MARVEL COMICS: THE UNTOLD STORY
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"A WILD-RIDE ACCOUNT" —The Hollywood Reporter
"EPIC" —The New York Times
"INDISPENSABLE" —Los Angeles Times
"DEFINITIVE" —The Wall Street Journal
"SCINTILLATING" —Publishers Weekly
“FASCINATING” —GQ
"AUTHORITATIVE" —Kirkus Reviews
"GRIPPING" —Rolling Stone
"PRICELESS" —Booklist
"A MUST FOR ANY SUPERHERO OR POP-CULTURE FAN" —NY Post
"ESSENTIAL" —The Daily Beast
"A SUPERPOWERED MUST-READ" —USA Today
"REVELATORY" —The Miami Herald
"AS FULL OF COLORFUL CHARACTERS, TRAGIC REVERSALS AND UNLIKELY PLOT TWISTS AS ANY BOOK IN THE MARVEL CANON" —Newsday
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From Captain America #197, by Jack Kirby.
If you click here, you can enlarge it enough to see the blacks of the ink.
Rob Liefeld and Stan Lee at the Heroes Reborn announcement, December 1995.
Unfinished Business
Stan Lee flew to New York for the official announcement. Since Avi Arad’s ascent at Marvel Films, Lee had distracted himself with projects like Excelsior Comics, a modest-sized imprint of titles to be packaged from the company’s West Coast offices. But most of his public appearances of late—like popping up on Conan O’Brien to promote Best of the Worst, a low-budget book of trivia and one-liners—were the extraneous gestures of celebrity life, and had little to do with current Marvel Comics business. Now he returned to his old rah-rah mode: “We’re matching some of the best talent in the industry, with some of the best characters in the industry, to change the status quo and create the stuff of legends!” he beamed to the gathering of journalists at the Grand Hyatt on Park Avenue. The Avengers, Fantastic Four, Captain America, and Iron Man would now be created completely by the California studios of Jim Lee and Liefeld. The news that Marvel was removing control of its characters from its own staff and handing million-dollar contracts (plus profit sharing) to those who’d recently walked out on the company was, in the words of one editor, “catastrophic to morale.”
Even the fictional world of the Marvel Universe was being disassembled. For a multi-title event called “Onslaught,” the outgoing editors, writers, and artists of The Avengers, Fantastic Four, Captain America, and Iron Man were charged with implementing their own obsolescence. The heroes would be destroyed, and then re-created in a “pocket universe,” an alternate world where Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld’s reimagined versions would take over. The “Heroes Reborn” titles, as they would be called, would be renumbered as #1 issues for the first time since the 1960s. Other titles—including Thor, Doctor Strange, and Silver Surfer— would be canceled outright.
(Text from Marvel Comics: The Untold Story)
“The real Captain America is coming back. He’ll debut in AVENGERS #4 in a spectacular story the likes of which you have yet to see.”
—The Comic Reader, September 1963.
Fred Hembeck’s eulogy for Jack Kirby, 1994.
EA TH’S M GHTI ST HERO S!
Color acetates for Avengers #141.
Michael Winner, 1935-2013, Never Got To Make A Captain America Film For Cannon
December 16, 1985
Mr. Menahem Golan
CANNON FILMS
6464 Sunset Blvd.
Hollywood, California 90028
Dear Menahem:
I thought I would write you concerning the Spider-Man script written by John Brancato and Ted Newsom, and the Captain America script written by Michael Winner and Stan Hey.
The Spider-Man script, in my opinion, is superb. It maintains the basic integrity of the character in the original story, while placing it in a modern setting. It is simple and direct in its plot line and very easy for the reader to follow. I have now read approximately twelve Spider-Man scripts or treatments, and this is by far the best of the lot!
The Captain America script, on the other hand, I found to be “bloody awful.” It does not maintain the basic integrity of the character. It plays fast and loose with the basic storylines, and I found it to be so convoluted in its plot that I had difficulty following it. In addition, I found the situation totally implausible, as it stretches credibility beyond the readers’ limit. I certainly think it means going back to the drawing board again to get a more credible script.
Best regards,
James E. Galton
President
Original Art - Tales Of Suspense #083 Pg 01 by Jack Kirby And Dick Ayers
There is no denying Tumblr’s entry, Cap.
“When he was younger, Andy had thought maybe he’d be a detective! Now, he only read about it!” Marvel Mystery Comics #92
