Rating: 
Summary: Great Comics would be better on a CD format...
Review: All I can say if you like the classics without the classic prices of $50 per volume; If you like Jack Kirby or Gil Kane ...or even Gene Colan's art ...buy this volume! I wish they could truly do these books justice by putting them in color on a CD Rom like the Marvel Comics Library did a few months ago.
I love reading them in the origial color format and it's the only way to go with the Essentials...so here's my vote for many more Essencials..only in the CD format! I hope someone at Marvel reads these reviews....
Rating: 
Summary: Pre-Captain America Cap
Review: Alright, let's clear the air as far as reviews go. Yes, this is a black and white book (ALL Marvel's "Essential" books are), and the print is only a little better than newspaper print, but it still won't smear easily and it's cheap. ... I do have to knock off one star for the lack of color, but it's still a solid 4 star book for the sheer amount of material presented at such a low cost. The collected stories are reprints of "Tales of Suspense", the book that featured Cap before he got his own title, from issue #59 (his first appearance in the series) to issue #99. At issue #100 the book was re-titled "Captain America", and issues 100, 101, and 102 are included as well. Essential Captain America Vol. 2 picks up at issue #103 and runs up to issue #126. But before you criticize 40+ issues in volume 1 vs. 20+ issues in volume 2 , realize that "Tales of Suspense" was a book split between Cap and Iron Man. There may be half the issues in volume 2, but they're twice as long. It all balances out, really. Just be careful what you expect vs. which volume you order since the same reviews post for both volumes. The only problem (aside from the black and white that people love to moan about) is some of the writing doesn't hold up so well by today's standards. (Insert "Golly!" here. Or mention somebody in "deadly danger".) Although as long as you take into account the time period this was written in, it's just fine. Including Avengers issue #4 would have been nice too, since it's Cap's first (true) appearance since WWII, but I guess there's always volumes of Essential Avengers... All things considered, if you want a full run of Cap's coninuity, this is the most financially responsible decision you can make.
Rating:
Summary: Cap's Greatest Battles
Review: Although one would expect Captain America to be be the spearhead in the 60s Marvel battles with Communism, there is only one story in this book with a Communist villain. For the most part, Cap is shown battling sinister organizations and remnants of the Nazis. And Battle he does, Kirby shows more kinetic energy in these stories than any of the other series he worked on. Perhaps it was the fact that his connection with Cap goes back to the 40s. Every story shines with drawings of Captain America flipping, jumping and slamming his way through battle after battle. And we get classic stories from the 60s-the Sleepers, Nazi superweapons programmed to arise in the 60s, The Cosmic Cube, the most powerful device in the universe. Add to this great villains like the Red Skull, Zemo, the Adaptoid and Modok. I only have one quibble with the book, the starkness of the black and white art does not allow us to see Cap is risking his neck to rescue a black Air Force pilot from Vietnam-the pilot is white here. In many pages, the Black Panther when out of costume is white. The only inkling we get that the greatest of the black superheroes is actually black comes because some of the pages had to be photocopied from actual comics. The Panther was a groundbreaking character in comics but his relevance is almost lost in this anthology.
Rating:
Summary: Volume 2: The final Kirby, the few Steranko, the first Colan
Review: Apparently Brad Pitt has agreed to play Captain American in a movie that wil start filming next year, so it is time for Steve Rogers to get the summer blockbuster movie treatment. If the people writing the script or Cap's fans want to check out the glory days of the character Volume 2 of the "Essential Captain America" would be a good place to start because it contains both the final issues of "Captain America" drawn by Jack Kirby, the definitive Captain America artist for many, and the three striking issues drawn by Jim Steranko. Ironically, while the names of Kirby and Steranko, along with writer Stan Lee, appear on the cover of the book, it is penciller Gene Colan who draws over half the issues (#103-126 of "Captain America") collected in Volume 2. The three main storylines of note in this collection are the Lee-Kirby epic where Cap and Shield take on the Red Skull and his Nazi minions, the Steranko issues where Rick Jones becomes a temporary sidekick and Cap regains his secret identity, and the Lee-Colan storyline where the Red Skull swaps places with Cap courtesy of the Cosmic Cube and the strip introduces the Falcoln in an effort to make the comic more relevant. There is also a complete issues devoted by Lee & Kirby to the origin of Captain America and one in which Cap is captured while in Vietnam. Of course, in the years ahead the Falcoln would become Captain America's partner and his name would become part of the title for the comic book. I prefer these issues of "Captain America" much more than the "Tales of Suspense" days when the stories were ten page installments that cut off the story just as it was getting interesting (i.e., "to be continued"). It is not surprising that the art work is more impressive than the stories, because Kirby was arguably at his peak at this point: most of his issues start with splash pages of Cap bigger than life and in action. Steranko experiments with the comic book form, having pages with over a dozen panels, panels with multiple images of the same characters, and page without panels that are clearly influenced by the art of Salvadore Dali. Why more would you want for 12 cents? No wonder the issue of "Captain America" #111 was appropriated for the cover of this trade paperback. Colan might only finishing the show position in this collection, but he brings the same sort of fluidity to his artwork that he did with "Daredevil" and "Tomb of Dracula." Three different styles each working to tell the story of Captain America, "Living Legend of World War II."
Rating:
Summary: Volume 2: The final Kirby, the few Steranko, the first Colan
Review: Apparently Brad Pitt has agreed to play Captain American in a movie that wil start filming next year, so it is time for Steve Rogers to get the summer blockbuster movie treatment. If the people writing the script or Cap's fans want to check out the glory days of the character Volume 2 of the "Essential Captain America" would be a good place to start because it contains both the final issues of "Captain America" drawn by Jack Kirby, the definitive Captain America artist for many, and the three striking issues drawn by Jim Steranko. Ironically, while the names of Kirby and Steranko, along with writer Stan Lee, appear on the cover of the book, it is penciller Gene Colan who draws over half the issues (#103-126 of "Captain America") collected in Volume 2. The three main storylines of note in this collection are the Lee-Kirby epic where Cap and Shield take on the Red Skull and his Nazi minions, the Steranko issues where Rick Jones becomes a temporary sidekick and Cap regains his secret identity, and the Lee-Colan storyline where the Red Skull swaps places with Cap courtesy of the Cosmic Cube and the strip introduces the Falcoln in an effort to make the comic more relevant. There is also a complete issues devoted by Lee & Kirby to the origin of Captain America and one in which Cap is captured while in Vietnam. Of course, in the years ahead the Falcoln would become Captain America's partner and his name would become part of the title for the comic book. I prefer these issues of "Captain America" much more than the "Tales of Suspense" days when the stories were ten page installments that cut off the story just as it was getting interesting (i.e., "to be continued"). It is not surprising that the art work is more impressive than the stories, because Kirby was arguably at his peak at this point: most of his issues start with splash pages of Cap bigger than life and in action. Steranko experiments with the comic book form, having pages with over a dozen panels, panels with multiple images of the same characters, and page without panels that are clearly influenced by the art of Salvadore Dali. Why more would you want for 12 cents? No wonder the issue of "Captain America" #111 was appropriated for the cover of this trade paperback. Colan might only finishing the show position in this collection, but he brings the same sort of fluidity to his artwork that he did with "Daredevil" and "Tomb of Dracula." Three different styles each working to tell the story of Captain America, "Living Legend of World War II."
Rating: 
Summary: Great artwork, but the stories don't work
Review: Captain America goes up against vast super-scientific organizations who sport some astonishing weapons. This gives Jack Kirby a chance to draw some brilliant fantasy environments. His illustrations of high technology, while far from scientifically accurate, are a kind of mythical representation of the modern world. However, it's hard to get around the fact that Captain America is an acrobat whose only weapon is his shield. He's really out of place in these stories. It takes the whole Avengers to defeat a foe like the Living Laser or the Swordsman, but Captain America can single-handedly topple an organization made of hundreds of men, all of them armed with sophisticated firearms?
Rating:
Summary: Captain America: Just What We Need At A Time Like This
Review: Good vs. Evil. Good old fashioned comic book drama doesn't get any better than this. Captain America certainly knows how to do it. Here is a hero that stands for everything that is good. What is his job? To defend; to fight the bad guys; to rid the world of evil. And that he does! In the very first issue in this collection, he fights off some seemingly indestructable gangsters who want to break into the headquaters of the Avengers. This is the beauty of Stan Lee and Marvel: the creation of interesting villains; ones who you might see in the real world. These are not simply aliens or creatures; these are real world thugs. You gotta love characters that say things like "We'll attack that costumed clown like a team...Just like the Avengers themselves!" This is the way dialogue should be. The "Essential" collection itself is very good, except for the absence of color. However, if you're here for the drama, then you'll give it a pass. Also, Jack Kirby is the king, so you can see beyond the absence. Yes, we're all waiting for the return of the paperback editions of Masterworks, but until then, "Essentials" will have to do. No matter, even in black and white, Captain America is a very colorful character!
Rating:
Summary: A Classic Hero Improved on by the Creator
Review: Having read some of the original Jack Kirby stories from the 1940's, the difference between those stories and the stories in this book are like night and day. While the original stories do have the rough feel and the original inspiration of the young master, the 1960's stories contained in this book are Kirby, whom I consider the principle writer of this series with Stan Lee only rewriting dialogue, at his peak. While his Marvel stories at that period contain his most famous works like the Fantastic Four and Thor which are awesome for sheer grandure and spectacle, it is Captain America that stands apart as his most kinetic work ever. Forced to work on a human scale with the relatively earthbound limits of the character, Kirby more than compensated with sheer action. Few other artists could show battles that were so wild with Cap regularly taking on dozens of foes at a time, or in single combat against the seemingly invincible, and yet, make it feel so believable that he would win in the end. Combine that with thrilling stories that serve as the perfect framing for the thrills that never feels like padding, and you have superhero excitement at its finest in its own manner. Jack Kirby set much of the style of what superhero stories are like, and even if you think that that Kirby's influence has straightjacketed the medium, it is still worth seeing how the master did to get that influence, and if you read this book, you'll see why.
Rating:
Summary: Second Volume: Top-Notch Comics, Dull White Paper
Review: I liked this second Essential Captain America volume a lot better than the first. I think the 20-page story format (introduced in the late 60s when the strip switched from TALES OF SUSPENSE to CAPTAIN AMERICA) gives the stories more elbow room than the 10-page chapters I suffered through in the previous volume. The narrative approach in this one is much more visual and less wordy. The pacing is smoother. And the stories have a bit more complexity to them beyond Captain America kicking ... out of the Red Skull and Batroc while lecturing them on the virtues of Truth, Justice, Determination, and so forth (although there's still a fair amount of that here (it's Captain America, after all)). I don't think more than a few stories in this 500+ page volume have been reprinted anywhere before; not in the Marvel Masterworks format and not in the 70's era MARVEL DOUBLE FEATURE reprint comic I read sometimes as a kid. So this is 99% new material for the majority of us (unless you actually have some of the original comics). A common complaint with the Marvel Essentials books has to do with the black-and-white format. While most of the artwork here looks pretty good in black and white (particularly the fluid, eyeball-soothing Gene Colan work that dominates the second half of the book), I've noticed that over the last year or so Marvel has changed the paper they use on this series from a bright white color to a dull white or light gray. Black-and-white reprinting of color comics is usually acceptable to me, but black-and-light-gray reprinting really begins to push the envelope. Since the Essentials volumes are still the best value (per pound) in comicbook reprints, I suppose I shouldn't critique this one point too much. But I recommend using a strong light.
Rating:
Summary: Second Volume: Top-Notch Comics, Dull White Paper
Review: I liked this second Essential Captain America volume a lot better than the first. I think the 20-page story format (introduced in the late 60s when the strip switched from TALES OF SUSPENSE to CAPTAIN AMERICA) gives the stories more elbow room than the 10-page chapters I suffered through in the previous volume. The narrative approach in this one is much more visual and less wordy. The pacing is smoother. And the stories have a bit more complexity to them beyond Captain America kicking ... out of the Red Skull and Batroc while lecturing them on the virtues of Truth, Justice, Determination, and so forth (although there's still a fair amount of that here (it's Captain America, after all)). I don't think more than a few stories in this 500+ page volume have been reprinted anywhere before; not in the Marvel Masterworks format and not in the 70's era MARVEL DOUBLE FEATURE reprint comic I read sometimes as a kid. So this is 99% new material for the majority of us (unless you actually have some of the original comics). A common complaint with the Marvel Essentials books has to do with the black-and-white format. While most of the artwork here looks pretty good in black and white (particularly the fluid, eyeball-soothing Gene Colan work that dominates the second half of the book), I've noticed that over the last year or so Marvel has changed the paper they use on this series from a bright white color to a dull white or light gray. Black-and-white reprinting of color comics is usually acceptable to me, but black-and-light-gray reprinting really begins to push the envelope. Since the Essentials volumes are still the best value (per pound) in comicbook reprints, I suppose I shouldn't critique this one point too much. But I recommend using a strong light.
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