Comics Review: Captain America-Penguin Classics Marvel Collection

 

When I read the Captain America commemorative magazine (9-17-21), I came away with rather ambiguous feelings.  The patriotic superhero hasn’t been quite the flag-waver you’d think over the years.  I was sort of vaguely aware of that, but the magazine spelled it out explicitly and celebrated it.  At the moment, my own nationalistic feelings are a bit mixed on some issues.  It’s complicated and this is a book review, so let’s move on.

 

The one definite about thing the magazine was that it made want to read some Captain America comics, especially the issues drawn by Jim Steranko.  Lo, there suddenly appeared at Barnes & Noble a set of three volumes featuring classic comic book material.  My birthday was coming up.  I asked dad for the Captain America one as a present, which he obliged. 

 

These Marvel Collection volumes are produced by Penguin Classics.  By virtue of this publishing, these comic book stories are now considered “literature.”  The two other volumes featured 60’s Spider-Man and Black Panther.  I thought I’d probably already read the Spider-Man material (likely from reading Marvel Tales reprints back in the 80’s). 

 

The Black Panther one looked fun and interesting, until I flipped to the back and he was fighting the Klan.  Oh, boy.  Here’s another topic I’m going to dodge.  (This review is going to get long enough just covering the material.)  Suffice to say, regardless of the cultural relevance of its time, it made me uncomfortable, especially the extreme mixed metaphor panel I saw featuring Black Panther strapped to a flaming cross. 

 

I was wondering why one of the volumes wasn’t the Fantastic Four, arguably the most important title in creating Marvel comics.  That volume and an Avengers volume are mentioned in the text of the Captain America volume, though neither has actually come out to this point.  I suppose we can also look forward to Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and the X-Men being added to the collection.  However, if they’re all featuring just 60’s material, that’s not their best runs.  (Definitely not the X-Men, but that’d probably be the most iconic Fantastic Four run.) 

 

This is a hefty book coming in at 360 pages and printed on thick bright white paper.  (This kind of paper may reproduce the color and art better than slick paper.)  It was $28 retail, which isn’t unreasonable.  It took me awhile to read this.  I wanted to really look over the artwork and enjoy it.  The book also smells good.  The fragrance could be called “Pleasantly Booky.” 

 

There are three text intros upfront.  Yes, three.  There is a Series Introduction to the Marvel Collection (including a discussion about the “Marvel Method” of creating comics).  It’s informational.  There’s a Forward by cartoonist, Gene Luen Yang, whose qualification to write this was that he’s a Captain America fan.  Then there’s the Volume Introduction talking about Captain America’s publishing history from 1941 to 1969, which are covered by this book. 

 

It’s over 30 pages of text and is fairly comprehensive on the creation of the character and his subsequent revival.  Frankly though, it’s kind of a slow start to a book that everyone is buying to for the action comic pages.  There are a few interspersed text pages to introduce specific material.  There is some brutally honest commentary regarding the writing and art.  In an effort to look more prestigious, there are a few pretentious blank title pages.  There’s even an outright filler page so that a double page spread could be displayed on the next page.  Even with the wasted space, you’re going to get plenty of comics. 

The comics section begins with Captain America’s 40’s origin, along with a couple of other stories from that era by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, including the first appearance of the Red Skull.  The stories and art are a bit rough here, but there is an energy and enthusiasm common to the Golden Age.

 

After WWII, Captain America was cancelled.  (Twitter was vicious, even back then.)  There was an attempt at bringing him back in the 50’s as the “Commie Smasher,” but that fell away, too.  In 1963, Captain America was revived in Avengers #4 (partially reprinted in one of the appendices).  He then shared a dual-bill comic in Tales of Suspense with Iron Man.  Stan Lee and Jack Kirby handled the writing and art.  Being half an issue, these stories focused mostly on action in a single setting. 

When I was a kid, I’d seen Kirby’s blockier and overly inked art in Devil Dinosaur and Black Panther in the 70’s and wasn’t impressed.  (Though I did like his Captain America Bicentennial Battles Treasury edition.)  In the comics in this section, we can see Kirby’s furiously dynamic art style in full stride.  It is impressive.    

After a modern story, which was pretty much just a long fight scene, the next story flashed back to retell of Captain America’s origin, along with redoing the other Golden Age stories printed earlier.  This seemed like an unnecessary repetition.  The updated versions were much better than the originals.  I can see the editor being in a quandary of which to include and chose them both.   

I admit to loving the bizarre premise of Captain America’s alter ego, Steve Rogers, being a screw up private harassed by a domineering sergeant and hanging out with the camp mascot, Bucky.  Some of the letters pages from the issues are reprinted giving the fan reactions to Cap’s reappearance.  I kind of dug the Old School Checklist on the pages.

 

As documented in the text, the creators seemed to struggled with what to do with Captain America in his solo title.  They settled for a while on doing WWII stories.  One story reprinted in the book has the Red Skull telling Cap his own origin after capturing him. After brainwashing Cap, we then get this amusing encounter with Hitler. 

Captain America’s adventures returned to the present with a new direction.  Cold War spying was the zeitgeist of the era.  The James Bond influence was everywhere in the mid-60’s.  (Even Archie rifted off it as the Man from RIVERDALE.)  Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD was already a Marvel comic.  Cap as a superpowered hero against shadowy organizations bent on world domination was a natural.  (Where are you now, Cap?  The WEF is right out in the open.)  Captain America becomes affiliated with Fury and has a SHIELD badge, but isn’t quite a government agent.  They wanted to keep him independent for now to continue with the Avengers and to not be subject to orders from superiors.

 

However, Captain America was still always haunted by his past, much like other Marvel heroes.  Apart from blaming himself for Bucky’s death, he’s also pining away for a beautiful unnamed French Partisan girl he was in love with.  In the present day (the 60’s), Cap runs into an unnamed SHIELD agent that powerfully reminds him of her and reawakens his feelings.  (Yes, being nameless was really awkward in these stories.)    

Cap encounters Batroc in this volume, runs afoul of Them (which is either the worst or the best name for an international conspiracy, I don’t know which), he fights an all-powerful Red Skull holding the Cosmic Cube, and fights AIM, who works for Them, but who were also tricked into serving the Red Skull, it’s a multilayered conspiracy.  (Notice that all these 60’s secret agent characters weren’t fighting real world villain organizations, unlike Black Panther as mentioned above.) 

 

The prize villain here (in my opinion) is Modok!  He’s Kirby-level magnificent in appearance.  AIM, working for Them, was also subordinate to their own creation, a Big Giant Head in a floating chair.  (I’m beginning to understand why, when Dracula encountered an AIM operative in an issue of Dr. Strange, he referred to him as “A yellow-clad clown.”) 

 

After this, Cap proposes to Agent 13.  (During his adventure with her, Cap only got her SHIELD designation.)  She turns him down.  Given that she won’t give Cap her name, this isn’t surprising, except to every other woman on the planet, who of course would have married Captain America immediately.  (Yes, this woman is Sharon Carter.  It’s not brought up in the book.)  Cap goes ahead and uncovers his secret identity as Steve Rogers anyway and retires, shocking the nation.  

This leads into what I mostly bought this volume for: three full-size issues by Jim Steranko.  Captain America took over from sharing the comic with Iron Man and the title was renamed.  Steranko, off his run on Nick Fury (which I’d love to take a look at), came in to sort of reset the character.  The powerful action, stylish presentation, along with some, at times, “trippy” visuals, have marked these three issues as probably a peak in comic book art at the time.  In the appendices, there is a reprinted article where Steranko breaks down his art in the issues. 

 

Functionally, the story involves Cap fighting Hydra.  (I guess AIM and Them were no longer credible foes.)  Madame Hydra (known later as Viper) is introduced.  Cap gains a new partner in Rick Jones to take Bucky’s place.  (Rick Jones . . .  Oh, there’s another rabbit hole I’m not going down today.)  Cap fakes his death and in doing so gets his secret identity back.  (The Avengers also give him a burial, get knocked out, and nearly get buried alive before Cap rescues them.  Minor details.)  

These changes didn’t last.  However in the reprinted letters column, a long-term change to the character would be introduced.  A letter from one, Albert Rodriguez, questioned Captain America’s motives and what he was fighting for.  Awkwardly, he argued that WWII patriotism was no longer relevant.  “It would fit the standards of today, though, if he were more liberal.”

 

There was a response in next issue’s letters column from another reader, “Perhaps the unhappy day shall dawn in this nation when ‘liberalism’ reaches its absolute as ‘conservatism’ did in Nazi Germany (when either reaches that point, they are no longer distinguishable).”  But the damage was done.  Many young readers in the late 60’s and early 70’s questioned the nation’s status quo and eventually Marvel changed their editorial bent to serve them.

 

After this, Captain America became more of a living symbol of democrat liberal ideals and questioning authority if it was in the hands of republicans.  In a later story, Captain America punches out President Nixon (or a remarkable facsimile), who had been plotting against him.  Much later in Civil War, Cap was leading a group of superheroes against the government (rightly or wrongly).  Finally, Captain America was revealed to be have been an agent of Hydra all along.  (And what does that say about his political affiliations?)  Meanwhile in the Ultimates Universe, Captain America was a super-patriotic government agent, and that wasn’t all a good thing.  (He seemed like kind of a jerk.)  All of this material falls outside of what is covered in this book, though. 

 

Captain America is confrontational.  From the cover of his first appearance, he’s punching out Hitler at a time when America wasn’t at war with him.  Unlike other superheroes, Cap provokes a reaction.  Some are inspired with patriotism.  Some are repulsed by the (fictional) living symbol of a deeply flawed nation.  It’s not even that simple.  Lately in the comics, Captain America has become something like a franchise farmed out to others and fighting ideological wars against other Americans. 

 

There are some deep questions that Captain America stirs up by his very existence.  Who should Captain America be fighting?  America’s enemies?  Who are they?  Some would say some foreign governments and international conspiracies.  Others would point at internal enemies, corrupt and ideological.  If he’s working independent of the government and his ideals transcend politics, what exactly are they?  What about the citizens who don’t agree with his decisions?  How would they view him?  By virtue of his character and his actions over his career, both sides would have reasons to be skeptical. 

 

Maybe Captain America should have been left behind after WWII.  His natural enemies are Nazis, who no longer exist with any power (in spite of what Twitter says).  The “Man out of his own time” bit seems to have been played out.  Using Cap as a political/social warrior or some sort of national conscience is going to ensure that some people are going to be polarized into disagreeing with him.  I would relaunch this character with a clear mission.  Choosing the mission would be the hard part.  Would you want Captain America to be someone who tries to bring Americans together or someone who challenges people and their beliefs?       

 

(See, I was saving my strength to write out that digression.  It’s been like stepping on landmine after landmine in this post.  No wonder it’s taken so long to write.) 

 

Bottom line on the book, it’s entertaining and likely worth it for the price.  Kirby and Steranko’s dynamic artwork are the main draw (pardon the pun).  That said, this is not a Captain America Best Of or even necessarily a run of fun material, like a pile of old 70’s, 80’s, or 90’s comics.  The 40’s reprints are primitive, no question.  The 60’s stuff is not well-developed due to the half-issue format, story or character-wise.  (There are some character moments, but it’s mostly Steve Rogers moping.)  While the Steranko material is groundbreaking, it’s very superhero comic book-y to the point of a complete hand-wave on all logic.  (A gas trap taking out all of the Avengers?)

 

Whew!  We’re done here.  So will I be getting more of the Marvel Collection?  If that Fantastic Four one comes out, I’ll be looking at it.