{"id":29222,"date":"2024-01-05T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T09:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=29222"},"modified":"2024-01-04T19:02:36","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T19:02:36","slug":"mighty-marvel-masterworks-captain-america-volume-2-the-red-skull-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/01\/05\/mighty-marvel-masterworks-captain-america-volume-2-the-red-skull-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Mighty Marvel Masterworks Captain America volume 2: The Red Skull Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Stan Lee<\/strong> & Jack Kirby<\/strong>, Roy Thomas<\/strong>, Gil Kane<\/strong>, Jack Sparling<\/strong>, Tom Sutton<\/strong>, Frank Giacoia<\/strong>, Joe Sinnott<\/strong>, Don Heck<\/strong>, Dick Ayers<\/strong> & various (MARVEL)
\nISBN: 978-1-3029-4897-9 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

During the natal years of Marvel Comics in the early 1960s Stan Lee & Jack Kirby opted to mimic the game-plan which had paid off so successfully for National\/DC Comics, albeit with mixed results. Beginning cautiously in 1956, Julie Schwartz had scored incredible, industry-altering hits by re-inventing the company\u2019s Golden Age greats, so it seemed sensible to try and revive the characters that had dominated Timely\/Atlas in those halcyon days two decades previously.<\/p>\n

A new Human Torch<\/strong> had premiered as part of the revolutionary Fantastic Four<\/strong>, and in the fourth issue of that title the amnesiac Sub-Mariner<\/strong> resurfaced after a 20-year hiatus (everyone concerned had apparently forgotten the first abortive attempt to revive an \u201cAtlas\u201d superhero line in the mid-1950s). The teen Torch was promptly given his own solo lead-feature in Strange Tales<\/strong> (from issue #101 on) where, eventually (in Strange Tales<\/strong> #114), the flaming kid fought a larcenous villain impersonating the nation\u2019s greatest lost hero\u2026<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a quote from the last panel\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guessed it! This story was really a test! To see if you too would like Captain America to Return! As usual, your letters will give us the answer!\u201d <\/em>I guess we all know how that turned out. With reader-reaction strong, the real McCoy was promptly decanted in Avengers<\/strong> #4 (cover dated March but on sale from January 3rd<\/sup> 1964\u2026 so happy belated birthday the second time around, Capster!).<\/p>\n

After a captivating, centre-stage hogging run in Avengers<\/strong>, the reborn Sentinel of Liberty won his own series as half of a \u201csplit-book\u201d with fellow Avenger and patriotic barnstormer Iron Man<\/strong>, beginning with Tales of Suspense<\/strong> #59. This cheap & cheerful second Mighty Marvel Masterworks Cap collection assembles his exploits ToS <\/strong>#78-94, plus a chuckle-packed prize treat from Not Brand Echh<\/strong> #3, spanning June 1966 to October 1967) in a kid-friendly edition that will charm and delight fans of all vintages\u2026<\/p>\n

Primarily scripted throughout by Lee, the drama resumes with a dynamic dive into the burgeoning spy fad of the mid-Sixties as \u2018Them!\u2019<\/em> sees Kirby return to pencilling his first sensation and Frank Giacoia assume a regular inking spot. Here the Star-Spangled Avenger teams with Nick Fury<\/strong> in the first of many missions as a (more-or-less) Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. His foe is an artificial assassin despatched by a new hidden agency set on world domination.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s followed by \u2018The Red Skull Lives!\u2019<\/em> wherein the arch nemesis returns from the grave to menace the Free World again. Initially aided by subversive technology group A.I.M.<\/em> as the Star Spangled Avenger is distracted by more high-tech assassins, the nasty Nazi promptly steals their ultimate weapon in \u2018He Who Holds the Cosmic Cube!\u2019 <\/em>(inked by Don Heck), setting himself up as Emperor of Earth before his grip on omnipotence finally falters in \u2018The Red Skull Supreme!\u2019<\/em> (Giacoia inks).<\/p>\n

The dynamic dramas contained herein signalled closer links with parallel tales in other titles. Thus, with subversive science scoundrels AIM defeated by S.H.I.E.L.D. over in Strange Tales<\/strong>,\u2018The Maddening Mystery of the Inconceivable Adaptoid!\u2019<\/em> pits Cap against one last unsupervised experiment – their artificial warrior lifeform. It is capable of becoming an exact duplicate of its victim and stalks Cap in a tale of vicious psychological warfare. Sadly, even masterfully manufactured mechanoids are apt to err and \u2018Enter\u2026 The Tumbler!\u2019<\/em> (inked by Dick Ayers) sees a presumptuous wannabe attack the robot after it assumes the identity of our hero before \u2018The Super-Adaptoid!\u2019<\/em> (with an Avengers cameo) completes the epic of breathtaking suspense and drama as the real super-soldier fights back to defeat all comers.<\/p>\n

Such eccentric cross-continuity capers would carry the company to market dominance in a few short years and become not the exception but the norm\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018The Blitzkrieg of Batroc!\u2019<\/em> and \u2018The Secret!\u2019<\/em> return to the early, minimum-plot, all-action, overwhelming-odds yarns whilst apparent fill-in \u2018Wanted: Captain America\u2019<\/em> (by Roy Thomas, Jack Sparling & Sinnott) offers a lacklustre interval involving a frame-up. Lee returns as Gil Kane takes his first run on the character with extended saga \u2018If Bucky Lives\u2026!\u2019<\/em>, \u2018Back from the Dead!\u2019<\/em>, \u2018\u2026And Men Shall Call Him Traitor!\u2019<\/em> and \u2018The Last Defeat!\u2019<\/em> (TOS<\/strong> #88-91, with the last two inked by Sinnott) for a superb thriller of blackmail and betrayal starring the Red Skull.<\/p>\n

The fascist felon had baited a trap with a robotic facsimile of Cap\u2019s dead partner, triggered it with super-hirelings Power Man<\/em> and The Swordsman<\/em> whilst blackmailing the Star-Spangled Sentinel into betraying his country and stealing a new atomic submarine. It all turned out okay in the end though\u2026<\/p>\n

Closing the comics action on a spectacular high, Kirby & Sinnott detailed \u2018Before My Eyes Nick Fury Died!\u2019<\/em>, \u2018Into the Jaws of\u2026 A.I.M.!\u2019<\/em> and \u2018If This Be\u2026 Modok!\u2019<\/em> as the Champion of Liberty battled a giant brain-being manufactured purely for killing\u2026<\/p>\n

Closing on a daft note, October 1967\u2019s Not Brand Echh<\/strong> #3 hawks up Lee, Thomas & Tom Sutton\u2019s \u2018The Honest-to-Irving, True-Blue Top Secret Original Origin of Charlie America!\u2019 <\/em>as a silly but delicious amuse-bouche to end our pulse pounding revels\u2026<\/p>\n

These tales of dauntless courage and unmatchable adventure offer timeless thrills, fast-paced and superbly illustrated, and which rightly catapulted Captain America<\/strong> to heights his Golden Age compatriots Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner never regained. They are pure escapist magic. Unmissable reading for the eternally young at heart and fun-seeking.
\n\u00a9 2023 MARVEL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Gil Kane, Jack Sparling, Tom Sutton, Frank Giacoia, Joe Sinnott, Don Heck, Dick Ayers & various (MARVEL) ISBN: 978-1-3029-4897-9 (TPB\/Digital edition) During the natal years of Marvel Comics in the early 1960s Stan Lee & Jack Kirby opted to mimic the game-plan which had paid off so … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Mighty Marvel Masterworks Captain America volume 2: The Red Skull Lives”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[94,74,72,79,296],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-avengers","category-captain-america","category-marvel-masters-masterworks","category-marvel-superheroes","category-school-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7Bk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29222"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29226,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29222\/revisions\/29226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}