Captain America by Dan Jurgens, Vol. 1

Captain America (1998) (Collected Editions) #5

by Dan Jurgens, Andy Kubert (Illustrator), Brent Anderson (Illustrator)

Dan Jurgens begins his legendary run on Captain America! Can Cap stop the war efforts of the Hate-Monger, a villain with ties to Hitler himself? Can he save Ka-Zar from the monstrous murderer Count Nefaria? And who is Protocide? Good thing Cap has some friends to help him in his impossible adventures! Featuring Nick Fury, Sharon Carter, the Fantastic Four, USAgent and a war-time adventure with the Howling Commandos!

Collecting: Captain America (1998) #25 - #34

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Adventure, Superheroes

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 22, 2011

About the author

Dan Jurgens is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for his work on the DC comic book storyline "The Death of Superman" and for creating characters such as Doomsday, Hank Henshaw, and Booster Gold. Jurgens had a lengthy run on the Superman comic books including The Adventures of Superman, Superman vol. 2 and Action Comics. At Marvel, Jurgens worked on series such as Captain America, The Sensational Spider-Man and was the writer on Thor for six years. He also had a brief run as writer and artist on Solar for Valiant Comics in 1995.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

"My talents are many, Captain. More than you can comprehend." -- Cache King, gloating super-villain

"Another 'nothing' in a fancy suit. Do you have any idea how many losers like you I've beaten over the years?" -- Captain America, unimpressed superhero

A serviceable collection of Cap adventures dating from 1999, but while the included stories are fun in an action-packed way they don't often rise above B-movie level plotting, a lockstep three-act format and being shackled by unexceptional dialogue. The one notable breakthrough was a single-chapter tale about a dying elderly man - a U.S. Army veteran of WWII's vicious Battle of the Bulge - recalling his saving by a young Cap and the Howling Commandos during a particularly deadly wintry afternoon. Though it may seem derivative of Saving Private Ryan, it was done with heartfelt style.

[Nicolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This trade paperback collects a sequence of Captain America issues that is a fairly average specimen of superhero writing that Marvel was producing in the late Nineties. It is a standard adventure that readers of the time expect from their Captain America comics. It had Nazis, dinosaurs and super-spies. It also plays on the man out of time concept that is the established characterization of Steve Rogers since the 1960’s. Dan Jurgens, who is credited as writer, also handled the monthly adventures of Rogers’ Asgardian Avengers teammate in Thor where he gave the thunder god a civilian identity; continues an effective storytelling device with a civilian identity for Cap and a blossoming romance.

Rogers is dating a civilian and not Sharon Carter with whom he has unresolved relationship issues and an almost crippling romantic tension. It actually makes sense for both to get together as they run in the same circles and are currently attached to S.H.I.E.L.D. with Carter as the acting director of the agency. Sharon could be someone who could be well suited to superhero romance as he can effectively defend herself, unlike any civilian romance Cap may have who is always a potential weakness his enemies can exploit.

Captain America was a well drawn comic book, with Andy Kubert, who is ably supported by talented inkers and a couple of stellar fill-in artists in Brent Anderson and Jerry Ordway whose stories catered specifically to their talents. Anderson handled the first part of a two-parter set in the Savage Land where he was able to go wild with his depictions of dinosaurs and dinosaur men. Ordway drew a World War II story of a dying veteran. It was poignant tale helped tremendously by Ordway’s retro-flavored art. Joe Kubert also inked a few pages of his son Andy’s pencils. A legend in the comic book industry, his work was easily identifiable because of the bold brushwork of his inks. Though it overpowered Andy’s pencils, which is what most artist want when the legend inks over their work. Joe Kubert rarely does interior work in recent years and a few pages were always a treat.

The only weak link in the art was when Jurgens took over the last two issues of this collection. His storytelling is pretty solid, but his art was pretty bland and not even the inks of Art Thibert, a well-known penciller and Jim Lee clone could make it interesting enough to stand out from Andy Kubert’s run.

Update:

I felt that I could live without this book. I realized that my favorite run on Captain America is Ed Brubaker's and I already have that as an omnibus. Time for this copy to go. The Culling 2015.

[Blindzider · Rating 3 out of 5]

This goes back to "classic" comics, where there's a bad guy and the good guy stops them. I actually miss that about modern superhero comics so this fit the bill. It isn't too deep of course, a mild theme about hate and a surprisingly relevant story about the internet and recording of all data passing through it.

Some very nice art by Andy Kubert, and fill-ins by Brent Anderson, Jerry Ordway, and Jurgens himself.

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such an epic read and I had to read it across multiple days to get through it all, written by Jurgens one of the best writers ever, it tells the tale of Cap in the 90s as he is fighting white supremacists alongside falcon and rescuing his friend Nick and other shield agents, and particularly, HATE MONGER, hitler incarnate. It shows that racism still existed then and does now too, and how Cap will always stand against racism and it was a great volume and showcases the ideals of Cap in a social-political way.

The other story is going to Savage Land to find Sharon, when he teams with Matthew, the son of Ka-Zar who has grown up and its an epic adventure in Savage land where they have to fight Dinosaur men and other beats and find the secrets behind aging and experiments on them and how Count Nefaria is involved and its an epic tale of him fighting through this jungle and getting victory in the end and saving people. There is another standalone tale of Cap, Nick encountering this old man from a battle in 1944 and he tells him how he was grateful to cap for saving his life and this was my favorite story easily, such heartfelt volume.

There is also backups showing AIM acquiring a super soldier before cap and have named him PROTOCIDE and he seems to be the next big villain in the future volumes and will be a big threat to Cap. Also another story about Cap and Falcon taking down this villain called Cache and this company Parliamech involved and how they battle it out to save the day and some funny lines about Internet in 90s. Its fun to see Cap deal with such issues and emerge victorious and showcase his good side and helping people, inspiring them!

A great volume overall with some amazing 90s Nostalgia art with Steve at his very best and the villains just amazing and stories reflective of the times and Dan does a great job of it. He gets Cap very well, what makes him the Sentinel of Liberty and how he inspires others to be their best and also he lays down great bread-crumbs for future stories and other people in the book also get a good spotlight! Overall an amazing and great read!

[Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the most spectacular Cap comic I've read. Not even the most spectacular Cap comic from the late 90s. The dialogue was funny at times (usually unintentionally) and Steve was sassier than he is in a lot of books. I don't think Jurgens used any characters well aside from Fury.

Sharon Carter is a character that's rarely written well. If she's written as well rounded character with more going on than worrying about Steve, she's still given unnecessarily traumatizing plots like miscarriages and being brainwashed several times. More often than not, she's just written as a robot with little compassion for others. Which has never made sense to me because what is the appeal for a character like Steve if she's written as a borderline sociopath? In this volume, it appears a young, recently orphaned, boy suddenly dies in front of Steve and Sharon and in literally the next panel Sharon's like "let's move on. We came here for answers." Sure, they have a job to do, but I hardly think she'd be that callous.

Add to that, Steve's a fuckboy in this comic? He's begging a woman he kept standing up for another chance. Then he's begging Sharon not to deny her feelings for him and to talk about their relationship like hours before he has a date with this other woman. That's not what a good guy would do. What was the reason?

Sam's in this volume for a bit. While I enjoyed his teasing of Steve, he's damseled in both of the stories he's in here. Sucks for him. Also, Jurgen inherited what I think is my least favorite Falcon suit.

There's a random story here where a SHIELD agent kidnaps Steve to get him to see his grandfather one last time on his death bed. Not the guy's wife, mind you, but Steve hears the man's last words. I personally don't get why it's supposed to be a sweet (?) story that the kid thought the man would rather see Cap one last time instead of the woman he literally spends the entire story saying he was dying to return from war for. But... okay?

90s comics were a trip. That internet villain "Cache"... hilarious.

[Turk Finnery · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection contains the start of Dan Jurgens' run on Captain America from the year 2000, part of what's considered "volume 3" of the Captain America comic. It's nothing amazing, but definitely enjoyable nonetheless. I am not a Captain America expert, so I can't say for sure if this is the best representation of the characters or not, but the stories themselves are pretty good. It opens with a three-part story featuring Cap, the Falcon and Nick Fury fighting Hate-Monger and his gang of Neo-Nazis, who have kidnapped a five-star general and are holed up in the Idahoan wilderness. I personally thought this was the weakest part of the book and unintentionally comical at times, but if you press through you'll be rewarded with a good four-part story featuring Cap and Sharon Carter taking a detour to the Savage Land. The villain in this storyline is Count Nefaria, who has done all kind of messed-up experiments on the Savage Land's denizens. Cap and Sharon end up teaming up with Ka-Zar's son (kind of) to reverse the damage that's being done. If you recognize these names, you will probably enjoy this. This part had a lot of twists and turns and I thought it was pretty well-written.

After that is a flashback story featuring Captain fighting in World War II. This could have been really awesome if it was expanded on further, but it's just a one-off thing and it's kind of sappy. There's another short story I really enjoyed about some tech entrepreneurs who unintentionally invented a computer program that has gone out of control and is collecting all the private data in the world. Unlike real-life tech moguls, these guys realize that they royally messed up and Cap finds them trying to break into their own company to stop it. I really enjoyed this one; even though it's from over 20 years ago, the concerns about privacy on the internet are more valid than ever today (although it's resolved in the usual superhero comic fashion). Cap has a great line here about the internet being a quagmire of "irrational" behavior - and this was before social media! It's little moments like this that make you really appreciate Steve Rogers as a character and his unique perspective on things.

After that is the start of another storyline that was being teased throughout this volume involving a SHIELD agent who's actually working undercover for AIM. He uncovers a "prototype" super soldier locked away in a gigantic Indiana Jones-like warehouse full of uncatalogued artifacts. They resurrect him and christen him as "Protocide," and it seems like a huge showdown between him and Cap is imminent after he dispatches U.S. Agent with ease, but for that we'll have to wait until the next volume. I'm definitely interested in reading more of this series, as well as Jurgens' run on Thor from around the same era.

The artwork is excellent overall and features several chapters by Andy Kubert, one by Brett Anderson, one by Jerry Ordway, and a couple from Jurgens himself, all fine artists. If you've read a lot of comics from the 90s you might already be familiar with some of their work on X-Men or Superman, and they're better than ever in this series. There is nothing to complain about here at all, and the coloring hits the sweet spot between classic comic book presentation and the more modern Photoshop-heavy style. Recommended if you're into this kind of stuff.

[Jason Tanner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dan Jurgens's Captain America run begins with some solid, old-school comic storytelling. My main complaint with Jurgens's Cap is that he writes Steve Rogers as an old man in a young man's body who is relentlessly nostalgic for old things, and while that is a valid interpretation of the Man out of Time theme, I don't necessarily agree it is the best or only way to understand Rogers. Of course, that's what the benefit of twenty years of hindsight, with exceptional Captain America comics and Chris Evans's movie version adds. As much as I liked Jurgens's run when it was new, it's just been completely outclassed by Cap portrayals since, and as someone reading it in 2020 and not 1999, I have to give it 3 or maybe 3.5 stars.

[Jdetrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would normally characterize Dan Jurgens as simply an average writer. He doesn't write many horrible stories, but rarely does he impress. That being said, his first collection of Cap tales is actually pretty good....perhaps more of a 3.5 than 4 stars, but a very good debut on the character.

[Clay Bartel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art is great, but Jurgens, who is a favorite writer of mine, doesn't deliver an interesting story for me here. Considering there is so much more of Captain America available I'd suggest you skip this.

[Kurt Lorenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

25-27, Twisted Tomorrows, ☆☆☆☆
28-31, ☆☆☆☆
32, Heart, ☆☆☆☆☆
33-34, ☆☆☆☆

[Brannigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art is great the story is just OK.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad start. Hadn’t really heard about Jurgens’ run so I wasn’t necessarily expecting much beyond Jurgens usually being at least a competent storyteller.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

The section on the veteran from the Bulge brought a tear to my eye

[mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

read issues #25 - #27 and ##33 - #34

[Hannah Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has the kind of stories that made me fall in love with Captain America.

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really fun super-heroics without that angst that mars so many modern comics.

[Matthew Price · Rating 3 out of 5]

Competent, fun superheroics from writer Dan Jurgens and artists including Jurgens, Andy Kubert and Jerry Ordway.

Originally printed in 2000, Jurgens' run followed on the second Mark Waid Captain America run. The stories were reprinted in 2011 in the lead-up to the "First Avenger" film. The standout story for me was from issue #32, which looks back at a World War II tale featuring Captain America as drawn by Ordway.

"Protocide," whose story continues in the next volume, was a prototype Captain America revived by the villainous group A.I.M. He handily defeats the U.S. Agent in this volume, setting up his future confrontation with Cap. I don't love the name but it's an intriguing concept.

[Mike Cruden · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is pretty much a bog-standard trade paperback collection of 10 Captain America issues with not much in particular to recommend it. I like trade paperbacks to have a theme, or to collect an especially good story arc or run by a particularly good artist, and while Dan Jurgens and Andy Kubert are both solid, capable professionals, there isn't enough of the outstanding about their work to merit this, and subsequent, collections. The stories are typical villain-of-the-month (Hate Monger and Count Nefaria) wheeled out to menace our hero, with a dollop of soap opera thrown into the mix. Kubert's art is impressive and probably deserves better content. Something to read when you're very bored; borrow it from your local library if you can!

[Eddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought Cap was all over the place as far as character. Reading this also made me miss the Falcon as he was (except the awful suit from this series) But Nick Fury was captured perfectly (no pun intend) Jerkins art, I have always been a fan but many time Cap's shield was way to small.

[Al Gritten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kubert and Ordway's art is up to their usual high standards, the story is just okay, though it builds to the end, but if you want the final confrontation you'll have to buy volume 2...

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, exciting, good art!