Captain America Month Continues!

 Face Front, True Believers!  It's Captain America Month and we salute our red, white, and blue avenger with more cool stuff!  Excelsior!

5. CAPTAIN AMERICA Theme Song (1966):
I grew up on MARVEL cartoons, and this was the best one outta the bunch:

4. The MARVELS Project (2009):  
It's the comicbook that flew under the radar- the secret origin of the Marvel Universe.  Writer Ed Brubaker and artist Steve Epting tell you how the Super Soldier Formula came to be and set it into the context of the Marvel-era World War II.

Chris Burnham (The Angel)

You get the building of the Human Torch, you see the early life of Namor, and you see the two-fisted crime fighting of the one and only Super Hero, The Angel.

Cap's origin has been told many times, but MARVELS Project is a new look.  Ed Brubaker mines the earliest issues of MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS to re-create the world that gives birth to Captain America.  It's an intriguing story of MARVEL-style war politics, mixed with a crazy amount of accuracy from TIMELY publications.

I don't think this project got the credit it deserved.  It's the perfect read before you go slap down $15 for the new movie.

3. Captain America and The Falcon Mego Figures:  For collectors of over forty years of little action men figures, (Marvel Select, Hasbro, Toy Biz, et al), there's one alone that stands head and shoulders above the rest: The Mego.

Captain America and The Falcon (Mego, 1975)

Sure, Cap Mego doesn't have the right costume, a sidekick, or an arch nemesis, but he had a bitchin' set of wheels and an amazingly well-done portrayal of his best bud The Falcon.

2. Captain America Captain Action:

The Original Captain Action suits (IDEAL, 1966)

  The-Sixties-Toy-That-I-Missed was Captain Action, a 12" action man who had the super ability to wear other men's clothes.  Mom was to buy Captain Action and then purchase any number of costumes to dress him in, including Superman, Batman, Green Hornet, Spider-Man and... Captain America.

The IDEAL Toy Company, bless 'em, tried hard, but often missed details, like the fact that Captain America never fired a gun let alone a laser rifle.  These toys are very rare and rather expensive in the collector world. 

  

Captain Action Captain America (2011)

There was a brief Captain Action revival twenty years ago, but without the DC and MARVEL characters.  Action apparently strikes again, as MARVEL has now agreed to a new series of costumes for our Man of Action to don.  First up is the First Avenger!

The Captain Action people specifically requested a Jack Kirby-based face sculpt, so you can appreciate their enthusiasm.  I am told that the costume, set to debut Fall 2011, will come with a Steve Rogers face and the original Issue #1 triangular shield variant.

The buzz is that extra goodies have been inserted into each character, such that IF you purchase Cap, Spider-Man, Thor, and Iron Man costumes, you get all the pieces for Hawkeye.

I can't wait.

1. Meet and Greet with Captain America:  

Coming face to face with childhood hero? 'Nuff Said!