CAPTAIN AMERICA OMNIBUS VOL. 1 (Marvel, 2011; Hardcover)
Collects
Captain
America
Nos.
100-113 and the Captain America stories from Tales
of Suspense
Nos. 59-99 and Not
Brand Echh
No. 3 (cover dates November, 1964- May, 1969)
Writer:
Stan Lee and Roy Thomas (issue 87 only)
Artist:
Jack Kirby (59-75, 77-86, 92-109, 112), Dick Ayers (69, 75, 83),
George Tuska (70-74, 112), John Romita, Sr. (76, 77), Jack Sparling
(87), Gil Kane (88-91), Jim Steranko (110, 111, 113), and various
inkers
Aside
from the Sternako penciled issues and issue 93 (via the reprint in
Marvel Double Feature No. 17), I had never read any of these
comic books prior to now. It sounds almost criminal in retrospect.
How could I have skipped this Silver Age goodness by Stan Lee and
Jack Kirby all of this time? It's impossible to be everywhere at
once. I read constantly and still have barely scratched the surface
of this medium. It's a wonderful problem to have, truth be told. I
have yet to experience who knows how many great classics.
The
book starts out with Cap co-headlining the title Tales of Suspense
with Iron Man. The distribution agreement that Marvel had with DC at
the time kept their stable of titles at 8 per month until the Marvel
expansion of 1968, which allowed Marvel to increase the number of
titles published each month. Iron Man was given his own series, and
Tales of Suspense was retitled Captain America with
issue 100.
 |
| Artwork by Jim Steranko. |
How
can anyone not love Stan Lee's hyperbole charged writing? I love how
his villains are all megalomaniacs who spout off long-winded
expositions. Things start off fast and furious, with Kirby drawing
Cap in action sequences far more explosive than in any other title on
the stands at the time. I like Kirby but am not one of those people
who put his every brushstroke on a pedestal. Kirby was a workhorse
and was extremely prolific. Sometimes he just punched the clock and
cashed a check, other times he was brilliant. He is both on this run.
Issue
63 is the first of countless times that Cap's origin is re-told. Only
Spider-Man's origin seems to have been retold and reinterpreted as
many times as Cap's has. The Red Skull is a recurring foe, and I love
the Sleeper robot arc. World War II was still very real to Americans,
being only 20 years in the past at the time of publication. It's
likely that many of the kids reading this were the children of
veterans. Pretty much everyone knew someone who served. So while the
abundance of WWII flashbacks and Nazi sleeper agent stories might
seem tedious on the surface, once one considers how severe the impact
that the war had on the national psyche all should be forgiven.
Batroc the Leaper debuts in issue 75, and he becomes a staple of Cap's rogues gallery. Kirby's original take on the character shows a burly brawler. Over time, he will be portrayed as a more, shall we say, svelte opponent. Sharon Carter, Steve Rogers' love interest, also debuts during this time period. While Jack Kirby co-created Captain America in 1941 with Joe Simon, it was Stan Lee and Jack Kirby who brought Cap kicking and screaming into the Marvel Age of Comics. The foundations of the character that we know and love lay in the Golden Age, but all of the characters that we identify with Cap come from the Silver Age. Bucky and the Red Skull are the only real holdovers from the original Golden Age series.
Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. are basically co-headliners of the strip as this run progresses. Fury manipulates Cap into doing his bidding whether Cap realizes it or not. Them, who morph into A.I.M., follow Nick Fury here from his title, Strange Tales. Stan Lee was like a spider weaving a web, connecting all of these titles together into a shared universe. The Cosmic Cube (or Tesseract as you new-jack Avengers movies fans know it) debuts here, ditto the Super Adaptoid. It's actually quite stunning to think about how many characters were created in so short a time span, never mind the fact that most of these characters and concepts have stood the test of time.
Gil
Kane's brief run on the title was great, especially issues 90 and 91
where Joe Sinnott inked his work. Kane really lived and died by his
inker. Left to his own devices, his inking is too faint, like he
traced each line once and said “that'll do it.” With a strong
handed inker like Sinnott (or later Romita, Sr. on Spider-Man),
Kane's genius was fully realized.
 |
| Artwork by Jack Kirby. |
The
Black Panther, Baron Zemo, Hydra, the Trapster, the Hulk, Madame
Hydra (later Viper), and Dr. Faustus are also found in this book. I
have always been fascinated by Dr. Faustus, as he would fight heroes
on a psychological (and chemical) level.
There
is nothing I can say about the genius of Jim Steranko that hasn't
already been said elsewhere, and said better. Suffice it to say his
work is brilliant. He and Neal Adams were the most innovative
mainstream comic book artists of the 1960s, with Steve Ditko being a
close third. Steranko and Adams played with panel layouts, and
Steranko's “camera pans” gave his work a cinematic feel which was
groundbreaking at the time. People robbed his style but not the
thoughts or intentions behind it, and this is why so many modern
comic artists come up short when compared to Steranko and Adams. I
dunno, maybe I'm just a dinosaur who is full of shit. You decide.
 |
| Steranko. Pure genius. |
Steranko's
splash page to issue 111 is incredible. I love the “camera angle
changes” which then fade into the scene on page 2. I can almost
here some jazzy music, like an opening sequence in a movie from that
era. Brilliant stuff.
A
story from the vastly overrated humor mag Not Brand Echh is
included as a bonus in the back of the book. I found it to be
unreadable. I find it puzzling that this series tops so many people's
wishlists for series that they want to see collected in Masterworks.
You couldn't pay me to read that crap. One man's treasure, right?
Junk
Food For Thought rating: 4.25 out of 5.
The
OCD zone- I adore the Marvel Omnibus line of hardcovers.
This
book boasts superior linework and color restoration over the existing
hardcover Masterworks. The softcovers use the same files found
in this book, so if you can't find a copy of this long out of print
book and want the best possible reproduction, the softcover
Masterworks from the last few years are the way to go.
Linework
restoration rating: 5 out of 5. Some of the restoration in
earlier Masterworks printings of this material was, shall we
say, more rustic than what Marvel has done in recent years.
Most reviews that I read that bash the line are from uninformed and
uneducated fans who buy a 20 year old printing and then proceed to
criticize the restoration and color palette of the line as a whole.
Marvel should have a buy back program for old printings. They could
throw them in wood chippers or burn them.
Color
restoration rating: 5 out of 5. The color palette is 100%
faithful to the source material. Again, every review that I read that
bashes this line are from the same folks who own crappy old
printings. It would be like getting a VHS copy of 2001 and
bashing MGM's restoration techniques in the here and now.
Paper
rating: 5 out of 5. I love the sweet smell of the thick coated
stock Chinese paper, likely sourced from virgin Amazon rainforests.
It has a slight sheen which I like but some folks hate. Your mileage
may vary.
Binding
rating: 5 out of 5. Marvel's sewn binding is the one to beat in
this market segment. The casing has room to flex, allowing the book
to lay perfectly flat from the first page to the last.
This
book is currently out of print, but you can buy the same material in
the first three Marvel Masterworks at InStockTrades!
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