Illustrated throughout The Penguin Classics Marvel Collection presents specially curated comic
book anthologies of the origin stories seminal tales and characters of the Marvel Universe to
explore Marvel's transformative and timeless influence on an entire genre of fantasy. A
Penguin Classics Marvel Collection Edition It is impossible to imagine American popular
culture without Marvel Comics. For decades Marvel has published groundbreaking visual
narratives that sustain attention on multiple levels: as explorations of the relationship
between power and responsibility as metaphors for the experience of difference and otherness
as meditations on the pain of adolescence and the fluid nature of identity as examinations of
the meaning and limits of patriotism as ironic juxtapositions of the cosmic and the
quotidian as resources for the understanding of political and social history and as high
watermarks in the artistic tradition of American cartooning. For the first time these classic
stories of some of the most iconic super heroes in the history of American comics are Penguin
Classics. Debuting in 1941-almost a year before the events of Pearl Harbor- Captain America
was initially conceived by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby as a pop culture argument for US
intervention in the European war against fascism. This collection includes his first
appearances from 1941 alongside key examples of his first solo stories of the 1960s in which
the newly resurrected hero of World War II struggles to find his place in an unfamiliar world.
The transformation of this American icon thus marks a parallel transformation in the nation
itself. The introduction offers insight into the social and political significance of Captain
America as a character and a national symbol while a critical apparatus and appendices shed
further light on his creative development.
