Galaxy #13
Nova #24
War of Kings #2 of 6
War of Kings: Ascension #1 of 4

Captain America #10

Ed Brubaker // Lee Weeks
October 2005
***

Week’s fill-in art adds little to the long-perspective reminisce that provides backstory for the alt-timeline that’s swept across Marvel’s comics. In one early fork, Cap & Bucky kill Baron Zemo then capture Hitler! But Cap makes enemies in the ’50s “Mutant Scare”—& walks on the moon in ’55!

last issue: Captain America #9
next issue: Captain America #11

also indexed for Oct. ’05
Daredevil #76
Iron Man #4
Runaways #7
Young Avengers #7

Avengers Annual 1999

Kurt Busiek & John Francis Moore // Leonardo Manco
July 1999
**

This action-adventure pits the Avengers against a squad of Sentinels repurposed to replace the once-MIA superheroes. The concept has Busiek’s fingerprints: adoration for the title team & its inspiring effect on everyday citizens. For it’s Jarvis who shuts the robots down, & a support technician who’d programmed them. Standard annual fare, tho’ Manco does good cyber-horror a la Barry Windsor-Smith.

last issue: Avengers/Squadron Supreme Annual 1998
next issue: Avengers Annual 2000

also indexed for Jul. ’99
Avengers #18
Avengers #0
Avengers Forever #8 of 12

Tales of Suspense #77: Captain America

Stan Lee // Jack Kirby & John Romita
May 1966
B-story: *****
Cap’s first essential tale since his revival, this mini-drama must be exactly how the supersoldier spent WW2. Flashback to the Liberation of Paris, when Cap loses his g’friend, a liaison with the Resistance. Marvel’s best romance artist, Romita, ghosts his passionate faces over Kirby’s layouts.
[A-story: Iron Man]
[last issue: Tales of Suspense #76]
[next issue: Tales of Suspense #78]

Tales of Suspense #64: Captain America

Stan Lee // Jack Kirby
April 1965
B-story: ***
Cap & Bucky team w/ a blonde agent to sock a Nazi vaudevillean (& his freak) who sows terror by ‘predicting’ stateside attacks. Take the time to compare this 10-page tale w/ the 7-page 1941 original. It’s got the same headlong momentum & 2D characters but stronger pacing & almost grotesque artwork.
[A-story: Iron Man]
[last issue: Tales of Suspense #63]
[next issue: Tales of Suspense #65]