{"id":31389,"date":"2025-01-22T13:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=31389"},"modified":"2025-01-21T17:18:04","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T17:18:04","slug":"mighty-marvel-masterworks-presents-captain-america-volume-3-to-be-reborn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/01\/22\/mighty-marvel-masterworks-presents-captain-america-volume-3-to-be-reborn\/","title":{"rendered":"Mighty Marvel Masterworks presents Captain America volume 3: To Be Reborn"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy\u00a0Stan Lee<\/strong> & Jack Kirby<\/strong>, Joe Sinnott<\/strong>, Syd Shores<\/strong>, Dan Adkins<\/strong> & various (MARVEL)
\nISBN: 978-1-3029-5432-1 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/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. 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 promptly won his own solo lead-feature in Strange Tales<\/strong> (from issue #101 on) where eventually – in #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). Marvel\u2019s inexorable rise to dominance of the American comic book industry really took hold in 1968 when most of their characters finally got their own titles. Prior to that and due to a highly restrictive distribution deal the company was tied to a limit of 16 publications per month.<\/p>\n

After a captivating, attention-hogging run in Avengers<\/strong>, the Sentinel of Liberty won his own series as half of a \u201csplit-book\u201d with fellow Avenger and patriotic barnstormer Iron Man<\/strong>, starting in Tales of Suspense<\/strong> #59. This thrifty third Mighty Marvel Masterworks<\/strong> Captain America<\/strong> collection assembles those last exploits from ToS<\/strong> #95-99 and continuance as Captain America<\/strong> #100-105 of his own title (spanning cover-dates November 1967 to September 1968) in a kid-friendly edition that will charm and delight fans of all vintages\u2026<\/p>\n

These stories are timeless and have been published many times before but The Mighty Marvel Masterworks<\/strong> line is designed with economy in mind and newcomers as target audience. These books are far cheaper, on lower quality paper and smaller – like a paperback novel. Your eyesight might be failing and your hands too big and shaky, but at 152 x 227mm, they\u2019re perfect for kids. If you opt for digital editions, that\u2019s no issue at all.<\/em>
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\nScripted throughout by Lee, Cap\u2019s adventures had been blending high concept espionage thrillers milking the burgeoning spy fad of the mid-Sixties with spectacular superhero shockers after the Star-Spangled Avenger joined superspy Nick Fury<\/strong> in many missions as a (more-or-less) Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Here however with Kirby locked-&-loaded into full action mode a portentous change of pace amplifies already frenetic tensions as – in rapid succession – \u2018A Time to Die… A Time to Live\u2019<\/em> and \u2018To Be Reborn!\u2019 <\/em>see the eternal hero retire and reveal his secret identity to the world, only to jump straight back into the star-spangled saddle for S.H.I.E.L.D. for #97\u2019s \u2018And So It Begins…\u2019<\/em> after a rash of would-be replacements provoke a campaign of opportunistic assassination attempts from the underworld…<\/p>\n

The saga would carry the Sentinel of Liberty back into his own title: a 4-part tale that spectacularly concludes in issue #100, with which number Tales of Suspense<\/strong> became simply Captain America<\/strong>. Guest starring the Black Panther<\/strong>, it recounts the apparent return of long-dead nemesis Baron Zemo<\/em> and his lethal, world-threatening orbiting Death Ray. \u2018The Claws of the Panther!\u2019<\/em> was inked by both Joe Sinnott and the great Syd Shores (a Cap illustrator from the 1940s) who became regular embellisher with \u2018The Man Who Lived Twice!\u2019<\/em> before the premier 100th<\/sup> first issue (how weird is that?) revisited Cap\u2019s origin before climactically closing the superb team-up thriller with \u2018This Monster Unmasked!\u2019<\/em>
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\nWithout pause, Lee, Kirby & Shores enacted another epic encounter across Captain America <\/strong>#101-104, featuring fascist revenant The Red Skull<\/em> and introducing another appalling Nazi revenge-weapon. Opening with \u2018When Wakes the Sleeper!\u2019<\/em> and furious follow-up \u2018The Sleeper Strikes!\u2019<\/em>, our hero and his support crew Agent 13<\/em> and Nick Fury<\/em> hunt a murderous mechanoid capable of ghosting through solid Earth and blowing up the planet. Although the immediate threat soon seems quashed, the infernal instigator is still at large and #103 reveals \u2018The Weakest Link!\u2019<\/em> as a budding romance with S.H.I.E.L.D. operative Agent 13 (finally named after two years as Sharon Carter<\/em>) is interrupted by the nefarious Nazi. The uber-fascist\u2019s new scheme of nuclear blackmail extends to a second issue, wherein his band of war-criminal assassins, The Exiles<\/em>, test Cap nigh to destruction on the hidden isle where he becomes the \u2018Slave of the Skull!\u2019<\/em> (with the loose, flowing inking of Dan Adkins) before turning the tables and crushing the plotters.
\n\"\"
\nAfter that, a period of done-in-one all-action yarns began with \u2018In the Name of Batroc!\u2019 <\/em>(Lee, Kirby & Adkins), a brisk super-villain team-up wherein Living Laser<\/em> and The Swordsman<\/em> ally with gallic mercenary Batroc the Leaper<\/em> to swipe a new superbomb, concluding the patriotic Fight\u2019s \u2018n\u2019 Tights fist-fest on an exuberant if nonsensical high note…<\/p>\n

To Be Continued…<\/p>\n

With covers by Kirby, Frank Giacoia, Gene Colan, John Romita, Sinnott, Shores & Adkins, there\u2019s just enough room for a brace of pencil layouts of unused covers to compliment these tales of dauntless courage and unmatchable adventure, fast-paced and superbly illustrated. These exploits rightly returned Captain America<\/strong> to heights his revamped Golden Age compatriots the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner never regained. Pure escapist magic, these are glorious treats for the eternally young at heart, episodes of sheer visual dynamite that cannot be slighted and must not be missed.
\n\u00a9 2024 MARVEL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, Syd Shores, Dan Adkins & various (MARVEL) ISBN: 978-1-3029-5432-1 (TPB\/Digital edition) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. 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 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Mighty Marvel Masterworks presents Captain America volume 3: To Be Reborn”<\/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":[191,94,165,72,79,174,219,107,169,155,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-avengers","category-black-panther","category-marvel-masters-masterworks","category-marvel-superheroes","category-nick-fury","category-s-h-i-e-l-d","category-science-fiction","category-spy-stories","category-sub-mariner","category-war-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8ah","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31389","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=31389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31395,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31389\/revisions\/31395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}