My History as a Capfan

I recently joined a FB group called "Captain America Comic Book Fans" about the Marvel Comics character.  One nice thing about this group is that the focus is squarely on the comics, not the movies, etc.  The reason I joined is that they have been having a bracket where Cap artists who had long runs on the title are voted on, to eventually determine fans' favorite.  The names are lined up alphabetically, so right away there was a major decision to be made with Sal Buscema vs. John Byrne, two Capfan-favorites. (I went with Byrne.) Right now it is Ron Garney vs. Butch Guice, which is an easier choice for me since I find Garney's art frequently sloppy and unappealing, and I have enjoyed Guice's art since the late 1990s (I wasn't a fan of his 1980s art).  But looks like Garney is winning that round.

     Anyway, what brings me to post this is the board's interesting banner (shown above), which shows the top left corner of the covers from the 1940s to 2018.  The first image shown is actually Joe Simon's original concept sketch of the character. The one next to that (with Cap in a circle) is from a 1940s issue.  We then jump ahead to the first issue (#100) of Cap getting his own solo series in 1968 (after having spent the previous four years sharing "Tales of Suspense" with Iron Man). Then we have #150 (from 1972) and the Bicentennial issue #200 (1976, shown at left) during Jack Kirby's 1970s run as writer-artist-editor. All of these Silver-Age and Bronze-Age comics I obtained as back issues circa 1980-82; the first issue of Cap that I bought brand-new was #229 (Jan. 1979) which came out around the time that I turned 8 years old. (I wrote a previous blog post about the earliest comics that I read and bought which can be read here.)

     After that on the banner we see the corner symbol for #250 (Oct. 1980), during the great Stern-Byrne run.  By this time, I considered myself a collector of the series, and had a letter printed in #255 asking a continuity question about past depictions of Cap's origin. I got a mail subscription by #260, during Mike Zeck's run (which I enjoyed), but by #300 (Dec. 1984) my tastes were changing and I did the unthinkable and stopped "collecting" the series. #300 was the last issue of my subscription, and I didn't buy another issue of it until a year later, #312 (Dec. 1985), which was the 6th issue of Mark Gruenwald's lengthy run as the book's writer.  At first I enjoyed the series again, but by the #330's, during the storyline where Cap became "The Captain" and was replaced by another Captain America, I felt like the comic was repeating past glories and doing them less well, so I started buying it more infrequently.  I dropped it with #337 (Jan. 1988) and didn't buy it again until #349 (Jan. 1989) because I liked the Kirbyesque cover. If I recall right, my friend Matt sent me #350, but I hated most of the art inside. 

     On May 14, 1989 (when I was age 18), I wrote in a letter to Matt that I went "into 7-11 & purchase X-Men #247, JLA #27, Cap #356, Iron Man Annual #10, & Action Annual #2. The Action Comic annual looks okay. The Cap comic looks real good, Milgrom made his art look like Simon-Kirby. The X-Men & JLA look okay I guess. The Iron Man Annual looks really dumb, 'cos it's part of a continuing story! Aargh! I'm sending you all of them except the Cap one. God, what a waste of money."  Until reading the letter again years later, I had forgotten that I'd bought those other comics in addition to Cap #256 (cover-dated Aug. 1989).

     I was disturbed, however, by the violence in #256, as I shared with Matt in a letter on May 17, 1989: "Here's what's in my latest Cap: young boy kneed in the groin, boy then beaten on back with a stick, young girl hit in stomach by stick, villainess kicked in stomach, children locked in dark cages, villainess kicked in head, dirt flung in face, lines like "Drugs are your friend! Don't let anyone stand between you and a high! Violence is your right!", a group of children murder an innocent man, throwing his body into a fire, young girl gets her neck broken in full panel view by a group of villains who then laugh about it. And then for 4 pages a Captain America without his super-serum body is beaten in the head, in the back, in the hand, in the throat, on the face (not counting 2 pgs. where he's tied up, punched twice & then injected drugs with a syringe), punched in the face, punched by 5 different villainesses at once, kneed in the stomach, & again pounded on simultaneously by the villainesses & in the final panel the 17-year old Cap, weak, unconscious, is gripped by the hair about to be given "one last killing blow!" & that's where the story ends. Whatever happened to the hero winning in the end??"

     So, not surprisingly, I didn't buy another issue of Captain America again until after writer Mark Gruenwald left the book. Which is too bad, I realize now, since I think I would have enjoyed "The Bloodstone Hunt" backup series that began in the very next issue.  Gru stayed on the book for years and years, though -- his last issue was #443.  So, when I happened to see both #444 and #445 (Oct. & Nov. 1995) at the local Waldenbooks, and noticed that they were NOT written by Mark Gruenwald (but by Mark Waid), I bought them.  After all, this was the first chance to read a new issue of Cap that wasn't written by Gruenwald since 1985!  

     Unfortunately, I was less than impressed by both the writing (Waid) and the art (Ron Garney, see above). I particularly didn't like how Waid had brought back Sharon Carter, who died in #233 (and her death confirmed in #237) since I had long felt that Bernie Rosenthal, a normal person, as Cap's girlfriend was more likely to keep the character rooted in real-world problems rather than sci-fi adventures. (Of course Marvel had ended up having Bernie participate in Cap's adventures going back to DeMatteis' run, defeating any attempts at presenting a more realistic character.)  So I think I didn't buy another Cap after that.  I saw the distorted, ugly Garney cover of #448, which supported my decision not to buy the comic anymore.  Which didn't matter anyway, because the series was "cancelled" soon after with #454 (Aug. 1996), which I recall seeing on the shelf at the time.  

     I might have seen that final issue (#454) at a comics convention, in fact, because I had begun going to those regularly with Matt starting around this time, in an attempt to buy all the old comics that I hadn't been able to buy when I was younger.  I already had most of the Cap issues from #100 to #300, which I had gotten in the early 1980s when I was collecting the series.  But now since the series had an end point (#454) I figured that I'd fill the holes in my Cap collection between #301 and #454, just to have the whole run -- especially since I kept finding them in the cheap boxes where I was buying most of my back issues anyway.  Eventually I got almost all of them -- looking at my list, it appears that I'm missing only three issues  (#323, 447 and 454) to have #100 through #454.  (But my list might be a little out of date, so it's possible I have gotten them since.) 

     A rebooted Cap series (with a new #1) began in late 1996, initially drawn by Rob Liefeld, but I stayed away.  It ran 13 issues, until Cap was given a new #1 (Jan. 1998) that featured the return of Waid & Garney, who a lot of fans on the internet felt had been unfairly shoved aside during their previous run to make room for Liefeld's less critically-appreciated reboot. By 1997 I had home access to the internet and was participating in comics message boards, including the Cap board at Alvaro's.  I even had the experience of emailing 1970s Cap writer Steve Englehart to ask him a question about something in his run that I had wondered about (specifically whether The Falcon had murdered a character while under the control of the Red Skull).  

     My involvement on comics message boards, and the ease with which I was able to obtain comics at a nearby comics shop located only a 20-minute walk away (where I got a "pull list" for the first time) led to me buying new comic books again.  So I started buying Cap again with the new #1 (Jan. 1998) and didn't a miss a single issue (I had a pull list after all) until the series ended with #50 (Feb. 2002).  I had really begun to enjoy the series again during the run of writer-artist Dan Jurgens (#33-50), during which time Cap had gotten a normal, non-superheroic girlfriend again (lawyer Connie Ferrari).  But unfortunately Marvel decided to reboot the series again, under the "Marvel Knights" imprint, with a new #1 (June 2002).  This gave me a good "jumping-off" point, so I didn't buy the series again for the next couple years.

     The "Marvel Knights" Cap series ended with #32 (Dec. 2004).  So when it was rebooted again with #1 (Jan. 2005) by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Steve Epting (whose work I already liked), I gave it a shot and loved their run.  Even with the killing off of Jack Monroe (Nomad) and the return of Bucky Barnes (as Winter Soldier) and the prominence of SHIELD and over-the-top espionage story arcs (instead of Cap dealing with real-world issues, which is what I always prefer to see) -- despite all that, I loved it, and kept buying the series through the rest of Bru's run as writer (which eventually included Butch Guice as artist, who I also liked).  

     I kept buying Cap even after Brubaker & Guice left, and the series numbering went through some weird variations, such as a short-lived retitling of the series to "Captain America and Bucky."  And I continued to buy the series when it was rebooted with a new #1 (Jan. 2013) by a new creative team, writer Rick Remender (whose work I didn't know) and artists John Romita Jr. & Klaus Janson (whose work I was familiar with & had enjoyed).  In August 2012, I posted on Facebook (before seeing the first issue): "I've bought Captain America every month without fail since 2005 when Ed Brubaker began writing the series.  Ed has left, so it makes sense to renumber again and start anew, but this new series does not look appealing to me.  I'll probably try the first issue to give it a chance, but it looks like this may be a 'dropping-out' point for me."

     I gave the new series a try and even shared a page from the 2nd issue on my FB wall in Jan. 2013, writing: "I had my doubts about whether I'd continue buying new issues of CAPTAIN AMERICA because of the recent creative team change, as I posted about here on my FB wall a while back. I'm happy to report that the series will be staying on my pull list. The writing and art are different, but really good. Even the coloring is great!"

     However, the science-fiction slant of the storyline I found unappealing and I dropped the series a couple issues later.  That was the last time (2013, by which time I was 42 years old) that I bought the series brand-new off the shelf.  In July 2014, when I read about a new development in the series I wrote the following: "Good Lord, not again. I dropped Captain America when it was renumbered in 2013, after having faithfully bought every issue since 2005.  I dropped it with #4 or so, having given the new writer a good try.  I liked the first two issues, as a change of pace, but the direction that he was going was not appealing (and I see from the below news that 'Dimension Z' is still part of the narrative). Now we once again have the 'replacement Cap' storyline, which has been done multiple times during the character's history, which always results in Steve Rogers eventually returning to the role.  (As he should.  Steve Rogers IS Captain America.  Do readers need to find that out yet again?) Far from causing me to want to pick up an issue, this has 'you can ignore this entire story arc' written all over it."  

     This was followed by a "Captain America: Sam Wilson" series that ran 24 issues, from #1 (Dec. 2015) to #24 (Sept. 2017).  (There was also a concurrent "Captain America: Steve Rogers" series that ran 19 issues.) Although I'm a longtime fan of The Falcon (Sam Wilson), I prefer him as The Falcon, and particularly prefer him as someone dealing with down-to-earth matters, not more sci-fi, espionage, etc.  So I didn't buy this series.  It was renamed "Captain America" with #25 (Oct. 2017) when Steve Rogers became Cap again, and the next issue (#695, Jan. 2018) restored the series' original numbering.  (The top left corner of #695 is shown in the Facebook group's banner as the most recent image.)  Mark Waid returned as the book's writer, and the artist was Chris Samnee, whose simplified Alex Toth-esque art I had enjoyed previously on Daredevil (also written by Waid).  I didn't buy the series brand-new, but I did pick up a few issues (#696, 697, perhaps others) when I saw them for dirt-cheap shortly afterwards in a cheap bin at a comics shop that would soon go out of business.  This series was surprisingly short-lived, ending with #704 (Aug. 2018).

     The series was rebooted again with a new #1 (Sept. 2018) in a run written by political commentator and author Ta-Nehisi Coates.  I was tempted to start buying Cap again because of Coates being the writer, since I've enjoyed his columns online, but I've not regularly bought a new comics series from either Marvel or DC since around 2013, so I ended up avoiding Coates' run as well.  The series was given dual numbering with #9 (#713 overall) for those fans who want to collect everything from #100 (in 1968) to the present. (I'm no longer one of those folks.)

     The pandemic slowed down production of all comics, and so there was a gap between #20 (#724, May 2020) and #21 (#725, Oct. 2020).  The series is currently somewhere around issue #28, and as far as I know, Coates is still writing it.  

     Anyway, there's my history of buying Captain America comics -- thoughts which were prompted by seeing the glimpses of past covers.