Captain America

Captain America: The First Avenger

  • Title: Captain America: The First Avenger
  • IMDB: link

Captain America: The First AvengerDespite being around for 70 years, Marvel’s second most iconic hero (behind only Spider-Man) has had trouble finding his way to the big screen. Aside from his appearances in various cartoons over the years Captain America‘s career boils down to an old WWII serial, the perhaps best-forgotten 1970’s made-for-TV movies starring Reb Brown, and the 1990 live-action film which ended up going straight to video.

Attempting to rectify this oversight Marvel Studios and director Joe Johnston bring Captain America to the big screen with Captain America: The First Avenger which tells the basic story of Steve Rogers’ origin with a few interesting changes.

We meet Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a plucky young patriotic American who wants to enlist to fight Nazis alongside his best pal Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), as he’s turned down yet again for service due to medical reasons. Just looking at the scrawny young man you’d have a hard time believing he would eventually become the world’s greatest soldier.

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Captain America #1

Captain America #1Steve Rogers is back in action as Captain America as Marvel relaunches the title, again. It’s a good first issue getting Cap back in action and dealing with the death of an old friend (who honestly I thought had died decades ago), a dangerous mystery from his past, and appearances of both old friends and old enemies.

This first storyline focuses on a case from Captain America’s past in WWII and he’ll need the help of Nick Fury and Sharon Carter to help him track down an old associate of Cap’s (Codename: Bravo) who attempts to assassinate Dum Dum Dugan at Peggy Carter‘s funeral. But he’s only half the story, the other half involves an elderly man recently out of a coma who as a child help Cap’s covert team fight the Nazis.

We also get appearances from HYDRA and Baron Zemo who are in cahoots with Codename: Bravo. I understand where Brubaker is going here but every WWII hero that’s still alive and in top notch condition makes a Cap a little less special. It’s a good, though not great, first issue. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]

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Captain America

  • Title: Captain America
  • IMDB: link

“To the rest of the world he’s Codename: Captain America. He may not be Superman, but he’ll be a living symbol of what this country stands for.”

Captain America posterCaptain America: The First Avenger is set to hit theaters this Friday but it isn’t the first attempt by Marvel Comics to translate their iconic hero to the big screen. While DC was churning out Batman and Superman flicks at will in the 80’s and early 90’s, Marvel was lagging behind. For the Captain America’s 50th Anniversary Marvel Comics put together a feature film centered around the hero.

Financing issues (which the production ran into after it had moved overseas for shooting in Europe) and the addition of stunt sequences, further re-shoots, and editing bogged the film down. Captain America went unreleased for two years. Although it did see the inside of theaters internationally, in the country of his origin poor Captain America was limited to a unheralded straight-to-video release.

The film begins neither in America nor in Germany, but in Mussolini’s Italy. A young boy is brutally ripped from his family and taken to a secret government laboratory where a reluctant scientist, Dr. Vaselli (Carla Cassola), will attempt to create the world’s first Super Soldier.

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Coming Soon

  • Title: Captain America: The First Avenger
  • IMDB: link

Yeah, I’ll watch this movie. No more tease, Marvel Studios has released the first full-length trailer for this summer’s Captain America: The First Avenger starring Chris Evans (as Cap), Tommy Lee Jones, Stanley Tucci, Hayley Atwell, Neal McDonough, Toby Jones, and Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull. Captain America: The First Avenger hits theaters July 22nd. I think this might be a hellova lot of fun.

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