Titan Comics' upcoming Marvel's Captain America: The First 80 Years is now available for pre-order from Amazon.com and Forbidden Planet ahead of its release on July 13th! The new 192 page hardcover book covers the milestones in the creation of the comic book adventures of the Super Soldier, including covers, comic art, and behind-the-scenes facts and information about the authors and artists who have brought the legend of Captain America to life.
To celebrate, Titan Comics was kind enough to provide us with several interior pages from the upcoming book. We also have an excerpt from the book focusing on Cap and the Golden Age! Between the pages and excerpt, readers get some great insight as to the depth and breadth of information that will be avaialable to fans in the Marvel's Captain America: The First 80 Years when it lands next month.
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Marvel's Captain America: The First 80 Years EXCLUSIVE Excerpt
CAP AND THE GOLDEN AGE
Cap was not Timely’s first Super Hero, since the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner got their start in Marvel Comics #1, but he certainly remained the most famous. Lee and Kirby used him a few months earlier in Strange Tales #114 (cover date November 1963), for The Human Torch Meets…Captain America. A story in which the modern Human Torch—Johnny Storm, a member of the Fantastic Four—meets a man who claims to be Captain America from the 1940s and ’50s. However, he turns out to be an impostor.
It all could have finished there, but it didn’t. Captain America may have had a little help from readers who expressed their delight in the return of a classic character, and it wouldn’t be long before the real Cap—the guy who smashed Hitler in the face—burst onto the scene again. How could this be, though? What had happened to him after the war? Didn’t he go around beating up common criminals, and then the Communists? And just how was he supposed to have survived in the ice all that time?
The Avengers #4 contains a brief account of what happened, which a year later would be expanded in Tales of Suspense #63 (cover date March 1965), the comic book that features new stories starring the Sentinel of Liberty.
The Origin of Captain America is an epic 12-page adventure. Lee and Kirby, along with inker Frank Giacoia (who went under the name of Frankie Ray because he didn’t want the other publishers he worked for to know he was doing work for Marvel), worked to develop the original story by Simon and Kirby. The “King of Comics” himself, proud of the artwork’s extraordinary kinetic effect, would one day say, “I’ll have a sort of choreographed action. I’ll choreograph the thing out like a ballet. In other words, if Captain America hits a man and he falls to the floor, and some guy is coming up behind Cap, he’ll already know what he’s going to do with this guy. It all becomes one big dance; it becomes a ballet, acted out on the paper.”
This story suddenly plunges readers back into the 1940s. The free world is threatened by Nazism. A desperate decision is made: to test the Super Serum created by Dr. Erskine (as Reinstein would now be called) on a young man so weak and frail that he’s almost an embarrassment, despite being chosen for his bravery, intelligence and determination. The story treats readers to the murder of Dr. Erskine and the amazing transformation of Steve Rogers, who drinks the serum and seconds later turns into a man with muscles of steel. Unfortunately, he’ll be the sole Super Soldier fighting for the United States as the doctor only left a few notes behind.
Rogers enlists in the army as a cover for his missions. He now lives the double life of a Super Hero. When donning his mask, he becomes Hitler’s invincible enemy number one. In uniform, Steve plays the role of the clumsy, awkward soldier in order to ward off any possible suspicion as to his secret identity. But someone is onto his ruse. One day he is found out by a young recruit, private James Buchanan Barnes, better known as Bucky, who becomes his sidekick until the end. The fateful day arrives as the war is drawing to a close. In action in Europe against the Axis, the heroes fight to keep one of their planes, loaded with explosives, from taking off. Steve and Bucky jump off a speeding motorcycle and grab on to the aircraft. But it’s a trap set by Baron Zemo. His plan is to blow up our two heroes while in flight. Steve loses his grip and winds up plummeting into the icy waters of the North Sea, but not before seeing Bucky killed in the explosion. Wracked with remorse for not having been able to save him, and only urging him in vain to jump, Steve nearly lets himself drown.
But he doesn’t die. His body, bolstered by the Super Soldier Serum, maintains all vital functions in a state of suspended animation while he is frozen. No other man could ever survive for twenty years in the ice. His regret over Bucky’s death will accompany him for the rest of his life. Or nearly—because Bucky’s story was not quite over. In a truly unforgettable modern run, Cap’s old sidekick returns—with a disturbing new identity.
What are your thoughts on the new Marvel's Captain America: The First 80 Years book? Will you be pre-ordering, or picking up a copy on July 13th? You can pre-order now from Amazon.com and Forbidden Planet!