Reprints Captain America #120-138.
Written by Stan Lee.
Penciled by Gene Colan and John Romita.
Inked by Joe Sinnott, Dick Ayers, Frank Giacoia, Bill Everett, Tom Palmer, Wally Wood and John Romita.
Summary:
A carnival hypnotist who goes by the name Suprema decides to use her hypnotic abilities for a life of crime. She captures SHIELD agent Dum Dum Dugan and forces him to reveal the location of SHIELD'S secret base. Captain America happens to be at the base, instructing agents in hand-to-hand combat.
Suprema hypnotizes SHIELD agents to do her bidding, including its director Nick Fury. Only Cap stands in the way of Suprema and world domination!
Later, Captain America tells Fury that he wants his girlfriend, agent Sharon Carter taken off field duty and put on a desk so that she is not putting her life on the line. If Fury refuses, Cap will no longer help SHIELD fight crime. Sharon complies, because she loves Cap. At the same time, Cap's enemy MODOK is concocting a scheme to destroy Captain America. He directs his AIM scientists to create a cyborg whose only purpose is to kill Cap!
Even though she's no longer a field agent, Sharon intervenes and helps Steve fight the cyborg. He mistakenly believes she (and Fury) has reneged on their agreement and breaks up with her. Sharon is devastated by this turn of events.
Feeling distraught over his break-up, Steve is looking for action to take his mind off Sharon. He hears about the capturing of Doctor Robert Hoskins in Vietnam and heads over there to rescue him. Cap isn't sure who is behind Hoskins' capture, since the doctor is an advocate of peace and respected by both sides in the conflict. It turns out to be the work of an unexpected super-villain!
Back in the states, a Harlem-based gangster named Diamond Head frames Falcon for murder. Sam will need Captain America's help if he wants to clear his name and take down Diamond Head.
Sometime after, a SHIELD scientist named Dr. Ralph Ryder creates a battle suit that will enable SHIELD agents to battle super-powered beings. Fury tries out the suit in a sparring session with Cap. However, SHIELD's headquarters are raided by AIM agents who intend to steal the suit and duplicate its technology.
Nick Fury says that anyone could have betrayed him, including Captain America himself. So he asks Tony Stark to build a new android that is capable of defeating Cap. Can the star-spangled Avenger defeat Android X-$?
Subsequently, Steve is feeling out of place and time in New York City, so he gets a motorcycle and hits the open road. Steve overhears members of the Satan's Angels biker gang talk about causing a riot at a rock festival. Only Captain America can prevent tragedy at the festival!
Steve keeps riding his motorcycle, getting as far as the Midwest. Unbeknownst to Cap, he's being tracked by his arch-nemesis the Red Skull! The villain plans to attack King Hassab of oil-rich Irabia, whose motorcade is close to Captain America. An attack on the king could plunge the world into a state of total war! Cap must keep the King Hassab safe and find a way to defeat Red Skull.
Shortly after that, Cap breaks up a riot on a college campus and encourages both sides to engage civilly with each other. A TV producer notices this and asks Captain America to speak on television about peaceful solutions to domestic conflicts.
Unfortunately for Cap, it's a set-up and he's attacked by his old enemy Batroc the leaper, master of Savate! Batroc is accompanied by Whirlwind and Porcupine, who form Batroc's Brigade. The criminals are being paid by a mysterious figure known as the Hood.
Steve keeps riding westward and winds up in the San Francisco Bay area. The Hood is also in the same area working on a scheme to defeat Captain America. He finds a very agile amnesiac who bears a striking resemblance to Cap's deceased partner Bucky Barnes. The young man is taken to the Hood's lair to be treated for amnesia.
The Hood is revealed to be Nazi war criminal Baron Von Strucker, master of weapons. He leaks news that Bucky is alive and under his care, hoping Captain America will pay him a visit. Cap takes the bait and is shocked to discover that the Hood is Nazi war criminal Baron Von Strucker, master of weapons. Strucker attacks Captain America with a crossbow, mace and a spear and has Cap on the ropes. However, Strucker is thwarted by Bucky, who turns on the baron and saves Cap.
With Bucky alive, his partnership with Captain America appears to be restored and Steve is overjoyed to learn that Bucky is alive. This is depressing news for Falcon, who thought he would become Cap's partner. But Captain America's joy is shortlived when Bucky attacks him!
Following the Bulldozer incident, a new super-duo is born when Steve and Sam decide to fight crime together! But Falcon's frustrated when he learns his nephew Jody is running numbers for a Harlem gangster named Stoneface. Jody tells his Uncle Sam that it's the best way to make money and says Stoneface's lawyers will help him if he's arrested.
However, when the police catch up with Jody, only Captain America shows up to vouch for him. It's up to Cap and Falc to bring Stoneface to justice and protect Jody and his family from the gangster's hired guns.
Next up, SHIELD scientist Dr. Erik Gorbo creates a super-strength serum out of blood cells taken from an ape. Gorbo turns into an ape while retaining his intelligence, plus the ability to telethapathically control animals. He uses this new power to rob banks and interfere with SHIELD efforts.
When Captain America and Falcon try to capture Gorbo, they all wind up underground. This places the heroes in between a battle between Gorbo and the Moleman, ruler of Subterannea!
Finally, Falcon sees Spider-Man swinging through Harlem. When Sam notices Spidey is fleeing from the police, he decides to capture the webhead himself. This will help cement his crime-fighting reputation and get him out from under Cap's shadow.
Falcon eventually catches up to Spider-Man and a battle ensues. Sam gives Spidey all he's got, but Spider-Man's super-strength proves too much for him to handle. Spider-Man swings away, leaving Falcon unconscious. He leaves a Spider-Tracer on Falc, so he can track Falcon and figure out why he attacked.
Sam is later hit by a car and captured by Stoneface! Only Spider-Man and Captain America can save Falcon from the gangster!
All that, plus, we learn the secret origin of MODOK!
And a cameo appearance by comicdom's #1 super-villain Doctor Doom!
Review:
I should mention here that most of thes contained in this tpb were new to me. Captain America Epic Collection:Bucky Reborn is a fun book with good stories and great art. However, it's not perfect.
Story:
Stan Lee writes all of stories reprinted in this tpb and they cover a wide variety of adventures. We get "street level" tales set in Harlem, Cap and Falcon fighting robots and a quick detour to the Vietnam War.
Perhaps the best (and most important, from a historical perspective) is Lee's decision to make the Falcon Captain America's partner. Maybe some of Lee's attempts at "urban" dialogue haven't aged well, but it represents a quantum leap in terms of diversity in comics at the time. Sam Wilson is strong, well-written character who makes a great partner for Cap.
Lee also does a nice job establishing MODOK as one of Captain America's greatest foes. The AIM leader is responsible for the fake Bucky, Bulldozer and the cyborg's attacks on Cap. I also appreciated seeing MODOK's origin, something I'd heard about but never read in comic form.
Other parts of Bucky Reborn don't work as well. The Bucky's return is a bit silly. Unless he was supposed to have been in suspended animation, Bucky should've been depicted as being much older. Maybe this is a case of writer and artist not communicating? Strucker has a throwaway line about how Cap will be "so overjoyed, he won't think to question the contradiction of their ages," but it's not mentioned any other time.
The portions of the story that focus on Steve's relationship with Sharon Carter are a bit hard to get through. It sort of makes sense that Cap, being a "man out of time" isn't crazy about Sharon having a dangerous job. But there are too many scenes of Steve whining and brooding about their breakup.
A mixed bag of stories, but the good parts outweigh the lesser material.
Art:
This is where Bucky Reborn truly shines. Gene Colan is one of my favorite artists of all time. Colan (embellished by six inkers) gives us lots of great action scenes that feel like they could jump off the pages at any time. This page, featuring a battle between Cap and Batroc's Brigade is a great example:
And on these pages, the top left panel is bordering on 3-D:
Very nice work by Colan.
The final issue reprinted features excellent art by John Romita Sr., which is appropriate, since it features Spider-Man as a guest star.
How Does It Look?:
Here's are two pages from a copy of Captain America #131:
This is how the same pages appear in Bucky Reborn:
Extras:
The book opens with two stories published during the end of the Silver Age (which I don't review here). In the back of this tpb, you'll find the cover for Captain America Annual #1 (which consisted of reprinted Silver Age stories), two Marvel house ads and nine pages of original art.
Rating:
Captain America Epic Collection:Bucky Reborn gives us some (mostly) fun stories and fantastic art. The tales that feature the Falcon and Gene Colan's art make it worth purchasing for any fans of Bronze Age comics.
J.A. Morris' rating:
3 Sals.
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