THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA: SENTINEL OF LIBERTY #1 - 4

"FIRST FLIGHT OF THE EAGLE" | "BETRAYED BY AGENT X"
"BATTLEGROUND: PARIS" | "ANGELS OF DEATH ANGELS OF HOPE"

Storytellers: Fabian Nicieza & Kevin Maguire | Pencilers (issue 4): Steve Carr & Kevin West
Inks: Joe Rubinstein (issue 1) & Terry Austin (issues 2 - 4) | Inking Assist: Tom Christopher
Letters: Richard Starkings | Color Art: Paul Mounts
Logo & Book Design: Joe Kaufman | Assistant Editor: Barry Dutter | Editor: Mike Rockwitz
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco
Special Thanks to: Mark Gruenwald, Gregory Wright & Suzanne Dell'orto

Return with me now, to the dark days of 1991. As Marvel descended into the abyss that would result in the likes of X-FORCE and Todd McFarlane's SPIDER-MAN, they also gave us... this. An uneven, but mostly very nice retelling of Captain America's origin by Fabian Nicieza, Kevin Maguire, Joe Rubinstein, and Terry Austin. This series was published in the "Prestige" format, running 64 ad-free pages per issue. It's something I had had on my "to read" radar for years, but only recently got around to it, and now I find myself wondering why I took so long!

So, look -- right off the bat, I'll admit I haven't read many versions of Cap's origin. I've read variations on some of his earliest adventures, in various mini-series, flashback stories, and so forth. But the actual origin -- Dr. Erskine/Reinstein, the super-soldier serum, the Nazi saboteur -- I'm pretty sure I've only ever read that in the Roger Stern/John Byrne encapsulation from CAPTAIN AMERICA #255. So when it comes to the material presented here by Nicieza and Maguire, I honestly have no idea what they've kept from prior versions and what they've created anew.

But -- taking the above into account, after reading this series, I feel like the filmmakers behind CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER must have looked to this story for inspiration, at least with regards to the early parts of the movie. Heck, a near-direct line can be drawn from the first issue to the film's first act, taking into account the typical changes one generally sees in Hollywood adaptations.

The story begins with young Steve Rogers out at a movie with his friends. The newsreel of the war overseas horrifies him, and Steve immediately goes to enlist. Though initially rejected, he's picked by a few officers in the recruitment center as a candidate for their special project. Steve spends some time rooming with other candidates, as all are subjected to tests and intensive training in combat and military strategy. Eventually Steve is selected as the guinea pig for Project: Rebirth, a process which endows him with superhuman strength and stamina, making him the United States' first super soldier.

Project: Rebirth's head scientist, Doctor Erskine, is assassinated by a Nazi operative immediately after the experiment, and the military decides to hide Steve at an army base called Camp Lehigh to keep him safe. Meanwhile, the rest of Erskine's staff is picked off one by one. Eventually Steve leaves Lehigh to stop a plot to steal military supplies, after which his superiors allow him to act as America's symbol, Captain America.

Nazi super-operatives working for the mysterious Agent X kidnap Steve's commanding officer, Colonel Fletcher, who has memorized the only part of the super soldier process not committed to paper. Cap rescues Fletcher's assistant, Lt. Cynthia Glass, but the Nazis escape with Fletcher. Cap, Cynthia, and Cap's young friend, Bucky, pursue the Nazis to occupied France, where Fletcher dies before giving up his secrets. Cap defeats all the Nazis, but is captured by the Red Skull.

Cap and friends are taken to a concentration camp in Germany, where the star-spangled hero battles the Red Skull in gladiatorial combat. Meanwhile, Bucky frees himself and the camp's prisoners, and mounts an escape. Cap defeats the Skull and our heroes make their getaway to England. Eventually, Cap returns to the United States a hero, and Bucky becomes his partner.

There's more to the story than the above, of course, including a twist which I choose not to reveal, even though it's unfortunately telegraphed far too obviously by Nicieza an issue or so in advance. The artwork starts off very strong for the first two installments, but for whatever reason (I'm assuming deadlines), Maguire abandons ship as penciler halfway through, and the subsequent work by Steve Carr and Kevin West isn't nearly as good. Indeed, the entire series' artwork is plagued by fill-ins and replacements -- as noted in the credits above, Joe Rubinstein only inks issue 1 before giving way to Terry Austin, and one of Austin's issues features an inking assist from Tom Christopher. I am by no means in favor of late-shipping issues to accommodate slower creative teams on monthly series, but for something like this -- a high quality, prestige series of finite length -- I see no reason why Marvel couldn't simply have delayed a few issues (or simply published the thing bi-monthly or even quarterly) to allow for a consistent art team all the way through.

I also don't love the third and fourth chapters, featuring Cap traveling overseas to fight the Red Skull. Nicieza started off with all the action set on the homefront, and I feel like keeping it that way would have helped the series to feel more coherent and less... I dunno... haphazard? The first two issues are very nice, ambling along at a perfect pace, seemingly covering weeks or even months in their span, then suddenly the third and fourth issues take place pretty much entirely in a single day or two, resulting in a sense of narrative whiplash.

That first issue, though (and much of the second) ...! All the faults the back half of the series may have are practically canceled out by the beautiful work from Nicieza and Maguire in the initial installment. It's a terrific period piece, lovingly drawn by Maguire and beautifully colored by Paul Mounts (who maintains that job through the entire series, making him and Richard Starkings on letters the only artistic constants in this thing).

I'm not sure I recommend THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN AMERICA in its entirety... it loses something as it progresses, with each issue incrementally a bit less enjoyable than than the last -- but the first issue on its own is just about the most perfect telling of Cap's origin I can imagine (and, as noted above, seems pretty clearly to be a major inspiration for Marvel Stuidos' CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER). I can see myself returning to issue 1 now and then, but I doubt I'll ever read the series in full again.