Reddit reviews What If Captain America Were Revived Today (Comic) April 1984 No. 44 (1)

As someone said before me, ALL of Ed Brubaker's run is worth reading. A gentleman over at Comic Vine posted this list that really maps out the reading order.

Mark Millar's Civil War is interesting, because many people consider it a great story for Cap, but a bad story alltogether. Way too black-and-white for me, but definitely worth a read.

Although it's not quite up to Brubaker's quality, I'm really enjoying Rick Remender's current run of Cap under Marvel Now! I kind of think John Romita Jr's art is subpar, but that's a matter a lot of people contested me on, he's a pretty polarizing artist. The first arc was alright, but after that, the second arc deals with Cap facing off with an old, lesser known villain that works as a great foil to the Star-Spangled man with a plan. This trade paperback is the best place to start for Remender's run (unless you like collecting singles.

If you're interested at all in the classics, you can read Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Captain America and Avengers runs with the "Marvel Masterworks" reprints. I still think a good amount of these stories hold up, and it's a pretty good offer because it's quite a few long issues per volume. They also recently released a Marvel Masterworks collection for the old Golden Age Cap Comics, I have to say though, story-wise, I wouldn't really recommend them. It's really interesting having a copy to look at as comic book history, but a lot of the stories don't hold up very well, and Ed Brubaker retells Cap's WWII days brilliantly in his run. Unless you're REALLY interested in everything Cap or comics history, I'd say pass on the Golden Age stuff for now.

Of course there's also a ton of great material in between Cap's beginning and the modern age, but they're a bit hard to get into. However, I must recommend one story from a bit long ago. This story shows his earnestness, his virtuous nature, and the will to fight for what's right even when it's almost impossible, the things that make him a great hero! That story is "What If Issue 44: What if Captain America was revived today?" Once you get pass some of the setting issues that are confusing now that that comic is older, it's a really fantastic story for Cap, and the one that introduced me to him!

I'm not sure how much you're into comics, but I'd also like to give some advice just in case you are pretty new (if you're not new, I'm sorry for assuming and you can just skip this last paragraph). If you're wanting to read all of these stories, I'd highly recommend investing in Marvel Unlimited. Essentially you just pay $70 for the year (or $100 if you want the fancy-schmancy Plus membership), and download twelve comics at a time to read from their selection. I know they have all the Brubaker stuff right now, and most of the big events from the past few years. They also have quite a few classics too! It's a really great deal considering that buying trade issues of those Cap reccomendations (which would be the cheapest alternative) would still likely be at least two hundred dollars to collect the whole stories. Right now I'm reading Annihilation right now to get ready for Guardians of the Galaxy!

Hope I could help you find some good stories! Good luck, soldier!


EDIT: This completely slipped my mind, but thought it was worth mentioning. If you're okay with watching cartoons (I love them myself) I'd also recommend the "Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" series on Netflix right now. Even though it's a kid's cartoon, it has some REALLY great character moments and development, especially for Cap. The first season is more about the team as a whole, but season two has quite a bit of Cap focus that I thought was absolutely wonderful. A lot of the stories are actually condensed versions of classic and modern comic arcs, so it also helped me get really familiar with a lot of the Marvel universe ahead of time.

The image listed on the ad here is identical to the cover of the comic I'm talking about...but I'm no expert in comics so I couldn't tell you for certain whether that ad is accurate or not.

This is an ad for the same comic on amazon that lists it as a 1984 comic.

The cover that amazon uses is different...but the customer reviews seem to indicate that it is indeed the same comic. So all I can tell you is if that 1977 edition isn't the one that has the panel I posted then look for one specified as a 1984 edition.