Captain America movie-watchers can choose from 70 years of Marvel Comics

If watching Chris Evans as Captain America take on Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull in this week’s “Captain America: The First Avenger” film whets your appetite for more of the star-spangled hero, you’re in luck. Marvel Comics has several trade paperback and hardcover editions in print collecting the hero’s adventures.

Captain America first appeared in “Captain America Comics” No. 1, with a cover date of March 1941. Captain America became one of the most popular wartime heroes, but his popularity waned in the postwar era, and by 1953 his comic had been canceled.

But the Captain hadn’t been forgotten. When Stan Lee began his Marvel Comics line of superheroes in the early 1960s, he remembered Captain America, who had been published by Timely Comics, a predecessor of Marvel. He revived Captain America in the pages of “Avengers” No. 4 and starred him in his own stories in “Tales of Suspense.”

The first of Lee’s and Jack Kirby’s Silver Age Captain America solo stories are collected in “Marvel Masterworks: Captain America.” The origins of Captain America, his nemesis the Red Skull and Cap’s partner, Bucky, are all in this collection.

This paperback collection also features the Cosmic Cube and Baron Zemo’s army of assassins. It includes the Captain America stories from “Tales of Suspense” Nos. 59-81.

Steve Englehart was one of the most prominent writers to tackle Captain America in the 1970s. His storylines “Secret Empire” and “Nomad” are among the most famous adventures of Captain America.

Captain America discovers a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of the U.S. government. He’s disillusioned by what he’s discovered, and gives up the Captain America identity to become Nomad. This Watergate-era Captain America examined what happened to the country’s greatest super-heroic symbol when the government failed to live up to his trust. “Secret Empire” ran in issues 169-176 of “Captain America.” “Nomad” ran in issues 177-186.

Roger Stern and John Byrne had a brief but memorable run on “Captain America” in the 1980s, collected in the “War and Remembrance” hardcover edition. It features Captain America mulling a presidential run, and an updated version of his origin.

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