Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

Captain America

Falcon and the Winter Soldier Review!

by Leave a Comment

In the build to Falcon and the Winter Soldier, I talked a lot about the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s uncanny ability to merge influences. How – with the primary exception of Captain America: Winter Soldier – films are rarely a direct adaptation of one thing, and instead a merger of ideas, ultimately synthesizing to something new.

The end result is that I’ve rarely watched the MCU thinking too heavily about how “the comics did it better,” or falling back on the cliched evergreen truth: the book’s better than the movie. Mostly this is a testament to very strong storytelling, a remarkable blend of focus and quality control, and again, just enough remixing comic book influences to feel fresh on screen.

Falcon and The Winter Soldier is the most heavily I’ve felt the distractions of the source material. There are three distinct Marvel stories the TV series very openly pillages, and the one largely unique storyline – the post “blip” rise of the Flagsmashers – is so egregiously porous, that everything suffers. [Read more…] about Falcon and the Winter Soldier Review!

10 Best Captain America Comics of All Time!

by 2 Comments

A picture containing text, book, different Description automatically generated
[Captain America vol.8 #2 by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Sunny Gho, Joe Caramagna]
Captain America is as much a legacy and an ideal as an individual. Having such a split identity inherently creates problem—the stuff of dramatic tension; Cap’s not wholly unlike Spider-Man in that way. Add to that, however, the inextricably political and societal dimensions of Cap as a national treasure. Writers on the title have, since 1972 at least, dealt directly with America’s social and political ills, some more successfully than others, but none had ever explicitly addressed the deep-rootedness of our society’s systemic flaws until Mark Waid’s brief 1998/99 run. Yet it would take over another decade before they’d really be looked at again but without the naivete mainstream society could still afford in the 1990s.

Unlike the take-it-for-granted introduction of Cap to moviegoing audiences in 2011, the comics creators working on the monthly book over the decades knew that the concept of Captain America had increasingly become a hard sell. A superhero wearing a national flag screams nationalism, and yet Cap’s enemies—including his worst pretenders—are nationalists and ethno-fascists. He fights for “the American Dream,” and yet the last great run to seriously tout that idea without explicitly critiquing its foundations was Mark Waid’s in the late ’90s (although he does criticize how inaccessible it was becoming, leaving out a more honest look at American history until his superb Man Out of Time mini over a decade later).

In the 21st century, both concepts must struggle mightily for relevance. [Read more…] about 10 Best Captain America Comics of All Time!

When Captain America Quits: The History and Meaning of a Super Soldier’s Protest

by Leave a Comment

For generations, Steve Rogers, and several others, have stood as an example of an American ideal, charging into battle decked out in the red, white, and blue.

And when Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created Captain America in 1941, it was to be as a symbol of America’s best qualities in the face of Hitler’s expanding Nazi empire, even before the United States became officially involved in World War II. But to have a character draped in the colors of a nation is to permanently tie that hero to the real world. In a time when the United States fought against true evil, it was easy for the morals and message of Captain America to be clear cut and inspirational. But what happens when that character is pulled into the modern era and a time of grey morality and murky politics? [Read more…] about When Captain America Quits: The History and Meaning of a Super Soldier’s Protest

The Best Falcon & Winter Soldier Comics to Read With the MCU TV Launch!

by Leave a Comment

After an 18 month post Endgame pandemic hiatus, Marvel is coming back soaring onto Disney+ with a seemingly never-ending plan to release new entries in the MCU canon. Hot on the heels of the nine episode Disney+ WandaVision, the MCU’s 2021 TV takeover continues with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, starring Anthony Mackie in his role as Sam Wilson (Falcon) and Sebastian Stan in his role as Bucky Barnes (The Winter Soldier). The series promises to follow up on the big question on everyone’s mind following the conclusion of Avengers: Endgame – “Who Will Wield the Shield?” 

As comics readers know, this is far from the first time Steve Rogers has abdicated the star spangled heart of the Avengers, although the reasons (death, rapid aging, corrupted by a Hydra controlled cosmic cube) tend to oscillate. While Steve will always be the standard, there are plenty of great stories that deal with other heroes trying to fill his shoes, creating one of the best legacy mantles in the Marvel Universe. [Read more…] about The Best Falcon & Winter Soldier Comics to Read With the MCU TV Launch!

US Agent (John Walker) Reading Order

by Leave a Comment

At first glance, the US Agent looks and feels like a generic copy of Captain America. As you look deeper you instead begin to see that the US Agent represents a different interpretation of the same concept. Steve Rogers and John Walker both love America but while Rogers’s moral compass is more aligned with the nation and its people, Walker believes almost exclusively in its government. If Cap represents the idealized America that says it won World War II, US Agent top-down, “might make right” world that came after. The one that believed the power of the American military made its government infallible.

The character first appears in 1986 during Mark Gruenwald’s 10-year run on Captain America, and will make his live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Disney+’s “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” [Read more…] about US Agent (John Walker) Reading Order