In honor of the seventy-fifth anniversary of Captain America this month, we're doing a countdown of your favorite Captain America stories of all-time.
You all voted, now here are the results of what you chose as the 75 Greatest Captain America Stories!
Enjoy!
75. "Celluloid Heroes" Captain America #261-263
As I noted years ago in an installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed, J.M. DeMatteis' debut on Captain America came about due to unusual circumstances. His story was originally intended for a Treasury Edition to tie in with the Captain America TV movie coming out at the time. That never came to fruition, so that extra-sized story was adapted into a three-part story where Captain America gets caught up in a scheme involving the filming of a Captain America movie and the return of two old Captain America characters, Nomad (who was Captain America's short-lived identity when he quit being Captain America - DeMatteis and Zeck would later give Jack Monroe the Nomad identity) and Ameridroid (a giant android who looks like Captain America but has the mind of a Nazi scientist), all under the evil direction of the Red Skull!
This was DeMatteis and artist Mike Zeck's first crack at Captain America and they quickly showed why Marvel would be smart to keep them on the book full-time, which is exactly what happened.
74. "When Free Men Shall Stand" Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #6-7
Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty was an intriguing series that was basically Legends of the Dark Knight, only for Captain America. You know, stories set at all different times in Captain America's career. Originally intended to be a reunion of Mark Waid and Andy Kubert (from their Ka-Zar days), Marvel instead decided to put Kubert on the main Captain America title and move Ron Garney to this new series. This two-parter was done by Roger Stern, Ron Frenz and Roger Langridge and it tells the story of an ancestor of Captain America, Captain Steve Rogers who becomes a sort of Captain America prototype during the American Revolution (he got the costume from a British costume party, where they had some idiot dressed up as a symbol of the dumb Yankee opposition)...
The story is told in a conversation between OUR Steve Rogers and the General in charge of the Super Soldier Project about Steve's ancestor. We later learn that Steve's sketches of what his ancestor might have looked like, which he gave to the general, inspired the design of Captain America's costume.
73. "Super-Patriot is Here" Captain America #323
This issue (which sported the Marvel 25th Anniversary cover that I featured in the banner above) introduced us to Johnny Walker, the Super-Patriot. Something that Mark Gruenwald (who wrote the issue, which was drawn by Paul Neary and John Beatty) liked to do a lot was to create characters who would serve as contrasts with Captain America. Here, Gruenwald uses the Super-Patriot as a symbol for the sort of mid-80s Reaganite idea of patriotism.
Super-Patriot is able to control the media narrative because SHIELD has asked Captain America to keep a low profile after he was forced to kill a terrorist in a previous story. In the end, though, Captain America gives a press conference where he addresses the killing he had to do. He also purposefully ignores the Super-Patriot, thereby squelching their beef in the media and enraging the Super-Patriot. This becomes important as the Super-Patriot ultimately is chosen by the U.S. government to become the new Captain America later in Gruenwald's run.
Go to the next page for #75-73...
72. "Fear Grows in Brooklyn" Captain America #241
This first meeting between Captain America and the Punisher is perhaps best remembered for the striking cover to the issue...
Anyhow, the story (written by Mike W. Barr and drawn by Frank Springer and Pablo Marcos), as you might expect, revolves around Captain America trying to keep the Punisher from killing some mob guys. Captain America is interestingly enough very understanding of the Punisher here...
71. "Power to the People" Captain America #143
In a lot of ways, "Power to the People" (by Gary Friedrich and John Romita) is similar to a lot of Marvel Comic stories of the era, in the sense that the civil unrest in the issue is revealed to be caused by a supervillain. In this case, it is the Red Skull who is pushing for militant actions by African-Americans. However, Friedrich splits from the standard type of resolution to these stories by having Falcon acknowledge the importance of the cause even if this particular incident was caused by an evil manipulator like the Skull. This was the issue that really pushed the Falcon down a path of becoming more of a socially aware superhero (he was already a social worker in the comic, but it was very much an apolitical deal), which has been a good hook for him in the years since (he also got a new costume in Cap #144).
70. "I Am Legend" Captain America #383
This issue commemorated Captain America's 50th anniversary (yes, it has been twenty-five years since 1990 - I am sure that makes you feel old) in a story by Mark Gruenwald, Ron Lim and Danny Bulanadi where Captain America travels through a world of American myth hunting down Father Time (who was one of the first characters Stan Lee ever created for Marvel). Cap meets Johnny Appleseed, John Henry and Paul Bunyon before meeting Uncle Sam himself...
69. "Arnim Zola - The Bio-Fanatic!" Captain America #206-212
This Jack Kirby written and drawn epic (inked by Frank Giacoia), really begins in Captain America #208, with the introduction of the evil geneticist, Arnim Zola. However, the whole reason Cap even comes into contact with Zola is because Cap was imprisoned in South America while trying to take down a bad guy known as the Swine. The Swine storyline was still being resolved when Cap runs into Zola, so I think I sort of have to wrap both runs together.
Anyhow, Zola is an amazing character
Go to the next page for #68-66!
68. "Cap's Night Out" Captain America #371
In this offbeat tale by Mark Gruenwald, Ron Lim and Danny Bulanadi, Captain America and Diamondback finally have a proper date together, and her friends Asp and Black Mamba from the Serpent Society follow them the whole night to make sure that they are not interrupted by the sort of supervillain shenanigans that tend to interrupt superhero dates all the time...
Cute stuff.
67. "When Wakes the Sleeper" Captain America #101-102
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby sure liked to use Cap storylines involving Sleepers. This one, involving the fourth Sleeper that Hitler came up with, at least was a memorable one, as this Sleeper robot was designed to burrow into the Earth and cause eruptions that could destroy the whole PLANET (under the idea that if Hitler couldn't have the world, NO ONE should have it). Cap manages to wrest the key that theoretically controls the Sleeper from the Red Skull in a tremendous battle in #101 but now he doesn't know what to DO with the key. In #102 (which was inked by Syd Shores) Cap and Sharon Carter are all that stands in the way of the total destruction of Earth and nothing that they are doing seems to help stop the Sleeper, until...
As you can see, though, the Skull has ideas now, ideas that bear fruition in a storyline that also appears later on this countdown.
66. "Someone Who Cares" Captain America #270
In this charming tale, Steve meets up with his old friend, Arnie Roth, who is now decades older than Steve.
Writer J.M. DeMatteis cleverly introduced one of the very first gay characters in Marvel Comics and one of the very first POSITIVE portrayals of a gay character (you know, off the top of my head, I don't recall if Arnie ever OFFICIALLY came out) and even uses it to draw Cap into an action plot worthy of the action masters, Mike Zeck and John Beatty, as Arnie's "roommate" is being used as part of some weird robot scheme. Arnie and his roomie's reunion is adorable. DeMatteis, Zeck and Beatty really pushed it as far as Marvel would allow them to at the time.