Welcome back to one of the more difficult articles to write! In today’s world of super heroes and tights, we get a lot of comics featuring a lot of the same characters. It happens, right? But this year at NYCC, some news broke that made me realize: geez Louise, Papa Cheese! Captain America has SO many comics now in the works! As in, way too many for this poor Cap fan to buy! How on Earth did that happen? And how on Earth do I sift through this, especially since there are two different Caps now to read about and love.
Well never fear, friends. I am here to help. Check behind the cut to see what I think of Captain America and his assorted collection of comic books!
Captain America
This is the flagship of the Captain America series. Starting originally in 2004, the book has been steadily one of the most entertaining spy thrillers on the market, home of the greatest conspiracy stories in superhero comics today. Brubaker is officially the prime architect of Captain America’s universe. Now Bucky is Cap, even with the return of Steve Rogers, and most recently Baron Zemo has returned to twist his world upside down – and he is set to go to court for his crimes against humanity as the communist agent Winter Soldier!
Should We Get It?: Yes. This is the premiere book, and Brubaker is a genius. One of the finest stories on the market, and the Eisner award this book just goes to emphasize that. With the upcoming trial arc, I can imagine it’s about to get rather intense.
The Avengers
With this book, Bendis has put together the gang again. The Holy Trinity is present once again, with Iron Man, Thor, and Bucky Cap! So… not quite the Holy Trinity (see Avengers: Prime for Bendis playing with that), but still quite good. And at the moment, the story focuses on the time stream being destroyed with our heroes rocketing thousands of years into the future to try and fix it.
Should We Get It?: It’s not so much Bucky essential, but it’s quite good. If you want to be reading the ongoing adventures of Captain America, I’d honestly recommend following a book where Bendis is writing him. As the man who has been the prime architect of the Marvel U for the past seven years, he’ll probably give you some essential Cap stories.
Captain America: Forever Allies
Forever Allies is a mini written by Roger Stern that brings back the original Young Allies (not to be confused with the current troupe) into the modern generation. As Bucky brings the surviving members of the group back for a reunion, he discovers a hidden mystery that spans across two generations. But can Bucky stop it in time?
Should We Get It?: …no. I’ll be honest, I have not found anything about this very interesting. Bucky is a fun character, but it takes the right writer to write him. Not everyone can get the nostalgia factor right. Unfortunately, nothing about Sterns has really grabbed me so far.
Well, ok. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s take a look at what Steve Rogers is up to these days…
Steve Rogers
Steve Rogers: Super Soldier
As I mentioned earlier with the main Captain America title, Brubaker is the prime architect of the Captain America universe. After Steve became the new head of SHIELD, Brubaker stepped in to give him a quick mini that elaborated on his new role as well as expanded the mythos of the super soldier serum. Brubaker has been rearranging the Captain America universe for 6 years now, so what’ll it hurt to bring back the serum and strip Steve of it?
Should We Get It?: Yes, definitely. If you’re getting Brubaker’s Cap, get Brubaker’s Super Soldier. It seems like a no brainer, and with Eaglesham on the art details after an amazingly impressive stint in Fantastic Four, it’s nice to see his talent being put to good use.
Invaders Now
A mysterious new threat has arisen, and it’s up to the collection of the original Invaders (and Union Jack) as assembled by the original Vision to help stop it – because it’s their fault! Alex Ross has been teaming up Marvel with Dynamite and his love for classic heroes, and this is the third book in his epic nostalgia trip following Avengers/Invaders and the Torch.
Should We Get It?: Unless you really dug the previous two, probably not. As I was saying earlier, the nostalgia only works when done by certain people. Ross has teamed up with Christos Gage to write this, and the stories so far have been good, but they’re clearly not for everyone. However, if you want to see Bucky and Steve team up again in a book, this would be the place for that.
Secret Avengers
Once again, Brubaker steps in to write his favorite Steve. Secret Avengers has been the odd title out so far though, receiving much quieter buzz than the other three main Avengers books. Steve Rogers puts together his own covert black-ops team of Avengers, and to begin they all run off to Mars to fight an unknown threat, later revealed in a shocking twist that really only made sense of you read Brubaker’s Marvels Project as well as a clone of Nick Fury. In the upcoming arc, Rogers and his crew team with Shang Chi to go up against his father, and hopefully finally start creating some real buzz behind the title.
Should We Get It?: This is the odd one for me. I love Brubaker, and I love all of his work on Cap – but something about SA has felt missing to me. I’m not quite sure what it is. The shocking twist at the end of the last issue didn’t click right away, and the Mars arc in general felt rather slow after what was a great first issue. I’ll be sticking with the book, but I won’t mark it down as Cap essential DESPITE the writer.
Avengers: Prime
This is the tile I alluded to earlier: in the wake of Siege and over the ruins of Asgard, Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and Thor gather to talk and finally resolve their differences. But before they can actually do it, they get transported into the restructured and chaotic new realm of the nine worlds. This story takes lace before Gillen’s last Thor arc, Fraction’s first Thor arc, and the actual final couple pages of Siege where Asgard moves atop Avengers tower – so it’s a bit tight for continuity. But I will say this about the book: it offers up a nice epilogue to Siege so far.
Should We Get It?: It depends on you, really. Do you like Bendis? Did you like Siege? Do you like exposition and Asgardians? If you answered three to any of those questions, then the answer is pretty much yes all across the board. The title features Steve right before he becomes top cop, and it’s not quite essential to his transformation, but it does make for a good read. Cap essential – no. Good comic – yes.
Ultimate Comics New Ultimates
After the first arc of Ultimate Comics Avengers, Captain America moved strictly to the New Ultimates with just a guest appearance in the other title. In the New Ultimates, he has teamed up with several heroes to attempt to save Thor and bring him back to our world while fighting women, demons, and Loki. Doesn’t seem like the easiest gig, but if anyone can do it I suppose it’s Captain America. Right?
Should We Get It?: You know, it’s not as bad as Ultimates 3 or Ultimatum was, but it’s still not great. Compared to what it used to be, the Ultimate Universe is still mostly in shambles with random bursts of greatness. The art here is great, but the story does leave some to be desired. It’s certainly not essential to anything, if that’s what you’re wondering.
And now we get to the coming soon options, as well as the lightning round…
Coming Soon
Captain America: The Fighting Avenger
While this book is certainly a tad bit distant from us, the book goes back to the 1940s to elaborate on the Captain America mythos from the bottom up. We will focus on Cap as a symbol and a hero in a time of war, not just as someone who is on the Avengers and controls SHIELD with an awesome shield.
Should We Get It?: Well, hard to say obviously because it’s not out, but with Clevinger on the title, survey says yes for now. At the very least you can give this a first issue try and buy. Clevinger has proven himself with Atomic Robo multiple times, but Cap is a completely different beast. The levels of snark ok in Robo won’t work with Cap. Only time will tell though.
Captain America: Man Out Of Time
Picking up right after when Cap is unfrozen from the ice, Mark Waid tells the story of Steve’s first reactions to the new world.
Should We Get It?: I haven’t seen anything aside from Hitch covers, so it’s up in the air. If it were Hitch interiors, it’d be a no brainer, but right now with just Mark Waid on the title, I’m unsure if this is something that’ll be really worth adding to your collection.
Captain America and the Korvac Saga
Similar to an initiative seen in many books at the moment, Marvel reimagines the Korvac saga that put the Avengers against the mighty entity from the 31st century, Korvac.
Should We Get It?: Have you never read the Korvac saga and never felt like reading the original version was something you wanted to do? Well, then yes. Otherwise, no unless you love Ben McCool.
Captain America: Hail Hydra
Written by Jonathan Mayberry, the book pits Cap against a Hydra conspiracy that lasts from before he was frozen in 1944 until after he was woken up in the present.
Should We Get It?: I can’t say yes at the moment. There really is nothing more to go on than this, and that moment it doesn’t sound like something that seems very essential. It’s just a story that falls in the cracks of continuity at the moment, and unless the book ends up with a really unique portrayal of Hydra, it’s not something I’d say you need.
Astonishing Captain America
Andy Diggle and Adi Granov step in to tell a story of Captain America focusing on Steve Rogers as a soldier and not an Avenger or top cop.
Should We Get It?: Marvel is totally digging their revamped Astonishing line, and one can understand why. Top creators and top talent on these books, people. Andy Diggle? Adi Granov? Sold.
Ultimate Comics Captain America
Jason Aaron and Ron Garney step in to tell a forgotten story of the Ultimate soldier. While Cap was frozen in ice, the world continued to turn and a new Captain America arose to serve during Vietnam. So what happens when the two Captain Americas meet?
Should We Get It?: You had me at Jason Aaron, Marvel. Yes – buy.
Continued belowOh, and we can’t forget the one comic currently being published with the Cap name to it, even though it is clearly the odd one out:
Captain America: Patriot
This book isn’t about Captain America. It’s about the Patriot during WW2, when he took over for Cap after his death. Cap is more than just a man – he’s a symbol, and it’s important to keep up appearances in such a shaky time period. This is where the Patriot comes in.
Should We Get It?: You know, Kessel tells a good story, but this isn’t neccesary. It again plays on the nostalgia factor of Captain America and storytelling, but this I think reaches further people in it’s goals. It’s something that I am enjoying, bu can’t recommend as an essential Cap story read.
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Oof. Not as terrible as Batman, but it’s about to get pretty bad quite soon. So many minis, so little time, am I right? I’m not surprised at any of this though. Marvel has a Captain America movie in the works, so what better way to build buzz for the film by having a lot of Captain America comics on the shelves? Of course a lot of them appear to be superfluous, but the main bulk of the books won’t even be available for quite some time, so who can tell. As for now, you can rest soundly knowing that Captain America does in fact have too many comics.
