First 10 - Captain America

Now here's where things get a little interesting in terms of how I proceed with these First 10 series. Although in the Marvel Universe characters change very little from their origins to their modern incarnations, which means you could do as I did and read X-Men from their 1963 premier up to the present day and it's all basically the same series. The same is not true for DC. Origins in the DC Universe differ wildly from era to era, which is addressed by the existence of the multiverse and the various crisis events which iron out some of the wrinkles. Anyway, if I'm willing to treat the two different eras of Captain America as two separate entities, am I willing to do the same for DC? The short answer is no. The long answer is that I'll play things by ear and try to be as fair as possible, but there's no way I'm going to scour every era of every DC character. I want to settle on a series and start reading soon, so I'm trying to not give myself too much homework. That said, on to the review of Captain America.

I really loved the first 10 issues of Captain America. He had some epic battles with The Red Skull, a few lesser battles with a few lesser villains (such as The Trapster, who boasts of many weapons and traps, but everything he does is somehow connected to his goofy paste gun. I guess they can't all be winners). You get a new take on The Cap's origins which follows the Golden Age origin story very closely, but adds a bunch of details which are important for The Cap's motivations. The only downside of the first 10 issues of Captain America is that they feel like a pared down version of what was already happening in The Avengers. There are several references to Tony Stark, and more than a few meetings with Nick Fury, which can only serve to remind readers that Captain America works with The Avengers as well. At this point in the game, Captain America wasn't quite strong enough to carry his own title, but he was close. I'm sure things got even more intriguing after the first 10 issues, but the first 10 showed a lot of room for growth.

While I really like Captain America, I can't say that I enjoyed these first 10 more than a lot of the other series I've read up to this point. I'll get around to reading this series, but I can't place it above The Avengers right now.

1. Batman
2. Amazing Spider-Man
3. Fantastic Four
4. Booster Gold
5. The Punisher
6. Golden Age Green Lantern
7. The Avengers
8. Captain America
9. Golden Age Captain America
10. Golden Age Blue Beetle
11. Aquaman