Captain America Comic Starting Points Guide

So it's one of those bad news, good news situations.

Bad news? Falcon and Winter Soldier is now over.

Good news? That show was actually based upon

comic books, so there's still plenty of entertainment

to enjoy. But more on that in a moment. Everyone

out there, I'm Dan, aka The Comic Concierge,

and this is one of my starting points videos.

And usually with starting points videos, I'm

looking ahead to the new Week in Comics, picking

out ongoing series starting new arcs, new number

ones, but that's not what this is. Here I'm looking

at the history of Captain America and picking

out different starting points. So if you want

to read more about the character, and I mean

character in the plural, as there have been a

number of different people to don the title of

Captain America, these will all be great comics

for you to read. And let me explain what this

video is. This is not a list of the best Captain

America comics. Something like Captain America

No More I think is a great story, but not necessarily

the greatest place to start reading Captain America.

This is designed so whether you've never read

a Captain America comic before or a comic book

before, these are all comics you can pick up

and you don't necessarily need any type of background

knowledge. They're all extremely welcoming to

new readers. So I'm going to try to give you

a lot of different flavors and a lot of different

styles of the character. and characters, so no

matter your taste in books, hopefully there'll

be something here for you to enjoy, something

that will catch your interest. I thought I'd

start with a comic book that is getting a lot

of attention because of the TV show. I think

more attention now than it ever did because of

this showing up of Isaiah Bradley in Falcon and

Winter Soldier, and that's Captain America, Red,

White, and Black. This is written by Robert Morales

and Kylo Baker, and reading this, I read it for

the first time, honestly. Recently because of

the TV show and I was just blown away with just

how abrasive it was as a comic book clearly taking

inspirations from things like the Tuskegee experiment

and other racial undergoings of World War two

and it does not hold back I'm actually surprised

Marvel was willing to release this because it's

violent at times It does not necessarily leave

any prisoners and it's a very pointed criticism

I think even of Marvel and as well as America

during this time the negative thing with this

though is that it's kind of hard to find, unfortunately.

If you have Marvel Unlimited or Comicology, you

can find it there and read it digitally. If you

want to read it physically, if you hate digital

comics, unfortunately, you're kind of out of

luck right now. I think I looked at Amazon and

you can buy the hardcover for like $900 or even

the single issues are really expensive because,

you know, speculators be speculating. But hopefully

Marvel will see all this attention this book

is getting in. Reprint it in some way or fashion,

but if you are really interested like I said

You don't necessarily have to spend that amount

of money. You can check out Marvel Unlimited

You can get a free trial or comics ology and

spend you know a fraction of that and read this

book and it's really deserving of it The arc

style is definitely different. I think some people

might be a little bit taken back by it but I

think allow it to kind of take you in and Understand

the story that it's telling and I do plan on

doing another video specifically on this comic

because there's a lot to dive into I'll just

say that if there's there's one comic that would

appeal to those that are not really into superhero

stuff, this one would be it. This would be the

one I would recommend out of all the books I'll

talk about today. So I thought I'd switch over

the focus on Steve Rogers' time as Captain America.

Yes. Even though Steve Rogers was not in this

show, his presence was clearly there. And I can't

not talk about Captain America and focusing a

lot about the man who made Captain America into

the role that it is. And there are a lot of Captain

America books that do talk about his time during

World War II. If I was going to recommend one

of them, it would be Captain America White, which

is written by Jeff Lowe with art by Tim Seale.

And this is part of their color series that they've

done for Marvel. You know, they had the Spider

-Man book, Daredevil, Hulk, and eventually, America

white which was the last one they did it did

take you know forever to come out but eventually

it did and you saw this mission of Captain America

and meeting up with Nick Fury and the Howling

Commandos for the first time and that is probably

the best part of this book is just the the back

and forth between Fury and Rogers because you

definitely see that I don't necessarily see eye

-to -eye at first Fury doesn't necessarily buy

into this Boy Scout of Steve Rogers he thinks

he's just like this pawn of the middle -tailed

complex, but they get into, you know, form a

relationship as they see that, you know, maybe

they're into this fight for the same reasons.

I love Tim Sale's art. I'm not a huge Jeff Loeb

fan, but when he teams up with Tim Sale, just

magic happens in the comic book world, and that's

the case. Maybe it's Sale just, you know, being

able to find what works with his work and utilizing

that. So if you're looking into getting into

more Steve Rogers or World War II, this is one

I would recommend. What I think you're gonna

notice with this list is that it's probably much

more modern I don't not gonna have a lot of older

older comics because again I'm thinking of people

that are coming into the hobby for the first

time or have not read a lot of Marvel or Captain

America books and sometimes those older books

are a little bit difficult to get into that's

why you're gonna notice a more modern stuff here

so the purists out there that are gonna get angry

about that that's the reason why I will talk

about some old books don't worry there will be

some Jack Kirby in here I cannot not talk about

Jack Kirby but unfortunately just sometimes those

older books are certainly written during a certain

time and place. if you like these books and you

really enjoy them, then maybe go back and read

some of the old ones because they're a little

bit easier to chew on when you have some experience.

At least that's my personal take. But so we talked

about Steve Rogers role as Captain America and

we're already taking a detour to someone else

playing the role as Captain America. And this

was a book I actually completely missed and didn't

know existed until I started kind of researching

this list. And that's Captain America Patriot.

This came out in 2010 and tells the story of

Jeff Mace. who may not be a name that many people

even know about. Again, this is part of the Marvel

Knights line, so it's not necessarily in technically

continuity. It's kind of in between Marvel Max,

which is the adult stuff, and regular Marvel.

Ultimately, that's not important. Again, this

is about Jeff Mace, who was the third Captain

America based in this story, and he started actually

as this Patriot character. Jeff Mace has a very

similar story to Steve Rogers where he did try

to sign up and become part of World War II to

be enlisted in the army, but he was rejected

because of medical issues. That didn't stop him,

though. Although he was homebound, he became

this character, the Patriot, and dressed up and

fought crime and mostly kind of mob bosses and

other people that were low -time Nazi, like saboteurs

and things like that. But eventually... He ended

up growing in that role and becoming the third

Captain America after the Captain America that

replaced Steve Rogers died. And what's really

interesting about Jeff Mase's story is that he

is just a normal guy. As I mentioned, he was

medically rejected and what you see in him is

struggle with responsibility on this role. Both

on a physical sense and on what it represents

as well. You know when he's tussling with some

villains They just notice like and make fun of

the fact that like well captain america You seem

slower now people catch his shield because he

can't throw it as hard as other individuals Even

namor is it was a big part of this doesn't necessarily

respect him because he's not steve rogers. He's

not the person that has earned the right to wear

the stars and stripes, but you see him progress

in that role. He also struggles with responsibility

of the role as well and how it limits what he

can do, how he can't even go to a friend's funeral

because that friend was dishonorably discharged

from the army even though it wasn't necessarily

for legitimate reason. It's also a time and place

we don't see a lot of stories really take place.

Right after World War II or as the Cold War is

heating up and you have a very different conflict

obviously. fighting the Nazis, and they're fighting

other individuals. And I thought it was a great

examination on the role of Captain America and

every facet of it. I think you could read this

and realize why holding the shield, which was

a big part of Falcon and Winter Soldier, is what

it is. It has very similar themes in that way,

but just in a very different time and place.

And speaking of time, we have Captain America,

Man Out of Time. And really, I could have done

a Captain America starting points video just

about Mark Wade's run on the character of Captain

America, because he has so many different stories.

He has the Captain America Returns story, which

you can check out. Also, the later run he did

was Chris Amney, which is fantastic, one of my

personal favorite Marvel books over the last

few years. But specifically, I'm looking at Captain

America, Man Out of Time here. In this sixth

place, right after Steve Rogers is unfrozen from

the ice, you know, as the Avengers look down

upon him, just realizing that he, in fact, is

Steve Rogers. And after they're kind of turned

to stone, I don't want to give it anything away,

he gets lost in New York, you know, Home Alone

style, working with Rick Jones to figure out

what is happening. He's not believing what is

going on, thinking into some sort of trick or

some sort of playing of the mind. and he's getting

exposed in New York kind of on his own. And you

just see him trying to realize what in the world

is happening as. this is not the new york he

knows and loves what this does is allow you to

see just how much of the world has changed from

when captain america first fell into the ice

until now just how much the world has evolved

and is different like one of the first things

that happen he ends up getting attacked because

he tries to save someone and it doesn't go necessarily

as he expected and it's it's a lot of that him

like very much the the fish out of water story

but captain america mark wood is one of the best

captain america writers ever he just really hits

the sensibilities of the character. He's also

really good at capturing the old as well as the

new. So this is a story right in his wheelhouse.

And when you have art by Brian Hitch, it's also

going to look great as well. Most of the Captain

America books don't necessarily focus on the

man out of time aspect all that much anymore.

I mean, by this time, you know, he's been out

of the ice for so long, you can kind of understand

it. So a book like this is really just a good

refresher to realize what that effect can have

on a person. It also just has that old -school

Captain America feel as well so it may not work

for everyone because some of the things do feel

a little dated even though this is a recent comic

but if you really like that take on the character

you're really going to enjoy this story. I could

not do this list without at least doing one Jack

Curry take on the character of Captain America.

That would be sacrilegious. I did do a video

on Captain America number one that you may want

to check out. That could also be a starting point.

I mean, that is the very first issue. But something

more modern is Captain America Mad Bomb. That

takes place in Captain America issues 193 to

200. And the story is exactly like it sounds.

This mad bomb, which is shaped like a brain,

goes off in the city of New York and Captain

America and Falcon have to try to stop the city

of New York from going crazy and killing itself,

literally. They have to stop normal citizens

who simply can't control themselves from hurting

each other. It's a very delicate situation. It's

a very challenging situation. It just shows the

amazing imagination of someone like Jack Kirby

who clearly took stuff that he learned from doing

fantastic. Fantastic Four and New Gods and brought

it into the world of Captain America, a character

he knew pretty well before writing this story

and he's written so many great Captain America

books and many would argue this may actually

be one of his best if not his best take on the

character. And what's also really cool about

this story is that last year they did a Marvel

snapshots book that touched upon this story which

is kind of a side story that I told more of the

street level perspective of this. It was written

by Mark Russell with art by Raymond K. Perez,

and it's a good partnership with this book. I

would say you can kind of read that snapshot

book without reading Mad Bum. It would probably

help. I actually read it before reading Mad Bum,

and I got it well enough. I actually really love

that issue, but reading that and reading this...

together you get to kind of the complete picture

of what happened. And again, even though Captain

America is not necessarily in that snapshot story

all that much, his presence is there the entire

time. We're actually going to talk about now

one of my favorite comic book issues of all time,

Captain America Das, which is written by John

Nane Niber and Art by John Cassidy. This was

released around 2003 and this is dealing with

the aftermath of September 11th. That's where,

you know, the dust title comes from, you know,

coming from the ash of the buildings falling.

And, you know, this came out obviously very two

years after the events, but I think they were

still very much within the public consciousness

of the time. And they, I know they were when

I read it and To me, that just showed the power

of a character like Captain America and very

much how he could represent what is right. Unfortunately,

I think the series as it went on as a whole kind

of in a way went back against a lot of the stereotypes

that this issue fought against, you know, a lot

of the... Negative hate that went towards the

Muslims during at the time that this is a very

much good representation of how we should not

go that route But unfortunately as this series

went on I felt like it did but as a single issue

I think it's a remarkable piece About a time

that you know has been represented in a comics

a lot, especially in Marvel This to me was one

of the best takes on that time It also is just

a great looking book in a lot of part due to

the coloring and because you know You have that

dust like feel throughout when you do finally

see Captain America It's just everything he represents

everything he can represent There's just that

element of hope there now in a time and place

when it was really needed So it may not be as

effective, you know 20 years later after those

events, but at the time I think it was it still

personally stuck with me So maybe I'm overrating

it in that sense, but I think it's a single work.

It is still really good And again, it's very

much a one -shot It doesn't necessarily need

what comes after what came before it is very

much of that time and place and if you want to

read something that is just Putting Captain America

in a real -world event that is outside of the

world of World War two. This would be the book

I would recommend Which over to the other side

of the spectrum with Captain America Denman running

and this was a book that I think probably went

under the radar because this came out in 2002

and it's actually Captain America working with

soldiers in South America and those soldiers

actually end up. turning on him because they're

looking to kind of make a buck for themselves

and imagine three kings that obviously took place

in Iraq while this taking place in South America

and throwing Captain America into the mix as

well and the soldiers maybe are a little bit

more evil in that sense and thinking that this

does come out a year after September 11th a comic

that sees soldiers in a negative light isn't

super popular which is why I think this was maybe

under the rug a little bit but That's what really

makes it interesting in a way, seeing Captain

America in this light and outside of the normal

setting that we're usually seeing him in. This

isn't World War II. This isn't America. This

is another country. And seeing him working against

soldiers and their ideology compared to his,

it's a good kind of juxtaposition of those two

worlds, maybe a little bit more heightened. And

it also has that art style that I really dug

as well. Again, it may not work for everyone.

It's very stylized. It's not a silly something

you technically see. in a Captain America book,

which is why I liked it. But again, if you want

something that's off the beaten path from the

normal Captain America stories, if Captain America

is a character you typically don't like or like

the message that he's portraying, this may actually

be a good book to read because I feel like it

does a lot to counteract that common take on

the character. Before we get into other characters

that take on the Captain America role, I have

one more story, although it kind of has other

people taking the role of Captain America with

Captain America the Chosen, and this is another

one of those Marvel Knights books. As I'm doing

this list, I'm actually really missing Marvel

Knights because it's kind of this prestige title

where you got an author like David Morrell who

wrote Rambo to do a Captain America book and

you know Rambo obviously things get very extreme

with the movies but the very first movie you

know is this take on veterans and you know and

kind of the impact of war which is kind of what

Captain America The Chosen is. It's a very different

take on the character of Captain America because

Captain America isn't necessarily really in it.

It's again about the role of Captain America

and soldiers in general. It focuses on a soldier

in Afghanistan. What's interesting about this

book is that There's a science fiction aspect

of it matched with a very grounded story. Like

this obviously takes place in Afghanistan. These

are soldiers that look like real soldiers dealing

with firefights that feel real, but Captain America

is in this story. It's a hard balance to strike,

but I thought it did a good job of it. And we

rarely see Marvel comics take place in Afghanistan

or Iraq. They kind of stick away from it. This

is one of the few. Despite being very much in

this realistic setting, there is a bit of a science

fiction. take on this as well and despite being

what should seem like something at odds it ends

up working pretty well because I think ultimately

it's just the story of inspiration that is through

and through from the beginning to end centered

on Captain America but I think what it's really

trying to do is shift the focus to real soldiers

in a way again not necessarily trying to make

a political point per se but just the act of

these individuals and what they're going through

and the choices they have to make so again this

is another book I think would be really good

for someone who is not your typical fan of superheroes

or your typical fan of comics in a way, because

it's kind of like a superhero story that you've

never really seen before, because it's a superhero

story that has superheroes in it, but they're

not at all the focus of the story. All right,

let's take a break from Steve Rogers' Captain

America and move over to John Walker. And with

John Walker, you have issues like 323 that...

is his first appearance at show. He was kind

of a D bag right from the start. He's also had

his time as Captain America, but there's also

Captain America 354, which is his first appearance

as U .S. agent after the failings of Captain

America. But if I'm going to talk about a series

that's a great starting point for John Walker,

it is actually the most recent U .S. agent series.

Again, I know I'm talking about something more

recent, but I think it's very helpful that it

is recent. And this is written by Christopher

Priest, who I think does a good job of approaching

a lot of similar topics as the TV show. Falcon

and Winter Soldier, in a lot of ways, doing a

better job of kind of expanding upon them in

a way that really you get when you have a limited

creative team compared to an entire TV show.

John Walker is one of those characters that's

really hard to write well for a long period of

time. Him showing up for an issue or two as someone

that you love to see punched in the face is one

thing, but when you have entire books writing

him, that's an entirely different story. And

I thought this did a good job of making him more

consumable as a character and not necessarily

making him more sympathetic, but giving you more

- understanding of who he is and making him more

captivating of a character and less annoying

of a character that you just want to see kicked

in the face in as many times as possible. Of

course I could not do this video and not talk

about Sam Wilson's time, Falcon's time as Captain

America and looking at the the best starting

point it would have to be all -new Captain America

and this is when he first takes on the role.

This is written by Rick Remender with art by

Steve Imminen. And remember to really get into

kind of the toll it takes to try to live up to

the super soldier to live up to Steve Rogers.

This is dealing with the repercussions of the

dimension Z story where Steve Rogers goes to

the other dimension and. because of a lot of

gobbledygook he ends up becoming old and kind

of losing the superhero super soldier serum in

a way and you need someone to replace him. You

can see a lot of the framework of the tv show

here you don't want your soldiers in here as

well and the back and forth between both of them.

It is a little bit more comedic and rivalry is

a little bit hotter in the tv show but a lot

of the same dynamic can be found. I will say

Politically, this is not as charged as that per

se. I'll get to another series if you want something

along those lines. But I think it does get into

just the challenge of living up to an icon like

Steve Rogers and the challenges that Sam Wilson

does go through because of that. So if you really

want to see more of that, kind of get the idea

of where that part of the TV show is kind of

coming from, this would be the series I would

recommend checking out. Now, if you want a Captain

America book that is much more politically focused,

I would advise getting Captain America Sam Wilson.

And this took place when Nick Spencer took over

the character of Captain America. You had this

book. You also had Captain America's Steve Rogers

going on. And hey, great, we have two Captain

Americas. Unfortunately, that's when Captain

America got his groove back and also decided

to be an agent of Hydra because, you know. reasons

and that necessarily didn't go all that well.

We're still dealing with repercussions of that

book in Ta -Nehisi Coach's run that's going on

right now, which is why I actually didn't bring

that into this video because that is not necessarily

a New Readler friendly run compared to some other

ones I talked about. And this Captain America

Sam Wilson book, though, specifically is very

politically charged. It gets into priest brutality.

This is the idea of protection, the role of the

government, race, pretty much all the issues

that we get in the TV show are brought here.

Some may say a little clumsy compared to the

TV show and other comics. I wouldn't necessarily

disagree. There's certainly passion in this book.

It's not necessarily the best Captain America

story I would advise reading. However, if you

want that flavor, if you really enjoy that take

on the character and just kind of no -holds -barred

approach to these important issues, this is probably

the most recent book you would get that takes

on that type of story. I'm going to talk about

one more Falcon Related Captain America story

and technically it's not Captain America, but

hey, this is inspired by Falcon and Winter Soldier

So why not talk about Falcon and the Winter Soldier?

No, I mean actually the Falcon and the Winter

Soldier comic that came out in 2020 a book that

I think was a victim of bad timing that was probably

designed to come out around the same time as

a TV show but because of you know, a pandemic

things happened and it got really kind of Missed

by a lot of people including myself I did recently

catch up with it, and I actually really liked

it. This is very much written in the tone and

style of the cinematic universe. So if you really

enjoyed the TV show, this is what I would say.

It's like the downloadable content of the TV

show where it's not necessarily to the same level

as deep or as well polished, but it's a lot of

what you like. And if you want more of it, this

is kind of there for you. And despite the fact

that it was overly missed, now we are seeing

it come out in collected form. And again, it's

available digitally. So if you're like myself

and missed it, I'm actually surprised about how

good it looked as well. The art was pretty on.

So this would be the one book I'd recommend if

you want something that is as close to the TV

show as possible. This would probably be your

best bet regarding the all the comics I talked

about today now I usually end the starting points

videos with my pick of the week the book I am

most excited about so I thought I'd and this

video with a book I'm most excited about recommending.

The book I think is the best starting point for

Captain America because personally biased, that

is my starting point with Captain America and

is Captain America, Winter Soldier, the Ed Brubaker,

Steve Epstein run on the character and came out

in 2004. And this is a defining run for the character.

Now this is very much the Captain America we

know now, you know, again, creating Winter Soldier,

redefining the history of a character of Captain

America that I think kind of brought him in the

the forefront in a way. Why I think this is a

good starting point for Captain America is because

one, it's a fantastic comic series. It's I think

one of the best Marvel runs period over the last

20 years or so, maybe longer, maybe the best

Captain America run of all time. I can't say

I've not read enough Captain America to claim

that it's my personal favorite, but what's really

good about it is that this defines the character

of Captain America for this age. The Captain

America we see in the MCU, the Captain America

we see in Marvel right now, I think is a reflection

of the Captain America that is kind of built

up in this series. You know, it looked at his

past in a way that really hadn't been in quite

some time. Again, looking at his relationship

with Bucky, having the galls of bringing back

Bucky back, which no one ever thought would ever

happen. Not only did they think it wouldn't happen,

they thought it would be awful, ended up being

fantastic, and it was just consistently great

throughout. So I think if I was going to recommend

one book, one Captain America book, that is both

really welcome to new readers and a fantastic

read. It is 100 % Edward Baker's run on Captain

America. If I'm being honest, this is a big reason

why I'm even doing this video. It's a book that

helped me kind of fall in love with comics to

that level. It allowed me to see how comics can

touch upon something as realistic as World War

II. a story that deals with a cosmic cube and

it can touch upon things like PTSD and the wars

that we deal with today through a character that's

dressed up in stars and stripes. Again, it's

not necessarily the first comic to ever do that,

but my personal experience is with the first

time I've ever read it. So that's why it's kind

of the thing I'm most excited about ever because

I know it was a good starting point because again,

it was a starting point for me and I was going

into it knowing very little about the Marvel

Universe at that time and place. I just know

that I kind of like Captain America as a character.

I loved history and when those two things combined,

I think it became magic. And again, it's just

fantastic. I'm not necessarily breaking new ground

here. People, of course, love this run. It's

why Captain America Winter Soldier was the second

movie we got. But I think I can't not talk about

the obvious when I love it as much as I do. But

now I hope you enjoyed this video. My hope is

that for those that wanted to jump into the world

of Captain America in the comic book sense and

were worried about all the continuity you need

to know or where to begin, that this hopefully

answered a lot of those questions. And let me

know what you're excited about in reading. If

any of these caught your eye that you may try

out or maybe other starting points that I didn't

miss. I know I've read a lot of Captain America

stuff, but I've not read everything. So I'm sure

there's even better starting points that maybe

I didn't mention at all this year. in the comment

section below. What did you think of Falcon and

Winter Soldier? How did you think it ended? I

am recording this before it ended, so don't spoil

it for me in the future. I appreciate that. But

thank you for taking the time to check this out.

Just remember that comics are for everyone. The

key is finding the right one. Until next time,

keep reading.